New guidance on delivering high quality road renewals at reduced cost has been launched by the Highways Maintenance Efficiency Programme.

The 'LEAN toolkit' was unveiled to delegates at the London Technical Advisors Group's annual conference on Monday. The toolkit is a 144 page document which gives ways to improve efficiency in the planning and delivery of roads services. It combines case studies with a practical 'how to' guide for use by highway authorities and supply chain partners.

Returns on investment as high as 10 to one are reportedly being achieved already by some authorities using the principles of LEAN in highways.

Savings demonstrated by 17 local highways using LEAN have led to savings of up to £1M a year, those behind the HMEP initiative claim.

HMEP advocate Matthew Lugg said: "If embraced and used effectively the LEAN toolkit is a potential game changer for the highways sector. The approach starts with the customer and provides tangible information for clients and providers to work together to make savings and improvements needed in highways planning and delivery."

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council street scene director Steve Handley added: "When we started to use LEAN it quickly became clear that there was enormous scope for improving the service to customers and save more money."

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