COMMENT
Sarah Skinner of Achilles speaks to Richard Sharp, Rail Compliance Manager at J Murphy & Sons and the elected chair of the Link-up Steering Group, and Annette Poehl, Director of Rail and Transport at Achilles, about the Link-up scheme.
New governance strategy
Q) Richard, with the new Link-up governance structure in place, what are the priorities?
For me, it is crucial to ensure we have a well- balanced forum to define how supplier quali- fication and assurance should develop to bet- ter meet the needs of the industry as a whole; historically the governance of Link-up has been driven primarily by one duty holder. We have defined six objectives for the steering group, amongst them are to raise standards in supply chain performance, to ensure effective commu- nication between the steering group and wider industry, to provide a forum to share experi- ences and procurement best practice and ulti- mately to promote usage of the scheme within member organisations and the wider industry to reduce duplication of work.
Q) Annette, Achilles is managing similar schemes in other industries that are also gov- erned by steering groups. What makes suc- cessful scheme governance?
The steering groups in the UK utilities and con- struction industries are set up very similarly to the new Link-up governance. Active participa- tion by the member organisations and an hon- est and constructive approach to addressing issues is essential. After all, the schemes are there to deliver benefits to everyone involved.
Q) Richard, with your contractor hat on, what are your hopes and expectations?
I hope that with the change in governance we get to have more say in the direction of Link-up, specifically regarding audits and product codes. But mainly the hope is that if all infrastructure controllers buy in to pre-qualification through Link-up, the reduction in time and cost will benefit all parties involved as once a supplier is on the system, the ability to work for any infra- structure controller would be a step closer.
Q) Expanding Link-up from a primary assur- ance tool to a procurement tool; how do you see the governance group’s involvement in em- bedding this change?
The processes for assurance and procurement are very similar, yet have a very different focus. The better the information on Link-up is used by the procurement staff, the less duplication of ef- forts is needed. I truly believe that as an industry
26 | rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 12
that established a pre-qualification scheme, we should discipline ourselves much more in utilis- ing this information and keeping the PQQs to the absolute essential and unique information. Just by doing this, the rail industry as a whole can save a lot of effort and money.
Link-up Steering Group members
Les Rawlins (Chiltern Railways) Sharon Reilly (East Midlands Trains) Stephen Stewart (First Group) Edwin Slade (Interfleet Rail)
Phil Mackie (Atkins Limited t/a Atkins Rail) John Green (Birse Rail, steering group vice-chair, WG chair, v3) Richard Sharp (J Murphy & Son, steering group chair) Paul Murphy (Keltbray Rail) Martin Morris (Mouchel) Gary Roper (Siemens) Vincent Wragg (Telent)
Nigel Ralph (UK Power Networks Services) Stuart Foster(TfL / London Underground) Pete Colley (Network Rail) Victoria Hartnall (Network Rail) John Abbott (RSSB) Mike Cocks (CECA) Neil Stevens (Rail Alliance)
Francis How (Railway Industry Association) Don Clarke (RICA (Prima Services Group Limited)) Ron Wells (RPA and M&EE (Balfour Beatty Rail)) Anthony Perret (RSSB, WG chair, sustainability) Glenn Harvey (Network Rail, WG chair, audit) Derek Day (Emico, WG chair, product codes)
Working groups
Q) Annette, the working groups were set up a few months ago. What is the progress so far?
We have been very positively surprised by the great level of interest and the high intensity work that has been undertaken in the work- ing groups. Especially impressive is the great progress made in the sustainability working group. A proposal has been agreed on how to introduce sustainability aspects such as labour standards, community involvement, waste, wa- ter and energy consumption into Link-up.
Q) What are the other working groups about?
The other groups are also far-reaching with one focusing on the product codes and another on the Link-up audit programme.
Both will likely result in a drastic transforma- tion of Link-up as we know it today and are aimed at making the Link-up progress more transparent and easier to follow.
It is about defining how the audit fits with other assurance and qualification schemes in the in-
dustry and reducing the audit burden for sup- pliers. But it is also about delivering value to both buyers and suppliers, and the ability for an organisation to demonstrate its manage- ment and process maturity.
Also, a new group will be meeting for the first time in March to discuss changes and implica- tions of EU procurement legislation and then there is obviously the version 3 working group.
Link-up v3
Q) Richard, how much have you been involved in the discussions about version 3 of Link-up and what can we expect from it?
Link-up version 2 was launched in 2007. Many organisations recognise that technology moves on and that the user interface could be much easier and intuitive. There are other areas that need revision as well. I was involved in a day’s workshop to review the questionnaire and we put a lot of effort in understanding the reason- ing for each and every question.
The result is a proposal of a drastically reduced questionnaire that reflects the requirements of today’s procurement and assurance needs. I am very excited about the new Link-up version and already got a sneak preview at Achilles’ new Ac- celerate platform. It looks great and will bring suppliers that operate across different sectors the benefit of a single record and shared profile data.
Q) Annette, it seems Accelerate will bring great benefits to the industry. How quickly will it be available?
Depending on the scope of developments re- quired, we expect the configuration of the sys- tem and the preparation for transition to take about 12 months. We are aiming to go live with Link-up before the end of 2012.
Richard Sharp
Annette Poehl
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