Meeting the Vision

Background to SC21

Vision

To provide the UK aerospace, defence, space and security supply chains with the support, resources, and tools needed to continually improve, grow and become more competitive

Meeting the Vision

SC21 aims to create the conditions and infrastructure in which companies can continually improve and thrive. The programme does not have the capability to ‘improve’ a company per se, however it can and will provide the support, resources and tools required to help companies improve themselves.

Improvement in any form is good, and for this reason, the programme is structured such that companies can utilise the Baseline Maturity Assessment (BMA) tool at no charge, alongside a variety of other free SC21 support, resources and tools. As a programme, SC21always seeks improvement, but where, when and how far a company improves is a decision for the company, based upon their maturity and business model

Access the Baseline Maturity Assessment here- https://assessment.adsgroup.org.uk/login

SC21 companies are not mandated to seek an award as it may not suit their business model, they will however be encouraged to do so. For those that wish to progress to an award, use of the Practitioner led Baseline Maturity Assessment (BMA) offers a speedy and ‘low cost’ option to reach the Bronze, Silver and Gold levels (see below).

Making the Best Use of The Baseline Maturity Assessment (BMA)

The BMA has online and Practitioner led versions. The online version is free and access to it is here https://assessment.adsgroup.org.uk/login You can use the online BMA as many times as you like, track your own improvement or understand how different parts of your organisation see the company’s maturity. Be creative!

The Practitioner led BMA will require the assessor (Practitioner in SC21 speak) to come onsite for at least one day and often more. There is usually a cost associated with this however, there is no ‘going rate’. If you are looking to do a Practitioner led BMA, you can ask the Programme Management Office (PMO) for a list of qualified Practitioners (contact the Head of SC21, Steve Collins [email protected]) You choose who you want to do your assessment, and you negotiate the price directly with the Practitioner.

Most companies conduct a Practitioner led BMA to gain an SC21 award. Before you seek an award for the first time, our advice would be to conduct free online assessments until you are confident that you are BMA scores are high enough. As a guide a score of around 45-50 on the BMA may put you in line for a ‘Bronze’ qualifying score. A couple of things to consider however, you may be ‘over estimating’ your maturity when you self-assess (you may also be under estimating!), so a self-assessment can only be a guide, and there are other parts to an SC21 award, including quality and delivery statistics. https://app.gitbook.com/o/ZSX6QYWaWjE2a3XSi4NW/s/kw101HhDWJfVIJ6rUjoB/~/changes/39/sc21-awards/awards

Overall, our best advice is not to spend money on a practitioner led assessment until you are pretty sure that you are ready!

Engagement with OEMs

Some companies may have a close relationship with an OEM that supports SC21. Many of the OEMs use the BMA as a standard tool within their own organisations and therefore have their own SC21 Practitioners. If you can engage with these OEMs there is the potential that you may get a Practitioner led BMA at no cost.

Continuous Sustainable Improvement Plan

The beating heart of SC21 is the Continuous Sustainable Improvement Plan (CSIP). Very few things are mandatory within SC21, but having a CSIP is one of them.

The CSIP helps to link a company’s strategy to improvement and:

A masterclass on how to complete the document, led by Melody Little from Thales, is here https://adsgroup.vids.io/videos/7991d5b51f1ae7c4f0/sc21-csip-masterclass

If within your company, you already have a document that produces the same outputs as the CSIP template, you do not need to change format.