The Sellafield Ltd mission is to clean-up the UK’s highest nuclear risks and hazards, to safeguard nuclear fuel, materials and waste. It has an annual budget of £2.2bn, an employee team of 11,500, and engages 1122 companies in its supply chain. The Sellafield Ltd project is one of the most complex working environments and a challenge to develop effective collaborative working across all the partners.

Sellafield Ltd has achieved official certification to ISO 44001:2017 for its collaborative working practices, the first in the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority estate to do so. ISO44001 is the international framework for managing effective collaborative business relationships.

The B2B team supported Sellafield Ltd on its journey to certification from 2018 to 2020. The support was in two stages:

Stage 1 – Initial work to review the current state and develop an implementation plan was carried out by B2B and Sellafield Ltd over January – February 2018. The scope of the project stage was to:

  • Create a gap analysis between Sellafield Ltd processes, structures and culture for working collaboratively and delivering the collaborative working expectations of ISO 44001.
  • To identify a roll out plan to engage key supply chain partners into an ISO 44001 way of working with Sellafield Ltd.
  • Develop an implementation plan including key actions, priorities, risks and costs.

Stage 2 – Deployment of implementation plan to support Sellafield Ltd in gaining certification to ISO 44001:2017 over the period 2018 to 2020. The scope of this project stage was to:

  • Develop the Sellafield Ltd management system to include collaborative working processes
  • Develop a relationship programme to manage key supply chain relationships
  • Develop an approach to develop key resources in collaborative working
  • Support teams to prepare for the certification assessment

Stephen Scott, Sellafield Ltd Programme Project Lead said: “We wanted to see collaboration in action and not just a set of procedures that led to certification. It needs to be a platform to work more closely with our supply chain to improve delivery performance and unlock value.”

Martin Chown, CEO & Supply Chain & Enterprise Director said: “Collaboration is key to delivering projects successfully. By bringing the power of collective knowledge we can ensure right first time in everything we do, leading to significant efficiencies. This allows us to plan for success and reduce cost. This is absolutely fantastic news for our business and following a thorough audit by LRQA without any minor or major findings is a huge achievement.”

Graham Dobell – Principal Consultant B2Bppm said ‘the key aim is integration – integration of collaborative working objectives with the corporate strategy, integration of the collaborative working processes into the management system and integration of collaborative working behaviours into how people work. To make collaboration a “business as usual” approach’.

If you would like more information on our services to support collaborative working or the implementation of BS11000 please contact us.