At the heart of SC21 is a collaborative community of participants, providers, practitioners and assessors, all working together to drive continuous improvement across the supply chain. Providers play a key role within this ecosystem, offering expert support in targeted areas to help organisations accelerate progress.
In this month’s SC21 Provider Spotlight we hear from Andy Cheshire, Managing Director at CQM Training & Consultancy. A passionate advocate of SC21, he shares his perspective on the value of the programme: helping organisations step back, assess their capability, and approach improvement in a more structured, intentional and focused way.
Tell us about you and your company
I’m Managing Director at CQM Training & Consultancy. My background is in advanced manufacturing, working in operational and leadership roles where performance, delivery and improvement were central.
Today, I support organisations across aerospace, defence and wider manufacturing and its supply chains, working with both primes and suppliers to strengthen capability through leadership, Lean and structured improvement. That ranges from targeted activity such as Value Stream Mapping through to full improvement programmes aligned to business priorities.
A key part of what we bring is the experience within our delivery team. That includes senior practitioners who have held leadership roles in industry, including spearheading the SC21 programme to Silver recognition. That perspective ensures our support is grounded in what it actually takes to deliver sustained performance.
Why are you involved in SC21 (as a continuous improvement programme)
SC21 reflects the operating conditions organisations are working within.
Expectations around quality, delivery, risk and resilience are high, and increasingly consistent across the supply chain. SC21 provides a clear, recognised structure for assessing capability and strengthening performance in a way that aligns with those expectations.
What stands out is that the principles behind SC21 are not unique to aerospace and defence. The same need for operational discipline, structured improvement and leadership capability exists across advanced manufacturing sectors such as automotive, nuclear, pharmaceuticals and food and drink.
For me, its value is in creating focus. It enables organisations to step back, understand current capability and take a more deliberate approach to improvement. Without that, even well-run businesses can find improvement becomes reactive or fragmented.
What improvements do you see businesses making through the SC21 programme
The most significant improvement is consistency of performance.
Most organisations already have capable people and examples of good practice. SC21 helps bring that together into a more structured operating model, where improvement is aligned to business priorities rather than driven by individual issues.
The SC21 Baseline Maturity Assessment is often the starting point. It provides a clear view of capability across leadership, operations and improvement, and highlights where focus is needed.
From there, I see stronger problem-solving capability, better alignment across functions and more disciplined execution. Over time, that translates into more predictable delivery, improved quality and greater confidence in the organisation’s ability to perform under pressure.
What advice would you give a new company coming in
Start with a clear and honest understanding of where you are.
Using the Baseline Maturity Assessment through the Supply Chain Solutions Framework is a strong starting point when approached openly. It helps define priorities and ensures effort is focused where it will have the greatest impact.
From there, building a focused Continuous Sustainable Improvement Plan linked to business objectives is critical. The organisations that make the most progress are those that maintain alignment to that plan and build capability over time, rather than chasing short-term gains.
Engaging with the wider SC21 community is also important. Access to tools, shared learning and different providers brings perspective and can accelerate progress in a structured way.
Tell us about the tools you provide and in what areas of SC21 do they help
SC21 provides a strong foundation through its Knowledge Hub and wider resources, covering key areas such as operational performance, leadership and continuous improvement.
Our role is to help organisations apply those tools in context.
That may involve using Value Stream Mapping to understand flow and identify constraints, developing structured problem-solving capability to reduce variation and improve reliability, or strengthening leadership behaviours that support sustained improvement and accountability.
We also support longer-term capability development through training and apprenticeships, helping organisations embed improvement into their performance systems rather than treating it as a separate activity.
Something about you – your passion and interest
What interests me most is how organisations translate pressure into performance.
In manufacturing and across the supply chain, the landscape is evolving quickly. There is increased investment, particularly in SMEs, alongside growing expectations around resilience, supply chain sovereignty and ESG commitments. Against that backdrop, performance is not just about hitting targets. It is about building organisations that can respond, adapt and improve consistently.
The difference often comes down to culture. Where improvement is owned, understood and applied at every level, organisations are better placed to manage risk, deliver reliably and make meaningful progress against both operational and sustainability goals.
Seeing that shift, where improvement becomes part of how the organisation thinks and operates, is what I find most rewarding. It is also where frameworks like SC21, when used well, create lasting value not just for individual businesses, but across the wider supply chain.
Find out more:
- Andy Cheshire
- Managing Director
- CQM Training & Consultancy
- Contact details
