Summary of the impact

Lean is a business operations paradigm, originating from post-war Japanese manufacturing, which has its UK and European research roots in Cardiff Business School (CBS). Following the initial success of lean as a concept for improvement, it became evident that there were issues surrounding the sustainability of lean transformations. In addressing this problem, CBS's Lean Enterprise Research Centre (LERC) has developed a structured training programme, the Lean Competency System (LCS), and delivered tailored lean solutions, which have directly facilitated the implementation of sustainable lean transformation strategies in over 200 public and private sector organisations since 2008. Several thousand people have received LCS accreditation, increasing the longevity of the effects from implementing lean strategies and creating efficiency savings worth millions of pounds.

Summary of the impact

This interdisciplinary research work in the areas of Knowledge Management (KM), e-Business, enterprise systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Supply Chain Management resulted in socio economic impact through improved organisational performance in 90 companies in the North West, resulting in process improvements, enhanced productivity, marketability, increased revenues, employment, reduced costs, enhanced knowledge capital, profitability, and sustainability. This positive regional impact included an ERDF funded project (£1.4m), 5 KTPs (£500,000), an ESRC project, and other bespoke collaborative company projects. This research work in collaboration with industry encompassed a knowledge sharing regional network that included BAE Systems, Daimler, Northwest Aerospace Alliance, APPH Group — BBA Aviation, Hyquip Limited, Alliance Learning Limited, Darts Corner Limited etc.

Summary of the impact

Impacts include:

1. Providing tools, processes, events by which SMEs can engage with universities
2. Allowing SMEs and universities to jointly create technology roadmaps and engage in knowledge transfer
3. Encouraging SMEs to become involved in R&D projects by providing tools to National Contact Points (NCPs).

Through repeat-funded projects, Business and Information Systems Research Centre (BISC) has developed strong European collaborations with Research Technology Developers (RTDs), SMEs and public body partners. Funded projects have addressed European R&D dissemination and use in health-based SMEs; knowledge transfer in the environmental sector; and knowledge transfer in manufacturing.

Summary of the impact

This international research project, based on the work of a consortium of five European countries led by the University of Salford in the area of Enterprise Cultural Heritage (ECH), (the term describing an organisation's history and its creations that have the potential to uniquely innovate and differentiate their products and services), demonstrates the following impact:

• Developing and integrating the ECH training concept in Change Management, Brand Management, Heritage Management and Intellectual Property Rights training material in five languages;
• Developing online training material under Creative Commons Attribution License for free use and re-distribution available through social media such as SlideShare and Wikipedia, accessed c.30,000 times;
• Generating economic and social benefits internationally and leading to a transfer project in the Leonardo da Vinci Development of Innovation scheme entitled Quality & Innovation in Vocational Training for Enterprise Cultural Heritage management.

Summary of the impact

Professor David Zhang's research into agility strategies and the analysis and optimisation of complex supply chain networks in the manufacturing sector has led to significant economic impact. Reductions have been made in inventory and cost of goods sold, amounting to an estimated £80M per annum for CIFUNSA, one of the world's largest engine block and head manufacturers. The entire senior management team has been trained in agility strategies and techniques at China's largest non-ferrous metals research and industry complex GRINM, leading to major corporate-level restructuring and growth. The senior management of solder-specialist COMPO has also been trained based on Zhang's research to help the company quadruple turnover in four years and become global market leader. Finally, these same strategy and analysis techniques have generated cost savings and performance improvements worth an estimated £375k for UK engineering solutions company J+S Ltd (http://www.jands.co.uk).

Summary of the impact

Since its inception in 2005, Bangor Business School's Centre for Business Research (CBR) has developed a research agenda focusing on the North West Wales (NWW) EU convergence region, which is dominated by Small-to-Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) with a distinctively bilingual (Welsh/English) flavour operating in a rural setting. This research has had a significant impact on both local and regional economies by changing the strategies for innovation and growth of individual SME's. The achieved impact came in the form of tangible growth (5% in one instance), successful bidding & grant acquisition (£400K in one case), improved marketing and customer-management, and enhanced knowledge transfer partnerships, which are reflected in greater employment opportunities as evidenced from the supportive statements of the main users of this research

Summary of the impact

Research conducted at Warwick Business School (WBS), in collaboration with Warwick Medical School and Warwick Manufacturing Group, has provided new models and techniques for understanding and improving hospital processes and has been adopted by four NHS Trusts in England, informing their services and professional practice as well as enabling more efficient decision making. Research findings have been used to develop the SimLean concept, a simulation approach for use in hospitals. SimLean was developed in order to educate healthcare staff about lean principles and has been adopted commercially by the global company Simul8 as a platform for further development. Significantly, this research has also informed the national strategy for service improvement in the NHS.

Summary of the impact

Development and validation of a novel supply chain model at Surrey has improved performance for fast growing companies.

Validated with an international food manufacturer, it has been applied in a different sector with similarly promising results. Plans are in place to roll out to other companies seeking fast growth. Impact:

• quantified improvements in planning/control for diverse customer portfolios;
• reduced inventories by 35%;
• decreased stock holding by 15%;
• increased customer availability to 99%;
• improved service levels by over 5%;
• savings of 25% in working capital.

These benefits allowed the companies to structure growing customer bases and expand new markets.

Summary of the impact

This case study refers to the work in supporting SMEs' e-business adoption undertaken by staff in the Business and Information Systems Research Centre (BISC) led by Professor Duan. Our research was supported by a number of EU funded projects, including VEGNET (knowledge transfer in e-supply chains), TRIMAR (e-marketing for SMEs), TRICTSME (e-commerce in SMEs), LFEC (Languages for e-commerce), Webstep (Business website design for SMEs), amongst others. SMEs are the principal beneficiaries of all these projects, with our research impacts on SMEs including:

• An increased level of e-business adoption in SMEs
• Improved e-business performance and management capacity at regional and international level
• Influences on policy making, raised awareness and debate among business communities and policy makers as regards the sharing of know-how and best practice with international business partners
• Follow-on projects funded by EU to realise the research impact (e.g. three rounds of Webstep project and TRIMAR).