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This case study concerns the economic, commercial and organisational benefits gained from the application of original research undertaken between 1999 and 2013 by the Operations & Supply Chain group at the University of Liverpool Management School. The research has provided significant new thinking concerning the design of agile organisations and supply chains through the creation of frameworks and tools for the development of SME-focused, resilient business strategies. Since 2008, the application of the research has supported a priority component of the Future North West regional productivity strategy for the North West of England through the implementation of a wide range of economy-driving and productivity-enhancing industrial applications. These applications have: boosted the region's economy and the prosperity of its citizens; facilitated the growth of the region's manufacturing SMEs; supported the participation of SMEs in global networks; equipped SME owner-managers with the knowledge and skills to facilitate business growth; improved the professional behaviour and cognitive characteristics of employees, and led directly to 117 jobs and several businesses safeguarded, and 31 new jobs created.
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:
These benefits allowed the companies to structure growing customer bases and expand new markets.
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.
Research within Sheffield University Management School (SUMS) into supply chain management and carbon reduction has delivered economic and environmental impacts by helping businesses reduce their carbon footprint through lower-cost resource efficiencies. The supply chain management tool, SCEnAT, developed from SUMS research, has helped businesses change their operations to reduce CO2 emissions, make cost savings of up to £250k per company and improve their business performance through, in one case, winning additional contracts worth £1.75m. The research has also been used by regional business organisations in developing and implementing growth strategies to support low carbon businesses in Yorkshire and Humber.
Research at the University of Sheffield has led to the development of a Reverse Logistics Toolkit that enables companies in the retail sector, together with members of their supply chain, to improve management of the flow of surplus or unwanted products returned by customers. Companies using the toolkit have seen a reduction in returns of up to 40%, a significant figure given that total UK retail returns have been valued at around £6 billion per annum. The toolkit has enabled companies to reduce costs, improve service provision and reduce transport movements.
The research outlined in this case study has led to (1) an understanding of the complexities of shipping containerisation in the real world, embracing container fleet sizing, container leasing, repositioning of empty containers, ship scheduling, and shipping emissions; (2) innovative concepts and approaches such as inventory-based threshold policies and integrated container management; (3) development of a formal model and associated decision-support tools for use in the management of containers by key industry players - shipping companies and port authorities - in collaboration with local academic partners. The research has been translated into impact on shipping lines and container ports in several countries.
Developing sustainable consumption and production policies and practices in industry requires analysis of technical, environmental, economic and social performance of supply chains delivering goods and services. In a programme covering the 20 years since its foundation, the University of Surrey's Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES) has played a major role in developing a systematic "whole system" approach to assessing and managing supply chains, starting from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Management (LCM) and progressing to sustainability analysis.
This approach underpins current national and international standards and policy and is embodied in the corporate strategies of a number of major companies (for example Unilever and M&S); the approach is also starting to be adopted in guiding the development of new consumer products.
The Construction and Property Research Centre (CPRC) has had an impact on supply chain collaboration, process improvement, and technology integration in the construction industry, primarily in the South West of England, but also nationally and internationally. Its impact has been enhanced by its leading role in four major regional knowledge exchange initiatives (Construction Knowledge Exchange, Future Foundations, Constructing Excellence and the Environmental iNet). Through these initiatives, CPRC's research has contributed to the change in culture of the construction industry from `adversarial' to more collaborative. This has increased capacity and improved performance of public and private construction clients, construction companies, specialist subcontractors, SMEs and individual professionals. By delivering training and on-line materials, and supporting the sector through numerous business consultancies and `best practice clubs' it has directly influenced over 700 companies and 1700 professionals leading to streamlined construction processes, costs savings, reduced errors, and increases in efficiency, productivity and profitability.
In order to address the issue of why so many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) find it difficult to put the principles of Lean production into practice, research at Newcastle developed a `bite-size' methodology suited to their requirements. The research has had impact in three areas: on the practice of 25 SMEs involved in an international project in the North Sea Region of Europe; on the performance of these companies on such measures as cost and productivity; and, in the form of six new Innovative Productivity Centres, on the regional infrastructural support for SMEs.
The results of research at the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng) on global manufacturing networks were disseminated to industry through publications, events, training and consultancy. During 2008-13 more than 20 multinational corporations applied the findings to transform their global networks, determining the ideal location and roles of plants around the world, and achieving beneficial trade-offs of access to markets and resources, innovation and risk, while minimising cost. Corporations including Rolls-Royce, GSK, BAE Systems, and Caterpillar report impacts in terms of cost savings (measured in tens of millions GBP per annum), improved competitive differentiation and shifts in capital expenditure allocation (measured in hundreds of millions GBP per annum). GBP 2,158,181 revenue has also been directly generated in consultancy and training spin-offs.