£5k of funding for SMEs available through Innovation Voucher with Edinburgh Napier University

What are we aiming to do?

We are a small team of three academics at Edinburgh Napier University with expertise in logistics and supply chain management. We wish to discuss, in close collaboration with you, any problems your business is facing, and to find out whether these challenges are supply chain related and if so, if they can be addressed by redesigning that chain. Before any more specific work towards problem solving can be undertaken, it is important to get a good understanding and to gain visibility of your supply chain, as far as you can go from materials sourcing to the distribution of your product. Supply chain mapping is a tool that can be used to gain visibility of all supply chain activities, and can identify not only their location, but can also show how much stock is kept in the system, at which points, how this is affecting lead times and ultimately can result in a much better understanding of the costs (inventory, warehousing, transportation and distribution) that should constantly be kept under control by any business. By undertaking this small scoping study, we wish to understand the extent to which your organisation will benefit from it.

How are we going to do it?

• Find out how familiar you are with your supply chain – the upstream and downstream flows of goods, information and cash from and into your organisation
• Understand how you organise your logistics operations – in-house resources or outsourced to third party logistics providers
• Meet with the person responsible for supply chain and/or operations/logistics management in your company
• Familiarise ourselves with your main products and operations, your inward and outward operations – whether you export or import, material sourcing, distribution, ports of entry/exit
• Learn about any previous attempts to redesign your supply chain – e.g. whether you have ever undertaken any change of suppliers, customers or logistics providers and the outcomes from it
• Estimate the share of supply chain costs (materials sourcing, warehousing, transport, distribution) in your total production costs
• Understand your perception of the problems affecting your business and whether they can be attributed to inefficient supplies or distribution
• Understand whether anything has changed for you after Brexit, the implications for your business and recommend how your supply chain can respond to current challenges

What are the benefits for you of taking part in this project?

• The costs of your participation are fully covered by the Innovation Voucher scheme, so you won’t need to pay anything
• Detection of problem areas within your supply chain and getting an understanding if supply chain mapping can be employed as a tool for solving the challenges your business is facing
• We can also discuss with you how the initial experience that will be gained through this small study can be developed into more in-depth knowledge, possibly through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project. Within such a project we can undertake:
  • a more thorough mapping of your supply chain
  • assess potential redesign options for that chain
  • address the risks and difficulties of post-Brexit overseas sourcing
  • improve your sustainability supply chain performance through exploring the opportunities offered by the local economy
  • reducing the carbon footprint of supply chains, without adversely affecting service levels or profit margins.
• Under the KTP scheme SMEs can potentially get 66% of the project costs funded by the Government. The project could run from 18 months to 3 years and will be delivered by an Associate specifically appointed to work on the project with support and expertise from our academic team at Napier University.

Requirements:

The main requirement for your origination is some time to give us insight into your supply chain.  Depending on the type of innovative voucher applied for, as researcher, we can get funding for approximately 10 to 15 day’s work on scoping out your chain.

To find out more please contact:

Matthew Burdge
Business Development & Relationship Manager
Research and Innovation Office
Edinburgh Napier University
T: 0131 455 4430 M: 07890049551| E: m.burdge@napier.ac.uk