Recognised for her expertise in supply chain design and strategy, as well as process improvement and sustainability, Jan Godsell, Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Strategy at WMG, University of Warwick, has been appointed as a co-director of the research and network strand within the £147 million Made Smarter Innovation programme.

Taking on the UK Research and Innovation role with immediate effect, Professor Godsell will be working with the Economic and Social Research Council to lead the research and network strand of the programme alongside fellow newly appointed co-director Jillian MacBryde, Professor of Innovation and Operations Management at the University of Strathclyde.

Together they will look to expand the stakeholder community and research into a Made Smarter Network Plus on an initial five-month agreement working alongside the Challenge Director and programme team.

The Made Smarter Network Plus aims to bring together insights across the wider UK manufacturing sector, bolstering digital technology innovation opportunities in manufacturing through engagement and collaboration.

Commenting on her new role, Professor Godsell said:

“The scope for improving the flexibility, sustainability and productivity of the UK manufacturing sector is huge, so I was keen to take this role to partner with Jillian on introducing research and new ideas to the industry.

“Introducing these important external influences in an effective way will require a deep understanding of the specific needs and demands on the manufacturing sector, which I hope I can bring to the Network Plus model to ensure it thrives for the benefit of all involved.”

Professor Godsell provides advice on strategy and activity across government and industry as part of her existing roles on various supply chain groups, including the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Supply Chain Resilience Advisory Group.

Chris Courtney, Challenge Director for Made Smarter Innovation, said:

“Digital technologies have the power to radically transform how we manufacture and deliver the products and services of the future and deliver a more resilient, prosperous economy with fundamental changes to the nature of work.

“A key part of delivering an optimal future in manufacturing will be enabled by harnessing the insights from the broader economic, social, regulatory and political sciences.

“I’m delighted to welcome Jan and Jill to the overall effort as co-directors, combining two of our leading academics in this space bringing leadership, insight of with a passion for manufacturing.

“I’m excited to get this work underway and to support Jill and Jan as they reach out to the broad network of capability to engage and shape a vital and exciting programme of work.”

Register for the upcoming Made Smarter Network Plus Townhall Event on 13th May here to find out more about the programme and how to get involved.

Manufacturers must unlock supply chain visibility to rebuild after the COVID-19 pandemic, WMG and Blue Yonder are warning.

The pandemic has disrupted supply and demand in many ways, from factory and border closures to swings in consumer needs, and those without supply chain visibility have been struggling to adapt and keep up. Digital supply chain technologies perform a vital role across all stages of manufacturing, from sourcing materials and quality control to warehouses and shipping. Now the industry is being warned any talk of ‘building back stronger’ won’t come to fruition if manufacturers don’t have the visibility over demand and supply that digital supply chains can bring.

The warning comes as a result of WMG research conducted in with almost 250 manufacturing companies revealing that lack of visibility and workforce issues are creating the biggest supply chain bottlenecks:

• 47% cited lack of visibility of capacity at suppliers and 37% cited lack of visibility of demand from customers as major supply chain constraints.
• More than half (55%) used inventory as the major buffer against disruption. This ties up cash and can leave organisations exposed if demand falls.
• Less than a third (32%) used visibility in their supply network to react to disruption. This is potentially a more effective strategy in the longer term.

To help manufacturers assess their supply chain needs, WMG at the University of Warwick and Blue Yonder worked together to design a freely accessible digital readiness tool. The digital readiness tool gives manufacturers the ability to assess their current supply chain to see where they are now and where they need to be. Manufacturers can also enquire about a further consultation to understand what they need to do to get to their goal and survive in the post COVID-19 world.Professor Jan Godsell, WMG, University of Warwick

Professor Jan Godsell, from WMG, University of Warwick, comments: “As we continue to deal with the disruptions of COVID-19, demand and supply visibility has never been more critical. It enables manufacturers to better plan their manufacturing operations, to minimise costly inventory buffers. We hope that the supply chain digital readiness tool can assist manufacturers with identifying opportunities to use digitisation to help their businesses to survive and thrive amidst the challenges of COVID-19. We are also offering manufacturers further advice.”

Alan Duncan, Senior Director of Manufacturing Strategy at Blue Yonder, adds: “They say ‘the wise man built his house on the rock,’ and when they’re rebuilding after COVID-19, manufacturers must put resilient digital supply chains at the centre of operations. Manufacturers have been investing more in the move to digital supply chains in recent years, but it’s crucial that their plans are pushed through to fruition. A digital supply chain will give them the end-to-end visibility, resilience and agility required to emerge from pandemic disruption in the strongest manner possible.”

ENDS

4 MARCH 2021

NOTES TO EDITORS

The data comes from a WMG survey of 248 manufacturers in September 2020.

High-res images available at:

https://warwick.ac.uk/services/communications/medialibrary/images/january2019/jangodsell250.jpg

Caption: Professor Jan Godsell, WMG, University of Warwick

Credit: WMG, University of Warwick

For further information please contact:

Alice Scott

Media Relations Manager – Science

University of Warwick

Tel: +44 (0) 7920 531 221

E-mail: alice.j.scott@warwick.ac.uk

As the UK entered lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, panic buying of essential items including tea caused a massive spike in demand. With demand for products doubling in some instances, many companies struggled to keep up with supply, but Tata Consumer Products Ltd (TCPL), the parent of the Tetley tea brand in the UK, Eight O Clock Coffee in the USA and Tata Tea in India, managed to keep products on shelves and customers supplied with the tea they needed.

To ensure that it could maintain supplies of tea Tetley’s UK factory in Teesside increased production by more than 40%. Their ability to adapt and respond to the unprecedented level demand owed much to their supply chain strategy on which WMG, University of Warwick had been working with them to enhance since 2015.

Professor Jan Godsell from WMG led the team that analysed Tetley’s sales and stock data to create a demand profile. Professor Jan Godsell explains: “We identified an optimal level of utilisation that would keep TCL competitive and allow spare capacity to deal with fluctuations in demand. John Burdett, Global Operations Director for Tata Consumer Products Ltd, then used these recommendations to help set-up the supply chain strategy, which was rigorously tested during the COVID-19 pandemic as the demand for tea soared.

“It was both an exhilarating time and a frightening time. Because of the buffer management approach we had in place, we were able to deliver 35% surge capacity to supply our customers and consumers and keep the UK drinking tea. This meant we could react extremely quickly to the rapidly moving market conditions and gain competitive advantage.”

TCPL demonstrated how having a flexible supply chain can be used to react quickly to the market and enhance market performance, being able to respond to increased demand and maintain supplies of tea resulted in Tetley gaining market share during the Covid-19 panic buying period.

Through two Innovate UK grants, WMG also helped to develop SupplyVue analytics software. SupplyVue can assess a business’s end-to-end supply chain including production scheduling, planning and inventory management to suggest ways to optimise the supply chain. TCPL made the bold move to deploy SupplyVue just as the COVID-19 pandemic was reaching its initial peak, helping them to reconfigure their tea supply to Canada. When there are increasing levels of volatility along the supply chain, a phenomenon known as the ‘bullwhip effect’ occurs and this took place during the pandemic. It occurs when orders received from a customer are rounded up to suit production constraints resulting in a mismatch in stock levels compared with what is actually required.

John comments: “The end to end visibility that we have as a result of SupplyVue means we’ve eliminated the bullwhip effect – we saw no increased stock levels as we recovered from the panic buying phase of pandemic. Enabled by insight through analytics, we’re now collaborating across the supply chain and are using the end-to-end visibility to get a smooth, even flow of products through to our customers.”

TCPL are now looking at rolling out the same optimisation model into other supply chains and unlocking more value.

Professor Godsell comments: “As humans, we are subject to myopic loss aversion. This is a bias that means we tend to fear loss more than gain. In supply chains, it means that the fear of losing a sale, leads to a change in the production schedule that can lead to overproduction. COVID-19 exacerbated this effect.

“SupplyVue provided full end-to-end supply chain visibility, and the confidence to trust the current plan. This enabled customer orders to be fulfilled at lowest possible supply chain cost and the unnecessary costs of overproduction and excess inventory to be avoided.”

ENDS

2 NOVEMBER 2020

NOTES TO EDITORS

High-res images available at:

https://warwick.ac.uk/services/communications/medialibrary/images/january2019/jangodsell250.jpg
Caption: Professor Jan Godsell, from WMG at the University of Warwick
Credit: WMG, University of Warwick

https://warwick.ac.uk/services/communications/medialibrary/images/october_2020/lifestyle_tetley_shot_-_new_pack.png
Caption: A pack of Tetley tea.
Credit: Tetley UK

Studies available to view at:
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/research/transformation/supply_chain/wmg_tetley_success_story_buffer_theory.pdf

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/research/transformation/supply_chain/wmg_tetley_success_story_supplyvue.pdf

For further information please contact:

Alice Scott
Media Relations Manager – Science
University of Warwick
Tel: +44 (0) 7920 531 221
E-mail: alice.j.scott@warwick.ac.uk

Ways to reduce social inequality in the West Midlands and boost productivity will be researched thanks to an £800,000 research project, led by Warwick Business School with WMG at the University of Warwick, and City-REDI at the University of Birmingham.

WMG and Warwick Business School from the University of Warwick and City-REDI at the University of Birmingham will examine the factors that constrain firm-level innovation and productivity across the region, with a particular focus on the role of skills shortages, the importance of supply chains and impacts of foreign direct investment.

They will also work in collaboration with regional stakeholders, including the West Midlands Combined Authority, the Midlands Engine, five Local Enterprise Partnerships and private sector firms including Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin. More widely, the project will connect with the CBI - building on their recent productivity work- the Chambers of Commerce, TUC and Unite.

As well as contributing to the local industrial strategy the research team will examine trade-offs between policies and practices which target improvements in productivity against other development goals.

In particular, understanding how productivity improvements and related policies can contribute to inclusive growth which reduces inequalities within and across regions, or heighten such inequalities is a central aim of the research.

Professor Nigel Driffield, the leader of the project from WBS, University of Warwick said:

“This is an exciting project that will look to feed into the region’s industrial strategy. The West Midlands is known as the manufacturing hub of the UK, but it needs to build on this reputation, attracting more investment and more jobs to the area, particularly with the threat of Brexit looming.

"This project has three stands: researching regional Differences, skills and inclusive growth, plus investigating investment decisions, foreign investment and trade; and finally evaluating analytics enabled supply chains and operational productivity.”

Professor Janet Godsell of WMG, University of Warwick comments:

“For over 25 years it has been recognised that supply chains compete and not individual companies, but the focus has remained on company productivity.

"This project provides an opportunity to create a step change in productivity, by working with end-to-end supply chains supporting the regions automotive and infrastructure sectors, to improve end-to-end supply chain productivity.”

Director of City-REDI and project lead for Birmingham, Professor Simon Collinson, said:

“I am very pleased to be working with our partners at Warwick University on a project that is so critical to the future economic well-being of the region. The UK lags behind other countries in terms of average productivity and the West Midlands lags behind the UK average.

"But we cannot focus on productivity in isolation of other challenges. By contributing to a reduction in social inequality, alongside promoting economic growth, we are continuing the legacy of the University of Birmingham as a long-standing anchor institution in the Birmingham city-region.”

Professor Anne Green from City-REDI said:

“The foci of the research at City-REDI on skills and inclusive growth issues is in line with key concerns with regional policy makers.”

A report by WMG Supply Chain researchers, and JDA Software Inc, has revealed that manufacturers are still struggling to effectively integrate and analyse supply chain data, with many still only in the very early stages of digital supply chain adoption.

The report, ‘Delivering the Digital Dividend,’ benchmarked the digital supply chain readiness of 179 European manufacturers, revealing that only 13 per cent currently have a ‘prescriptive’ supply chain (categorised as level 3, out of a scale of 1-4, with 4 being a self-learning autonomous supply chain).

However, crucially, the report does reveal that manufacturers are keen to digitally transform their supply chains, with almost one third (31 per cent) predicting they will have a prescriptive supply chain in place by 2023.

We are pleased to announce that our Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Strategy, Jan Godsell, has been recognised as the first ever winner of the Real Impact Awards ‘Individual’ category.

Professor Godsell, who was nominated for the award by our Chairman Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, impressed the judges with the way that she puts practitioners, policy makers and the public at the heart of her scholarship, and her innovative approach to building impact through storytelling, poems, physical artwork and the media.

The Real Impact Awards celebrate the commitment to impact by the research community across the globe, honour the change-makers, and bring together key stakeholders in the impact debate.

The awards aim to raise the profile of individuals, teams and institutions that have placed real impact at the top of their agenda; recognise innovative approaches to impact; celebrate interdisciplinary research; bridge the gap between research and practice; and tell real impact success stories and showcase those driving the debate.

Three senior figures from Jaguar Land Rover, AstraZeneca, and Associated British Ports will be giving their views on Brexit’s potential impact on Global Supply Chain at a special WMG debate and event at the University of Warwick on Tuesday 8 May 2018.

The confirmed speakers and panel members at the event include:

• Tim Sherwell from AstraZeneca, Regional Supply Director for Europe, and key member of the AstraZeneca Brexit team
• David Leighton from Associated British Ports, Group Head of Corporate Affairs, and a leading player in discussions with government in the UK and Brussels about the UK’s role as a Maritime Nation and the impact of Brexit

WMG researchers, at the University of Warwick, have worked in conjunction with Crimson & Co and Pinsent Masons, to produce a free to access “Industry 4” readiness assessment tool. It is designed to provide a simple and intuitive way for companies to start to assess their readiness and future ambition to harness the potential of the new cyber-physical age

The term Industry 4 originates from the high-tech strategy of the German government, which soughtto re-define the role of manufacturing post the global economic crisis. It suggests that we are on thecusp of the 4th Industrial Revolution, a cyber physical age, which will be realised over the next 20years.

 Our Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Strategy, Jan Godsell will be presenting ‘Reconciliation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution,’ next Tuesday (28 February) at Coventry Cathedral.

The first two Industrial Revolutions saw significant expansion and development for Coventry. But its success also made it vulnerable. It’s expertise in the automotive industry and in manufacturing made it a bombing target in World War II.

What’s more a reliance on these heavy industries further exposed the city to decline as the UK’s manufacturing sector was largely decimated with the Third Industrial Revolution during the latter part of the 20^th century. This has left the area with a range of employment challenges and industrial relations issues between large and small companies.

WMG’s Supply Chain team, led by Professor Jan Godsell, is looking to understand the readiness of industry to embrace the opportunities of the cyber-physical age. To do this SMEs are invited to take part in a short survey that will assess your organisation against a range of different dimensions. The results will be aggregated to identify the readiness for Industry 4.0 of different countries, industries, and business types.

The results will be discussed at a special Supply Chains in Practice (SCIP) networking event on 20^th June. Company specific results will also be available after the event.

The term Industry 4.0 originates from the high-tech strategy of the German government, which sought to redefine the role of manufacturing post global economic downturn.