Supply Chain - WMG - Projects
Supply Chain Research Projects
Projects
See our latest projects below. For more information about the team's work or to contact members of the team, please email wmgbusiness@warwick.ac.uk
Re-Powering the Black Country
Project Description
- One of seven industrial cluster decarbonisation projects partly funded by BEIS and UKRI aimed at supporting Black Country businesses to take advantage of global clean growth opportunities and to make the transition to a net zero industrial future.
- Repowering the Black Country builds on the Black Country’s strategic advantages of greater flexibility; connectivity; strong local partnerships; a regeneration imperative and a strong local culture of enterprise and energy-intense manufacturing.
- The focus of Repowering the Black Country is not on making large capital investments to install equipment in a few major carbon-emitting plants. Rather, it is about planning the overall economic development of the region. It involves finding ways for the BlackCountry to grow economically at the same time as decarbonising, with smaller businesses front and centre.
Our Role
There are 2 approaches for the companies in the BC region to achieve overall sustainability: NZ path and CE path. WMG's role is leading the research and implementation on CE aspect.
- Reconfiguring supply chains to achieve overall sustainability through circular economies route.
- Help and guide companies in the region to achieve the circular economy target.
- Explore the potential of the Midlands Region to become the UK Battery Circular/Recycling Center.
Achievements
SLR
An 8-step approach, starting with over 607k sources. Grey literature and academic literature. We cross cutting the themes and methodologies for companies to create their potential CE strategies and explore the potential ways how they can work together to achieve CE and NZ.
Market opportunities
Market-based view (MBV) and resource-based view (RBV) are widely considered rigorous theories to explain an organisation’s performance. However, such theories are rarely integrated and applied to a region to define the market opportunities in the context of circular economy and low carbon. To do so, we initially look at the market trend across the UK and also forecast the future demand. Then, we need to define what are the existing resources within the Black Country region, and how can the BC region transform the resources to the capability and seize the market opportunities. By identifying 4 primary opportunities and 4 secondary opportunities, we provided guidance for the local authority where the future market opportunities are for the region. The Black Country Region was used as the case study and presented in our Market-based and Resource-based Opportunity Analysis Methodology.
Based on the SLR and the market opportunity identifying process, we created the public-facing Net-Zero Methodology report, the Circular Economy Methodology report, and the Market-based and Resource-based Opportunity Analysis Methodology.
Click the icons below to read the full guide.
Interviews & workshops
Circular Wheel Concept: We aligned work with the UKRI Interdisciplinary Centre for Circular Metals and explored how different visions/snapshots can guide the development of the “wheel for life” concept. We identified circular opportunities in the current supply chain that we mapped for the target companies. Explore how the “wheel for life” concept can be implemented and what is the role of different partners in achieving this. The result indicated that none of the companies can work solely or dominantly to achieve a circular economy future. Instead, they have to work together open-mindedly to enable a circular mental vision.
Circular Metal Pickling Process: In contrast to the Circular Wheel Concept, we worked with Servo Steel to explore the concept of circular metal pickling process. We mapped out their supply chain process and identified where possible waste and by product was generated. Then along with the companies, we brainstormed potential solutions to each of the by-products such as hydrogen and hydrochloride compounds to make “one man's trash is another man's treasure” possible.
Circular Battery Concept: We align work with Interact and explore how different visions/snapshots can guide the development of the “EV battery circular economy”. We wanted the Midlands to be future thinking, and create the future that the region wants, to secure their role as the epicentre of the future EV ecosystem. Explore new business models that enable the future transition and identify the roles of different partners in achieving this. 26 industrial representatives joined the workshop. By utilising each participant’s expertise and knowledge, they co-designed multiple future-looking business models that enable EV batteries to stay at the highest possible value state for the longest time.
Industrial Impact
One lesson learned from the project is that companies are more engaged with net zero because it is a well-established concept that is widely recognised and understood, and that has well-defined metrics and targets.
Familiarity, Short-term focus, Lack of understanding, Difficulty in measuring the benefits, Focus on mitigation, Capital-intensive investments, Lack of standards and guidelines…Those are the key difficulties we hear the most from the industry regarding implementing Circular Economy. Therefore, we co-developed a free-to-use CE assessment tool with Loughborough Business School which provides companies with a streamlined method to assess their circular economy performance, offering actionable insights that empower them to make informed decisions.
We collected responses from 130 industrial stakeholders in different manufacturing sectors. By enabling businesses to benchmark their performance against industry and peer companies, the Circular Economy Assessment Tool will help to enhance understanding of individual progress.
Core Partners
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