What kind of projects are we talking about?
The student project can take many forms. It could for instance be the analysis of an international distribution system to find the most cost effective design for present and future supply chain operations. The project may be to examine warehouse operations to identify service or operational improvements. Alternatively you may want to improve your key supplier performance and investigate better measurement and management systems. Some organisations ask students to review the literature associated with a new supply chain initiative as a ‘due diligence’ exercise prior to strategy formulation.
Your choices of projects are many and varied and projects have been undertaken in a very wide range of organisation both in terms of size and sector.
Examples of some of the companies who have sponsored projects in previous years include:
- Supply Chain and general Consultancies
- Specialist research organisations
- Oil and Gas companies
- County Councils
- NHS trusts and related organisations
- A large number of FMCG companies (food, fashion, tobacco, beverages, toys, home and personal care) including national and multinational organisations
- Retailers across many sectors e.g. grocery, DIY, furniture
- 3rd Party Logistics Providers
- Port service providers
- Telecommunications companies
- Automobile manufacturers
Examples of some topics which have been investigated in previous years include:
- The cost of lack of product availability – Internet Sales
- Utilisation of Automated Labour in a Warehouse operation
- On Time delivery from China
- Advanced transport technologies
- Distribution network design
- Supplier/Retailer Logistics Collaboration
- Support Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Agenda of a beverage company
- Bringing asset management to the supply chain: how to minimise whole life costs
- Optimisation of the European Supply Chain for a Pharmaceutical company
- Identify the potential for streamlined services and cost effective solutions in procurement
- Development of an Inventory management model
- Global distribution and packaging standardisation
- Identify and Recommend Supply Chain Cost reduction opportunities
- Establish an environmental impact and improvement methodology
- Reducing Carbon emissions in the logistics department of a food manufacturer
- Retail stock turn optimisation and benchmarking
- Returns and repairs policies and practices
- New product introduction process design
- Transport processes and Procedures
- Warehouse optimisation
- Overseas purchasing – Supply Chain Strategy
- The economics of fulfilment
- Development of a system of KPI’s to monitor the performance of customer relationships
- Development of a fleet mix and allocation model
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