Project Description
These days, senior managers and academics alike are increasingly
concerned with supply chain design and operations in the
The consolidation of global supply chains, outsourcing, contract
manufacturing, shortened product life cycles, multi-channel
distribution and the need for adequate return channels have raised
awareness on the importance of supply chain design, operations and
strategy for the future.
Hence, defining the next generation supply chain has become a
necessity in strong, growing trade partnerships such as UK-India.
Moreover, in the digital economy, a strong, growing UK-India
trade partnership represents an ideal opportunity to understand the
implications on the future supply chain.
Manufacturing is an area directly affected by growing trade in the
digital economy.
Advanced manufacturing enterprises are characterised by a physically
distributed enterprise environment, outsourcing and IT-enabled
supply
chain management.
In today’s business environment, the manufacturing enterprise
is under pressure to achieve higher returns on capital investments
but also, the manufacturing enterprise is affected by distribution,
and for distribution the pressure is to ensure higher levels of
customer service.
In
the digital economy, ICT plays a key role in defining the next
generation supply chain.
It is through the use of ICT that in the digital economy,
well tested and recognised components of supply chain management
such as information sharing will continue to play a critical role in
keeping under control phenomena such as demand amplification along
the chain or to maintain high levels of deliveries’ synchronisation
between parties. An
immediate result of ICT in the digital economy has been the creation
of virtual clusters using web portals, made up of customers,
suppliers and distributors sharing knowledge networks for
collaboration and competition.
ICT in the form of e-supply chain solutions it is expected to
improve the way information is distributed to those parties in the
supply chain that needed it, both in amount and relevance.
E-supply chain solutions have the potential to directly
contribute to measurable including: cycle time compression, lower
inventories, decision-making quality and reduced overhead costs,
among others, making e-supply chain solutions an indispensable
component of the next generation supply chain.
The challenge for the future is to design and deploy e-supply
chain solutions that fit the particularities and arrangements in
place of a UK-India trade partnership.
Paradigms or initiatives which objectives were originally conceived
to eliminate waste, increase responsiveness, ensure profitability or
increase customer satisfaction at the organisational level now have
moved to the supply chain level.
The next generation supply chain in the present context of
the digital economy relies more than ever on the above issues but
also on developing partnerships, purchasing, scheduling, logistics
planning, and value added distribution.
The
project
has two important aspects namely creating a network and
developing knowledge base for sharing and exchanging the expertise
between
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To share and disseminate new concepts, theories, methodologies, and tools within member organisations and the wider academic and industrial communities in the
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To promote and enhance awareness of the
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To explore areas of research that will be of interest to academia and industry in both the
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To increase the capability of the participating organisations and more generally the wider research communities of both the
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To help participating
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Identify potential enablers and barriers to next generation supply chains.
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To better understand the impact of digital economy as enabler for the implementation of “Next generation supply chains”.
The NEX-
Academic team from the
Detailed break down of the visits and other activities are shown in
Table
During the project activities and the knowledge gained will be used
for developing potential collaborative
research proposals.
Outline of the methodology adopted is illustrated:
The
main beneficiaries of this project will be
1)
Enable the
2)
Help researchers in both countries to develop specific clusters of
research interests/groups on “Next Generation supply chains”
specifically linked to “Digital economy”.
3)
Provide a focal point for sharing and exchanging experiences and
expertise between leading Indian-UK researchers in the area of “Next
Generation Supply chains”.
4)
Facilitate identification of needs for new joint programmes of
research between Indian-UK academics in the broad area of logistics
and supply chains utilising the principles of “Digital economy”.
6)
Create opportunities for the
The