The recent Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Entec and The University of Portsmouth has been awarded a Certificate of Excellence, with the highest grade of ‘Outstanding’ by the KTP Grading Panel for its achievement in meeting KTP objectives.
The KTP was established to develop a capability to exploit and demonstrate hidden value within an integrated procurement process along complex global supply chains, and ran for 18 months.
The partnership provided a ‘toolset’ and the capability to clean, analyse, and profile complex inventory data, using a series of business algorithms, delivering benchmarked cost and value savings in a simplified graphic format.
Through the partnership Entec have acquired the knowledge and technical capabilities that enabled the development of their industry first innovation toolset. The coherent graphic reports delivered assist the Entec sales team in the delivery of a complex message, and provides strategic decision makers within the company’s clients with the information they need to improve operating efficiency and reduce MRO cost. The partnership extended the Entec value proposition and will drive growth, as well as providing academics at UoP and OR practitioners access to real data and some understanding of the challenges in complex contemporary supply chain models.
For The University of Portsmouth success delivered through the KTP has been multi-layered, with the submission of three peer reviewed journal papers, the project outcomes a point of discussion at international conferences, and saw three master’s and two undergraduate projects through to completion. The project continues to build an industry-university collaborative platform which has already delivered two research workshops, two guest lectures, and two keynote addresses at major research and innovation events.
The success of the project places it in line for an award, highlighting the continuous effort put in to the relationship by Entec, the University of Portsmouth and Innovate UK. The Project Associate, Goutham Veerakumar (who has taken a full time role at Entec) will continue to put into practice the knowledge gained from the partnership to the benefit of the business and our clients. Mike Robinson (Entec CEO), and Mark Xu (Professor of Information Management at UoP), both proposed and provided the strategic goals for the project. Mark Xu commented “In our view, the relationship with the company which evolved through this KTP not only provided a knowledge transfer partner but brought an inextricable link to knowledge creation and innovation into the university”.
