University Partnership Helps Herbert Retail Ltd
Working to provide retailers with the latest technology and innovation in the fields of weighing, labelling and in store operations, Herbert Retail Ltd accessed the University of Hertfordshire’s expertise through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership. This resulted in a four-fold increase in stock accuracy and a company saving of £350,000 per annum.
The Business Challenge
With an opportunity to enhance the company’s operating systems to improve service levels, and re-engineer areas of high cost and non-value added activity, the project set out to:
- Analyse current business processes
- Identify relationships, interdependencies and deficiencies within the current operating system
- Develop a business process model to address the three key business processes:
- Front-end Sales
- Opportunity Introduction
- Order Fulfilment - Implement new operating systems, monitor and review of the effectiveness of the business process model.
How KTP helped
Linking with the School of Engineering and Technology, the KTP was established. With benefits for both the business and the University, Herbert Retail was able to access the University’s expertise in manufacturing processes, process planning and management, inventory and supply chain management. Whilst the University was able to use its academic knowledge to develop new processes and solutions in a commercial environment and test whether principles work well in practice.
Business Results
Herbert Retail expects to save £350,000 p.a. through the efficiencies created by the KTP. The KTP Associate, Liang Zong, has applied manufacturing operations management techniques to streamline the company’s service operations, with impressive results.
The results include:
- Four fold improvement to stock accuracy
- Reduction in order fulfilment failures by 50%
- Elimination of reworked orders
- Reduced number of parts shortages
- Increased the completion of calls/jobs at customer sites
- Introduced bar code technology to enable FMEA evaluation of installed equipment.
"Supplying to customers such as Tesco, Sainsbury and M&S requires us to be leaner and fitter each year. Liang’s project has enabled us to access the University’s help to successfully re-engineer our business processes.”
Martin Brown
Managing Director, Herbert Retail Ltd
University Results
“Working with Herbert Retail Ltd on this KTP has provided a wealth of real-world examples that can be used in teaching and for further research. It has been an excellent opportunity to understand the difficulties that regional businesses face, develop realistic solutions.”
Dr Rodney Day
Academic Supervisor, University of Hertfordshire
What is KTP?
This Partnership received financial support from the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships programme (KTP). KTP aims to help businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK Knowledge Base. KTP is funded by the Technology Strategy Board along with the other government funding organisations.
Each Partnership is a three-way collaboration between a business, a university and a highly talented graduate. The graduate carries out a strategic and innovative project for your business, with expert guidance from a university academic supervisor. The graduate, known as a KTP Associate, is employed by the University, but located at the company premises and supervised jointly by the company personnel and their university supervisor.
Find out more
Herbert Retail Ltd is one of many examples of how we provide a cost-effective way of helping businesses become more competitive and profitable by accessing academic knowledge and expertise.
Contact the Business Service Team
Telephone: +44 (0) 1707 286 406
Email: be@herts.ac.uk