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Sept. 3, 2019

Kent Business School KTP project receives Certificate of Excellence

University of KentA Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project between Kent Business School and Parker Steel Ltd has received a Certificate of Excellence.

The KTP project has been awarded the highest grade of Outstanding by the KTP Grading Panel for its achievement in meeting KTP’s Objectives. Describing the KTP project, Dr Niaz Wassan, Reader in Management Science at Kent Business School, explains, “The main objectives of the project were to create a thorough optimisation tool, which provided valuable insight into the true cost of operations and pinpoint specific cost generating activities. The data was used to create two powerful state-of-the-art heuristic optimisation algorithms. The first algorithm optimises the supply chain flow of goods to the end customer, where the second algorithm optimises the vehicle routing schedule.”

Dr Wassan continues, “During the project, we successfully implemented both algorithms into the internal IT system of the company (Parker Steel Ltd) and we had the opportunity to collect feedback and measure impact from their daily use. Both algorithms are designed with a long-term sustainability perspective, where the routing software has a lifetime relevance for the company operations. Following the implementation, we have observed a 20% increase in the vehicle capacity utilisation and significant monthly savings from the fleet diversification we suggested. Moreover, continued usage of the supply chain algorithm can lead to a 15% decrease in production cost and up to 30% decrease in transportation cost. Our suggestions for improvement have not only shown great savings potential but also have contributed to a 42% decrease in CO2 emissions, by operating with more efficient fleet mix and covering consumer demand with fewer lorries.’

The Kent Business School and Parker Steel Ltd KTP project has achieved the operational and the strategic objectives by providing insight into the nature of the business and it has also made suggestions regarding the use of the satellite depots, material consolidation, transportation and operations costs.

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Content added on 3rd September 2019. 

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