Diverse Supply Chain Programme (DiSC)

The benefits of having access to and adopting innovative Industrial Digital Technologies (IDTs) is well recognised. The Industrial Digitalisation Review (2017) states that over 10 years, industrial digitalisation could boost UK manufacturing by £455bn, increasing sector growth up to 3% per year; creating a net gain of 175,000 jobs while reducing CO2 emissions by 4.5%. However, access and adoption of IDTs within UK manufacturing (e.g. OEMs) remains a challenge due to the perceived risks of engagement with new suppliers (e.g. SMEs) and new digital products.

The feasibility study will explore the identified problems of sifting, vetting, and engaging innovative start-up & SMEs in supply chains, and the related time, cost, and risk for suppliers of sharing intellectual property when engaging with larger organisations. The problem of lack of diversity in supply chains and intellectual property disclosure has been identified by Simply Do Ideas' manufacturing customer base, which includes global manufacturing organisations.

The exploration of these identified problems will lead to exploration of an Industrial Digital Technology (IDT) that, in advance of contracting, (1) allows the manufacturer to automatically find companies based on search functionality, (2) indicate key supplier capabilities, (3) contact/engage suppliers before (4) automatically dealing with intellectual property management. This includes potential exchange of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and other forms of template contracting using new IDTs such as blockchain, which has huge potential for further R&D (Lawyer Monthly, 2020).

The intended digital product will allow manufacturers to search, sift, pre-qualify and engage the latest start-ups & SMEs reducing the time, cost and risk of integrating these suppliers into their supply chain. In adopting these new transparent technologies to manage supplier engagement and contractual elements of the process will increase the number of innovative companies engaging and providing solutions for manufacturing industries. Thus delivering further collaboration to support a bridge across the "valley of death" to commercialise more of SMEs groundbreaking research, increasing the number of collaborations between large and small companies within the value chain (HMGov, 2015).

This project will deliver both underpinning research and early-stage innovative digital development. The focus is on creating both new supply chain networks and optimising existing ones. The project will ensure clear outputs in that the problem is better understood whilst providing ideas for potential innovative digital solutions. It is anticipated that an industrial research project application will follow on from a successful feasibility study.