Enterprise Research Centre

Overview

The Enterprise Research Centre focuses on the design, development and analysis of new processes and systems. This research adopts a life-cycle approach to product innovation. In other words, we aim to optimise all aspects of the development cycle such as needs analysis, concept development, evaluation and validation, commercialisation and product take-back at its end of life.

This is an applied research area. Therefore, it is essential to work closely with industry to identify and prioritise requirements, co-develop solutions and implement and validate new models and systems. A systems ethos that includes people, process and technology-related issues is employed in the research.

The centre of focus may be on a specific process, business unit, enterprise or value network which would typically include an enterprise and its relationship with its customers, suppliers, regulatory bodies, and other key stakeholders. The research area is multidisciplinary and spans functions such as engineering, technology and business.

Our research models real-world dynamic systems, analyses theories and develops frameworks to gain a deep insight into how organisations effectively manage their innovative efforts. The following activities are central to this.

• Analyse root causes of failure and measure the impact and implications of failure on an organisation.
  Model key business processes paying particular attention to the information flow and how decisions are made.
• Analyse systems relative to key performance indicators such as time, cost, standard, environment, innovation etc.
• Develop solutions such as (i) information management systems, (ii) processes and systems and (iii) models and methodologies and (iv) metrics and indicators based on state-of-the-art best practice
• Validate and test solutions and measure impact relative to key performance indicators.

All projects centre on developing tangible outputs such as architectures, models and information management systems.