PARC and Brother International collaborate on new knowledge transfer partnership

The PARC Institute of Manufacturing, Logistics and Inventory has launched a knowledge transfer project in the area of inventory forecasting in collaboration with Brother International.

Through this project, PARC will support the company in the creation of its own Forecasting Centre of Excellence, which will embed the necessary forecasting expertise within the company itself.

The project team

The project is delivered by Professor Aris Syntetos from Cardiff University, and Mr Antonis Siakallis, Logistics Manufacturing Services Solutions Design Engineer from DSV. It follows from a previously successful knowledge transfer project, in which Cardiff University and DSV worked in collaboration with Accolade Wines to enhance their inventory forecasting capabilities.

The knowledge transfer project with Brother, an international provider of printing products and business solutions, will run for one year. Specifically, it will look at demand classification, statistical forecasting and inventory optimisation, and will lead to the development of a fully automated solution that will enable the company to efficiently manage their inventories.

A knowledge transfer partnership

Dr Mark Keyes, senior manager in Brother International and sponsor of the project said: "We reached out to Cardiff University and PARC because of their world-renowned expertise in the area of inventory forecasting. We are delighted to work with them and look forward to improving our operations."

DSV's input is coordinated by Antonis Siakallis, who holds a Masters degree in Logistics and Operations Management from Cardiff Business School. "The PARC Institute of Manufacturing, Logistics and Inventory enables DSV to jointly run with Cardiff University knowledge transfer projects for other major organisations such as Accolade Wines and now Brother International."

Aris Syntetos, Director of PARC, said: "This knowledge transfer partnership provides an excellent opportunity to formalise existing research relationships between Cardiff University and Brother International. With this project, we will be drawing on PARC's extensive research in the field of inventory forecasting in order to strengthen Brother International's own internal capacity."

The project aims to embed the knowledge and outcomes of the work into the Brother planning and management team. This will ensure that the benefits of the project will remain with the company in the long term and Brother employees will be able to implement improvements in the future.