Let IT Shine

31 January 2018

Circle made of amber light — 'Transformative' results expected from Shine and Cardiff Business School KTP

A Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Cardiff Business School and Shine Food Machinery is set to demonstrate the mutual benefits of collaboration and sharing expertise.

Shine Food Machinery has secured the KTP with Cardiff Business School that will see a graduate – known as an ‘Associate’ – embedded within the firm for two years, helping to fully exploit its internal systems and processes to boost revenues and improve efficiency.

Supported by funding from Welsh Government, the KTP will deliver significant improvements to the operations of Shine, helping to secure local jobs and allowing the company to pursue an increased volume of orders.

Showcasing expertise

The KTP was born out of an event held by NatWest, which put universities and colleges in contact with SMEs to showcase their expertise and see whether both could benefit from a partnership.

Dr Daniel Eyers, Lecturer in Manufacturing Systems Management at Cardiff Business School, said: “We met with Shine following the NatWest event to talk about their needs and the opportunities available. We decided a KTP would be the best way we could help with their business and manufacturing systems challenges.”

“We have to remain agile to meet the changing demands and regulations from our clients, who are primarily in the construction industry.”

Jonathan Shine Operations Director at Shine Food Machinery

Future Fit

The project is part of NatWest’s Future Fit initiative, which has identified five key challenges for UK medium-sized manufacturers as they attempt to scale up. One of these is the lack of supportive ecosystems as manufacturers become too engrossed in an ‘insular culture’ to look outside the factory walls for help and guidance.

Mr Shine added: “We believe our KTP associate can map all our systems and procedures, carry out a gap analysis and make our Enterprise Resource Planning system truly sing. It will be transformative.”

“KTP is a great way in which Cardiff Business School’s ‘Public Value’ strategy can be realised for the benefit of local businesses. Working in partnership with the University, Shine will have access to extensive expertise in business and manufacturing systems management, supporting its continued growth and prosperity well into the future.”

Dr Eyers added: “But this KTP is also great for the University too – allowing us to put our research into practice at an everyday business level. It’s an opportunity to collect important data, which helps with further research and extending our students’ knowledge. Through the relationship with the business, we also ask them to contribute to guest lectures and help in our careers programme by giving advice to students.”

Shine Food Machinery is a commercial kitchen manufacturer that designs, makes and installs kitchen equipment and serving counters. Over the past 40 years, they have supplied a diverse set of clients including Microsoft, the Ministry of Defence, Coca-Cola, Selfridges and Bristol Airport.

Cardiff Business School will shortly be interviewing candidates for the associate role. And, following recruitment, the project is expected to be underway by spring 2018.