The NEAA recently attended the final presentation for the Digital Testbed, a new tool with the potential to revolutionise supply chain management launched by the Centre for Digital Supply Chain Excellence in Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University.
One of four locations selected across the UK to establish a digital testbed environment, the Spare Parts Digital Testbed project is developed by the Centre for Digital Supply Chain Excellence at Northumbria University. This initiative is funded by the Digital Supply Chain Hub programme and supported by the Digital Catapult.
This Digital Testbed tool is a comprehensive and collaborative environment for any organisation from any sector to share their relevant data with at least two tiers of their supply chain in a safe and secured environment for real time analytics, prediction and prescription of solutions without disrupting the real world operations.
The first testbed project focuses on the spare parts supply chain, in a collaboration between the Centre for Digital Supply Chain excellence, the NBT Group, Vytech Solution, Troy Group, Womble Bond Dickinson and the NEAA.
The session provided an overview of the project’s planning, execution, and future development. The NEAA offered valuable feedback on the tool’s capabilities and potential applications. One key area of discussion centred around identifying the ideal user for the Digital Testbed, given its current functionality appears particularly well-suited for analysing common, generic items shared across businesses. Further exploration is needed to assess its adaptability for more specialised or proprietary goods. Input from other potential users is being actively sought to refine the tool’s functionality and broaden its applicability.
A significant strength of the Digital Testbed lies in its ability to facilitate carbon Scope 3 reporting. By leveraging advanced analytics, the tool can identify common sourcing themes and trends among users, enabling collaborative efforts to reduce carbon footprints and promote sustainable practices within supply chains.
A particularly innovative aspect of the tool is its sentiment analysis feature. This sophisticated function analyses information from news outlets and other sources to generate a real-time risk index. This offers businesses the potential to “foresight” potential supply chain disruptions and proactively mitigate risks.
This tool would be ideally suited to OEM and/or first tier automotive suppliers who should pilot test this feature within their supply chain to fully realise its potential. Northumbria University is expected to collaborate with industry partners to promote and encourage wider adoption of the Digital Testbed and the NEAA anticipates playing a key connector role in this engagement process.
Professor Alireza Shokri, Director of the Centre for Digital Supply Chain Excellence (CDSCE) said: “We have developed an advanced testbed environment that allows organisations to test and harness the potential of digital technologies to optimise essential supply chain operations. We encourage organisations to connect with the Centre for Digital Supply Chain Excellence.”
Contact cdsce@northumbria.ac.uk for more information.
