BEST PRACTICE CASE STUDY
PINSTRIPE PRINT GROUP
About INDEX
INDEX (Innovation Delivers Expansion) is a unique demand-led innovation voucher scheme led that invites Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to apply for a voucher to purchase academic support from one of the 13 Higher Education Institutions in the West Midlands. The project is funded by Advantage West Midlands (AWM), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Innovation Vouchers allow SMEs to purchase academic expertise knowledge to develop their innovation and enhance their business.
The Innovation Voucher scheme aims to build links between Universities and SMEs to create a demand led approach to innovation.ABOUT THE BUSINESS: Pinstripe Print Group
Pinstripe Print Group
60 Hampton Street
Birmingham
B19 3LU
Telephone: 0121-236-0101
Email: nigel@pinstripegroup.co.uk
Website: www.pinstripegroup.co.uk
Managing Director: Nigel Lyon
As a print solution provider they offer a complete range of services to deal with any print, print management or print related problem, however complex. This may be dealing with graphic design or artwork, through to the storage and delivery of a printed, promotional or ancillary item. Alternatively, it may be technical support, consultancy, large format graphics, print management or general facilities management.
INNOVATION
Innovation (9) Manufacturing
THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Pinstripe is a print and print management business.
They are based in the centre of Birmingham and work with an enviable list of customers including; Mitchells & Butlers Plc, Specialist Computer Holdings, Birmingham City Council, Aston University, Land Rover, Bentley, Jaguar, and Marston’s Plc.
Their strategy is to satisfy the changing needs of their customers, develop services to meet those needs and grow with their customers.
They offer a full range of services including printing, finishing, storage, stock management, distribution and logistics, data handling and management, digital asset management, project management, personalisation, fulfillment and mailing.
About the Print Industry
The print industry is a mature, saturated market where supply exceeds demand and price/margin is generally under pressure.
This creates problems for businesses in this sector to grow and develop, as a reinvestment is very limited.
In addition, the sector is very traditional and does not reacted readily to change. It has stood still. It desperately needs to reinvent itself and adopt some of the modern technologies/ideas available.
The Pinstripe Print Group is seeking to change some of the things the print industry has been doing in the same old way for years. These changes will be innovative and bring efficiencies and improved service delivery. In this way, Pinstripe will develop and grow.
Help required
Overall, look at how Pinstripe can operate more effectively and efficiently and modernise what is currently a very traditionalist industry
- More specifically;
1. Look at innovative ways they can interface with our customers. In particular:
Taking a brief/specification of a job - Collection/delivery of artwork
- Proofing a job
- Dealing with enquiries/queries
WORK UNDERTAKEN
The following work will be undertaken in respect to the customer interface process
- Make it easier for customers to do business with Pinstripe
- Look to see how value adding services can be added to the printing process to give a competitive advantage
- Promote forward thinking ideas for the business and develop a consensus viewpoint in order to generate an action plan for change
Amount of work undertaken
Gary Preece is a researcher at Aston who spent 20 days working with
Pinstripe senior managers, shadowing customer facing staff at the
organisation and working closely with customers to redesign critical
customer service processes. He was closely supported by Dr Duncan Shaw and
Dr Ben Clegg who are staff at Aston Business School in the Operation and
Information Management Group. The project has helped form a strong link
between the Operations and Information Management Group and the printing
company.
QUOTE
“A major strength of this programme is that it will allow business to continue to work with Universities and, for example, have placement students. I would be happy to champion this idea on behalf of business and work closer with the University to do this”, Nigel Lyon, Managing Director, Pinstripe Print Group
ABOUT THE HEI: Aston Business School
Aston Business School
Aston University
Aston Triangle
Birmingham
B4 7ET
ABOUT THE ACADEMIC
Dr Duncan Shaw, Operations & Information Management Group, Aston Business School
Duncan Shaw's research interests involve him working closely with organisations to support their decision making. In terms of high impact research projects, these include: requirements engineering for the Scottish Executive; multi-criteria decision making for the Health and Safety Executive; discrete event simulation and emergency response for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; developing a waste management decision making methodology for HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate; strategy development for AstraZeneca. In his capacity of Director of the Aston CRISIS Centre (a Centre for Research Into Safety and Security), he is currently the Principal Investigator for a £0.5m project on mass evacuation funded by the European Commission and is also leading a team in their delivery of a £0.75m project on airport security funded by Department for Transport. He has been a facilitator in over 90 strategic planning workshops for the likes of: Mortgage Code Compliance Board; Group 4; Whitbread; Argos Direct. He has a First Class Honours in Management Science and a Ph.D. in group decision making, both from Strathclyde University (Glasgow, U.K.).
Dr Ben Clegg, Operations & Information Management Group, Aston Business School
Ben Clegg has a degree in Management Science and a diploma in Industrial Studies from Loughborough University. Simultaneously he completed a diploma in Strategic Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a sponsored business studentship with GEC. He has worked as a project manager for several years in the capital goods sector. He has a PhD from De Montfort University in Systems Engineering funded by the EPSRC in conjunction with Rolls-Royce Aerospace, BAE Systems and their respective suppliers. He spent a year (2000-2001) as a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Centre for Integrated Facilities Engineering (USA) continuing research into business simulation tools, organisational theory, and systems thinking, as well as working for a university spin-out company. He is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a chartered engineer, and a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology. He is a reviewer for the many international journals, publishers, and the EPRSC. Ben joined Aston Business School in 2003 to teach in and research into improving operations management; he also consults and trains widely in a variety of companies in the area of business process modelling, improvement and simulation.