Public Funding for Chep UK Limited

Single-use plastic packaging is now firmly on the public's mind. Whilst government and industry have started to look for solutions, most innovation to date has focused on lightweighting, creating alternative single-use materials to SUPP or improving collection and recycling systems. While these are valuable improvements, Unpackaged believes the focus should be at the top of the waste hierarchy - i.e. the reduction, reuse and refilling of packaging - which would represent a true shift from a linear to a circular economy solution for plastic packaging. Refill (either in-store or at home) removes the need for single-use plastic packaging, as products are dispensed directly into customers' own reusable containers. If this concept were rolled out across mainstream supermarkets, it would dramatically reduce the amount of SUPP being placed on the market by UK retailers. With InnovateUK support, Unpackaged has assembled a Coalition of key UK retailers, a logistics partner and industry leading equipment manufacturers to design an optimised refill solution. This solution will be tested via a multi-retailer, multi-site, live Demonstrator Trial looking at everything from operational viability to consumer engagement and take-up. This will be the most ambitious collaborative cross-sector refill project to date, both in the UK and globally; and an example of how competitors can collaborate to solve the single-use plastic packaging crisis.

The aim of this feasibility study is to prove that substantial efficiency gains, cost reductions, productivity improvements and vehicle emission reductions can be achieved through the implementation of a 'Goods as a Service' solution to replace the inefficiencies created through standard ordering. 'Goods as a Service' uses the implementation of forecasting techniques and inventory routing to enable the manufacturer to predict the quantity of goods required by the purchaser / retailer. If such forecasting is accurately and consistently delivered then it removes the need to order goods, with the significant inefficiencies this creates as orders and expectations change. Miralis Data have worked with manufacturers around the world to optimise their logistics and supply chains and firmly believe that 'Goods as a Service' could revolutionise how supply chains operate. To deliver this they have partnered with CHEP, a global leader in the provision of pallets to move goods across the supply chain. They work closely with customers in the UK and all the major retailers. The first goods to be tested in the 'Goods as a Service' solution are CHEP's own pallets. These pallets enable the movement of billions of items of goods from manufacturers to retailers. Creating a solution where pallets are delivered and collected optimally without the need for the customer to order would transform CHEP's own business, as well as the thousands of customers it serves. Once proven, the solution could be turned into a technology platform and delivered into FMCG manufacturers in the UK and around the world for the benefit of them and their retail customers.

Supply chains are under pressure in the UK due to coronavirus, leaving the EU and the new legislation that is being implemented. These supply chains are highly fragmented, with data stored in silos across many organisations that at present, do not see a business case for sharing the data. This leaves companies blind to the impact of their actions on other actors and commercial power, rather than data, normally provides the justification for decisions. When one actor reduces costs, they then transfer and often increase costs for others diminishing the resilience of the whole system. The current tools and models available in the market are designed to optimise the processes of single companies not whole supply chains. This means they cannot analyse the complex product and information flows and activities within and between companies to generate the required financial and resource efficiencies that reflects the interdependence of the actors. For over a decade, Incept have been working at the forefront of this field with companies like Carrefour, Unilever, SPAR, CHEP and Coca-Cola and have developed the Network Value Model (NVM) that, when applied, has delivered millions of pounds of savings equivalent to between 10%-30% of total costs. The NVM model runs a full analysis in minutes, however setup of the exhaustive model is a manual exercise which takes weeks to run, the analysis requires expert interpretation meaning it can take months to realise savings, by which time the operating environment has changed. The study will use data from 20,000 products shipped in over 100 million cases through supply chains including 1,200 suppliers, 1,400 stores and 11 distribution nodes. This will provide a valid representation of potential benefits of supply chain integration and optimisation for UK grocery logistics across the whole of the country. The hypothesis that this feasibility study will test is that the latest techniques in AI can be used to optimise the existing NVM model to deliver cost savings of between 10-30% for the users. This will in turn reduce carbon emissions at a similar level and significantly reduce waste whilst improving resource utilisation. It will also develop a business and governance model that will users will trust to enshrine the IP for the tool into a social enterprise structure that is governed by its users and reduce the barriers to adoption for all stakeholders in the UK manufacturing sector.

Public description The Made Smarter Review estimated the UK food and drink industry could realise £56bn in productivity growth and efficiency savings over a 10year period through the wide-spread adoption and integration of novel IDTs across the supply chain. Working with a large consortium of manufacturers, supply chain partners, industrial digital technology (IDTs) suppliers, trade and governmental organisations, Raynor Foods Ltd, a leading UK sandwich will develop a national and open demonstrator of a digitalised food supply chain - an open multi-party software platform, connecting supply and value chain stakeholders from food primary production to retail to increase business productivity, agility and resilience. Although this is a national food supply chain demonstrator, the UK sandwich industry is worth over £5.6bn, employs over 325k people and is growing at 4.2%CAGR. Recent, well-publicised, health and safety issues (NHS Listeria outbreak and Pret/allergic reaction) have thrust issues around production methodology, traceability and accountability in the supply chain into the public-eye . The highly-fragmented, fast-moving nature of these supply chains leaves critical segments of the industry suffering a perfect storm of challenges, impacting labour (availability / cost) and resource productivity, waste (product and financial), brexit impacts on international supply chains and consumer safety. Although the adoption of new IDT technologies such as Blockchain-DLT, integrated IoT platforms and AI analytics has occurred in large, international companies, there are an estimated 10,000 SME suppliers who can't afford/don't have access to these technologies, and without industry-wide adoption (and IDT compatibility) the benefit of IDT has so far been limited. In this collaborative proposal, we will fuse 3 IDT's (Blockchain-DLT, IoT and AI) and demonstrate them within a sandwich manufacturing supply chain. Via immutable traceability, a Blockchain-DLT enabled supply chain will drive trust across the food sector, IoT will integrate critical meta data and new AI driven analytics will drive productivity/ reduce waste. Technologies developed will be demonstrated by Raynor Foods . When scaled nationally this novel integrated stack of IDT's will optimise and simplify national, cross border and international food supply chains, increase productivity by ~10%, reduce inventory waste by ~14% and generate £2.8bn GVA within 10 years. Whilst food and digital sectors are the exemplars in this demonstrator project, the consortium's vision (particularly the technology partners) and priority will be to share best practices, technology and learning across multiple industrial domains that have complex, fast moving and high trust requiring supply chains such as pharma, aerospace, automotive etc.