On Friday 6 February 2015 Westminster Business School hosted a presentation session for representatives from Royal Mail following a project conducted by students from Purchasing and Supply Chain Management MSc.
Students were set the problem of increasing the efficiency of cross-docking procedures at Royal Mailâs Princess Royal Distribution Centre (PRDC); when quizzed as to why Royal Mail chose to work with our MSc students, Roger Hassan, Plant Manager at the Royal Mail National Distribution centre, said that he wanted to exploit the naivety of approach and specific subject knowledge of Westminster Business Schoolâs PSCM students. Students worked closely with Maureen Wankiju, then Logistics Pillar Lead at the PRDC and now Network Optimisation Manager. MSc student Soleman Hashi stated that he found âcollaboration on the project helpfulâ and that âconversations brought up additional considerationsâ which lead to the âachievement of worthwhile objectivesâ for all involved. This collaboration served as the Project Dissertation constituent of the studentsâ MSc programme. Solemanâs project resulted in proposals with potential to achieve significant cost savings. He found the experience thoroughly enjoyable and particularly valued the professionalism of staff at the Logistics Pillar Team of Royal Mail. Soleman is keen for collaboration to continue for the benefit of other students âI wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this research project format to other studentsâ.
Cross docking is the process of consolidating outgoing shipments, which in the case of Royal Mail pertains to postal goods. The PSCM students took a number of visits to Royal Mailâs PRDC in order to help understand the context of their problem, an experience that they found particularly helpful. Whilst the students were modest about their level of experience in this particular area, Mr Hassan from RM highlighted how the cross-docking issue was more a matter of âflowâ, something that Purchasing and Supply Chain Management students are very familiar with, and therefore this collaboration tapped into students theoretical knowledge of the situation more than their real-world experience. Niccolo Berti, another student who participated in the project, described how the âpositive outcomeâ of the project was achieved through âcomparing ideas with other studentsâ and âgaining practical experience and an internal point of viewâ with Royal Mail. Niccolo was also thankful for Royal Mailâs support throughout the project, which he describes as âa fantastic experience.â Students presented their findings from the project to Mr Hassan and Maureen Wankiju, from Royal Mail who worked closely with the PSCM MSc students throughout their project.
This project highlights the importance of collaboration both between students, and between the University and industry, and is just one example of the opportunities that Westminster Business School offers to students to exploit its excellent links with industry.