SCEnAT+ Launch Event

On 24/09/2015 our member Stephen Folkes attended the SCEnAT+ Launch event at Microsoft in London. SCEnAT+ stands for the most recent version of the Supply Chain Environmental Analysis Tool, developed through collaboration between AREC (Advanced Resource Efficiency Centre) at the University of Sheffield and a number of other bodies whose representatives spoke at the launch. The tool provides information, projections and suggests interventions to improve supply chain performance in a number of qualititive and quantitative measures. The tool represents a change in attitude in the way we see supply chains and the remarkable impact that cloud computing has on analysis and data retrieval.

Speakers from Microsoft, Shaping Cloud, Northern Powerhouse and DBL Logistics joined Professor Lenny Koh in providing an outline of the joined efforts taking place in work at AREC, and an overview of the capabilities, use and potential impact of SCEnAT+. Drawing on each of their involvement attendees were excited to see the potential SCEnat+ has in assisting a range of business types and was most evident in a case study given by David Clarkson (Managing Director of DBL Logistics). The case study showed how SCEnAT+ was able to analyse and output areas for improvement or intervention in the DBL Logistics supply chain that were similar to those identified by the company through other means.

Shaping Cloud developed SCEnAT+ on Microsoft Azure, a cloud platform, with the aim of allowing businesses to be “More Efficient (and) More Productive” (Mike Davies, Microsoft). Cloud computing allows the transfer and analysis of enormous databases of information in much shorter amounts of time than conventional computing and provides a reactive and interactive user space. Shaping Cloud have done an impressive job of maximising the abilities of SCEnAT+ and have provided fantastic support for all the questions and developments Prof. Lenny Koh and her team looked to make.
SCEnAT+ includes, but is not limited to, the following capabilities:

• Supply Chain & CO2 Mapping
• Carbon Hotspot Identification
• Reduced CO2 & Enhanced Knowledge
• Supply Chain Sustainability Performance Evaluation
• Supply Chain benchmarking including industry average comparisons
• Life cycle costing, tax and investment analysis
• Comprehensive Environmental & Economic Indicators Dashboard

SCEnAT+ is an “intelligent decision input tool” (Prof. Lenny Koh) that will allow business to efficiently map and model their supply chains and provide indicators for improvement. These functions are of great interest to the Northern Powerhouse and other Sheffield business initiatives in promoting low-carbon growth and making local and northern based companies more competitive.

The event was a great success and CNU is excited to investigate the use of SCEnAT+ in analysing and supporting intervention in the University of Sheffield itself!