Dr Colin Andrews
Teaching Fellow
Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management
Personal statement
I joined the university in 2011 following a 25-year career in industry, the vast majority of which was in business improvement consultancy. This consultancy practice was built upon my early career in automotive design and manufacture and how I brought together the teaching from my business degree with my frontline experience. I have applied these skills across a number of industries (automotive, electronics, oil & gas, services and public sector) both locally and internationally.
I am passionate believer in the ability of organisations to make a positive difference in the world by unlocking the potential of the people within and around them and my consulting experience shows this can happen at all scales of business. I greatly enjoy teaching engaged and questioning audiences who want to test the presented ideas in the light of their own experience.
My doctoral research looked at the emergence of a new industry (Offshore Wind Power). As well as the important findings regarding the different nature of an infrastructure type business to consumer products busineeses, the research provided significant insights into the systemic mechanisms which will be important for energy transition.
I am currently a teaching fellow working in the Department of Design Manufacturing and Engineering Management. I am continuing to develop my Systems Thinking teaching and engaging with industry to support the transition to Net Zero.
Area of Expertise
Has expertise in
- Systems Thinking
- Lean Practice and Implementation
- Six Sigma methodologies
- Manufacturing Systems
Qualifications
B.SC (Hons) Mechanical Engineering
Masters of Business Administration
Publications
Teaching
Systems Thinking
Innovation and Engineering Management
Supply Chain operations
Lean and Six Sigma
Research Interests
Industry life cycles, Systems approaches to complex problems, entrepreneurship and innovation in industrial SMEs
Professional Activities
- Climate Education training-EnRoads climate simulator discovery workshop
- Participant
- 12/7/2023
Projects
- Extend Plus
- Andrews, Colin (Principal Investigator) Butler, David (Co-investigator)
- 23-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2025
- KTP - Redspire
- Thomson, Avril (Principal Investigator) Andrews, Colin (Co-investigator) Hernandez, Jose Luis (Co-investigator)
- 03-Jan-2016 - 02-Jan-2018
- Roll out of Workshare process for Wood Group PSN
- Andrews, Colin (Fellow) Bititci, Umit (Principal Investigator)
- The development of materials to run workshops globally on the Workshare process. Training for the site leaders / decision makers for the process. Training for the impacted site personnel.
- 04-Jan-2013 - 09-Jan-2013
- Feasibility review of traceability in the Harris Tweed Supply Chain
- Andrews, Colin (Principal Investigator)
- Feasibility study into the use of the HTA controlled label to access information directly related to the end-customer’s product.
- 04-Jan-2013 - 29-Jan-2013
- Development of business process for Work Sharing for Wood Group PSN
- Andrews, Colin (Academic) Bititci, Umit (Academic)
- Synthesising best practice in Workshare within UK to support the global roll-out of this practice.
- 04-Jan-2012 - 31-Jan-2012
- KTA - Materials Management For HSDU In NHS
- Bititci, Umit (Principal Investigator) Andrews, Colin (Fellow)
- This project will be lead by DMEM on behalf of Strathclyde Institute for Operations Management with involvement of colleagues from the Business School. Working with one of five of the HSDU specialist sterilising units in Scotland, they specialise in the serialising of medical instruments after an operation which serves a number of major hospitals. After each operation medical devices and instruments are collected and delivered to the HSDU for subsequent sterilisation, inspection, maintenance/replacement, where necessary, and consequent supply back to the operating theatres. It plays a critical role in the delivery of the surgery services of NHS as without correct and properly functioning medical devices operations can be postponed or cancelled.
The current state is that, whilst the sterilisation process operates effectively and efficiently, there are no formal and integrated materials and maintenance management processes or systems in existence. For example, they know that 8 million devices are processed per year but they do not know how many devices there are in the system in total, and what their maintenance status and history are. Therefore, the objective of the proposed engagement is to provide generic business process management expertise in the context of materials, supply chain and maintenance management to develop a blueprint as to how the medical devices sterilisation and maintenance process should be managed in the future within the NHS. - 01-Jan-2011 - 30-Jan-2012
Contact
Dr
Colin
Andrews
Teaching Fellow
Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management
Email: colin.andrews@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 4353