Dr Colin Andrews

Teaching Fellow

Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management

Contact

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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 looks into the ways in which emerging industries can engaged with to maximise the long-term value to an economy.

I am currently a knowledge exchange fellow working to bridge the gap between academia and industry. I am delighted to join the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship where I am directly involved in the development and delivery of industry led programmes to increase the capability of these enterprises.

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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

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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

More professional activities

Projects

KTP - Redspire
Thomson, Avril (Principal Investigator) Andrews, Colin (Co-investigator) Hernandez, Jose Luis (Co-investigator)
03-Jan-2016 - 02-Jan-2018
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
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
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
Future Industrial Model for SMEs
Bititci, Umit (Principal Investigator) Cahill, William (Fellow) Finnegan, Catherine (Researcher) Andrews, Colin (Researcher) Little, Derek (Researcher) Ates, Aylin (Researcher) Warner, Karl (Researcher)
The primary objective of this project is to develop a new practical business and manufacturing model for SMEs in Europe, which will enable them to compete successfully at a national, European and global level.
FutureSME will research and develop a set of tools that will help SMEs to:
• identify a business and manufacturing model that will allow them to develop and sustain their competitive advantage
• develop suitable roadmaps and change plans to allow them to pursue their new business and manufacturing model
• engage the necessary support from their local industry support agencies and educational institutions to facilitate their transformation
• implement the new business/manufacturing models, tools and techniques
01-Jan-2009 - 28-Jan-2012

More projects

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Contact

Dr Colin Andrews
Teaching Fellow
Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management

Email: colin.andrews@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 4353