A partnership between academia and industry has helped a Salford based company boost profits and efficiency.
Valves Instruments Plus (VIP) Ltd specialise in supplying engineering products to the construction, process, and HVAC industries, employing 40 people across its Salford and London sites. They have been involved in huge developments such as Beetham Tower and the initial development of MediaCity.
The business wanted to improve its digital offering to improve the efficiency of its product ranges but lacked the skills and knowledge required. So they approached the University of Salford to create a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP).
A KTP is a grant funded project that offers a three-way collaboration between the business, the University and a graduate Associate who is employed to work on developing a solution to an individual company’s specific needs.
Normally lasting two to three years and with funding from Innovate UK to cover a significant portion of the project’s costs (between 50-75% depending on your company’s size), this collaborative approach not only accelerates the pace of innovation but also ensures that the resulting projects are well-grounded in both theoretical and practical applicability.
Ahmed AbouMoemen, who had finished a Masters and PhD at Salford in Building Information Modelling and Digital Built Environments, stepped into the role and has been working with VIP on this 27 month project, has been making a real difference to the company and ultimately boosting its bottom line.
The aim of this project is to develop and embed a new 'Digital Design Delivery' capability and associated staff competence to transform VIP's business from a Tier 1 product supplier to an advanced design service provider. This KTP is innovative to VIP, as it incorporates new innovative business and process capabilities, embeds new technological capability and the digital upskilling/reskilling of staff to be able to deliver advanced design services that are compliant with customers' digital delivery procurement requirements.
In the UK, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a collaborative process for creating and managing digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of a built asset, and is being used throughout the asset's lifecycle, from design and construction to operation and maintenance. BIM in the UK is underpinned by standards such as the BS EN ISO 19650 aligned to the UK BIM Framework and the UK government mandate with BIM across its projects, promoting efficient and transparent ways of planning, designing, creating, and maintaining buildings and infrastructure.
VIP sees adaptation of BIM as a critical step in it’s mid-to-long term strategy and is keen the reap the benefits this technology will provide.
Ahmed said: “This has been my first paid role in the UK, working on 3D modelling and developing the internal BIM capabilities within the company. I have learned a lot of things during my time at VIP and this should be a huge development for my career as it progresses, to obtain this real world experience and working on a real live project in the UK.
“I get to work alongside both the university and VIP in transferring the knowledge I have obtained during my studies at the University into this company, and so in that sense it is a real transfer of knowledge between the academia and the practice”
Jordan from VIP, said: “Ultimately this KTP has really worked for us, once we worked out exactly what we needed as a company.
“We had a gap in the business and this has helped us to fill it really well. It allows us to get the national exposure we need to grow as a business. We’d vouch for that in terms of the benefits.”
While essentially providing access to academic knowledge, a KTP offers much more. In addition to gaining the specific knowledge that a company requires, the University recruits a graduate Associate to work specifically on the task of bringing a new capability into the business and ensuring that it is fully embedded and works for everyone in the organisation.
KTPs are a UK-wide programme designed to foster innovation by linking businesses with academic institutions. With funding and support provided by Innovate UK, the scheme enables companies to access cutting-edge research and specialist knowledge to solve strategic challenges, develop new products and enhance their competitive edge.
The University of Salford has a long history of co-creating knowledge solutions with a wide range of partners. Salford was one of the very first pioneers of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships 50 years ago, taking part in the initial pilot of the scheme in 1975.