School of Business

Supply Chain Operations Management and Strategy

Lead: Professor Nicola Bateman 

This group addresses enquiry in these related fields, exploring research and practices including sustainability, ethics, logistics, decision-making and digital technologies. Areas of particular interest are;

  • The use of visual data to drive operational and strategic decision-making
  • Ethical and sustainable supply chains
  • Use of operational performance measures particularly in public and 3rd sector organisations
  • Sustainability-oriented supplier development initiatives
  • Improve food security and sustainability
  • Improving visibility and transparency in multi-tier supply chains

We consider these topics from both the perspective of developed and developing economies.

Grants

  • UK-Ukraine R&I twinning grants scheme - underspend project -"Traceability in food supply chains for improved global and national competitiveness" 2024, £6,387.
  • Wrexham University "An investigation on traceability in the dairy supply chain in war-affected regions: comparative case studies in Iraq and Ukraine" 2024, £2,000.
  • Universities UK on behalf of UKRI project "Traceability in food supply chains for improved global and national competitiveness" 2023, £130,401.60
  • College Participatory Research/Impact Fund Project "Less Waste and Healthier People: Adopting Artificial Intelligence to Improve National Food Consumption" 2023, £2,175
  • THIS. Institute “The role of visual management tools for the coordination of teams in healthcare “ PHD-2018-01-008 1.9.19 – 30.9.23 £150,216.
  • British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants, “Building Resilience in the UK’s Food Supply Chain System”, SAPGM no. RS101G0418, 2023.09 – 2025.03, £9,460.30.
  • College Research Development Funding, “Achieving socially sustainable supply chain via scaling up sustainability-oriented supplier development initiatives”, S11RS621, 2022.08 – 2023.07, £2,830.
  • ULSB Seedcorn Funding, ‘‘The path to greater resilience and food security in Africa's agricultural supply chains’’, 2023.07 – 2023.09, £2,500.

Consultancy

  • OEE/Gobeyond partners
  • East Midlands Chamber

People

Publications

Bateman, N., Philp, L. and Warrender, H., (2016). Visual management and shop floor teams–development, implementation and use. International Journal of Production Research, 54(24), pp.7345-7358.

Cluley, V., Bateman, N. and Radnor, Z., 2021. The use of visual images to convey complex messages in health settings: Stakeholder perspectives. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 14(4), pp.1098-1106.

Jia, M., Stevenson, M. and Hendry, L. C. (2021), “The boundary-spanning role of first-tier suppliers in sustainability-oriented supplier development initiatives”, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Vol. 41 No. 11, pp. 1633-1659.

Jia, M., Hendry, L. and Stevenson, M. (2022), “Supplier absorptive capacity: Learning via boundary objects in sustainability-oriented supplier development initiatives”, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Vol. 42 No. 8, pp. 1173-1199.

Moradeyo, A.A., Oyedijo, A. and Trollman, H., 2023. Addressing Unfairness in Fresh Fruit Supply Chains in the United Kingdom with Technology Adoption for Improved Supply Chain Resilience. Engineering Proceedings, 40(1), p.18.

Oyedijo, A., and Akenroye, T. (2023), ‘‘5 ways to make food supply chains fairer’’, World Economic Forum.  

Oyedijo, A., Kusi-Sarpong, S., Mubarik, M.S., Khan, S.A. and Utulu, K. (2023), ‘‘Multi-tier sustainable supply chain management: a case study of a global food retailer’’, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. 

Trollman, H., Jagtap, S., & Trollman, F. (2023). Crowdsourcing food security: introducing food choice derivatives for sustainability. Food Security, 1-13.

Bateman, N., 2024.  Effective use of interdisciplinary approaches in healthcare quality: drawing on operations and visual management. BMJ Quality and Safety, 33(4), pp.216-219.

Events

We meet twice in a term and twice during the summer period. Our meetings are comprised of research seminars, workshops and journal club with current PhD candidates, academics, and scholars within the University, as well as external speakers.

Past events

  • Quality of Care: A detailed study of the transgender diagnosis pathway, Dr Paul Wallet, The Open University (26 February 2025)
  • Journal Club (19 January 2025)
  • Exploring the Role of Visual Data in Enhancing Supply Chain Resilience During War-induced Disruptions, Dr Osman Osman, (7 November 2024)
  • Research Methods: Using Visualisations in your Research, Professor Nicola Bateman (16 October 2024)
  • Journal Club (18 September 2024)
  • Pre-BAM Research Presentations (28 August 2024)
  • From Sustainable SCM to Supply Chains for Sustainability: An ecologically-dominant research agenda, Dr Anne Touboulic, University of Nottingham
  • Supply Chain Collaboration with Game Theory (22 March 2023)
  • Blood Supply Chain Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa (30 March 2023)
  • Decisions and use of Visual Communication Boards (7 June 2023)

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