Mahmut Boz joined the Department’s PhD programme at the end of 2005 direct from Daimler Benz where he was a Global Lead-Buyer. He developed outstanding relationships with more than 80 suppliers worldwide and was responsible for global sourcing strategies. He was a key contributor to strategic supplier development projects especially with SMEs. An engineer by training Mahmut holds an MSc and Diploma in Engineering and Operations Management from University of Applied Sciences Esslingen and an MSc Purchasing and Supply Management from Aberdeen University. An Erasmus Scholar he undertook exchange programmes in the US, UK and Singapore.

Reflecting on his experience Mahmut positioned his research at the interface  between IS and OM, and involved mastering three areas of literature: the relevant work on Quality Management, Information Systems strategy, and the underpinning theory in capabilities. His supervisors were Dr Martin Spring and Professor David Brown. Mahmut’s core contribution is to provide an explanation as to how SMEs in a developing country context develop their IS capability to meet externally imposed international quality standards. Technically, this is an alignment related problem and his work is a comprehensive development of the Levy & Powell (2005) model.

To do this he first had to conceptualise a new form of capability – a semi-dynamic capability – which is a contribution in its own right. Achieving this quality of output involved a daunting amount of painstaking empirical work with SME automotive suppliers in Turkey. The work was of a complex longitudinal nature and was only made possible through his extensive professional contacts. Seven cases were studied. The fieldwork involved novel methods of engagement with managers using graphical data-collection tools.

Mahmut completed an exceptionally ambitious study, both in practical terms (companies located across Turkey) and theoretically (the synthesis of three areas of literature in the context of capabilities) and there are significant papers under development. The first of these was presented at the international Decision Sciences Institute Conference 2012 in San Francisco. In 2012 Mahmut took up a post as advisor to the Oman Government  on industrial strategy and SMEs.

Colin Paterson started his doctoral studies at Lancaster in October 2007 immediately following his MSc year here. Colin was initially co- supervised by Ruud Teunter and Kevin Glazebrook and latterly by Kevin alone, following Ruud’s appointment at the University of Groningen. Colin  passed his oral examination on December 12th 2011 with no need for subsequent revision. He now works for the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The transhipping of stock from one inventory holding location in a retail network to another is a device which can be used to achieve good levels of service (meeting demand in a timely fashion) with modest levels of stock.  It is particularly useful in cases where the maintenance of high inventory levels at every location in the network is either very expensive or simply infeasible. Colin’s work has looked at using transhipments not only to meet any shortages which occur but also as a device for rebalancing stock around the network and hence improving future performance.  He produced an outstanding literature review which was subsequently developed into a review paper (European Journal of Operational Research, 210, 125-136, 2011). This has already received 47 citations (GoogleScholar).

He also developed a simple approach to the management of such enhanced transhipments based on a quasi-myopic approach which deployed dynamic programming policy improvement. A paper set in the context of the continuous review of stock levels has appeared in European Journal of Operational Research, 221, 317-327, 2012 while work  geared towards situations (including the supply of car parts) involving the periodic review of stock is being further developed by doctoral student Sandra Rauscher. A paper is currently under review at the FT listed journal Production and Operations Management.