Dr Mel Smith

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Role:

Associate Professor in Operations Management

Department staff:

Faculty of Business and Law (FBL)

Research staff:

Teaching staff:

Qualifications:PhD FHEA
Position:Associate Professor in Operations Management
Department:Faculty of Business and Law (FBL)
Telephone:+441173284243
Email:Mel.Smith@uwe.ac.uk
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About me

I am an Associate Professor in Operations Management with grants and publications in the areas of healthcare service quality, small business, sustainable supply chains and ERP implementation.

I teach Operations and Quality Management, general Business and Research Methods and supervise students from undergraduate placement students, through dissertation supervision, to PhD students.

Until July 2022, I was also the Leader of Strategy and Operations Cluster at UWE, with line management responsibility for 40+ academic staff and the academic development of the subject.

My research has always focused on small firms and performance improvement. I became interested in GP Practices as small firms and undertook research into how service quality impacts patient experience, developing dimensions of service quality for GP Practices. I am currently looking at the processes by which patients are allocated to healthcare professionals in GP Practices and how this impacts patient and staff experience. This work has led to several grants to date (see below). We also got through to the final stage of a competitve grant award for £1m in early 2025, though unfortunately did not secure the final funding.
2023: Stage 2 Research Capability Funding (BNSSG ICB), Principal Investigator £24,146
2022: CHSS-CBL Challenge Funding (UWE), Co-Investigator £6,000
2022: Stage 1 Research Capability Funding (BNSSG ICB), Principal Investigator £3,000
2019: Stage 1 Research Capability Funding (BNSSG ICB), Principal Investigator £3,000

I also have extensive experience of developing funded projects with businesses, having been involved with 8 'Knowledge Transfer Partnership' projects since 2005, worth over £1.1 million, as follows:

2023: KTP with Allbright Design (Duku) Ltd (Lead Academic), £217,802

2020: KTP with Harris Evolution Ltd (Lead Academic), £182,804
2010: KTP with Absolute Software Ltd (Lead Academic), £183,094

2010: KTP with Becton Dickinson (Principal Supervisor), £115,010

2009: KTP with Danser SW Ltd (Principal Supervisor), £118.974

2006: KTP with Beran Instruments (Lead Academic), £99,044

2006: KTP with Wessex Products Ltd (Support Academic), £99,044

2005: KTP with Delco Toolmakers Ltd (Lead Academic), £99,044.

I also have 7 research degree completions as follows:

2021: David Adkins PhD "The Governance of Maritime Clusters and the Impact on Sustainable Development and Social Capital"
2019: Moya Lerigo-Sampson PhD "The holistic exploration of the relationship between healthcare professionals' job satisfaction and quality of care"
2018: Mamata Dhakal PhD "Reverse Logistics in Micro Businesses : An Exploratory Study"
2015: Uchitha Jayawickrama PhD "Knowledge Management Competence for ERP Implementation Success"
2015: Alison Ashby PhD "From Principles to Practice: Sustainable Supply Chain Management in SMEs"
2010: Ravi Saxena MPhil "The Role of RFID in Improving Product Availability in a UK Apparel Retailer"
2009: Emmanuel Odofin MPhil "Implementing Continuous Improvement in Small Firms"

I am currently interested in taking on PhD supervision in healthcare service operations; sustainable supply chains; small business operations improvement.

Area of expertise

Recent Research

Healthcare Service Operations

My research into healthcare service operations is focused on General Practice. Initial research focused on understanding the aspects of service quality that impacted patient experience. Currently developing projects looking at the operational processes used in general practice to allocate patients to various different healthcare professionals and how these processes impact on patient and staff experience. This involves developing collaborative networks internally with the College of Health and Social Sciences and externally with academics other UK universities, along with the local Clinical Commissioning Group for General Practice and patients, and aims eventually to have a direct impact on the way healthcare is delivered on the ground in primary care.

SME Sustainable Supply Chains

Supervised various PhD projects investigating how small businesses balance the three pillars of sustainability; economic, environmental and social in forward and reverse supply chains.

Knowledge Management in ERP Implementation

Supervised a PhD project looking at the impact of knowledge management on ERP implementations in large and small firms.

Other research includes:

The development of a tool for introducing strategically derived performance measurement systems in smaller firms;

Investigating the issues surrounding the adoption of ecommerce in small firms;

Statistical analysis of timetabling dataset, plus analysis of the timetabling process, to identify the root causes of some of the timetabling problems.

Researching the issues associated with implementing quality improvement tools including lean and 6 sigma in smaller firms.

Publications

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