The Client
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). The Regional Development Agencies for the North of Scotland.
The project was commissioned by the Life Sciences section within HIE.
The Project
In order to inform the key sectors’ development strategy, HIE has initiated a number of studies aimed at identifying gaps and opportunities in each sector.
The project was to develop a mapping methodology that could enable HIE to easily and economically map the industry supply chains of all of the key sectors. This methodology had to be replicable, i.e. could be adopted regardless of the sector under study.
The project was to pilot the methodology on the Life Sciences sector.
Key Tools
- In-depth desk research
- Process Mapping
- Structured Interviews
Key Results
- Mapped the sector’s supply chain (i.e. who does what, in which subsector and where?)
- Identified the underlying supply chains (mapped the main strands)
- Provided various “views” of the industry supply chain, per sector, subsector, process and activity
- Created market opportunities between some of the study participants
- Identified some of the main challenges - faced by SMEs in particular
- Designed the mapping framework to be readily reutilised across sectors