Commercial laundry business in innovation-driven Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Strathclyde Business School

Fishers, the commercial laundry and textile rental business, has launched a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with Strathclyde Business School designed to help the company capitalise on its innovative radio frequency identification (RFID) enabled bed linen.

Fishers currently fits all of its top of the range "Zhen" bed linen with RFID technology which enables both Fishers and its customers to keep track of bed linen - helping hotels to know precisely how much bed linen they are holding in stock and lets Fishers keep tabs on where all its RFID tagged laundry is in the washing, delivery and collection cycle. The KTP project aims to enable Fishers to:

The two-year project is being co-funded by a grant from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Scottish Funding Council (SFC). The UK's KTP programme is run by the UK's innovation agency, Innovate UK.

The academic lead on the project will be Dr Aylin Ates, a lecturer in strategy at the University of Strathclyde and Director of its MSc in Project Management and Innovation. A University of Strathclyde MSc Advanced Manufacturing Technology and Systems graduate will work on the two-year project as a supply chain analyst and KTP associate on a full time basis.

Michael Jones, Managing Director of Fishers, said, "At Fishers, we have always looked on ourselves as part of the hospitality sector rather than simply a laundry business and we are constantly refining what we do and how we do it in order to help Scotland provide the warmest welcome it can to visitors.

"We're committed to innovation, both to keep our customers ahead of the game and to ensure that Fishers can continue to provide the best service possible for those customers. As the market leader in Scotland and the North East of England, it's important that Fishers is seen to be leading the industry in the important area of RFID."

Dr Aylin Ates of the University of Strathclyde, said, "We are honoured to be collaborating in this highly innovative KTP project with our industrial partner, Fishers Services Ltd. Strathclyde Business School takes a great deal of pride in delivering impact to local businesses.

"We will be bringing our expertise to apply technological innovation to assist Fishers to move towards higher value propositions. We are looking forward to seeing the successful delivery of this project over the next two years."