The Moss Group
Improving Business By Design
Description and aims
To develop a car boot protection system and the BagRack brand as part of a strategic product diversification exercise for the Moss Group, made possible by the Improving Business by Design programme conceived and delivered by the De Montfort University Design Unit.
About The Moss Group
The Moss Group has over 40 years experience of designing and manufacturing special purpose metal cutting machinery primarily for the automotive industry. However this market in the UK has dwindled in recent years in the face of overseas competition, the Moss Group now being a fraction of its original size; in order to survive Moss needed to expand its product range.
How the project is being undertaken
Improving Business by Design (IBD), funded by the Leicestershire Economic Partnerships, is a product design programme developed and delivered by De Montfort University (DMU).
The aims of this programme are to:
- Identify companies within Leicestershire that could benefit from new product development (NPD) support
- To add value to existing products through design or to innovate new products within key market sectors
- To provide/enable appropriate resource to undertake these projects
- To engage design houses within the East Midlands on these projects
- To generate business for manufacturers within the East Midlands
- To generate and safeguard jobs within the East Midlands
The Moss Group BagRack car boot protection system is one of 16 projects being undertaken. The DMU Design Unit in conjunction with Bramley Design has designed, developed, prototyped and monitored the development of BagRack through to production.
Impacts and benefits
The Moss Group is now in a position to develop a whole new product range around the BagRack product including an innovative new shopping bag system that compliments government legislation on the use of plastic bags.
BagRack has been shortlisted for a Times Higher award and is set to have a marked impact on job security within the Moss Group.
To date 14 of the 16 projects supported by the IBD programme are in production. Over 30 jobs have been safeguarded or created to date with an annual increase in revenue to the region of over £ 1.3 million per year.
£250,000 of design fees has been injected into the regions design community with manufacturing now seeing the impact of these new product developments.
IBD is now being used as the template for the MAS (Manufacturing Advisory Service) Design Pilot scheme currently being promoted across the East Midlands.
For more information about the project
If you would like to hear more about this project, please contact Peter Ford, Head of Commercial Design, De Montfort University.
Email: design@dmu.ac.uk
Telephone: 0116 250 6238