Role
Aquila, a senior lecturer with the Nottingham Business School (NBS), is passionate in helping organisations to improve their productivity, particularly the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the third sectors, to achieve process and operational excellence.
Sighting the opportunities to explore innovative approaches to bridge the world of academia and practice, he strategically joined NBS in 2017. This provides him a unique platform to design, develop, and implement process innovation related intervention and solutions for organisations. It is a synergy which draws upon his appreciation of Operations Management related body of knowledge, and leverages on his technical background (electrical, electronics, telecommunication engineering, and digital communication) and cross-functional managerial experiences gained in the telco industry, where his hands-on approach had led engineers to develop, test, implement, and maintain bespoke and integrated digital communication systems and solutions.
He adopts systems thinking in process innovation, underpinned by "methodology before technology", "human-centred", and "agile/action research cycles" to actively collaborate with organisations. Some achievements since joining NBS in 2017 include:
- Successfully won five Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) projects (~ £950k).
- Conducted consultancy works for SMEs (~ £150k). Productivity Through Innovation (PTI) and Enterprising Ashfield;
- Based on the Flow Management concepts in Theory of Constraints, he has designed, developed and implemented commercially used human-centred decision support systems, where impact includes exposed hidden capacity, more than doubled productivity, and empowered personnel.
Apart from introducing process innovation related interventions and solutions, he strongly advocates knowledge sharing (and creation) through the training and development of personnel. Efforts include:
- Led the development of operation efficiencies module contents (and also a facilitator) in Small Business Charter’s programmes: Small Business Leadership (2019 – 2020); Help to Grow (2021 – present) used and delivered by more than 50 business schools across the UK to more than 9,000 SME senior leaders;
- Introduced bespoke industry workshops to promote peer learning: Flow Management;
- Co-authored the booklet: “Operations, Project and Supply Chain Management: A systems perspective” used in MBA and Postgrad programmes.
Knowledge and experience gained from his engagement with practice are used to inspire his students to aspire and pursue process and operational excellence in both their personal and career life:
- He contributes towards teaching (both as module leader and tutor) at all levels with particular focus on MBAs and Postgraduates. Areas largely centres around strategic operations; operations, supply chain, and project management; data analytics for managerial decision making.
- He also takes up various roles in doctoral studies, such as director of study, supervisor, examiner, and independent assessor.
Career overview
Aquila began his career in the telecommunication industry as a research and development engineer for a telco company in Malaysia (2004). He was then promoted to lead the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) engineering team who pioneered the deployment and operation of the first nationwide CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) based digital trunked radio network. He continued to grow and assume managerial role for the whole of CDMA system engineering, marketing & sales and customer service.
Based on this platform, he championed the business transition from product to solution focused. He led his team to develop various bespoke digital communication solutions to improve customers' operations performance and productivity.
His education qualifications include:
- MSc Psychology (2023 - Ongoing);
- Postgraduate Certificate Academic Practice (PGCAP & FHEA, 2021);
- Doctor of Business Administration (DBA, 2019);
- Master in Business Administration (MBA, 2015);
- M.Eng in Telecommunications (2003; dropped dissertation to focus on career advancement);
- B. Eng (Hons) in Electrical & Electronics Engineering (2001)
Research areas
External Funding
"You have given us a tool, not a toy" (Amberol's shopfloor personnel)
"We've just hit a gold nugget of business support" (John Lougher, Managing Director of Rise & Recline Ltd)
Draquila's academic research and practice centres around improving organisation’s productivity through process innovation via the alignment of management philosophies, technology, and people. This includes the design, development and implementation of human-centred decision support systems, according to contextual business environments through action research.
The philosophical underpinning mainly centres around the flow management concepts and tools in Theory of Constraints (TOC), which includes but not limited to:
- The Four Concepts of Flow (Goldratt, 2009)
- 5 Focusing Steps
- Constraint Management;
- Buffer Management;
- Load Management; and
- Culture of Continuous Improvement.
Some classic TOC based applications for manufacturing (MTS/MTO/ETO/MTA), supply chain design, project, and other service environments includes:
- Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR);
- Simplified Drum-Buffer-Rope (S-DBR);
- Demand Driven MRP (DDMRP);
- Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)
Underpinned by 'Methodology before Technology', he also customise and facilitate workshops to promote knowledge sharing and learning for organisations.
2025 - Present: Enterprising Ashfield: Groundline Engineering Ltd (Lead Academic, supported by Assoc Prof. Zara Whysall (NBS)
2025 - Present: Knowledge Transfer Partnership: Rise and Recline Ltd (Lead Academic; Co-Supervised by Assoc Prof. Zara Whysall (Nottingham Business School) and Prof. Amin Al-Habaibeh (School of Architecture Design and the Built Environment)): ~ £205k
To enable business growth, increased profitability and greater resource efficiency in a mature manufacturing firm. The project will employ bespoke algorithms to support human decision-making, effectively upskilling and empowering the existing workforce.
2024: Enterprising Ashfield: Romo Ltd (Co-Led by Assoc. Prof. Roy Stratton)
As part of Romo's wider digital transformation initiative, this project seeks to explore the use of 'Methodology before Technology' approach to increase Romo's productivity via Flow Management.
2023: ERDF - PTI - Flow Management: Abacus Lighting Ltd (Co-Led by Assoc. Prof. Roy Stratton)
2023*: Knowledge Transfer Partnership: Natgraph ltd (Lead Academic; Co-supervised by Assoc. Prof. Roy Stratton) : ~ £175k
To enable business growth, increased profitability and greater resource efficiency in a mature, medium-sized manufacturing firm. The project will incorporate process innovations and the embedding of a culture of continuous improvement supported by newly developed key performance indices.
(* Awarded)
2022 - 2025: Knowledge Transfer Partnership: Stormsaver ltd (Led by Prof. Amin Al-Habaibeh (School of Architecture Design and the Built Environment), supported by Prof. Eiman Kanjo (School of Science and Technology) and Dr. Aquila Yeong (Nottingham Business School)) : ~ £229k
To develop an innovative, smart and modular rainwater harvesting system incorporating artificial intelligence to reduce system ownership costs, decrease carbon emissions within the sector and enhance water utilisation for water companies facing increasing water supply constraints.
2022 - 2024: Knowledge Transfer Partnership: Halo X-Ray Technologies Ltd (Co-Supervisor; Led by Assoc Prof. Zara Whysall : ~ £173k
To introduce a cultural and organisational focus on quality both within the business and across the supply chain to improve reliability of products and meet the complex requirements of the regulated aviation security market globally.
2020 - 2021: European Regional Development Fund (through PTI): Rise & Recline Ltd (Principal Investigator) : ~ £23k
In 2020-21, as part of an ERDF funded digital transformation project, he has successfully introduced a production planning and control decision support system for a bespoke mobility furniture manufacturer. The human-centred approach taken throughout the implementation suited well with the production process which is highly dependent on craftsmanship. This system enabled its production process to be aligned with its digital marketing, sales, and CRM platform. It has been instrumental in assisting the company to successfully manoeuvre through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Developed using C# and Microsoft Sql Server.
Coverage by NottsTV (Time: 06:12 - 08:18 minutes)
"...The people there [in NTU] are just amazing...taken on board every single requirement we wanted...[and] he just delivered it...We've just hit a gold nugget of business support..." (John Lougher, Managing Director, R&R)
2018 - 2019: Knowledge Transfer Partnership: Swiftool Precision Engineering Ltd (Co-Supervisor; Led by Assoc. Prof. Dr Roy Stratton) : ~ £165k
In 2019, he continued to contribute in KTP projects as KTP academic supervisor. This project has successfully acted as a catalyst to the development of internal capability for continuous improvement in a high precision tooling company.
2015 - 2018: Knowledge Transfer Partnership: Amberol Ltd (KTP Associate, supervised by Assoc. Prof. Dr Roy Stratton (Nottingham Business School) and Dr. Kevin Lee (School of Science and Technology))
As a KTP associate, he has successfully completed a KTP project (2018) introducing innovation into the business process of a small business. It involved the development of a Theory of Constraint (TOC) underpinned client/server decision support system with embedded heuristic algorithms based on a contextual management decision making process, human-machine interface, and integration to an existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. This project successfully more than halved the operations expenses, empowered personnel, and introduced new working culture. The project has been graded ‘Very Good’ and shortlisted for the development of KTP Case Studies by Innovate UK.
Developed using C# and Microsoft Sql Server.
Internal Funding
NBS Research Opportunity Fund (2023): Re-imagining Desirable Futures with AI (Co-Investigator)
NBS Seedcorn Fund (2022): The resilience of UK Ports amidst Covid-19 pandemic (Co-Principal Investigator)
NBS Seedcorn Fund (2021): Pilot study into the Presence and Roles of Secondary Data within the Care Home Sector (Co-Investigator)
NBS Seedcorn Fund (2020): Machine Learning in Production Planning and Control (Principal Investigator)
External activity
- Member of Theory of Constraints International Certification Organisation (TOCICO)
Conference and Event Committee member
- Session/Track Chair/Facilitator for Critical Chain Conference (2025)
- Session/Track Chair/Facilitator for Critical Chain Conference (2024)
- Session/Track Chair/Facilitator for Critical Chain Conference (2023)
- Session/Track Chair/Facilitator for Critical Chain Conference (2022)
- Session/Track Facilitator for TOCICO International Conference (2021)
- Session/Track Facilitator for TOCICO International Conference (2020)
