MIT Supply Chain Frontiers

Bottleneck analysis aiming to increase asset productivity has commonly been applied inside the four walls of production and distribution facilities. The pandemic disrupted global supply chains with dramatic shifts in demand and constraints in supply with cascading effects. Shippers then dynamically shifted traditional origin-destination patterns causing stress on the networks of logistics service...

Earlier this year, MIT CTL's David Correll spoke with over-the-road truckers about their experiences in order to shed light on why it is that U.S. truckers appear to be both scarce and underutilized at the same time.  During the year, Dr. Correll oversaw three MIT SCM master's capstones that addressed truck driver utilization and retention in contrast to shipper and receiver policies and practices...

The MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL) and Amazon engaged with a global community of researchers across a range of disciplines, from computer science to business operations, to supply chain management, challenging them to build data-driven route optimization models leveraging massive historical route execution data and machine learning models. While we congratulated the winning te...

Today, on MIT Supply Chain Frontiers, editorial director, Ken Cottrill speaks with Maria Jesus Sáenz, director of MIT Digital Supply Chain Transformation Lab, about how companies use artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify key performance and key learning indicators during digital transformations. Sáenz shares examples of how companies may use AI and ML to collaborate on data mode...

In today’s episode, Research Scientists Alexis Bateman and Inma Borrella speak with Mark Bakker, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Global Operations at Hewlett Packard Enterprise about the tools and skills needed for sustained global supply chain management when facing disruptions. Mark shares his insights about how HP Enterprise balanced demand and supply during uncertain conditions br...

This year for international women's day, the MIT Women in Supply Chain Initiative (WISCI) hosted a leadership panel to celebrate women working in the supply chain field. Today's episode offers highlights from the conversation. Julie Van de Kamp, Vice President of Customer Experience at U.S. Xpress, Inc, and Tricia Brannigan, VP Procurement - Head of Global Procurement at The Hershey Company share...

Supply chains in the U.S. rely heavily on over-the-road trucking to reliably and safely provide essential supplies to businesses and consumers. These networks are comprised of innumerable relationships between shippers who have goods to move and carriers who they contract to move them. It is often warehouse workers and truckers who are the "end users" of these complex relationships. Today, MIT CTL...

Initial research indicates that there are both commercial and social benefits to DE&I programs within organizations. MIT CTL and MIT Sustainable Supply Chains make a case for companies to revisit their efforts (HBR article) and, if necessary, commit themselves to take supplier diversity efforts more seriously. During a recent MIT CTL roundtable*, professionals from across industry met to discuss t...

Like never before, companies have learned during the pandemic to pivot quickly across multiple dimensions. They ramped up production, changed their processes, and adopted new technologies, at speed unimaginable before the crisis. In only six weeks, contract manufacturer Flex ramped up its ability to produce ventilators while New Balance designed and produced thousands of masks, in a matter of days...

Every corner of the globe has suffered from supply chain disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic. Beginning in March with a focus on U.S. food supply chains, the MIT Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab ( HSCL ) began providing evidence-based analysis to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to inform strategic planning around the supply chain risks. At around the same time, work was be...

Food security is top of mind given supply chain considerations caused by a global pandemic. MIT CTL congratulates the World Food Program staff for their recent Nobel Peace Prize awarded for their work in alleviating hunger. On the topic of food security, MIT CTL’s Ken Cottrill speaks with Chris Mejía Argueta, the director of the MIT Food and Retail Operations Lab about food deserts and some of the...

​Innovation in supply chain decision making and design has flourished in recent years. The availability of high-quality data coupled with an urgent need to respond to disruption has fostered rapid change in how organizations coordinate, cooperate, and improve their operations. Join LLamasoft CEO, Razat Gaurav in conversation with MIT CTL's Matthias Winkenbach to get a glimpse of how the world's mo...

In the past decade, the logistics industry has experienced substantial growth and its fair share of technological disruption. Particularly in urban settings, consumer demand for same-day or two-hour delivery has ballooned and companies have struggled to meet demand without incurring substantial “last-mile” delivery costs. Farri Gaba, a research associate with Megacity Logistics Lab at MIT CTL, spe...

Chris Caplice discusses insights on transportation, people management, and creating the workforce of the future with Michelle Livingstone of The Home Depot. Drawing on over 25 years of experience, Ms. Livingstone comments on her role leading a highly talented team that oversees the movement of all domestic and international shipments into Home Depot‘s distribution centers and outbound to stores. T...

Recorded on the 50th Earth Day to explore what the path forward may look like to the 2050 Climate Goals and a more sustainable future in the face of radical change. We explored the ecological, political, technological, and industrial perspectives on the intersections of sustainability, climate change, and innovation, what this means now and for the future.  Hosted by MIT Sustainable Supply Chains...

Join MIT CTL's Ken Cottrill in a candid conversation on the State of Supply Chain Sustainability research area. Learn about a comprehensive new study underway, the first of its kind. Learn more at  https://sustainable.mit.edu/  Download the full transcript here .  

Join MIT CTL's Alexis Bateman in conversation with Erez Agmoni about disruptions, supply chain design, and resilience tips for the supply chain and logistics professional. Interview recorded as part of mit.ctl.sc3x - Supply Chain Dynamics. Learn more about these free online courses here .   Download the full transcript here .