Warehouses are undergoing a fundamental transformation—in response to the explosion of growth in the e-commerce space and worldwide large-scale supply chain disruptions, warehouses have gone from places simply for goods to sit to highly interconnected, automated hubs of activity. Warehouses of the future leverage new technologies in automation and digitalization to enhance precision, flexibility, and efficiency to adapt quickly to changing market and supply chain trends and needs. In this...

On this episode, we're joined by Melanie Nuce-Hilton, SVP for Innovation and Partnerships at GS1 US, a nonprofit standards organization best known for administering the Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode—and celebrating its fiftieth anniversary right around the same time as MIT CTL. Melanie talks all about the history of supply chain standards over the last 50 years, including the UPC barcode, RFID, and others. And she also discusses the exciting innovations that are on the horizon to...

MIT CTL Research Scientist David Correll joins us to share findings from the State of Supply Chain Sustainability 2023. Pressure on firms to make their supply chains more sustainable has increased over the past four years and isn't going anywhere, though the distinct areas of sustainability on which that pressure focuses are constantly changing. Indeed, sustainability is complex and contains multitudes. The report also takes a look at firms' progress on achieving their Scope 3 emissions...

In this episode, MIT CTL Director Yossi Sheffi, an expert with nearly five decades of experience in the supply chain and logistics areas, sits down with Susan Lacefield, Executive Editor of Supply Chain Quarterly. Yossi and Susan discuss the miracle of modern global supply chains—a magic conveyor belt that moves goods from mines and forests to supermarket shelves. They also discuss supply chain resilience in the face of major disruptions, the growing role that AI will play in supply chains,...

In the wake of a disaster, restoring supply chains can be critical in assuring that the most vital needs of affected communities are met. In this episode, Tim Russell and Lauren Finegan of the MIT Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab discuss the fundamentals of humanitarian logistics and disaster response—including how to best build resilient communities, how the public and private sectors can work together for optimal disaster response, and how their research and work helps inform and strengthen...

Supply chain design has traditionally been conducted with only one dimension in mind: cost minimization. The conventions of supply chain design date largely from the 1990s. But major technological strides have been made in the years since, allowing for much more complex considerations to be taken into account. So most companies, by using this obsolete approach, are putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage. Today's episode features Milena Janjevic, Research Scientist at the MIT Center...

Truckload transportation services procurement is costly and time-intensive. These months-long procurement events typically result in thousands of contracts between shippers and carriers. The contracts cover each of the shipper’s product distribution lanes or origin-destination pairs. Due to truckload supply and demand uncertainty, shippers often adopt a coverage strategy to secure contracted capacity on combinations of lanes to meet expected demand. However, this strategy leads to...

Parker, Young, and Luebbert discuss how leading teams in high-stress environments like military combat requires empathy and humility.

In today’s episode, research scientist David Correll speaks with the 2021–22 MIT CTL military fellows: US Army Col. Joe Parker, Lt. Col. Brian Young, and Louisiana National Guard Lt. Col. Stephen J. Luebbert. The fellows discussed their experiences in the military and the MIT SCM program. For written and downloadable transcripts visit ctl.mit.edu Their conversation explores the differences and similarities between private-sector and military supply chains in strategy, leadership, and...

Paul Granadillo, SVP Global Supply Chain at Moderna describes how the company met logistics and production requirements during the ramp-up to a global Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

Conceptual and simulator approaches to addressing bottlenecks in complex supply chain systems

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. These were completed as part of the MIT FreightLab's Driver Initiative. In today's episode,...

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 teams and all participants in the news, Dr. Matthias Winkenbach joins today's Frontiers to...

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 models and leverage publicly available data to craft more accurate forecasts or discover hidden...

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 brought about by various disruptions. He shares tips about the skills and attitudes needed to...

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 candidly with WISCI Lead, Katie Date, about their approaches to managing, mentorship, and...

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 research scientist and FreightLab co-director David Correll chats with three experienced voices...

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 the challenges and opportunities currently facing the implementation of supplier diversity...

In this conversation, you will learn how two companies use these lessons to set themselves up for the post-pandemic future in the B2B and B2C markets.

Exploring two rapid systems assessment projects in the face of crises. The MIT Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab offers pathways for how to engage in similar methodologies.

Food security is top of mind given supply chain considerations caused by a global pandemic. Access to nutritious, affordable food remains a challenge to a growing segment of the world's people. From Sommerville, MA in the USA to India, Mejía discusses research and interventions underway at the lab.

​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 most successful companies are organizing to meet their decision and design challenges through data...

Farri Gaba, a research associate with Megacity Logistics Lab at MIT CTL, speaks with us about truck-and-drone cooperative delivery vehicle systems. We have a look at some of the broader social and ethical implications caused by emerging drone technology and how the Lab is addressing them with a working paper and research initiative.