• The Warehouse of the Future
    Mar 25 2024

    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 episode, we're joined by Miguel Rodríguez García, a Postdoctoral Associate at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, and Erez Agmoni, Global Head of Innovation (Logistics & Services) at international shipping giant Maersk. Miguel and Erez take us through the changes and technologies that are transforming warehouses and the ways in which companies are seeking to make these transformations sustainable.

    The warehouse of the future signifies a forward-thinking model that aligns operational efficiency with a sustainable approach to warehousing, which is pivotal to the evolution of contemporary supply chains.

    For the full white paper, "The Warehouse of the Future," click here.

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    54 mins
  • Innovation in Motion: Shaping the Next 50 Years of Supply Chain
    Jan 8 2024

    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 uncover new possibilities for industry stakeholders.

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    47 mins
  • Sustainability Contains Multitudes
    Nov 29 2023

    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 goals.

    The full State of Supply Chain Sustainability report is available free at sscs.mit.edu.

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    38 mins
  • The Magic Conveyor Belt: Supply Chains, A.I., and the Future of Work
    Sep 29 2023

    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, and how that affects practitioners, businesses, and consumers alike.

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    40 mins
  • Blue Sky, Gray Sky – Part 2
    Aug 15 2023
    "Hope is not a strategy."

    In this episode, we are joined by Kathy Fulton, Executive Director of the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN), who discusses her work connecting private-sector resources with disaster response needs: a "gray sky" response, after a disaster hits. For instance, if a supplier has excess food they need to offload, ALAN will connect them with a warehouse with the capacity to accept the delivery. ALAN forges partnerships between various players in the supply chain as well as between the public and private sectors, which, along with information sharing among all parties, are critical to fostering collaboration in order to respond effectively to a disaster and to strengthen future disaster preparedness.

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    36 mins
  • Blue Sky, Gray Sky – Part 1
    Jul 31 2023

    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 disaster response work worldwide.

    Learn more about the work of the MIT Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab.

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    31 mins
  • The New Competitive Edge: Analytics-Driven Supply Chain Design for Value Creation
    May 11 2023

    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 for Transportation & Logistics, and Mike Bucci, a Senior Director for Solutions Delivery at Coupa Software. Milena and Mike discuss how they're seeing the field evolve, touching on four big opportunities to take supply chain design from a cost-minimization exercise to an engine to drive value creation:

    • Extending the scope of supply chain design
    • Incorporating tactical decision making
    • Accounting and planning for risk and resilience
    • Adapting new technologies and business models

    For more, learn about the Supply Chain Design Initiative at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics.

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    45 mins
  • Shipper Ghost Lanes - Hidden Costs and Consequences
    Nov 2 2022

    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 unnecessary costs and inefficiencies. We find that many lanes never end up being utilized. We refer to contracted lanes on which no business materializes as "ghost lanes."

    On today’s episode, research scientist David Correll speaks with Tilburg University postdoctoral researcher Angela Acocella Ph.D. '22 on the hidden costs and possible reasons for ghost lanes.

    Read more. https://ctl.mit.edu/pub/workingpaper/hidden-costs-not-so-friendly-ghost-lanes 

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    24 mins