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 Tran ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

"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, a ..read more

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 ..read more

This episode marks the second installment of research scientist David Correll speaking 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. Today’s conversation is all about empathetic leadership. Parker, Young, and Luebbert discuss how leading teams in high-stress environments like military combat requires empathy and humility. They revisit continual process improvement, applying the "red cell" strategy, and the after-action review process. Sharing their personal stories, they portray how effective ..read more

In today's episode, research scientist David Correll speaks with MIT CTL military fellows Lieutenant Colonel Stephen J. Luebbert, Colonel Joe Parker, and Lieutenant Colonel Brian Young about their experiences in the military and in joining the MIT SCM program as fellows. The conversation explores the differences and similarities between private-sector and military supply chains in strategy, leadership, and on-the-ground implementation. In the private sector cost and efficiency drive supply chain decision making, whereas in the military portability, safety, and redundancy may be seen as primary ..read more

Join MIT Global SCALE Connect for an in-depth conversation with Paul Granadillo, SVP Global Supply Chain at Moderna. MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi speaks with Paul about how the pandemic vaccine response reshaped manufacturing, business, and supply chains at Moderna. Mr. Granadillo shares his professional experiences learned from joining the company during a time of growth. He describes some of the methods Moderna uses to meet its logistics and production requirements during the ramp-up to a global Covid-19 vaccine rollout.  Recorded at MIT SCALE Connect, the winter education convening of th ..read more

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 providers.  As a result, bottlenecks in the global movement of goods continue to emerge in new locations and for longer durations. Today we speak with Jarrod Goentzel, director of The Humanitaria ..read more