MIT Supply Chain Frontiers

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 efficiencies. Learn more about how AI and machine learning are used in digital transformations at digitlsc.mit.edu

View and download full transcript: https://ctl.mit.edu/podcasts/key-performance-and-key-learning-indicators-digital-transformation

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 succeed in today's business environments.

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 work-life balance. The panel discusses strategies for creating more gender parity in their own organizations and in those of their suppliers.

Learn more about MIT CTL Women in Supply Chain Initiative here.

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 in trucking to better understand what life is like on the ground—or on the road if you will. David speaks with Desiree Ann Wood A.K.A. Trucker Desiree, founder of REAL Women in Trucking, Mark Cavanagh, Goodyear Highway award winner driving with CTL Partner USXpress, and "Long Haul" Paul Marhoefer, 40-year industry veteran, musician, and host of Radiotopia's, Over the Road.

In today’s discussion, we hear about some of the delight and discontent on the open road and attempt to shed some light on why it is that U.S. truckers appear to be both scarce and underutilized at the same time. This conversation is part of Dr. Correll's ongoing research within the MIT FreighLab Driver Initiative.

Accessible transcripts of all podcasts available here. https://ctl.mit.edu/podcasts

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 within organizations. From measurement and metrics to leadership collaboration, the discussion proposed some avenues for additional consideration.

In today's episode, Nalini Bates from Procter and Gamble and Kris Oswold of UPS are joined by MIT CTL's Alexis Bateman to point out some of the prevailing challenges and possible opportunities revealed during the conversation. While this research area is emergent at MIT CTL and a full report will be available soon, you can also sign up to receive more information about supplier diversity research at the Center as it becomes available at the link below. 

https://sustainable.mit.edu/contact-us/

*MIT CTL roundtables are intimate discussions open to our Partner companies and invited guests. Roundtable reports are published regularly. Learn more about becoming a partner here.

Accessible transcripts of all podcasts available here. https://ctl.mit.edu/podcasts

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. Such transformations can afford many successful companies with new competitive advantages.

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.

In his book, THE NEW (AB)NORMAL: Reshaping Business and Supply Chain Strategy Beyond Covid-19, MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi details their stories as well as many others. In this episode, Lynn Torrel, Chief Procurement and Supply Chain Officer at Flex, and Dave Wheeler, COO at New Balance, will join professor Sheffi for a conversation about the lessons learned during the pandemic, leadership lessons, and their views about what supply chains will look like in the future.

Accessible transcripts of all podcasts available here. https://ctl.mit.edu/podcasts

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 being done in Uganda as part of ongoing systems mapping and assessment of smallholder farmers. This episode explores the similarities and differences between the two projects and offers pathways for how you can engage in similar methodologies.

Read about and download all the methodologies and assessments here.

Read and download a full transcript of this episode here.

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 innovative projects that leverage supply chains to combat food insecurity. Access to nutritious, affordable food remains a challenge to a growing segment of the world's people. From Somerville, MA in the USA to India, Mejía discusses research and interventions underway at the lab.

Learn more about the MIT Food and Retail Operations Lab 

Read more about the Somerville project (SCM Capstone).

Nanostores, a force to reckon with to fight malnutrition (Article).

Go deeper with, Reaching 50 Million Nanostores: Retail Distribution in Emerging Megacities (Book) 

Read and download the full transcript of this episode.

​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 democratization, the use of micro-apps and by engaging in a federated solutions approach. Learn more at MIT CTL. Visit the MIT Computational and Visual Education (CAVE) Lab.

 

Read and download the full transcript of this episode.

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, 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. Learn more about the work here. 

Accessible transcripts of all podcasts available here. https://ctl.mit.edu/podcasts