Supply Chain Frontiers issue #46
The ability to work in teams that span multiple time zones is critically important in today’s globalized business environment. A research project that involved four students from the Graduate Certificate in Global Logistics & Supply Chain Management (GC-LOG) program shows how learning these skills can be part of supply chain academic studies.
The GC-LOG program is offered by the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics and the Center for Latin-American Logistics Innovation (CLI) in Bogotá, Colombia, a member of the MIT Global SCALE Network. An important part of the program is a thesis research project that students complete in collaboration with a partner company.
In this case, a global manufacturing company worked with four GC-LOG students on a thesis about building a retail operation in Latin America. The company needed a detailed analysis of the market and associated supply network options to help it decide how to develop the infrastructure to support the venture.
In addition to first-rate research and supply chain expertise, the students brought an intimate knowledge of the region to the project. They were domiciled in four Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.
The students were given a unique opportunity to develop a regional supply chain strategy. “Prior to joining the GC-LOG program, I did not have much experience in supply chain management,” says team member, Bárbara Selim, who worked as an import analyst with mining company Vale, in Minas Gerais, Brazil. “I was able to put into practice what I learned in the classroom.”
The project also offered some important lessons for working in international teams. “Our different backgrounds and cultures helped us to understand how people from other countries work,” notes student Luz Del Carmen Quiroz, a research assistant at Monterrey Tech, Toluca, Mexico. Figuring out how to communicate effectively was another challenge for the team members, she says.
“The most important part for me was the methodology,” says Martin Lucas Ludueña, an analyst at Volkswagen Argentina S.A., in Cordoba, Argentina. The methods used in the analysis can be mapped to other industries including the car business, he believes.
The team analyzed the company’s supply chain strategy, taking into account competitors and international constraints. They looked at regional factors such as free trade agreements, the impact of exchange-rate volatility, and the quality of the transportation infrastructure. Logistics and factory costs also were built into the analysis. Socioeconomic research carried out by the team was something of an eye-opener for the sponsor company, because the results provided a more granular view of the Latin American market.
A critical decision was whether to use a regional distribution center (DC) or build a network of local DCs to serve the market. There are some significant challenges around regulatory compliance, for instance, that may affect the single-hub solution.
“I am very pleased with the students’ work,” says Dr. Edgar Blanco, Research Director at MIT CTL, who, along with CLI Executive Director Isabel Agudelo, supervised the thesis. “Beyond the market insights they delivered, the students have learned how to scope, plan, and execute a distributed Latin American team initiative. This is an important skill in an increasingly global supply chain profession.”
For more information on the research project, contact Dr. Edgar Blanco or Isabel Agudelo.