Ocean freight represents more than 70% of the global trade by volume. Given the price increases in transportation rates, companies are more interested in driving efficiencies and cost optimizations through supply chain synchronization. In this document, synchronization refers to the optimal coordination of transportation costs, inventory, and service level, while...
According to an OECD report, micro and small enterprises (MSEs) constitute 99.5% of all firms in Latin America and employ approximately 60% of the LATAM population. However, despite their economic and social importance, MSEs are subject to high failure rates, primarily stemming from low productivity, lack of managerial skills and...
As more and more multinational companies are exploring low-cost countries to purchase commodities from, it has become critical for companies to calculate the total landed cost before making a purchasing decision. This capstone project establishes a model for the sourcing team of GE Gas Power to capture costs such as...
Inventory management is one of the key elements of supply chain management for any organization to manage costs versus service level tradeoffs. Product segmentation for inventory is therefore a key lever for inventory management. Traditionally, this segmentation is done using only a single criterion. This paper presents a framework that...
With air passenger traffic projected to increase significantly over the following decades, the airline catering industry urgently needs to explore the underlying causes of food waste produced in their kitchens and develop concrete strategies to manage it better going forward. Spanning over 60+ countries, operating 200+ catering units, and serving...
The trucking industry hauled 72.5% of all freight transported in the U.S. and served an essential function in transporting cargo nationwide from one place to another. Recently, the industry has suffered from significant disruption, such as a shortage of drivers and carriers. One of the leading causes of these issues...
Companies make inventory decisions based on well-established safety stock methodologies. In these methodologies, a key assumption is that transit times are normally distributed. Although previous studies have shown a nonnormality in transit time distributions in ocean freight, it is still unclear how transit time is distributed in land freight and...
Manufacturing companies are under pressure to build faster and more efficient decision-making capabilities due to the rapidly changing customer demand and expectations. The conventional analytical models are no longer sufficient to capture the complexities of the supply chain. Companies are looking to embark in a digital transformation to address these...
The production growth and short life cycle of plastics has created concerns around its waste management process. Despite efforts to increase recycling over the years, the rate of recycling does not come close to the rate of plastics production. This capstone project develops an innovative and convenient business model that...
This capstone addresses how an FMCG company should go about automating inbound decision making in one of their warehouses. The capstone focuses only on the inbound side of the distribution center because it was determined that it was an area with big opportunities for improvement. Efficiency inside a warehouse depends...
The transportation sector is the third largest contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for over 28% of total U.S. emissions and over 14% of global emissions in 2018. As climate change and its negative effects have grown significantly, efforts to reduce GHG emissions have become an important objective on...
Supply chain networks in the retail industry have become increasingly complex, giving rise to challenges in product flow from distribution centers to fulfillment locations. Product allocation, in particular, has emerged as a critical challenge for grocery retail companies as it helps them determine the shipping location and the shipping type...
The truckload transportation industry is an established industry, in the US, with annual revenue for for-hire truckload reaching greater than 300 billion dollars in 2019. A major problem encountered by for-hire truckload carriers is a sudden, unexpected and sustained reduction in shipment volume over lanes referred to as ‘churn’. Churn...
WHO reports that in the South Asian region, the number of undernourished has hardly decreased in the last decade. This situation calls for a concerted effort to combat malnutrition the world over. The effort must be grounded in nutrition and executed through a robust distribution mechanism to reach all segments...
Demand planning is a challenging component for organizations across a broad spectrum of industries. A key element of a successful demand plan is accurate forecasting, due in part to the operational decisions that are made based on the results of forecasting models. This is what our capstone project sponsor, Agility...
Improving efficiency and sustainability in logistics and transportation has been a strategic priority for companies and countries as they compete in the era of globalization. However, how to optimize the container transportation and improve container turnaround has become an increasing challenge for the industry, especially in the growing trade imbalances...
Flexibility in last-mile distribution has become a key differentiator for companies that are obsessed with driving up customer experience. For most fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies like BeverageCo, it is crucial to succeed in fast-growing emerging economies which are dominated by the traditional retail channel, characterized by small stores. With...
Since 2005, the American Trucking Associations has consistently asserted that trucking firms a shortage of truck drivers. This has become a narrative with which even those with no ties to the trucking industry may be familiar. U.S. Xrpess has identified that its drivers average 6.5 hours driving time per day...
Supply chain sustainability has grown steadily in the last half century. Companies today are setting more ambitious goals and investing greater resources. With this accelerated pace come new questions regarding the transparency of sustainability on an aggregate level. How and why have sustainability practices changed from 2020 to 2021? How...
With 50 million nanostores globally, nanoretailing is the most important retail channel in developing countries. In India, these stores are called kiranas, and they are the backbone of India's retail market. Unfortunately, the distribution to this massive retail segment is fragmented. Current fragmented channels of exclusive distributors, wholesalers, and stockists...
Across industries and supply chains, the safety of drivers and efficient use of fuel by truck fleets are an increasing concern. This project focused on understanding driving styles, understanding the tradeoffs between safe and efficient driving styles, and finding the highest levels of safety and fuel efficiency. We worked with...
Though critical to the US economy and moving the majority of US freight, the American trucking industry faces three compounding challenges: driver shortage, low driver utilization, and high driver turnover. Previous studies have found that, though scarce, drivers are underutilized and prone to frequent employment changes, further exacerbating the shortage...
Nowadays end customers and shareholders are setting high expectations, putting pressure on companies to do their best not only to meet their needs but also deliver shareholder value at the same time. In order to be both competitive and customer-centric, firms are increasingly focused on their supply chains as one...
The year 2020 marked an unprecedented worldwide growth in e-commerce driven mainly by the COVID- 19 pandemic. The lockdown restrictions created significant spikes in the demand for several products causing severe disruptions throughout the supply chains. The pandemic created significant challenges for companies to maintain efficiency in the supply chain...
Apart from health impacts, the coronavirus pandemic brought many economic challenges for mi- cro and small enterprises (MSEs), especially in Latin America, where they account for most of the firms. For these cash-constrained companies, the combination of lower sales, higher costs of supplies, and ad- vanced payment consumes cash and...
