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Dynamic macroeconomic conditions and non-binding truckload freight contracts enable both shippers and carriers to behave opportunistically. We present an empirical analysis of carrier reciprocity in the US truckload transportation sector to demonstrate whether consistent performance and fair pricing by shippers when markets are in their favor result in maintained primary...
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On October 15–16, 2019, the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics hosted representatives from 18 organizations for a roundtable on data management for machine learning in the supply chain. Six sessions focused on: 1) the importance of data, 2) managing organizational transformation, 3) organizational data governance, 4) data collection, 5) data wrangling, and 6) data visualization. Each session began with a short presentation followed by wide-ranging discussions. To encourage candor, statements have not been attributed to named organizations. 

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This paper explores future avenues of research for revenue management in last-mile delivery. First, we review earlier efforts in this field, which have focused primarily on the problem of attended home deliveries (AHD) of groceries. Second, based on a topological classification of last-mile delivery characteristics, we identify relevant extensions inspired...
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In this paper, we analyze the route efficiency trade-offs that emerge from combining first-mile pickup and last-mile delivery operations in an urban distribution system. We build on the extant literature on continuum approximation of optimal route distances and propose adjustment factors that account for the effects of integrated pickup and...
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The availability of increasingly large data sets in the context of supply chain and logistics creates opportunities to streamline operations leveraging machine learning methods. In this study, we apply such methods to a well-studied problem in transportation and logistics: routing optimization. Route planning technologies that build on routing optimization methods...
Working Paper
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Palm oil is one of four big commodities contributing to rapid deforestation. Companies face stakeholder pressure to produce and source palm oil sustainably and to disclose their commitments and actions. This study analyses companies' disclosures to understand the state of disclosure practice, identify typical disclosure profiles, examine the complementarity between...
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Representatives from nine manufacturers, eight transportation companies, eight startups, a retailer, and an industry association joined experts from MIT for a highly interactive one-and-a-half-day roundtable on the use of blockchain technology in the supply chain. A variety of industries were represented, including healthcare, aerospace, food, mining, electronics, chemical, fashion, and logistics.

Working Paper
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City-level circuity factors have been introduced to quantify and compare the directness of vehicular travel across different cities. While these city-level factors help to improve the quality of distance approximation functions for city-wide vehicle movements, more granular factors are needed to obtain accurate shortest path distance approximations for last-mile transportation...
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The MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL) facilitated a series of roundtable discussions in conjunction with Uber Freight’s Deliver ‘19 conference. On September 4, 2019, more than 150 participants contributed to the discussion. The group was comprised mostly of shippers invited by Uber Freight and industry sponsors of CTL. Overall, the sessions focused on a better understanding of how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the relationships between shippers, carriers, receivers, drivers, and third parties.

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Summary Report for the Women in Supply Chain Summit: Achieving Balance in SCM held on March 26 - 27 2019 at MIT. This report is available for MIT CTL partners only. If you are an MIT CTL partner, please log in or create an account to download this paper. If...
Thesis/Capstone
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The success of e-commerce continues to push the bounds of delivery services as customers expect near instant fulfillment at little additional cost. This demand for delivery performance and operational cost efficiency has led to the exploration of the last-mile delivery problem using creative multimodal delivery systems. One promising system consists...
Thesis/Capstone
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The contract manufacturing industry is growing and shifting from standard products to highly customized engineer-to-order (ETO) products. Different from standard products, ETO orders have more production process uncertainties because their design specifications and production process can be changed after the orders have been accepted. Such uncertainties increase production costs, the...
Thesis/Capstone
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Transportation spend is an increasingly relevant topic of concern for all manufacturing companies. Along with the money spent on transporting goods, service betterment has become an everyday expectation. In a tight market, when contract carriers are unable to fulfill the shipper’s demands, the shipments are tendered to the spot market...
Thesis/Capstone
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Although segmentation strategies and their benefits are common topics in the academic literature, two realities contrast in the realm of supply chain management: While a vast number of companies still perceive operations as cost-centers, only a few have adopted profit-driver approaches. The second group embraced segmentation to deploy end-to-end supply...
Thesis/Capstone
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Service level growth is hindered by declining activity from customers needing access to physical assets stored by the sponsor company. The delivery drone presents a viable option to support the initiative of maintaining service levels while reducing cost. To explore the feasibility of the delivery drone, a comprehensive review of...
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More than 99% of the companies in the world are micro, small, or medium size enterprises and account for ~70% of the jobs, on average, in OECD countries. However, due to a lack of productivity, among other factors, only a third of them survive beyond 42 months. This paper explores...
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With the latest technological advancement, the use of drones has emerged as an innovative and viable business solution for last-mile distribution. An efficient drone delivery system has to address the classic vehicle routing problem (VRP): "What is the optimal set of routes for a fleet of drones to serve a...
Thesis/Capstone
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Forecast accuracy is an ongoing challenge for made-to-stock companies. For highly seasonal fast-moving consumer packaged goods (CPGs) companies like King’s Hawaiian, an improved forecast accuracy can have significant financial benefits. Traditional time series forecasting methods are quick to build and simple to run, but with the proliferation of available data...
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During the past few years, blockchain technology has shown great potential to disrupt existing supply chain finance solutions, as it could increase the efficiency of invoice processing and provide a more transparent and secure transactions. However, the costs and benefits of implementing blockchain technology in supply chain finance for involved...
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With the current imbalance of supply and demand of truck drivers in the U.S., improving driver utilization is critical to secure reliable freight transportation. The largest source of downtime for carriers is the time spent at shippers’ facilities during the unloading and loading process, during which carriers might be detained...
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Spare parts management is an essential operation in the supply chain of many companies, owing to its strategic importance in supporting equipment availability and continuity of operations. In many supply chains, the demand of spare parts is inherently more uncertain compared to traditional fast-moving products. This is due to the...
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The accelerating global trends of urbanization, interconnectivity, and population mobility are creating the conditions to increase the frequency, severity, and velocity of future outbreaks of high threat pathogens. Expeditionary interventional outbreak responses play a critical role in localizing instead of globalizing the devastation from these events. Outbreak responses are resource...
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In recent years, ecommerce has been expanding at an increasing rate. Many retailers are making efforts to improve their channel integration to enhance the order fulfillments for their customers. Therefore, companies often see network optimization as a key element within the ecommerce building. At the same time, more companies are...
Thesis/Capstone
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Technological breakthroughs and consumer preferences have led to e-commerce growth in the United States. Given the continued rise in e-commerce demand, the final leg of transportation of goods to the end recipient, or the “last-mile,” is of increasing importance to freight services companies. The last- mile is one of the...
Thesis/Capstone
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With the evolution of technology, more data became available to observe consumer purchase patterns. Traditional forecast methods used to rely on only shipment history. Nonetheless, due to the accessibility of consumer data, a forecast process that integrates downstream flow has shown good results in improving the forecast accuracy in supply...