News

The first thing you notice about Jeff Bezos is how he strides into a room.

A surprisingly diminutive figure, clad in blue jeans and a blue pinstripe button-down, Bezos flings open the door with an audible whoosh and instantly commands the space with his explosive voice, boisterous manner, and a look of total confidence. "How are you?" he booms, in a way that makes it sound like both a question and a high-decibel announcement.

The Oakland City Council recently approved several critical pieces of legislation that will help propel the Oakland Army Base development forward as the project’s September 2013 construction start date draws near.

On July 16, the council voted 7-0 to approve a new zoning district, building design guidelines and a supplemental development agreement, which provides clarity on development fees. Councilmember Desley Brooks was the lone abstention.

by Adrian Gonzalez

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the Crossroads 2013: Supply Chain as Future Enabler conference at MIT, which featured a great lineup of speakers from Flextronics, Pfizer, 7-Eleven, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, UPS, and MIT. I don’t have the time or space to summarize every presentation, but overall the conference was very informative and thought-provoking.

By Shardul Phadnis and Chris Caplice

What should the manager of a team of globally dispersed individuals do to improve the team’s performance? This is a vital question for many supply chain managers today as Global Virtual Teams (GVTs) become more the rule than the exception.

Some measure success by salaries and titles. Others use a different yardstick altogether. Take the 11 professionals selected as our 2013 Rainmakers, for example. When asked about their proudest professional accomplishments, one spoke of the rewards of nurturing talent within his organization and the satisfaction of watching protégées go on to achieve greater glory. Another cited the opportunity to develop a product that helps users meet sustainability goals.

25 employees of the national railway company received certificates of completion of the course instructors from Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC), Spain at the Center for technologies on transport (CTT). Presentation of certificates held with the participation of the Vice-President of JSC "NC "Kazakhstan Temir Zholy"Askhat Akchurin.

Classes on "Multimodal transportation" took place from 17 to 21 June 2013 for the implementation of activities under the Program of employee training of KTZ to foreign educational institutions.

This Week's Supply Chain News, The Supply Chain Television Channel

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Contact in USA:
Sarah J. Smith
Communications Specialist
MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics
617.253.4592 / sajsmith@mit.edu

Students increased median annual salary 2.5 times with job offers from leading organizations

You could call it a classic case of serendipity. Agricultural cooperative Ocean Spray had just hit a major milestone in its supply chain sustainability program when it received an unexpected proposal that promised to take its carbon reduction efforts to the next level.

By Jason Mathers and Edgar Blanco

As a supply chain professional, there is a good chance that at some stage in your career you will be involved in an environmental sustainability project. What skills do you need to be successful in this increasingly important aspect of supply chain management?

In our experience, communications should be top of your list.

Read the full article here.

Can reducing environmental impact generate significant financial rewards? For Caterpillar, the proof is in the profits

Today is the deadline for companies that make products for Wal-Mart to tell the retail giant exactly which factories they work with. The requirement comes after a fire at a clothing factory in Bangladesh last year killed more than a hundred people.

Thomas J. Donahue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called for a new push for immigration reform as part of a larger business-oriented economic agenda in remarks at MIT yesterday.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce favors changes in immigration policy in order to, among other things, help highly trained workers with technical skills join the U.S. workforce more easily. However, as Donahue noted, immigration policy is the subject of charged debate, which means reform may not come easily.

Exercise can enhance certain aspects of flexibility and range of motion for mature drivers according to The Hartford Center for Mature Market Excellence and MIT AgeLab's Exercise for Mature Drivers research.

Major freight railroads are in the midst of a building boom unlike anything since the industry’s Gilded Age heyday in the 19th century — this year pouring $14 billion into rail yard, refueling stations and additional track, the WSJ reports on A1. The current race isn’t about expanding geographically— it’s about making existing rail lines more efficient and able to haul more types of freight. U.S. freight demand is projected to grow by half, to $27.5 billion by 2040, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Hiring the right people for key supply chain positions is a critical success factor for companies. Wrong hires can be costly both financially and emotionally for all the parties involved. Yet in my experience most organizations have not adopted a systematic approach to talent management (TM). This article sheds light on why many organizations find it difficult to retain talent, and proposes a framework for more effective TM.

Read the full article here.

Blog by Christopher Rusell

Supply chain practitioners make countless decisions every day without really understanding the mental processes that underpin their choices. Recent studies on these cerebral interactions have shed light on the psychology of risk, an emerging factor in risk management decision making. Operations leaders can help their teams—and themselves—to make more informed decisions and avoid common errors of judgment by being aware of these psychological influences.

MIT-authored case study shows cost, greenhouse gas reductions from increased efficiency and collaboration in logistics operations

Whether it’s a burning question that needs to be answered or a gap in your knowledge that has the potential to yield some valuable insights, taking the time to do the research – assuming you have the right resources – is often a tall order. Partnering with academia is one way to get the work done. But how can you make sure that your academic partners will deliver? There are no standard rules for such engagements, and projects vary widely in terms of their scope, subject matter, and goals

Read more here.

 Yossi Sheffi may have his roots in engineering, but he has brought his scientific perspective and a seemingly boundless curiosity to bear on transportation, logistics, and supply chain management. Sheffi, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is the director of the school's Center for Transportation and Logistics as well as its Master of Engineering in Logistics (MLOG) degree program.

 A couple of decades ago, visitors to the quiet city of Zaragoza, Spain, had no reason to think it would become a capital of world trade. But in 2000, the city opened Europe’s largest logistics hub, called PLAZA — and now Zaragoza is a key global shipping link, connecting manufacturers, suppliers and distributors, among others involved in international commerce.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., October 9, 2012 – The MIT Global SCALE Network chose The Fresh Connection (value chain learning experience) to serve as the platform for the 2013 SCALE Challenge. This is a four month long supply chain simulation exercise that includes all 98 students from the four masters-level programs within the SCALE Network.

The basic interior of the automobile changed little in the latter half of the 20th century. “You had the steering wheel, the gas pedal, the brakes. And the display in there might have been providing a digital readout of the radio station,” says Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at the MIT AgeLab. In the last decade, though, those displays have grown so sophisticated--or, rather, distracting--that even the typefaces used in them could impact how you drive, the lab’s latest study suggests.

In recent decades, numerous industrial clusters have developed around the world. Some of the best known are the knowledge clusters around Silicon Valley (for information technology), Hollywood (for entertainment), and Boston (for life sciences). In each case, one of the most powerful lures for companies and employees has been knowledge spillover. Strong clusters are ecosystems of venture capital resources, universities, research centers, employers, highly skilled workers and institutions for collaborations, such as chambers of commerce.