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Prof. Yossi Sheffi spoke to Mother Jones about the US government's efforts to manage medical supplies and supply chains amid the pandemic: “Trump had a lot of people to choose from, says Yossi Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics and a supply chain expert. ‘There are many, many competent people around,’ he says. ‘We have some of the largest companies in the world who are running global supply chains [and] have contractor relationships all over the world. There are literally thousands of them.

This scenario was created in 2006 by the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics as part of a simulation exercise that involved executives from a real-life company who took on the roles of Vaxxon’s fictitious emergency response team.

"The next several of weeks will be telling for the US, as the virus reaches further into farming communities and a true picture of their preparedness is revealed. As the food supply chain waits for that to happen, it will be important for consumers to keep the situation in context, says Yossi Sheffi, a professor of engineering systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"As people hunker down in their homes to isolate themselves from the COVID-19 pandemic, an army of dedicated professionals keeps the country’s food supply chains humming under trying conditions. The army is made up of distributors’ employees, fulfillment center personnel, logistics planners, pallet manufacturing crews, procurement professionals, transportation brokers, truck drivers, truck stop attendants, warehouse workers, wholesalers, and countless other specialists.

“I keep hearing there’s plenty of food, so why does it feel like grocery stores are suddenly out of everything?

“The FDA cannot get out of its own way. Why doesn't the FDA just say, ‘Okay, let's use what the Brits are using, what the Canadians are using, what every normal country is using?’” said MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi, who advises hospitals on supply chain management. “They think that only N95 works? I mean, this is insane at this time, it's insane. It's like you're fighting a war, and somebody comes from the outside and says, ‘I can give you some guns and tanks and airplanes.’ And you say, ‘No, let me develop my own.’”

The Freightvine Podcast - Freight Transportation & the Coronavirus: This episode centers on the coronavirus (COVID-19) and how the outbreak which originated in Wuhan, China in December 2019 is impacting global freight transportation. Host Chris Caplice sits down with Yossi Sheffi, MIT professor and Chris’ boss at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, to discuss how the coronavirus differs from past crises and how the bullwhip effect will likely play out in this scenario. 

MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi speaks with Bloomberg's Scarlet Fu and Romaine Bostick on the collapse of the food supply chain from the coronavirus.

Professor Yossi Sheffi speaks with WCVB in Boston, weighing in on supply chain shortages

Prof. Yossi Sheffi. Companies shifting into survival mode should think now about how to build the healthiest business outcome. As countries shut down, stock markets crumble and economic activity slows to a crawl, it is hard to believe that in a few months the coronavirus crisis may be over. Bigger, well-capitalized companies have the financial strength to withstand the rapidly developing downturn, but most other companies are in tougher situations and survival for many will come into question.

But it is inaccurate to compare the coronavirus to these other events, said MIT professor Yossi Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, during a March 16 webinar. COVID-19 is affecting both supply and demand. And today China, where the pandemic started and factories have been affected for weeks, plays a much bigger part in the global economy than it did during past disasters.

As countries shut down, stock markets crumble and economic activity slows to a crawl, it is hard to believe that in a few months the coronavirus crisis may be over. Bigger, well-capitalized companies have the financial strength to withstand the rapidly developing downturn, but most other companies are in tougher situations and survival for many will come into question. However, it is not too early for companies to think about how to position themselves for a successful, speedy recovery.

Yossi Sheffi discusses how Coronavirus takes its toll on supply chains. He speaks on Bloomberg's podcast "What’d You Miss This Week", which goes through a financial market week for the history books. He goes through how to expand the U.S. health care system’s capacity and how necessary activities like grocery shopping can be done more safely amid the outbreak.

Now that many employers, schools, and governments are instituting "social distancing" to try and slow the spread of the coronavirus, the disruption to supply chains is likely to get much worse before it gets better, said Yossi Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. The initial impact of the outbreak on businesses, he said, seemed to be limited to the supply side: factories shut down, manufacturers couldn't get parts, there weren't enough boats and planes to move products around the globe. Now, it's also a demand problem.

The MIT Industrial Liaison Program hosted a special live webinar highlighting the impacts of COVID-19 on business. The webinar consists of three sections where professors Yossi Sheffi, Alex Pentland, and Andrew Lo gave presentations on resilience, organization management, and finance, respectively.

As the coronavirus continues to spread and the number of infections surpasses 100,000 worldwide, the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (MIT CTL) took another look at how companies are responding. The research follows an online survey we conducted in January of this year when the epidemic had just erupted.

Alexis Bateman interviews Yossi Sheffi on resilience and preparedness for Supply Chain Dynamics - SC3x.

Manufacturers in the U.S. have also cited delays, longer lead times, lack of supplier visibility and difficulty sourcing parts as a result of the outbreak. But factories on in North America could see a bigger impact in one to three weeks, according to Yossi Sheffi, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Transportation and Logistics.

Jim Rice writes in Harvard Business Review: Developing a cogent supply chain response to the coronavirus outbreak is extremely challenging, given the scale of the crisis and the rate at which it is evolving. The best response, of course, is to be ready before such a crisis hits, since options become more limited when disruption is in full swing. However, there are measures that can be taken now even if you’re not fully prepared.

Yossi Sheffi discusses the threat to global supply chains posed by the coronavirus outbreak. He speaks with Bloomberg's Scarlet Fu and Joe Weisenthal on "Bloomberg Markets: What'd You Miss?"

Yossi Sheffi writes in The Wall Street Journal: As scientists race to develop a cure for the coronavirus, businesses are trying to assess the impact of the outbreak on their own enterprises. Just as scientists are confronting an unknown enemy, corporate executives are largely working blind because the coronavirus could cause supply-chain disruptions that are unlike anything we have seen in the past 70 years.

Yossi Sheffi, director of MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, joins “Squawk Alley” to discuss how the coronavirus outbreak could hurt global business.

Yossi first published a survey asking his network to share their strategy for the coronavirus outbreak, on January 31st. Since then the number of affected has increased eight-fold. Today Yossi spoke briefly with CNBC about the supply chain effects this is having and could have. We continue to monitor this disruption and would like to know how you are changing your strategy today as it develops. 

It is widely expected that the year 2020 — and the new decade it heralds — is going to bring dramatic changes to global supply chains and that China will be a leading actor in this ongoing drama. But no one foresaw China’s role as the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak that could have a crippling effect on the global economy. The crisis could also have far-reaching consequences for China and its role in the world.

Resilient supply chains are crucial to maintaining the consistent delivery of goods and services to the American people. The modern economy has made supply chains more interconnected than ever, while also expanding both their range and fragility. In the third quarter of 2017, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria revealed some significant vulnerabilities in the national and regional supply chains of Texas, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.