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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.

Report details urgent need to reform policies on factory-built housing

Constructing factory-built houses could provide a fast, relatively cheap solution to the critical challenges of disaster and affordable housing in the US, but regulatory and funding issues severely limit its deployment according to a report titled Disaster Housing Construction Challenges in America from the MIT Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab.

The MIT SCALE master's programs have been ranked #1 Supply Chain Management programs in the world for the fourth consecutive year by Paris-based EdUniversal.

EdUniversal has evaluated academic institutions and programs in France since 1994, and internationally since 2007. Its rankings are based on criteria including overall program reputation, career and salary outcomes of recent graduates, international reach, and feedback from students and alumni.