News

Today, the Biden administration released details on its Trucking Action Plan to Strengthen America's Trucking Workforce.

SCM Instructor Toby Gooley, Contributing Editor at CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly magazine writes that low inventory and shipping backlogs have caused many U.S. importers to shift from ocean to air transport.

“Normally, that would be an effective, if expensive, strategy, but as the Covid-19 pandemic grinds on, it has exacerbated some of the very problems shippers were trying to avoid: capacity constraints, congestion, and delayed deliveries.”

CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly features Dr. Eva Ponce's research on omnichannel fulfillment and how it is changing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"To address omnichannel distribution challenges, retailers are concentrating on upgrading and, in some cases, completely redesigning their networks to integrate the online and offline channels and be able to compete in today's cutthroat retail environment. As part of the process, many must weight the tradeoffs between distance, cost, and fulfillment capacity, especially when they need to provide same-day deliveries"

MIT FreightLab Co-Director David Correll was interviewed by Business Insider about the current issues facing America's truck driving shortage.

"I think if consumers really understood what it was like for the truck drivers who deliver all their goods, they might be a little embarrassed or ashamed," Correll told Insider. "There's no way to over-emphasize how difficult their job is, but now that we have this spotlight on the industry, maybe people can try to make it better.

MIT CTL Research Scientist David Correll was recently invited to give expert testimony to the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He served as a witness at a committee hearing held November 17 to dive into the ongoing supply chain bottlenecks and explore the issue from the perspectives of industry and labor.

Mobility Confidence Index Study in collaboration with MIT Advanced Vehicle Technology Consortium and Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE)

CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly Q3 2021 issue features a cover story by CTL's Jonathan Byrnes, writing with John Wass (Staples, Profit Isle). The piece is adapted from their recently published book, Choose Your Customer: How to Compete Against the Digital Giants and Thrive.

The third annual State of Supply Chain Sustainability global study is under way! One crucial way the report is collecting data is through a brief survey of supply chain professionals across the globe.

AgeLab Director Joe Coughlin writes in Forbes:

"The bridges, roads, rails, dams, wastewater treatment, electrical grid, and transit systems are not the only infrastructure that is aging. The trades, the people, with the skills to build, maintain, and operate the nation’s infrastructure are also aging. Even if millions, billions, and trillions are spent, there is a major workforce gap that will leave public investment a noble goal but not shovel ready – at least not soon."

CTL researcher David Correll weighs in on a USA Today Fact Check article detailing some of the real reasons behind product shortages and delays.

"To run optimally, logistics has to be well-planned and coordinated," David Correll, co-director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's FreightLab, said in an email. "The pandemic and the homebody economy wreaked havoc on those networks, leaving supply chains unbalanced and out of whack."

Consumer Reports talked with supply chain experts, including CTL Director Yossi Sheffi, for an October 20 article titled "Experts Agree: Get Your Holiday Shopping Done ASAP.

“If your kids want the pink sneakers, make sure that red sneakers are not going to send them into a depression,” says Sheffi at MIT. "Just be flexible. Order early. There’s not much else that you can do.”

The race to deliver a Covid-19 vaccine has been likened to a moonshot, but in several ways landing a man on the moon was easier. In his new book, A Shot in the Arm: How Science, Engineering, and Supply Chains Converged to Vaccinate the World, published today by MIT CTL Media, MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi recounts the vaccine’s extraordinary journey from scientific breakthroughs to coronavirus antidote and mass vaccination.

Correll discussed MIT Freightlab's research into truck driver utilization for a Scripps National News segment on labor shortages and related factors that contribute to supply chain inefficiencies.

Watch the full video here

Yossi Sheffi talked with David Pogue for an October 11 segment on CBS Sunday Morning examining the paradox of empty store shelves, higher prices and longer wait times for good of all kinds, despite the "glut of goods" coming into the country.

"The underlying cause of all of this is actually a huge increase in demand. People did not spend during the pandemic, and then all the government help came... trillions of dollars went to households, so they ordered stuff... they ordered more and more stuff, and global markets were not ready."

MIT CTL's Jarrod Goentzel was quoted in Bloomberg Business Week

Winners of the Amazon Last-Mile Routing Research Challenge were announced in a live webinar event held on July 30, 2021. Amazon and the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics created the challenge to engage with a global community of researchers across a range of disciplines, from computer science to business operations to supply chain management, challenging them to build data-driven route optimization models leveraging massive historical route execution data. The three winning teams were awarded prize money totaling $175,000 for their innovative route optimization models.

The air transportation industry is responsible for a significant amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions each year. Immediately before the COVID-19 crisis, the industry emitted approximately 3% of annual global GHG emissions—with that footprint projected to grow. It is therefore critical to reduce aviation GHG emissions as a part of efforts to meet global climate goals

MIT AgeLabs Joseph Coughlin as quoted in FastCompany

... A recent study showed that elderly Americans are interested in health tracking but don’t engage with wrist wearables because the devices don’t feel designed for them. For example, in the aforementioned study, older Americans said they have a hard time seeing the tiny icons and font sizes that dominate smartwatches.

MIT AgeLab's Bryan Reimer was quoted by author Benjamin Preston in Consumer Reports

...There is strong evidence that camera-based driver monitoring works, says Bryan Reimer, who heads up the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Advanced Vehicle Technology Consortium, an academic-industry partnership supported by Consumer Reports.

"As I’ve since learned, the consensus among independent researchers is that online shopping can in fact be much less damaging to the environment than traditional, in-store shopping—but only if we do it the right way.