Supply Chain Frontiers issue #30. Read all articles in this issue.
The 2009 Supply Chain Innovation and Leadership Series (SCILS), a month-long series of talks, site visits, and leadership workshops that happens every January, was the largest yet, reflecting the growing research and academic base of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL) and its partner organization, the Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC), in Spain.
This year’s SCILS events attracted supply chain speakers from leading companies including CVS, DHL, General Motors, PepsiCo, Roche and UPS. During the month, students from MIT CTL’s Master of Engineering in Logistics (MLOG) and ZLC’s Masters in Logistics & Supply Chain Management (ZLOG) programs spent time on each other’s campuses. There were visits to the Boston Beer Company in the U.S., and to the La Muela Wind Farm and Zara in Spain. A poster session to showcase student research projects was introduced this year at MIT and attracted attendees from more than 20 companies.
The student wind farm visit was part of a “green day” in Zaragoza that is indicative of ZLC’s expanding slate of research projects. “Renewable energy and global health are two research areas that ZLC is focusing on, and we will continue to develop these capabilities in 2009,” said Dr. Jarrod Goentzel, Executive Director, MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program.
The global health research group at the ZLC continues to add new projects in areas such as forecasting, global demand for malaria treatments, and mapping the flow of health products through the public and private sector in various countries. Two members of the research group presented recent developments in the SCILS series.
In the energy field, “Spain is a world leader in renewable energy, and we are capitalizing on the valuable industry input there to develop new research on renewable energy supply chains,” Goentzel said. The ZLC is recruiting a researcher to join a project with Spanish energy company Acciona Energy that investigates the potential of producing and distributing hydrogen with wind power. On the demand side, ZLC has collaborated with global logistics organization DHL on research into the control of carbon dioxide emissions. Speakers from Acciona and DHL presented at the SCILS series.
Other special events in the SCILS series presented the Aragón region in Spain as a growing logistics and supply chain center. The PLAZA logistics park near Zaragoza, already a major supply chain hub in Europe, continues to expand, and hosts top companies such as Zara and General Motors.
For more information on SCILS and related research, contact Dr. Jarrod Goentzel, goentzel@mit.edu .