Due to high congestion in cities and growing demand for last-mile delivery services, several companies have been implementing two-echelon distribution strategies over the past few years. Notably, the installation of urban transshipment points has gained increasing attention, used by logistics operators to transfer goods from large freight trucks to smaller...
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have democratized access to higher education, but low entry and exit barriers make dropout rates in these courses much higher than in traditional in-person courses. Previous research has explored the main factors driving student dropout and proposed predictive models to identify students at risk. However...
The operational design and planning of drone-based logistics models is a rapidly growing area of scientific research. In this paper, we present a structured, comprehensive, and scalable framework for classifying drone-based delivery systems and their associated routing problems along with a comprehensive review and synthesis of the extant academic literature...
Last year, when the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was still escalating, we expected the crisis to dampen companies’ enthusiasm for investing in supply chain sustainability (SCS). Enterprises would surely divert all their attention to combating the pandemic. Remarkably, the survey results suggest that Covid-19 did not significantly slow the push to make supply chains more sustainable. More than 80% of survey respondents in this year’s report claimed the crisis had no impact or increased their firm’s commitments to SCS.
This paper analyzed the competitiveness of premium and regular Fair Trade and Organic (FTO) coffees relative to conventional coffee using consumer panel data. The coffees were categorized into four groups based on their certification labels and prices: Premium or Regular Conventional, and Premium or Regular FTO. Competitiveness was measured in...
Manufacturing companies are under pressure to build faster and more efficient decision-making capabilities due to the rapidly changing customer demand and expectations. The conventional analytical models are no longer sufficient to capture the complexities of the supply chain. Companies are looking to embark in a digital transformation to address these...
The production growth and short life cycle of plastics has created concerns around its waste management process. Despite efforts to increase recycling over the years, the rate of recycling does not come close to the rate of plastics production. This capstone project develops an innovative and convenient business model that...
This capstone addresses how an FMCG company should go about automating inbound decision making in one of their warehouses. The capstone focuses only on the inbound side of the distribution center because it was determined that it was an area with big opportunities for improvement. Efficiency inside a warehouse depends...
The transportation sector is the third largest contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for over 28% of total U.S. emissions and over 14% of global emissions in 2018. As climate change and its negative effects have grown significantly, efforts to reduce GHG emissions have become an important objective on...
Supply chain networks in the retail industry have become increasingly complex, giving rise to challenges in product flow from distribution centers to fulfillment locations. Product allocation, in particular, has emerged as a critical challenge for grocery retail companies as it helps them determine the shipping location and the shipping type...
The truckload transportation industry is an established industry, in the US, with annual revenue for for-hire truckload reaching greater than 300 billion dollars in 2019. A major problem encountered by for-hire truckload carriers is a sudden, unexpected and sustained reduction in shipment volume over lanes referred to as ‘churn’. Churn...
WHO reports that in the South Asian region, the number of undernourished has hardly decreased in the last decade. This situation calls for a concerted effort to combat malnutrition the world over. The effort must be grounded in nutrition and executed through a robust distribution mechanism to reach all segments...
Demand planning is a challenging component for organizations across a broad spectrum of industries. A key element of a successful demand plan is accurate forecasting, due in part to the operational decisions that are made based on the results of forecasting models. This is what our capstone project sponsor, Agility...
Improving efficiency and sustainability in logistics and transportation has been a strategic priority for companies and countries as they compete in the era of globalization. However, how to optimize the container transportation and improve container turnaround has become an increasing challenge for the industry, especially in the growing trade imbalances...
Flexibility in last-mile distribution has become a key differentiator for companies that are obsessed with driving up customer experience. For most fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies like BeverageCo, it is crucial to succeed in fast-growing emerging economies which are dominated by the traditional retail channel, characterized by small stores. With...
Since 2005, the American Trucking Associations has consistently asserted that trucking firms a shortage of truck drivers. This has become a narrative with which even those with no ties to the trucking industry may be familiar. U.S. Xrpess has identified that its drivers average 6.5 hours driving time per day...
Supply chain sustainability has grown steadily in the last half century. Companies today are setting more ambitious goals and investing greater resources. With this accelerated pace come new questions regarding the transparency of sustainability on an aggregate level. How and why have sustainability practices changed from 2020 to 2021? How...
With 50 million nanostores globally, nanoretailing is the most important retail channel in developing countries. In India, these stores are called kiranas, and they are the backbone of India's retail market. Unfortunately, the distribution to this massive retail segment is fragmented. Current fragmented channels of exclusive distributors, wholesalers, and stockists...
Across industries and supply chains, the safety of drivers and efficient use of fuel by truck fleets are an increasing concern. This project focused on understanding driving styles, understanding the tradeoffs between safe and efficient driving styles, and finding the highest levels of safety and fuel efficiency. We worked with...
Though critical to the US economy and moving the majority of US freight, the American trucking industry faces three compounding challenges: driver shortage, low driver utilization, and high driver turnover. Previous studies have found that, though scarce, drivers are underutilized and prone to frequent employment changes, further exacerbating the shortage...
Nowadays end customers and shareholders are setting high expectations, putting pressure on companies to do their best not only to meet their needs but also deliver shareholder value at the same time. In order to be both competitive and customer-centric, firms are increasingly focused on their supply chains as one...
The year 2020 marked an unprecedented worldwide growth in e-commerce driven mainly by the COVID- 19 pandemic. The lockdown restrictions created significant spikes in the demand for several products causing severe disruptions throughout the supply chains. The pandemic created significant challenges for companies to maintain efficiency in the supply chain...
Apart from health impacts, the coronavirus pandemic brought many economic challenges for mi- cro and small enterprises (MSEs), especially in Latin America, where they account for most of the firms. For these cash-constrained companies, the combination of lower sales, higher costs of supplies, and ad- vanced payment consumes cash and...
COVID-19 was a major pandemic that struck the world at the beginning of the year 2020. Many companies suffered sudden disruptions in their manufacturing operations, logistics and even in their capacity to reach their customers. This capstone project addressed the need of a global pharmaceutical company to understand what digital...
Many trucks in the US travel well below permitted cube and volume utilization, so consolidating two or more shipments onto a single multi-stop truckload (MSTL) route can increase truck utilization and decrease transportation costs. Many shippers and carriers lack sufficient network volume, transportation analytics capabilities, and supply network influence to...
