In this inaugural edition, the MIT CTL and CSCMP teamed up to explore how sustainability practices are being implemented in global supply chains and what that means for companies and professionals.
The innovative omni-channel supply chain models that have reshaped many parts of the retail industry continue to evolve in response to market changes. One of these changes is the increasing demand for grocery products ordered online, a trend reinforced by the COVID-19 pandemic that imposed restrictions on the use of...
With the rising adoption of e-commerce and online shopping, many retailers are facing the challenge of transitioning across channels to offer a seamless customer experience. One way of addressing this challenge consists of leveraging omnichannel retailing. Our sponsor company, a large US grocery retailer, is striving toward providing an omnichannel...
Driver dwell time is an important challenge the U.S trucking industry faces. High, unplanned dwell times are costly to all stakeholders in the industry as they result in detention costs, declining performance and decreased driver capacity. With the increasing demand for these services, it is important to maximize the driving...
Supply chain sustainability has increased in importance for companies of all sizes, public and private, across a wide range of industries. While there has been increased excitement in tandem with proclamations of lofty goals around the topic of supply chain sustainability, it has proven challenging to operationalize sustainability when many...
Consumer preferences are driving changes within the retail space. E-Commerce is growing rapidly and there are increased pressures on companies to be environmentally friendly, yet still cost-competitive. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance for retailers to adjust their distribution network to accommodate these new customer preferences. Four key steps...
The pharmaceutical industry is subject to many unique constraints, due in part to both product characteristics and regulatory guidelines. Nevertheless, pharmaceutical companies are expected to be able to serve customers that rely on their products, even as demand can be unpredictable and erratic. Pharmaceutical companies have choices in how they...
Companies spend significant resources on digital transformation projects that do not always meet expectations. This thesis contends that these projects fail or fall short because organizations do not consider the three fundamental flows of a supply chain; materiel, information, and payment. To address the issue, this thesis develops a lens...
Building deep, strategic supplier relationships has come to the forefront of companies’ goals in recent years. There are many different strategic sourcing methodologies available to procurement professionals. However, there is a gap in identifying the reasons and motivations as to why companies develop their suppliers, and how suppliers are developed...
Global supply chains are becoming increasingly complex systems that drive significant investments in inventory throughout the network. Our sponsor for this project uses a multi-echelon inventory optimization (MEIO) model to manage safety stock inventory across its network. The MEIO model helps them optimize inventory based on upstream and downstream supply...
The coffee industry generates annual revenues of approximately US$250 billion, with more than 60 million people depending on it globally. However, coffee farmers in producing countries are operating at a loss due to selling at low prices to intermediaries who control the downstream channels. Recent studies highlighted the need to...
Over the past five years, immunization coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa has stagnated at 72%. Immunization supply chains are expensive and complicated, and creating a model that helps optimize these supply chains is of great importance not only for people’s health but also for the efficient use of limited budget in...
The world is facing a grave plastic waste problem. It is not new that we hear about oceanic death and morbid landfills. Only 8% of all the plastic produced is recycled in the US. This grotesque situation has been worsened by the Chinese ban of plastic waste imports from the...
The US truckload transportation industry goes through phases of over and under supply of capacity, causing a dramatic impact on freight rates and transportation budgets. External factors like macroeconomic conditions, unexpected market forces, and changing regulatory policies tend to influence the velocity of these phases. We present an analysis of...
Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) in recent years has developed from a novel concept to practical applications throughout the global economy. AI increasingly performs cognitive tasks and has evolved into the role of a human’s teammate. However, algorithms are not designed to facilitate a teaming process. Many firms do not adequately investigate...
Humanitarian organizations play a crucial role in providing aid to the victims of disasters – whether natural or man-made. One of the leading organizations is the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which saves lives and alleviates the suffering of those affected by armed conflicts. The relief action to...
With increasing customer expectations for fast and cheap deliveries and competition to capture market share, retail organizations are increasingly compelled to make their supply chains as efficient as possible. A major driver of inefficiency in supply chains is the lack of visibility of the goods, information, and financial flows. This...
This capstone project is sponsored by a water technology company and particularly covers its industrial pump rental business across the United States. With millions of dollars of annual spending for pump mobilization, the company looks for ways to improve the overall asset utilization rate. At its current practice, the company...
Manufacturing companies are facing serious challenges to survive and succeed in the market in this everchanging economy. The FMCG industry is not unaware of these challenges, and therefore, many leading manufacturing companies are creating initiatives of Smart Manufacturing or Industry 4.0. However, the literature on Digital Manufacturing mainly addresses technical...
The supply of trucks and drivers is struggling to keep up with the increasing and volatile demand for ground transportation. As a result, for companies like Niagara Bottling LLC., supply chain managers are pressured to optimize their logistics networks. Niagara Bottling is projected to deliver over 1 million full truckloads...
The trucking industry is crucial to the United States economy. An overwhelming majority of goods transported across the US are moved in trucks. For most companies, truck transportation is a prominent component that impacts their production, warehousing, customer service, and overall business performance. In fact, trucking constitutes one of the...
Mergers and Acquisitions have become means of a quick transformation for companies while basic guidelines related to resource allocation during a transaction are not available. Therefore, this capstone project set out to determine a mathematical approach with the aim to estimate the number of human resources required to create a...
The offshore wind industry is expected to be a major contributor to climate change mitigation and renewable energy transition. Supply chain challenges abound in realizing the potential of offshore wind development. This study focuses on devising supply chain strategies especially toward China, to help energy companies fulfil offshore wind development...
Supply chains continuously face pressure to increase efficiency and differentiation to support business continuity. A not yet fully explored way to face this challenge is coopetition, where two competitor companies decide to partner on specific functions to get benefits and differentiate themselves from other companies. This project uses data from...
A strong seller’s market in 2017 and 2018 led to dramatically increased costs in transportation due to demand surpassing supply, government regulations, and a shortage of truck drivers. As a result, the carrier rejection rate by primary carriers in the routing guide increased. This research examines the performance of routing...
