Anticipating fluctuations in Less-than-Truckload (LTL) volume presents challenges for shippers, carriers, and freight brokers alike. This capstone addresses this issue by developing a predictive model for LTL volume, leveraging insights gained from the cyclical nature of demand shifts between Truckload and LTL freight. Through analyzing various truckload metrics, this study...
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics states that food and beverage manufacturers have experienced annual 0.5% decreases in labor productivity and annual 7% increases in unit labor costs since 2019 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). These statistics underscore a growing inefficiency in the manufacturing and distribution processes of food...
Consumer demand for frozen products from The J.M. Smucker Company has grown dramatically over recent years, driving an evident need to increase total ship output. The overarching problem that we attempted to solve in this project was how to maximize the amount of a specific frozen product loaded onto trailers...
Truckload procurement practices vary widely across industry and firm spend levels. This research utilizes a framework to identify shipper behaviors that represent state-of-the-practice in truckload procurement while also highlighting shipper behaviors that represent state-of-the-art. The presented anlaysis uses data collected from 1) a survey of 300 shippers and 2) semi-structured...
Despite concerns over distracted driving, many Americans still engage in risky activities while driving, leading to crashes and fatal outcomes. This study aims to investigate the impact of individual risk attitudes and in-vehicle technologies on various types of distracted driving behaviors (DDB), providing insights into the factors that contribute to...
Green location models are an important alternative to reduce CO2 emissions in logistics, i.e., transportation, which is one of the main contributing factors to global carbon emissions and the sector with the highest growth. In this chapter, we discuss green facility location problems, i.e., a variant of facility location problems...
The warehouse of the future represents a paradigm shift in warehouse design and operation. It is the industry’s response to the burgeoning growth of e-commerce, worldwide supply chain disruptions including warehouse labor shortages in developed markets, and increasing awareness of the significant volume of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions emitted by warehouses.
Two-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problems (2E-VRPs) describe the distribution of goods via two echelons of vehicles and sets of transshipment facilities. They have received growing attention in academic research and their applications are becoming increasingly widespread in modern last-mile logistics systems. This paper introduces a new and extensive variant of the...
As an essential component of human life, agricultural products play a very important role in guaranteeing that individuals get all the essential nutrition. Governments and industries spend great financial resources, define short- and long-term goals, and organize their policies to develop a steady agri-food supply chain and provide fresh, healthy...
The MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL) convened participants from industry and academia to discuss the present and future of nanostore r
Our research strives to examine how simulation models of logistics systems can be produced automatically from verbal descriptions in natural language and how human experts and artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems can collaborate in the domain of simulation modelling. We demonstrate that a framework constructed upon the refined GPT-3 Codex is...
Introduction Most households, especially those experiencing food insecurity, choose their preferred food retailers based on prices, rather than proximity. However, food-insecure households are often transit-dependent, further burdening vulnerable households seeking healthy, affordable groceries. This study sought to better understand the multi-faceted transportation experiences of households with varying food security levels...
This paper considers two pertinent research inquiries: ‘Can an AI-based predictive framework be utilised for the optimisation of solar energy management?’ and ‘What are the ways in which the AI-based predictive framework can be integrated within the Smart Grid infrastructure to improve grid reliability and efficiency?’ The study deploys a...
The J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Mobility Confidence Index (MCI) Study brings together two organizations with an aligned mission to understand consumer knowledge and acceptance of fully automated, self-driving vehicles. Each organization has extensive independent research experience providing consumers, government, and industry with a data-driven comprehension of consumer behaviors and preferences...
The last decade has seen pivotal changes in the "last mile" of logistics: online order volumes are growing, customers are expecting deliveries with quicker turnarounds, and new technologies such as drones and electric vehicles are reshaping suppliers' fulfillment strategies (World Economic Forum, 2020). The unintended consequences of this increased footprint...
Carbon emissions are surging worldwide, with mounting political targets and shareholder pressure driving decarbonization efforts across all sectors. The temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical industry is particularly carbon-intensive, partly due to its reliance on carbon-intensive air transport. As pharmaceutical companies predominantly outsource transportation services, they have become increasingly interested in understanding how to...
The foodservice distribution industry in the United States is projected to experience a 40% growth from 2022 to 2025. As the industry expands, an increasing number of companies are adopting an omnichannel supply chain strategy. In this context, our sponsor company, a large U.S. foodservice distribution company, aims to optimize...
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vulnerabilities of supply chain systems, and companies must take Supply Chain Risk Management seriously to build resilience against future unknown disruptions. However, measuring risk and its impact is challenging due to data availability, interpretation of different types of risks, and complex product-supplier networks. Xylem...
Stockouts present significant challenges for Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, adversely affecting profitability and customer satisfaction. This Capstone report investigates key drivers causing Case Fill Rate (CFR) to fall below target levels and identifies the best model for predicting future CFR for the sponsor company. By utilizing hypothesis testing and...
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, biotech companies faced an unprecedented challenge to develop vaccines within a very short time. The revolutionary nature of vaccines has expedited their development and deployment, but their association with ultra-cold storage and transportation poses challenges for equitable distribution. As the world approaches normalcy...
Trends toward patient-centric deliveries in the pharmaceutical industry pose a challenge for integration of sustainable supply chain design. This patient-centricity entails more distributed demand, smaller shipments, and more frequent deliveries. Our research utilizes scenario planning for quantification of CO2e and taxation within a pharmaceutical distribution network located in Brazil, where...
Our sponsor company, a leading fast-moving consumer goods corporation in the Indian Subcontinent (ISC), faces ongoing challenges in forecasting the volatile demand in this region. Currently, company’s demand planning relies heavily on human judgment, resulting in persistent inaccuracies and biases. This capstone develops a standardized and quantitative demand forecast methodology...
Our project sponsor, a major third-party logistics provider in Japan, experienced a severe disruption that destroyed one of their primary distribution centers for a specific industry. This disruption led to increased lead times, degraded service levels, higher logistics costs, and the loss of a client. Consequently, our research focused on...
This project sought to address critical gaps in the extended supply chain network of the sponsor company by evaluating the efficacy of establishing a communication protocol with upstream suppliers to detect and mitigate supply chain disruptions. Leveraging an agent-based simulation model, the study examined what supply chain elements should be...
This paper explores the complexities of temperature-sensitive food supply chains and the role of third-party logistics (3PL) providers in managing them. Specifically, we partner with the world's second-largest cold chain 3PL provider to establish a dynamic Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process for their warehousing services. In this project, we...
