Upcoming conference puts supply chain management in broad context
When asked if supply chain management (SCM) is simply moving stuff around quickly and cheaply, Yossi Sheffi, the Elisha Gray II Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT, smiles and poses his own question: “Are you crazy? It’s life. Everything you buy depends upon it.” Supply chains also create millions of jobs globally and “at salaries about equal to manufacturing jobs,” says Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL). And supply chains are relied upon to save lives during natural disasters.“Look at Haiti,” Sheffi says, speaking of the devastating 2010 earthquake. “The whole world was willing to contribute aid, but you had one small airport that could handle one plane at a time. How do you manage getting the right stuff to the people who need it most? How do you make an impact and sustain it?” It’s maddeningly complex, he says, not just in terms...