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Global supply chains have gained more prominence than ever before. Supply chain challenges are increasing daily and so is the demand for equipping the next generation of supply chain leaders with industry knowledge.
From January 10-27, 2022, the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL) hosted its annual Supply Chain Challenge. This is a two-week competition, based upon a real-world supply chain challenge for participants from their global Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence (SCALE) Network. The MIT CTL and its global SCALE Network are committed to advancing supply chain expertise and innovation around the globe.
This year, 225 students from the SCALE Centers in Spain, Malaysia, Latin America, Luxembourg, China, and other parts of the world convened in Cambridge to network with and learn from experts in the supply chain. The students had to solve data-centric supply chain challenges submitted by partner companies, one of whom was o9 client Kraft Heinz.
Working collaboratively on these challenges allowed each team the opportunity to showcase their analytical skills and mastery of analytical tools (Python, Optimization, PowerBI, etc.) by solving real-world problems. A group of MIT postdoctoral researchers provided great advice and support to the teams. Representatives from sponsoring companies also engaged with and supported the students throughout the challenge.
Corporate sponsors evaluated each team’s recommendations and determined their top team assigned to their challenge. Seven teams competed in the final event where judges drawn from CSCMP and MIT selected the top three teams overall during the award ceremony on January 27th. Teams were evaluated based on the following criteria: supply chain innovation, applicability, and business acumen.
The first prize was awarded to Nina Anttila, Rachael Clark, Nicholas Winters, Kubra Bayik, Meiling Chen from team StockX, an online clothing resale marketplace! Congratulations on this great achievement. 2nd Prize went to team ARS T&TT and 3rd Prize to team FoodChain.
Fred Baumann, VP Industry Solutions at o9, attended the outstanding presentations and had the chance to award the first three teams.
Congratulations to all winning teams and we wish them all the best for their future endeavors in the field of supply chain management.
About the authors
o9
The Digital Brain Platform
o9 Solutions is a leading Enterprise Knowledge and AI-powered platform helping companies build Agile, Adaptive & Autonomous Planning & Execution Models for transforming enterprise decision-making in environments of rising volatility and uncertainty. Whether it is improving forecast accuracy, matching demand and supply and driving collaboration across the multi-tier supply chain to improve resilience at optimal costs and inventory, or optimizing new product and commercial initiatives to drive revenue growth and margins, decision-making processes from long-range to tactical to execution horizon can be made faster and smarter and connected on o9’s Digital Brain Platform.
o9 brings together game-changing technology innovations — such as innovative enterprise knowledge graph modeling, big data analytics, advanced algorithms for forecasting, demand/supply balancing, scenario planning, real time learning, collaboration, generative and agentic AI, easy-to-use interfaces and cloud-based delivery, and innovative management methods — as well as organization, process and change management best practices to transform decision-making speed and intelligence.
