The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Transportation and Logistics (MIT-CTL) announced on March 27 the creation of the MIT Global SCALE Network, an international alliance of research and education centers dedicated to the development of supply chain and logistics excellence through innovation.
The Global SCALE (Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence) Network spans North America, Latin America, and Europe, with plans to expand into Asia and Africa. The Network currently includes: the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics in Cambridge, Mass.; the Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC) in Zaragoza, Spain; and the Center for Latin-American Logistics Innovation (CLI) in Bogot, Colombia.
The Network will allow faculty, researchers, students and affiliated companies from all three centers to pool their expertise and collaborate on projects that will create supply chain and logistics innovations with global applications.
Today's supply chains stretch around the world and back again, requiring successful organizations to have an on-the-ground understanding of the logistics, supply chain and general business challenges and opportunities in every region. The Global SCALE Network will provide that global context through research projects that will literally be taking place around the world, said MIT-CTL Director Yossi Sheffi, a professor of engineering systems at MIT and director of the Engineering Systems Division.
The Global SCALE Network builds on the five-year partnership between MIT-CTL and the Zaragoza Logistics Center, which has resulted in the creation of a supply chain masters program at the ZLC, and continues to play a key role in the economic growth of the Aragon region in Spain and the success of PLAZA, the largest logistics park in Europe.
The other Network member -- CLI -- was launched just two months ago through a $19 million agreement between MIT-CTL and Colombia-based logistics company LOGyCA to create the leading research and education center for supply chain and logistics in Latin America. The Center is located in LOGyCA's 5-acre Bogot headquarters, which boasts one of the most robust supply chain technology infrastructures in the region, offering virtual and real environments in which to test, adapt and develop supply chain technologies.
