The Boeing Center

Explore the response and recovery of a sweeping three-day port strike on the distribution industry. Who was prepared?

To explain what factors allow a distributor to weather supply chain shocks, we’ll borrow a simplification on supply chain resiliency from Panos Kouvelis, a supply chain management professor and the director of The Boeing Center Center for Supply Chain Innovation, a research center at Washington University in St. Louis - Olin Business School.

“All supply chains aspire to be resilient, but economists and supply chain managers will tell you that we always underinvest in it. It does not seem to pay off, until the strike starts.” — Panos Kouvelis

Brace and Rebound: How Distribution Navigates a Port Strike Explore the response and recovery of a sweeping three-day port strike on the distribution industry. Who was prepared?

"This strike is a serious disruption for the U.S. supply chains. If it stretches out over weeks, it will also disrupt global chains. We will see shortages of some goods, including groceries ordered abroad, especially from Latin America and Europe, including whiskey, some wines and beers, certain chocolates and cheeses. We can also expect shipping rates to increase in the next few months, and we will pay higher prices in the coming holiday season. And for one more time we will write stories about ‘how the world ran out of …’ — just fill in the blank.”

Panos Kouvelis, Director of The Boeing Center for Supply Chain Innovation and Emerson Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain, Operations, and Technology at Washington University’s Olin Business School, shares his insights on the longshoremen strike and how global supply chains’ resiliency will be tested.

Follow the link to learn more: https://source.washu.edu/2024/10/washu-expert-strike-will-test-u-s-supply-chain-resiliency/

WashU Expert: Strike will test U.S. supply chain resiliency Panos Kouvelis, director of the Boeing Center for Supply Chain Innovation at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses the impact of the port workers’ strike on supply chain inventory and prices.

This semester, Edward Jones asked us to analyze the operating expenses associated with the implementation of new products, services, and experiences for their clients and branch teams. To achieve this goal, we developed a cost-driver model and tracking framework to help them more accurately forecast expenses and assess impacts from changes in the external environment.

BOEING CENTER TEAM

Guoxuan Wang • Bo Zhu • Shengyi Sun • David Guo • Yunying Liu • Yuhan Wu • Emily Palm • Meeghan Sheppard • Zhiqi Zhang • Ken Li • Panos Kouvelis • Evan Dalton

EDWARD JONES TEAM

Mike Woerner • Kyle Kline • Beth Revueltas • Troy Broeker • Jason Shirley • Jieni Li

The scope of our spring project with Express Scripts involved the integration of advanced analytics tools and visualization techniques to provide actionable insights into pharmaceutical trends, demand patterns, and inventory performance. We used cutting-edge analytics platforms to provide a comprehensive outlook of market dynamics, enhancing our clients’ decision making and strategic planning capabilities.

BOEING CENTER TEAM
Qingpo “Patrick” Chang • Siqi Li • Zipei Liao • Iris He • Vincent Kao • Nick Clyde • Chenshan Hu • Stacy Garcia • Franklin Taylor • Panos Kouvelis • Andy Sample

EXPRESS SCRIPTS TEAM
Nytasha Taylor • Nikole Clontz • Laura Chartrand • Celeste Player • Jaya Subramaniam

The Bayer Eco Order initiative, launched in Spain last year, represents a pioneering move in the agricultural industry to enhance sustainability and customer collaboration. This program, now expanding to Portugal, Italy, and France, allows customers to opt for an "Eco Order" during the purchasing process, granting them extended delivery times and marketing rebates as incentives. This shift not only fosters better resource utilization and reduced emissions but also demonstrates a significant improvement in operational efficiencies and cost savings, highlighting the potential for sustainability to drive both ecological and financial benefits.

In this video from The Boeing Center's 15th annual Industry Conference, Igor Neves, Global Logistics Excellence Manager at Bayer, explains how Eco Order could simultaneously enhance Bayer's customer relationships and sustainability initiatives.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

For more videos and exclusive digital content, events, and cutting-edge research, visit us on socials () and the web (https://lnkd.in/gPUAJJiP).

Using Sustainability to Drive Ecological and Financial Benefits The Bayer Eco Order initiative, launched in Spain in January, represents a pioneering move in the agricultural industry to enhance sustainability and custome...

This semester, we worked with Anheuser-Busch to develop an optimization model to reduce logistics costs, including the impact on drivers, tractors, trailers, warehouse operations, and origin/destination inventory. If implemented across all of AB’s breweries, our model is projected to reduce costs by up to 16.8%, translating to annual savings in the millions.

BOEING CENTER TEAM

Chenkai Yang • Pei Chen • Zhuoyan Ma • Albert Guo • Ye Liu • Rebecca Teresa Garcia • Folakemi Ajoni • Francisco Miguens • Adam McKinney, Executive MBA • Panos Kouvelis • Evan Dalton

ANHEUSER-BUSCH TEAM

Matt Gordon • Stephanie Lundy • Pedro Mirant Borde • Tim Richter • Bryan Watson

This semester, we worked with Copeland on the development and recommended implementation of a robust and effective SIOP (Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning) process to drive increased customer service levels, lower inventory, reduce lead times, and improve profitability for Comfort Control’s Electronics product lines.

BOEING CENTER TEAM

Tiantian Wang • Yao Xu • Judy Nguyen • Divyam Jain • Gokul Krishna Kanderi Murali • Alice Chen • Yukai Huang • Zihan Zhao • Emem Inyang • Tanya Bansal • Panos Kouvelis • Andy Sample

COPELAND TEAM

Eric Carlson • Joy Sinha • Cherie Van Cleve • Darijan Kristo • Ken Gardner • Rhea Nieves • Elbert Aguillon • Fred Perreand

Olin Business School at Washington University

How the Key Bridge collapse, Panama drought and Red Sea attacks affect St. Louis companies

Right now a company that had ordered goods six weeks ahead of time is likely ordering three months ahead of time, said Panos Kouvelis, director of The Boeing Center for Supply Chain Innovation at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. And of course, if the situation persists, consumers will end up shouldering some of the cost.

How the Key Bridge collapse, Panama drought and Red Sea attacks affect St. Louis companies Right now a company that had ordered goods six weeks ahead of time is likely ordering three months ahead of time, a Washington University professor says.

FRESH SUPPLY CHAIN RESEARCH

TITLE

Component Procurement under Unobservable Contracts

AUTHORS

Panos Kouvelis & Ehsan Bolandifar

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the optimal way to procure components of two competing OEMs that rely on a joint contract manufacturer to produce two partially substitutable products. The contract manufacturer, in turn, needs to procure its components from a supplier. We investigate whether the OEMs should delegate component procurement to the contract manufacturer (indirect procurement) or control it (direct procurement) when contracts are unobservable. When the supplier has pricing power (strategic supplier), we show that under procurement control, all supply chain members might benefit from contract unobservability if the downstream market competition is moderate. Under delegation, all supply chain members benefit from contract unobservability unless the market competition is extremely fierce. We also demonstrate that direct component procurement by both OEMs arises as the equilibrium, in contrast to the observable case where indirect procurement (at least for the larger OEM) arises as the equilibrium procurement. When the supply market is competitive, we show that both OEMs prefer to delegate their component procurement to the contract manufacturer to benefit from the component order aggregation and the resulting discount. While direct procurement might also emerge as an equilibrium, it is Pareto dominated by the delegation strategy. We provide theoretical support to explain different procurement strategies adopted by OEMs to procure components in these three-tier supply chains. We uncover the crucial role of revealed information under different procurement structures when contracts are unobservable in the component procurement equilibrium.

LINK

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4777759

Component Procurement under Unobservable Contracts This paper studies the optimal way to procure components of two competing OEMs that rely on a joint contract manufacturer to produce two partially substitutable

The Dali containership stuck under Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge may remain in place for weeks, blocking shipping at one of the U.S.'s busiest ports. Here’s what that means for major industry supply chains.

In this video, Panos Kouvelis, Emerson Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain, Operations, and Technology and Director of The Boeing Center for Supply Chain Innovation at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis shared his expert insights with the Wall Street Journal.

How the Baltimore Bridge Collapse Is Upending U.S. Supply Chains The Dali containership stuck under Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge may remain in place for weeks, blocking shipping at one of the U.S.'s busiest ports. Here’s what that means for major industry supply chains.

Panos Kouvelis, a professor at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, said that most of the supply chain disruptions from the disaster would come in the form of possible shipping backlogs at other ports. He said the disruptions would not be as significant as others experienced in the past few years, most notably during the pandemic.

“You’re going to see some of those shipments rerouted through New York, New Jersey or Virginia,” he said.

Watch ➞ https://www.firstalert4.com/2024/03/29/ripple-effect-baltimore-harbor-closure-may-cause-local-supply-chain-disruptions/

Ripple effect from Baltimore Harbor closure may cause local supply chain disruptions Local businesses have dealt with numerous supply chain issues since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“While the first few weeks these other eastern ports might be the recipients in shipping companies’ rerouting of loads, the western ports are ramping up their operations and are trying to attract more shipping volume,” Kouvelis said.

“For some products, these western destinations might end up being more attractive — in particular if they are coming from the Pacific, have mostly commodity loads and they have used Panama Canal to cross to the Atlantic side.”

https://source.wustl.edu/2024/03/washu-expert-key-bridge-collapses-immediate-long-term-supply-chain-impact/

WashU Expert: Key Bridge collapse's immediate, long-term supply chain impact - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis The devastating collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore will add another wrinkle to recent global supply chain troubles, according to Panos Kouvelis, a global supply chain expert at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.

We were pleased to welcome Fred Perreand, Vice President Global Supply Chain Operations, and Olivia P**n, Senior Manager, Responsible Sourcing at Emerson to share their insights at our recent industry conference. They highlighted Emerson's commitment to environmental sustainability, focusing on the company's strategic approach towards reducing emissions, conserving resources, and driving innovation for a more sustainable world.

They also emphasized Emerson's efforts in empowering employees to take individual ownership of sustainability goals and detailed the company's achievements in sustainable operations, including significant advancements in energy efficiency and renewable electricity usage across their global facilities.

Watch the video to learn more about Emerson's sustainability initiatives → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LbOjgH8mxY

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

For more videos and exclusive digital content, events, and cutting-edge research, visit us on socials () and the web (https://www.olin.wustl.edu/bcsci).

Understanding Emerson's Sustainability Scope 3 Strategy We were pleased to welcome Fred Perreand, Vice President Global Supply Chain Operations, and Olivia P**n, Senior Manager, Responsible Sourcing at Emerson to ...

The objective of our fall project with Express Scripts (a Cigna Groups Evernorth subsidiary) was to develop a pipeline overview tied to Evernorth’s capabilities to better position the organization, and to identify useful information that could potentially be helpful for Evernorth’s future growth.

The Boeing Center Team
Rebecca Teresa Garcia • Folakemi Ajoni • Xingzhou D**g • Neil Kanneberg • Yize Lin • Swetabh . • Weice Tie • Shuning Xu • Dekang Cao • Francisco Miguens • Panos Kouvelis • Andy Sample

Express Scripts Team
Celeste Player, PharmD • Jaya Subramaniam • Charles "Chuck" Walton • Thomas D. Jenkins • Jon E. Clark

"How might we measure and gain efficiencies in the lifecycle of the development, delivery, and adoption of open-source software ecosystems?" This was the question asked of us by Foundation in the fall semester. To answer this question, we researched the development, launch (delivery), and adoption of successful open-source projects (including those within the Unity Foundation) to understand what has been done to create a healthy, thriving community (ecosystem) around open-source projects. Using this information, we created personas to describe each member of the ecosystem and developed an analysis of the methodologies used to activate those personas in both using and contributing to the open-source community (becoming part of the ecosystem). We then developed a tool to measure engagement and recommended efficient and effective methods of delivering and fostering adoption of the toolsets.

The Boeing Center Team
Kai Qin • Yubing Meng • Qinbo Liu • Haiyang Wang • Hanbing Zhao • Iva Rashkova • Panos Kouvelis • Andy Sample

Unity Foundation Team
Jennifer Labit • Ebrahim Moshiri • Jeff Brown • Reza Garrow • Justin Wilson • Steve Totten • Kevin Stanley

Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis

Happy holidays from your friends at The Boeing Center!

We partnered with Bunge this semester to analyze the overall cost of serving each customer, and to create a methodology for segmenting top customers while identifying opportunities to streamline work processes and logistic planning in supporting customers. To do this, we developed metrics that rank customers from the perspective of cost-to-serve, highlighted opportunities for improvement in customer services, and quantified the overall impact of the recommended adjustments. The end result will enable Bunge to identify an optimal product portfolio and rationalize a customer / product mix that supports their growth strategy.

BOEING CENTER TEAM
Emem Inyang • Stacy Alcantara-Garcia • Ken Li • Derrick Luo • Qiuyan Yang • Yuan Gao • Ruohan Liu • Haotian Huang • Zhiqi Zhang • Panos Kouvelis • Evan Dalton

BUNGE TEAM
Brett Caplice • Clifford Hunte • William Wang • Jessica Stephan

Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis

This semester, we worked with Bayer to provide recommendations and best practices for the implementation of digital twin software to aid in their supply chain planning initiatives. The goal was to build a platform that offers real-time and end-to-end visibility into the supply chain, and to ensure that Bayer's digital transformation journey progresses smoothly, while maintaining the integrity of its supply chain operations.

BOEING CENTER TEAM
Tanya Bansal • Charlie Chu • Mingzhe Zheng • Rashid Khan • Yawei Cheng • Yining Zhang • Yiqing Dang • Nick Clyde • Sikun Xu • Yukai Huang • Panos Kouvelis • Evan Dalton

BAYER TEAM
Rapha Gutierrez • Travis Bedford • Michael Schleeper • Mario Gruden • Jeffrey Mudd • Jake Moede • Brandie White • Nicole Neal

Last call to RSVP for The Boeing Center's 15th annual Industry Conference tomorrow!

THEME
Forces Reshaping Global Supply Chains: Geopolitics, Sustainability, and Technology

LOCATION
WashU Olin Business School • Nov. 7 @ 9:00am CT

REGISTER
https://bit.ly/bcsci2023

KEY TOPICS


Follow the link for more info. We look forward to seeing you!

Forces Reshaping Global Supply Chains The Boeing Center's 15th annual Industry Conference

Fresh !

TITLE
Agricultural Supply Chains in Emerging Markets: Competition and Cooperation under Correlated Yields

AUTHORS
P. Kouvelis, J. Li, & M. Dada

JOURNAL
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (M&SOM)

ABSTRACT
Problem definition: We model the development of effective agricultural supply chains (agri-chains) in emerging economies for better utilization of land and intermediate processing resources for harvested export-oriented goods. We study decisions made by farmers, intermediate processors, and government officials in agri-chains. The structure and management of supply chains and government minimum guarantee prices to farmers affect the performance of these chains and are in the domain of our study.

Methodology/results: We develop models of agricultural supply chains in which yields are correlated across regions, and, farmers sell to competing capacitated-processors. The models have two types of fundamental decisions: determining how much land to allocate for planting before the start of a growing season, and, determining the prices offered by competing processors that purchase the harvest.

We develop analytical results and algorithmic approaches for finding resulting equilibria that depend on the nature of decision-making and on the structure of yield uncertainty. In particular, for all-or-nothing yields we characterize the ranges of minimum guarantee prices that lead to farmers' no-production, under-production, full-production and over-production equilibria. Analytical results supported by numerical experiments allow us to conclude that appropriately setting minimum prices guarantee at intermediate levels, with the exact definition of such ranges dependent on ownership structure, can lead to first-best supply-chain solutions.

Managerial implications: The analysis also suggests that some farmer co-operation in land allocation or regional integration of farmer-processing assets, together with moderate minimum guarantee prices, might be implementable pathways for achieving agri-chain efficiency in emerging economies. In an interesting result, farmlands with yields of positive correlation tend to inhibit over-production while negative correlations tend to induce over-production.

LINK
https://wustl.box.com/s/8cziz64xwlqfsdjy0lel4n09yica6kl5

KEYWORDS

Fresh

TITLE
Supply Chain-Centric View of Working Capital, Hedging, and Risk Management: Integrated Supply Chain Finance

AUTHOR
P. Kouvelis

ABSTRACT
Integrated supply chain finance (iSCF) is a portfolio of effective operating, financial, and risk mitigating practices and techniques within supply chains, which reflect strategic concerns of participating firm agents (decision makers) within the chain, and optimize not only the management of the working capital for liquidity, but also make effective use of assets for firm profitability and risk control. The main theory and research areas within iSCF are financing working capital in supply chains; financial hedging in support of supply chain operations; integrated risk management in supply chains; and supply chain contracts and risk management. This tutorial chapter will dedicate a section to each of these topics, and it will elucidate the foundational models and the key results in each of these areas.

LINK
https://wustl.app.box.com/file/1343248636507?s=e25mw8q6ef6qcmh42sl7qtjb2luidx00

Giving clients accurate, real-time visibility into the supply chain. Analyzing the cost-to-serve for a range of customers. Investigating new markets for growth opportunities, while accounting for existing resource constraints. Wrangling complex supply lines to optimize manufacturing and distribution. These are some of the toughest challenges facing companies today.

This fall, WashU Olin’s Boeing Center for Supply Chain Innovation (BCSCI) brings together the center’s brightest student minds to solve them for real-world clients.

https://olin.wustl.edu/about/news-and-media/news/2023/10/boeing-center-students-tackle-supply-chain-challenges.php

Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis

Boeing Center students tackle companies’ supply chain challenges | WashU Olin Business School WashU Olin’s Boeing Center for Supply Chain Innovation connects talented students with clients seeking real-world supply chain solutions.

The Boeing Center is pleased to sponsor Olin Net Impact's inaugural session for its Reimagining Business speaker series: Reimagining the Linear Economy.

"This event will introduce WashU students and the broader community to paradigm-shifting ideas around circular economy. We’re moving beyond point solutions (e.g., recycling, upcycling, etc.), and looking at the big ideas for fundamentally changing the way the global economy, products, and supply chain are designed for circularity and sustainability. This event will help business leaders of today and tomorrow to then think beyond “reduce, reuse, recycle” and to understand the fundamental need for everything to be reimagined."

November 9, 2023
5:30pm
WashU Bauer Hall 330

RSVP: https://wustl.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eD5YwGBAIi564GW

Significant development in the renewable energy sector: A broad coalition including solar developers, environmentalists, and tribal groups have reached an agreement to facilitate the construction of large solar farms in the US.

The agreement addresses land-use and biodiversity concerns, aiming to accelerate solar energy adoption and contribute to climate change mitigation. This collaborative approach could herald a more harmonized pathway towards achieving renewable energy goals.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/business/energy-environment/solar-farm-agreement.html #:~:text=Solar%20developers%2C%20environmentalists%2C%20farming%20groups,stiff%20opposition%20in%20some%20places.

As the demand for advanced chips skyrockets, driven by the AI tech boom, Taiwan's crown jewel TSMC is investing nearly $2.9 billion in a cutting-edge chip plant in northern Taiwan. This colossal project, housed at the Tongluo Science Park in Miaoli County, will champion the chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) technology, propelling AI chip production to new heights.

Across the Pacific, TSMC’s venture in Arizona is picking up pace, overcoming early hurdles to staff up its production workforce. Not stopping there, TSMC is also broadening its horizons towards Japan, eyeing it as a promising hub for chip manufacturing.

These strategic moves by TSMC are more than just about chips; they're about sustaining the global tech supply chain and reinforcing Taiwan's position as a semiconductor powerhouse.

Read the full scoop here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/09/taiwan-tsmc-chip-manufacturer-fab/

Economy vs. environment: Some Taiwanese consider cashing in their chips Taiwan’s semiconductor industry provides it with economic and national security. But some locals are questioning whether the environmental burden is worth it.