MIT Launches Global Network of Supply Chain Centers

MIT Global SCALE Network spans North America, Latin America &
Europe
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(Business Wire)--
Today the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for
Transportation and Logistics (MIT-CTL) announced the creation of the
MIT Global SCALE Network, an international alliance of leading
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 (MIT-CTL) in Cambridge, Mass.; the
Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC) in Zaragoza, Spain; and the Center for
Latin-American Logistics Innovation (CLI) in Bogota, 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 and help companies to
compete in an increasingly complex business environment.

"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 Network will also enhance supply chain & logistics education
at each center. Graduate students at MIT-CTL, ZLC and CLI will not
only benefit from the shared knowledge created through this
collaboration, but will also participate in the Network's global
research projects and take part in an educational exchange, traveling
to other Network centers and learning alongside other Network
students.

The Global SCALE Network will build on the already successful,
five-year partnership between MIT-CTL and the Zaragoza Logistics
Center, which has resulted in the creation of a highly-regarded 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 Bogota 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.

Today's announcement was made by MIT-CTL Director Yossi Sheffi,
ZLC Director Santiago Kraiselburd, and LOGyCA Director Rafael Florez
during MIT-CTL's annual Crossroads conference The Next 10 Years in
Supply Chain held on the MIT campus.

Read full release online (http://ctl.mit.edu/news-SCALE)

MIT-CTL
Becky Schneck Allen, 617-253-4592
bschneck@mit.edu

Copyright Business Wire 2008