Join the MIT Industrial Liaison Program for a four-part webinar series on Manufacturing 4.0, presenting the latest research and technology in advanced manufacturing at MIT. Each session includes a talk and Q&A with expert faculty in the field, startup presentations from founders affecting industry, and panel discussions.
Josué C. Velázquez Martínez is a Research Scientist, and Lecturer at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics specialized in Logistics and Supply Chain Management in transportation, manufacturing, and retail industries, and has more than 10 years of experience in conducting applied research on logistics sustainability and small firms in emerging markets. He serves as the director of the MIT Sustainable Supply Chains Lab, a research group focused on collaborating with organizations to improve their supply chain and logistics operations by considering environmental, social and business goals. Velázquez Martínez is also de director of MIT GeneSys, a research lab aimed at alleviating poverty in Latin America via developing innovative research and technology for micro and small enterprises to foster growth by improving their supply chain management capabilities.
Velázquez Martínez has published a variety of academic and business-oriented articles and book chapters on logistics sustainability and supply chain management, and has been constantly quoted and interviewed by different international media, including HuffPost, CNN, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, NY Times, and ELLE.com. Velázquez Martínez is the lecturer at MIT of the graduate course SCM.290 Sustainable Logistics, has been invited as guest speaker and lecturer in conferences and academic seminars in Europe, Asia, the United States, and Latin America
Velázquez Martínez holds a BSc in Industrial Engineering, an MSc in Manufacturing Systems and a PhD in Industrial Engineering with focus on Sustainability in Supply Chains from Monterrey Tech, Mexico.
Urbanization and e-commerce growth (omni-channel) have increased the need for faster and greener transportation of goods, specifically during last-mile delivery operations. The challenge many companies face is how to deliver products fast and keep high vehicle utilization, which drives low fuel consumption, and CO2 emissions. In this webinar, I will discuss the new trends in logistics sustainability, and present ideas on how to optimize CO2 emissions during last-mile operations by using geo-spatial analysis, Machine learning, and data analytics. From the consumer perspective, I will discuss some of the new findings on the “Green Button” project and how companies can significantly reduce transportation CO2 emissions in e-commerce, via driving consumer behavior with the use of understandable environmental statements at the moment of the purchase.
Ashfaque Chowdhury, Ph.D. leads XPO’s supply chain business in the Americas and Asia Pacific, where he has final responsibility over more than 400 locations and 32,000 employees, across three continents. With more than 20 years of experience, he has implemented hundreds of logistics operations for some of the most prestigious companies in the world and holds several patents in supply chain. Since taking over the President’s role in 2015, Dr. Chowdhury has integrated multiple acquired companies into the world’s second largest contract logistics provider. Under his leadership, the business has seen industry-leading growth and fostered an employee-centric culture. Dr. Chowdhury holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, India; and a master’s degree in science and a doctorate in engineering from Lehigh University.
The COVID-19 global pandemic has clearly demonstrated the critical importance of our global supply chain. Dr. Ashfaque Chowdhury, President of XPO Logistics Supply Chain Americas and Asia Pacific, will talk about how XPO has protected its employees from COVID-19 exposure, how the pandemic is transforming the logistics industry, and why intelligent automation will shape the future of distribution centers.