Full-Time Master of Engineering in Logistics and Supply Chain Management (ZLOG)

2024

• A Term – August to December
• Mid August: Arrival in Zaragoza, Spain , ZLC Registration
• Third week of August : ZLC Orientation & Preparatory Sessions
• First week of September: A Term begins
• Third week of December: A Term finishes

2025

• B Term - January
• Three weeks in January:  ZLOG arrive in Cambridge, B Term Scale Connect

• C Term – February

• Mid-May: Submit Final Thesis
• Third week of May: Deadline to submit Thesis Executive Summary & Presentation
• May 29-30 (tentative): Research Fest

• First week of June: Commencement Ceremony

• Orientation: Team Building and Career Workshops
• Preparatory Sessions: Mathematics and Finance

• Logistics Systems:

This course provides the students with an understanding of how logistics systems behave. Critical factors (costs, variability, labor/space/financial constraints) have a significant impact on the system performance. Commonly used transportation network optimization, routing and scheduling with inventory consideration, capacity management, flow management principles and push/pull systems are discussed. The ultimate goal is to equip students with the necessary tools to improve the system performance (i.e., increasing throughput, improving customer service) in a supply chain setting given the constraints.

• Inventory Systems:

This course provides one of the key building blocks for an in- depth understanding of supply chain management issues. Students learn the key tradeoffs involved in making supply chain decisions using quantitative models and the strategic insights derived from them. Key areas covered include demand forecasting, inventory theory and control, and models of sourcing and procurement.

• Analytical Methods:

The emphasis is on developing the ability to identify and use the appropriate technique for practical application rather than the underlying theory. It will enable the students to think structurally about decision problems and become intelligent users of management science techniques. The course builds from a basis of calculus, probability, & statistics to introduce fundamental modeling frameworks, such as math programming, networks, queuing, and simulation. Spreadsheet based models are used extensively throughout the course to make it more relevant and rewarding for the students.

• Supply Chain Information Systems:

This course offers a practical basis to understand basic architectures and specific requirements of Supply Chain Information Systems (SCIS), enabling students to specify and develop logistics and SCM software on a conceptual level, to evaluate and select systems, and to investigate new concepts and technologies such as XML, BPML, Web services, andWorkflow Management.

• Financial Systems and Supply Chain Management:

This course links supply chain management to the systems and objectives of the corporation. Topics include tools and frameworks for financial and economic analysis, activity based costing, international financial flows, and taxation. Students learn to define their role in an organization, analyze the position of a corporation in the marketplace, leverage financial information for decision making, and value the impact of supply chain effectiveness on financial performance.

• Supply Chain Analytics:

This course reinforces the quantitative skills needed to make good supply chain decisions. Common probability and statistics tools such as the Bayes' theorem, probability distributions, point estimation, statistical intervals, hypothesis testing, ANOVA, linear regression, are linked to the operations and supply chain problems. Students focus on these topics as the first building block for the quantitative models and necessary analysis.

• Spanish Language:

Introduction to the Spanish language. Students who demonstrate proficiency in Spanish, in lieu of attending the lectures, may be assigned advanced projects utilizing Spanish in the area of logistics & supply chain management.

• Thesis Seminar Proposal:

The contents of the thesis seminar course will contain: thesis process - technical writing - presentation skills. This seminar will organize the students into groups working on parallel topics and make sure that each student's project is launched.

• Advanced Topics:

The Advanced Topics Seminar spans several terms, featuring elite professors who offer short, intense seminars on advanced topics. We typically feature professors from MIT and from leading schools in Europe. Some of these seminars may be scheduled as the year progresses.

Leading Global Supply Chains: Reinforces supply chain concepts and develops management and teamwork skills.  MIT students participate with their peers from CTL’s sister centers in Spain, Malaysia, Colombia, Luxembourg and China.  This is a very intense IAP course that includes the following components:

1. 5 lectures by leading MIT researchers each with short homework assignments,
2. 6 lectures by C-level industry executives followed by filmed small team interviews,
3. 6 rounds of the team-based Fresh Connection management simulation game,
4. 6 in-depth leadership workshops,
5. a major team-based APICS-Sponsored Case Competition (paper, presentation, judges),
6. 6 Supply Chain Research workshops each with hands-on team-based assignments ,
7. 1 day-long  tour and one ½ day tour of best-in-class supply chain operations,
8. a major Research Expo (poster session) attended by 200-300 supply chain executives

MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL), hosts 3 weeks on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

• Logistics Facilities & Operations:

This course provides the students with an understanding of how logistics systems behave. Critical factors (costs, variability, labor/space/financial constraints) have a significant impact on the system performance. Commonly used transportation network optimization, routing and scheduling with inventory consideration, capacity management, flow management principles and push/pull systems are discussed. The ultimate goal is to equip students with the necessary tools to improve the system performance (i.e., increasing throughput, improving customer service) in a supply chain setting given the constraints.

• System Dynamics:

Uses a mixture of simulation models, role-playing games, and case studies to develop principles for successful management of complex strategies in a dynamic world. Case studies of successful strategy design using system dynamics. Considers strategic issues such as business cycles, market growth and stagnation, the diffusion of new technologies, the misuse of forecasts, and the rationality of managerial decision making.

• Energy and Sustainable Supply Chains

The pursuit of reliable energy resources has shaped the history of the world in the past hundred years. The technological advancement of this period is also largely indebted to the technological needs of generating power from nuclear, fossil (oil, coal, natural gas), and renewable (wind, solar, hydropower) sources. Nevertheless, managing the chain of supply is critical regardless of the energy source as a level of service below perfection is unacceptable by the end customers. In any discussion about energy supply chains, the issue of sustainability cannot be left out. Building on our first four sessions and after introducing the framework to analyze supply chain sustainability, this topic will be showcased by interesting examples from the food (tea, soybean, seafood, chocolate) and apparel industries. These two industries, as well as NGOs and public sector, are among the major users of the supply chain sustainability expertise.

• Electives

Electives are only offered in the spring. Below is a list of electives that were offered over the past five years:

1. Supply Chain Design, Planning and Organization
2. Multi-Criteria Decision Making for Supply Chain Management
3. Collaborative Logistics and Supply Chain Management
4. Risk Management
5. Revenue Management
6. Advanced Planning & Execution Systems
7. Procurement and Supply Chain Coordination
8. Service Operations Logistics
9. Reverse Logistics
10. Project Management
11. Mass Customization
12. Retail Supply Chain Management
13. Humanitarian and Public Health Supply Chains
14. Freight Transportation
15. Manufacturing Logistics

 

• Supply Chain Strategy:

In this course students learn how supply chain strategies must be designed to fit with the particular requirements of various competitive environments, as well as a company's competitive strategy. It also investigates barriers to integrating supply chains, including behavioral issues (e.g., misaligned incentives and change management) and operational execution problems. The course gives special emphasis to the tools students will need to participate effectively in decisions about operations in a global economy.

• Advanced Topics:

The Advanced Topics Seminar spans several terms, featuring elite professors who offer short, intense seminars on advanced topics. We typically feature professors from MIT and from leading schools in Europe. Some of these seminars may be scheduled as the year progresses.

Zaragoza Academic Partnership (ZAP)

The Zaragoza Academic Partner (ZAP) Program is an initiative to enhance applied research and closer industry-academia relationships in the field of supply chain management. Each year students are required to complete thesis projects and many of them work with our partner companies on challenging and innovative research projects through the ZAP Program. The ZAP Program gives students the opportunity to work closely with industry professionals on a real-life supply chain problem, and gives companies an opportunity to interact with a student or student team along with a professor as expert thesis advisor who together bring new insights and approaches to an active supply chain project. The ZAP Research Projects start in October and finish the following May.

Experiential learning developing a master thesis project with companies such as:

Research Fest

The Research Fest is an event taking place at the end of the academic year where master’s students present their final research projects to an audience of colleagues, faculty, academic partners and esteemed jury members. Occasionally, research topics that are larger in scope require a team of master's students. A faculty supervisor is assigned to each thesis project to provide guidance for the research effort and writing process. Final presentations are made at an event open to the supply chain community. In addition, a panel of experienced academic and industry representatives select the "ZLOG Best Thesis Award" in recognition of the most outstanding Master's Thesis Project of the Class.

• ZLOG/ZLOGb Outstanding Thesis Award 2024  presented to Verónica Alvarez and Emilija Jakutyte for their project on Improving E-commerce Distribution Network to Expand 1-hour Delivery Service Area 

• ZLOG/ZLOGb Outstanding Thesis Award 2023  presented to Walter Antaurco, Candela Lloret and Camila Revelo for their project on Title 

• ZLOG/ZLOGb Outstanding Thesis Award 2022  presented to Rolando Fuentes, Anzar Kamdar and Valeriya Shevtsova for their project on Sequential Decision Analytics for Multi-Product Production Planning under Energy Price and Manufacturing Uncertainty 

• ZLOG/ZLOGb Outstanding Thesis Award 2021  presented to Teresa Barros, Christopher Czech and Rodrigo Pérez for their project on Lean Operations Design and Machine Learning-Enhanced Scenario Planning for an E-Commerce Platform Using a Continuum Approximation Routing Approach 

• ZLOG/ZLOGb Outstanding Thesis Award 2020  presented to Gala Priscilla Andrade Avelar and María Fernanda Barragán Guadalupe for their project on Implementing Sustainability Initiatives in Logistics 

• ZLOG/ZLOGb Outstanding Project Award 2019 went to Jaime Aróstegui, Giuliano Babbini and Damián Diéguez for their project on Optimization of Spare Parts Logistics Flows in a Global Scale  

• ZLOG Best Thesis Award 2018 went to to Pilar Albar, Bruna Basile and Fernanda Caropresso for their thesis titled Network Capacity Plan 

• ZLOG Best Thesis Award 2017 went to Shwethika Adusumalli and Ashish Thomas Augustine for their thesis titled Linking Lead Time & Inventory in Pharma Businesses 

• ZLOG Best Thesis Award 2016 went to Christos Agrogiannis and Rajesh Kella for their thesis titled Inventory Optimization as a Business Advantage 

• ZLOG Best Thesis Award 2015 went to Arturo M. García-Calderón Narváez & Edson F. Guimarães Junior for their thesis titled  Network Optimization as a Business Advantage 

• ZLOG Best Thesis Award 2014 went to Arunangshu Ghatak and Chenyao Liu for their thesis titled Reduction of Total Cycle Time and Impact of Service Level on Working Capital for a Chemical Company 

• ZLOG Best Thesis Award 2013 went to Sarah Robbins-Penniman for her thesis titled Improving Inventory Management in Non-Emergency Humanitarian Aid Operations 

• ZLOG Best Thesis Award 2012 went to Kristin Bautista and Thilo Girsch for their thesis titled Impact of End-to-End Lead Time on Service Level and Working Capital in a Pharmaceutical Company 

• ZLOG Best Thesis Award 2011 went to Pedro Campos and Álvaro Galve for their thesis titled Direct to pharmacy distribution in Spain: An operational and politico-economic analysis

• ZLOG Best Thesis Award 2010 went to Wiko Kabiling for his thesis titled Strategic Forecasting of Vaccines Adoption by GAVI-Eligible Countries 

• ZLOG Best Thesis Award 2009 went to Ania Vargas Muñoz for her thesis titled Regional Distribution Hubs for HIV/AIDS Drug Supply in Africa: A Cost-Benefit Analysis  

• ZLOG Best Thesis Award 2008 went to Christopher Carr and James Dorbor Jallah for their thesis Improving Spatial Accessibility to Antiretroviral Treatments for HIV/AIDS 

• ZLOG Best Thesis Award 2007 - This award was sponsored by the Instituto Aragonés de Fomento (Aragonese Institute of Public Works) of the Department of Industry, Commerce and Tourism of the Government of Aragon. The winner, Gemma Berenguer i Falguera, received €6,000 for her thesis: Impact of Due-Date Requirements on Capacity Management 

• ZLOG Best Thesis Award 2006 - For the Class of 2006, Marija Milenkovic ZLOG graduate and former ZLOG Managing Director, won this distinction for her thesis: International Cargo via Regional Airports: Case Study of Zaragoza Airport 

Students celebrate the completion of their studies in May with a special Commencement Ceremony and reception hosted by the President of Aragon and Rector of the University of Zaragoza. Past commencement addresses have been given by:

• Maite Jiménez, Vice President, Supply Chain Management for EMEA, Ricoh Europe
• Deborah O'Neil, Vice President, Supply Chain, Global Supply Planning & Inventory, Revlon Inc.
• Harald Emberger, Corporate Senior Vice President, Supply Chain, Beiersdorf
• Gustavo Burger, Senior Vice President of Operations – EMEA APAC & LATAM, The Kraft Heinz Company
• Dirk Holbach, Corporate Senior Vice President Global Supply Chain Laundry & Home Care, Henkel
• Ivanka Janssen, VP Supply Chain Europe, Eastern Europe & Sub Saharan Africa, PepsiCo
• David Sheldon, Head of Global Supply Chain Development & Digital Supply Chain, Nestlé
• Berta Escudero, Executive Director, Cortefiel
• John Allan, CEO of Exel Logistics
• Marie-Christine Lombard, Head of TNT Express
• Hans-Joachim Körber, Chairman and CEO, Metro Group
• Subra Suresh, Dean, MIT School of Engineering
• Yosef Sheffi, Director, Engineering Systems Division, MIT
• Ezequiel Szafir, Group General Manager, Grupo Cortefiel
• Robert Blackburn, Senior Vice President and head of Global Supply Chain, BASF
• Dr. V. Sumantran, Executive Vice-Chairman, Hinduja Automotive, UK and Vice-Chairman, Ashok Leyland
• Martin Wegner, Vice-President of Research and Development, Deutsche Post DHL Solutions and Innovation
• David LaPré, Head of Pharma Global Technical Operations, F. Hoffmann-La Roche
• Ralph Keck, Director - P&G Product Supply - Global Logistics, P&G