Books

The Magic Conveyor Belt: Supply Chains, A.I., and the Future of Work

This book explores the vital role of global supply chains in the modern economy, and how they have been impacted by the societal and economic spasms of the early 2020s. Divided into four parts, it covers the history of supply chain management, the complexities of meeting growing consumer demands for fast delivery services, the impact of technology, and how people can succeed in an increasingly complex and automated future.

cover art for book: The Magic Conveyor Belt

About The Magic Conveyor Belt:

The societal and economic spasms of the early 2020s highlighted the crucial role of world-spanning supply chains in the modern global economy, as well as the growing role of digital technology, including A.I. and automation, in the future economy. In The Magic Conveyor Belt, MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi explains what supply chains are, how they operate, and how the integration of advanced technology with people and processes will be the hallmark of future supply chain management.

Professor Sheffi lays the foundation for understanding supply chains and the characteristics that make them complex. In Part 1 of the book “The Global Dance,” he delves into the often-hidden intrinsic structure of supply chains to ground the reader in the challenges of managing the mammoth networks involved.

Part 2, “Further Complexity and Challenges,” shows how the last 50 years have added even more complexity to supply chains. This part covers the rising demand for goods, as well as the increasing consumer expectations for fast, perfect delivery services.

The capabilities and future roles of automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence are changing and augmenting the jobs held by workers—covered in Parts 3 and 4. Elements of the book trace the implications of multiple trends in the operating environment for tomorrow’s global supply chains, as they change and augment the jobs held by workers.

While many of the new skills require technical knowhow, it is social skills, ironically, that may be a key for future human employment in an economy dominated by technology.

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Sheffi signing books next to stack of "The Magic Conveyor Belt"

Endorsements

“Professor Sheffi brilliantly explains the arcane and vital supply chains that make the world work in this highly useful book for the average person and logistics professionals alike.”

— Frederick W. Smith, Founder and Executive Chairman, FedEx Corporation

“The pandemic has brought to everyone’s attention the importance of supply chains. Professor Sheffi’s tour-de-force explains how these massive networks operate in a complex, ever-changing world. The book sheds lights on the use of modern technology in running these networks, and the cooperative roles of both people and technology in the future. A must-read.”

— Hamid Moghadam, CEO, Prologis Inc.

“Professor Sheffi explains in clear language the complexities of global supply chains and their future in a technology-infused world. It is an essential read for anybody who wants to understand how just about everything we use reaches us, and how it will happen in the future. His explanation of the role of A.I. is illuminating – he explains why rather than replacing jobs, it will augment, change, and create new jobs in supply chains and elsewhere.”

— Vincent Clerc, CEO, A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S

"Yossi does a masterful job of storytelling the present and future of supply chains so that the complex, highly interdependent, and globally connected processes to bring everyday items to the doorstep of the consumer are well understood. As only Yossi can, he carefully explains where supply chains exist today and bridges to a future harmonious blend of people, processes, and Artificial Intelligence that every supply chain professional needs to understand. This book is a must for anyone looking to “see” into the future of possibilities. The supply chains of today are transforming and Yossi’s “The Magic Conveyor Belt” demonstrates that the future is not just about any one thing but in fact, how all things must work together for the good of mankind…including human competency and capability!”

— Mark S. Baxa, President & CEO, Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP)

See Professor Sheffi's complete catalog of books

Book Reviews

Electronics Weekly

Gadget Book: The Magic Conveyor Belt, Electronics Weekly, April 2023

When it came to this book - The Magic Conveyor Belt, by MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi - I came for the robotics and AI but I stayed for the supply chain story...

At first glance I wondered if supply chains – however mysteriously opaque but characteristic of our times – would keep my attention, but it turned into a very interesting read. It covers such areas as whether AI will be a job creator or destroyer, the successive industrial revolutions that have preceded current AI developments, how modern production systems are structured and why they are so complex, and how vulnerable the systems can be at each different level…

If you ever wondered why supply chains are so involved, there is one detailed example of tracking a t-shirt manufactured in Bangladesh on its journey to a high-street retailer in the United States.

MIT Spectrum Magazine

The Complex Magic of Getting Goods from Here to There

For a half century, the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL) has made an intensive study of global supply chains, or what the center’s director, Yossi Sheffi SM ’76, PhD ’78, the Elisha Gray II Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT, describes in the title of his new book as the “magic conveyor belt.”

This subject area, Sheffi acknowledges, wasn’t something the average person ever gave much thought to. Then came Covid-19.

“Until January 2020,” he recalls, “people would ask my wife, ‘What’s your husband doing at MIT?’ She’d say, ‘Supply chain management,’ and they’d ask, ‘What is that?’ Three months into the pandemic, she goes to Whole Foods and asks the clerk, ‘Why don’t you have the oranges that I like?’ And he says, ‘Ma’am, we have supply-chain issues, you know….’”

Irving Wladawsky-Berger

The Evolution of Global Supply Chains in the 21st Century Digital Economy, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, May 2023

“The societal and economic spasms of the early 2020s highlighted the crucial role of world-spanning supply chains in the modern global economy, as well as the growing role of digital technology, including A.I. and automation, in the future economy,” wrote MIT professor Yossi Sheffi in the Preface of his new book The Magic Conveyor Belt: Supply Chains, A.I. and the Future of Work. In the Preface, Sheffi succinctly stated that “The central purpose of supply chains is to fulfill the needs and wants of humanity — delivering all the food, medicine, energy, apparel, and other worldly goods need by the eight billion people in the planet.”

Air Cargo Week

Preparing the airfreight workforce for a technology-focused future

May 22, 2023

Dr. Yossi Sheffi is the Elisha Gray II Professor of Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL). His most recent book is “The Magic Conveyor Belt: Supply Chains, A.I., and the Future of Work.”

Throughout human history, people have worried about technology taking away their jobs. From the automated textile looms and “horseless carriages” of the past to the package-handling robots and driverless vehicles of today, automation has elicited fear and resentment toward job-stealing machines. This is understandable, as during the series of industrial revolutions, many jobs were diminished or replaced by machines. Yet other jobs were created over time.

Ops Design Consulting

The Magic Conveyor Belt – Supply Chain Management Explained

August 3, 2023

A book titled “The Magic Conveyor Belt” does an exceptionally good job of explaining the supply chain. Until a few years ago, explaining your role as a supply chain management professional was probably not a great conversation starter at parties. But when the pandemic began in 2020, suddenly the entire world at least had a cursory understanding of what the industry was about. Now that supply chain management is on the map, MIT’s Yossi Sheffi, director of The Center for Transportation and Logistics launched his newest book on the topic, “The Magic Conveyor Belt.” Serving as a primer on what the supply chain is and how it works, Sheffi is hoping to share his decades-long research findings and know-how with both the profession and the public.

Supply Chain Movement

The ‘big reveal’ of The Magic Conveyor Belt

‘The Magic Conveyor Belt’ rewards those who stick with it. In effect, it is more like two books: an explanatory book and a visionary book. Anyone who gives up during the first part, thinking ‘I already know all this’ will miss out on a great second part which contains new insights for even the most experienced supply chain professional.

Inbound Logistics

Publisher Viewpoint: Pay More Attention to Supply Chain People Skills

Author and supply chain luminary Yossi Sheffi offers the similar nuanced perspective that it is important to make an effort to keep people front and center in modern business operations. The convergence of people and technology managing global supply lines in this highly charged economic environment presents a challenge, but also an opportunity.

Sheffi’s latest book, The Magic Conveyor Belt, details the singular value of people in supply chain, or, more accurately, the importance of people-to-people interactions in this brave new world dominated by unbelievable technology.

Sloan Management Review

The top 10 MIT Sloan articles of 2023

What ideas and insights were people drawn to this year? The following list outlines the most-read articles from MIT Sloan’s Ideas Made to Matter team to date in 2023.

In a new book, MIT professor Yossi Sheffi examines supply chain complexity, artificial intelligence, and the future of work. One case study? The incredible journey of the ordinary banana.

Sloan Management Review

MIT Sloan reading list: 8 books from 2023

From artificial intelligence to supply chains to the future of China’s economy, these books help explain what’s happening in today’s business environment.

The Magic Conveyor Belt: Supply Chains, AI, and the Future of Work

Yossi Sheffi, MIT engineering professor and director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics

Consumers rarely thought about supply chains before the pandemic; goods seemed to appear seamlessly in stores and on doorsteps. But pandemic-era disruptions lifted the curtain on this apparent magic, revealing “the underlying structure, unavoidable complexity, and massive scale of modern supply chains,” according to Sheffi.