 So, welcome back. So, we received one question from Param Ayer, and he's asking about how many slots are allocated for micromaster students to get into the blended program. So for the blended program, this is, let's say, is the second part of the micromaster credential. So, the blended program, only those of you that complete the five SCX courses plus the CFX and earn the micromaster credential are the only ones that can apply to the blended program. So, the five month residential program is a blended program designed for the micromaster student. So, it's like the second part of the micromaster credential program. Exclusive for them? Exclusive for micromasters students. However, we also have the 10 month residential program, the supply chain master degree, 10 month program. This program anyone can apply even if some of you has already completed one or two or three of the SCX courses, you can apply to the 10 month residential program even if you didn't complete any of the SCX courses. In the admission process, we are now starting to take into consideration also those students that already completed at least one or two or some of the SCX courses are the performance, but for the 10 month program anyone can apply and need to meet the requirements and the criteria for the selection process, definitely, for the blended only for micromasters students. It's the second part of the micromaster credential. Okay, great. Excellent. Excellent. So, go back to the topic. Perfect. So, yeah, welcome back from the breakout session. Now we are going to discuss about how do you think that the growth of e-commerce will impact the design of supply chains in these four areas, network design, procurement, distribution strategies and supply chain finance. So, I want first of all, first, before it's starting with the discussion, I want to talk a little bit about the buying process. So, if we talk about the buying process, we can differentiate different aspects. First, discovering this is when we realize that we need to buy a new product. And once we identify the necessity to buy a new product, then we start searching, searching, looking for which is the retailer that offer the best deal, looking for this product through different channels, through different ways. More information about the product. More information. It's just to look for features, characteristics, specifications, the price, the service level. Maybe also reviews. Reviews. If we are in an online environment, yes, also reviews. Then the third step is to buy. It's when we, okay, we already look for the product, we compare the different options, and now we decide that we want to buy this one. The next step is delivery. So, if every single step happening in a traditional retailer store, typically we go to the store, all of this step is going to happen there. And typically, we're going to buy the product and grab the product and go home with our product. The last step is the return. When we, okay, we are not, finally, for any reason, we want to, we don't want the product and we want to return. So, in the traditional environment, let's say that every single step happened in the traditional retailer, however, currently, this current, this different step can happen anywhere. Because of we have different options, we can use the computer, we can use the smartphone, we can use the tablet in order to access to online retailers to search. Definitely, we can search online, we can buy online. If it is a software product, we can receive online the product. If it is a physical product, then we still need to figure it out how we are going to reach the final consumer, definitely. And for the return, same thing. If it is a physical product, online retailers need to figure it out how many options and which options they are going to offer to the customer in order to return their product. So, what's happened now is that any single step can happen almost anywhere. And this, at the end, for the retailers' point of view, from the manufacturer's point of view and also for the carriers, and all of the different actors involved in the supply chain is they need to manage this new paradigm, this new environment that I just, I choose this image in order to represent the mess for this, this problem, basically in terms of a network design problem. So, this is what we are going to discuss now. Yeah, let's see the questions we have received and let's start with the next question. Okay, so we have the answer for one of the breakout rooms. Yes. So, in relation to the network design, they say that it becomes more complicated due to increasing nodes and arcs, more collection points versus disease warehouse setup. That's related to network design. Okay, so, regarding network design, I fully agree with you guys. The retailers now, they need to think about how they are going to redesign the distribution strategy in order to decide how many different distribution channels they want to offer to their customer. For instance, let's think about a traditional department store. They already have their traditional retailers. The customers can go to these retailers, but in addition to that, they can also send the online order to home, use the home delivery option. But some of them currently are offering their customer pickup points. Those that already have their traditional retailers try to offer their own traditional retailer as a pickup point. But those that do not have that, like the pure players for Amazon, what they are doing is they are having agreement with other or traditional retailers to offer this as a pickup point. They are also considering automated package stations as a pickup point or the lockers, or they are also like Amazon buying four-foot chains, the grocery store in order to offer these as a physical point of sale for their customer and also as a physical pickup point to their customers. So I fully agree with you that in terms of the network design, the retailers need to think about how they are going to redesign. They need also to think about how many distribution channels they want to offer to their online customer. In terms of the nodes, they also mentioned the increased number of nodes. I also agree with this part because service level is also very relevant here. Very important and at the end for the network design, this is going to be translated to be closer to the final consumer and to be closer to the final consumer. One way to get that is with an intermediate people. So in addition to have our distribution center for these last-mile deliveries, sometimes we are going to also think about to locate some intermediate people in order to reach this final consumer in a shorter window. It's faster, again faster. So yeah, great point. Great point. Okay, so the same group but in this case related to procurement. Yeah. So they are mentioned a higher pressure to drive down procurement costs due to the increased transportation costs from network complexity. So two things here. So you are talking about a higher pressure for procurement. In procurement, I see here that definitely you can have access to a bigger portfolio of suppliers. Also it's easier to compare the different suppliers, the different product features and components they are offering to you. Yeah, at the end this can be more competitive definitely from the procurement point of view. You also mentioned transportation. I think that transportation costs you mean here the last mile deliveries and the last mile transportation that I agree that in this new context the costs, the logistics costs associated to the last mile delivery is going to be higher than in the traditional retailer environment. So for transportation, yes the increase of this cost. If you mean here that the increase of the transportation cost is because of having global suppliers. I don't know if they refer to global suppliers but another thing here in procurement is we are going to have access to more suppliers and global suppliers. So in this sense, yes, I also agree that transportation, the costs associated to the transportation of these raw material components might be increased because of that. Okay, thank you, thank you Eva. So we have the response from another team. So related to the network design, the physical flow, so they are mentioned that they have new technologies enabling in delivery of goods faster like using drones, robotics and setting up warehouses closer to the consumers refrigerators to store and deliver it within a command. Yes, I think you mentioned some of this. Yeah, this is a great point, the new technologies and this is something that we are going to cover in messy forex in supply chain technology and system. We are going to add a whole week talking about nutrients and on these nutrients one we are going to talk about these drones and another one is robotics because of, you're right, drones, yeah, drones is more related to two things transportation again for the last my deliveries. To be honest, I do not see the drones going to the apartments and to the final consumer, especially big cities, but definitely some companies are investing in drones and are considering that also for reaching the intermediate people or more than that the distribution center. So drones is one of the new trends that companies are investing in and considering just to sometimes to reach the distribution center or the intermediate people and in addition to that robotics, robotics and warehousing. And yes, I think that the these changes and these new technology are definitely helping in how to handle materials in a warehouse in order to do it in a more efficient way and in order to at the end have the capability to prepare the online order faster in order to at the end have a faster delivery. So yeah, both great points. We will discuss more about that in SC4X. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, Eva. And thank you again for being here. Any final remarks that you want to share with the students? I just want to encourage you to use the discussion forum. I think it's a great place to collaborate with your peers and to ask any question related to the learning space. Always, always use the SC2X health email account if you have any questions related to the assessment part of the course, the great assignment, the nature of the final. We are always, always very open to receive your feedback. So do not hesitate to share with us any feedback that you have related to the course. Happy to receive that. Happy to improve the course based on your comments. Yeah, that's all. Welcome again. Have a great, great learning experience with us. Thank you. Thank you, Eva. And to close this event, a couple of reminders. So don't forget that verification upgrade deadline is October the 4th at 1500 UTC. But don't wait until the last time to verify to do it as soon as possible. And also, tomorrow, we are releasing a week-to-material. But you have one additional week to work on grade assignment number one. So grade assignment is due on September 27th at 1500 UTC. And with that, we will close this event. Thank you for being here. And I will see you next, next time. Bye.