 Hi, global supply chainers. Welcome to our first live event in SC4x. My name is Eva Ponce. I'm the executive director of the MicroMastered Program Supply Chain Management and today I have with me Connor Makowski. He's the digital learning in the engineer in the in the team in the SCX team. So Connor, thank you for being here today. Absolutely not a problem. Excellent. So today First of all, I want to welcome you to SC4x. I also want to talk a little bit about the second MicroMaster core because most of you are almost at the end of this long journey completing your fifth course. Just wanted to to encourage you to complete this course to complete the CFX and be part of this second MicroMaster core that we are also here very excited about that. Third, I really want to give some reminder about the verification, especially for those, for those of you that are interested in the MicroMaster core or are interested in a certificate in SC4x. This is something that is mandatory. So I really want to give you some reminder about the verification process and also explain why you are going to have a proctor test in SC4x. So you will have a proctor test in week seven and it will just explain briefly why we are going to do this. And the final thing I want to review with you today is about the MicroMaster profile. We have a MicroMaster core out, which is a great place once you complete all of the courses with us to have a networking with your with other peers and SCX learners. So we really want to encourage you to be part of this MicroMaster portal and include your profile. For the second part, we are going to debrief the first round of the first connection. We are going to share with you Conor and myself. We are going to share with you the results of the first round and then you will have the opportunity to go to the breakout session, the breakout rooms in order to discuss with your peers some of the questions that Conor and I have prepared for you today. So as I mentioned, first of all, welcome to this huge community of MicroMaster students. Now you are part of this more than 200,000 people enrolled in any of SCX courses. These people are from more than 180 countries, so most of the countries all over the world are represented. And as you know now, this is a global program. So we are so proud of you and we are very happy to have the opportunity to reach learners from all over the world. In terms of the first MicroMaster core, we already issued more than 600 MicroMaster credential certificates. So and now for this second round, for this second core of MicroMaster already more than 700 students qualified. And I really hope that at the end of SCX, we are going to have more than 500 students that qualify for the CFX. So go MicroMaster, you are almost there. I also brought today here some stories from this first cohort of learners from the MicroMaster. Janaka, she said that the MicroMaster helped their hair to improve her knowledge and also to improve her business because she applies some of the techniques, some of the tools that she learned with us in the MicroMaster. Regarding Nur, she said that thanks to the MicroMaster, this opened her doors to a global career in supply chain management. We have also Jess. Jess is from SAP Miller. He's the planning director in Europe and thanks Jess because he's sending most of his employees to our program. And they are using this as a way to train their employees in supply chain management. So we have also a good part of learners that are from companies. They are bringing their experience to the program, which always is a great thing for us and for the program too. And Javier, he's originally from Spain. Javier is living in Seattle for the last more than 15 years. He's working at Google as part of the supply chain and he also took the five courses and he completed the MicroMaster credential. So he just wanted to bring you some of these learners and the impression about the MicroMaster. So where you are now, you are almost at the end of this journey. You already completed zero, most of you. Most of you already completed zero, one, two, three. And you are now about to complete SC4X. In SC4X, we are going to focus mainly in how to manage supply chains at the scale. The first block of the course will focus on databases. So Connor is developing most of the problems that you are solving now. And the main idea, Connor, here, is that they are prepared to deal with big data analysis and queries. Absolutely. Yeah. So in this first half of this course, as you've already seen, we've been dealing with a lot of structured query language and a lot of SQL. And at the same time, we're going to start moving into machine learning and how we can tie big data to machine learning and really connect those dots in a way that will help you guys, when you leave and go to your jobs, to be able to handle this as well. Definitely. In the second part of SC4X, Criska, please, will start talking about the supply chain system. He will start talking about ERP, the Enterprise Resource Planning System, Intra Organizational Supply Chain System. And then he will move to talk a little bit about Intra Organizational Supply Chain System. Alexis Bateman, Dr. Bateman also will cover a lesson about track and trace. At the end of the course, Chris and myself, we will cover new trends, technology new trends and supply chain new trends. So we will end with, I think it's going to be a fun week at the end that is going also to be interactive. And finally, we want to review the new trends in supply chain as a way to complete and finish the fifth course of the MicroMaster Credential. And after that, those that are interested in the MicroMaster Credential need to take the comprehensive final exam that is going to be a proctor final exam. Let's have a look now, a close look to SC4X. We have so far more than 11,000 learners enrolled, about 650 verified learners. So still there are some of the audit learners with activity. Still there are some of you that are on track to complete the five courses. So I really, really encourage you to upgrade your status to be a verified student. The deadline is going to happen next Wednesday, October 18 at 1500. So please don't, don't, if you plan to do that, don't wait until the last minute because always there are some problems with the payments, some problems with the verification. So please don't wait until, until the end. In terms of the, of our learners in the current rank of SC4X, we have students from more than 170 countries. 20% of these students are from USA, 11% are from India. And then we have a good representation from, for a student from Brazil, from Canada, Mexico, Germany, Spain, also from Indonesia and Australia. As I mentioned before, and as, as you might know now, because you, you are, most of you have been taking with us some of the SC4X courses, there are two different tracks, verified and audit. For those that plan to upgrade your status to verify is just to, the first page of the course is just to click on the, on the green button, the upgrade button. This is the way to complete the first step that is the payment. For this specific course, the cost is going to be $150. However, in January 2018, all of our SCX courses are going to cost $200. Having said that, the total cost of the MicroMaster is going to be less than before because the CFX, the Comprehensive Final Exam, is going also to cost $200. So the total cost is going to be $1200. Those that are planning to take the CFX in February, the cost is going to be $200 instead of $600. So I, I hope that this encouraged most of you to, to take this final exam. So the first step, as I mentioned, is to, to complete the payment. You can use PayPal or any of the, the credit card. For the second step, and this is very important, and please do not forget to do that, is just to verify your identity. You need to do this. For us, the ID verification is as important as all of the part of the process. Until you don't complete that, you cannot earn a certificate in the, in this course. So there is a link here that you can use in order to help you with the ID verification. If you have any issue here with the ID verification or the payment step, please go directly to edX. You should contact info at edX.org because they, they, they are the ones that are going to help you with any issue with the verification or the payment. The course team focus more on the, on the contents, answer any questions that you might have related to the press connection, to the contents of the course, but verification is out of our scope. So please contact edX for, for this purpose. And regarding the benefits, the main benefit is to earn a certificate in a C4X and also to earn the MicroMaster credential if you are intending to do that. You will also have access to life events. This first life event is open to everyone, but the next life event, we will also offer to verify the students. You will also have access to MicroMaster supplemental material. So these are like the main benefits. I also encourage you to go to our MicroMaster portal, micromaster.mit.edu slash scm. So here we want you to create your profile. Please, please upload a picture of you so we can know who, who you are. Also complete this profile. We will use this in order to contact with you and provide all the details for the comprehensive final exam. That's why for those that are intending to complete the MicroMaster credential, it's mandatory to go to the MicroMaster portal and upload their, your profile. It's a great way once you complete the program to be in touch with the SCX community. Arthur, our community manager is managing the photos there and is managing the, the, this MicroMaster portal. So we will be very happy to have all of you there as a way to continue with this MicroMaster community. So these are the reasons to, to go there and create your profile. Here is the, the web site is, is very, is just to signing and follow the, the steps. In terms of the, of the benefit of the MicroMaster credential, this is a pathway to a Master degree, a Master degree here at MIT or any other universities that are recognizing the MicroMaster credential as a way of the, as a path of credit for the Master degree program. So in order to do that, the students need to complete the credential. And once you have the credential, you, you are able to apply for the Master degree at MIT. This is what we call the blended program and it's a Master degree in supply chain management. You just need to spend one full semester on campus five months instead of ten months in order to earn the Master degree. So for those that are interested in that, after the, the completing the CFX, you will know the results and then we will open and you will have the opportunity to apply for the next core of, of blended the student here at MIT. A quick question that a lot of students often have here is, do they still need to take tests, like the GMAT or the GRE? Good question, Connor. No, this change the way, the way we are selecting students. So instead of need to pass a GMAT or GRE exam, they, we are going to recognize and use the MicroMaster credential as a way to apply for this program. So we, they don't need to take GRE or GMAT. If they have, they can include that, but it's not necessary to take GRE or GMAT. Instead of that, we are going to take into consideration all of your performance during the five courses plus the CFX and your performance during this, on average, 18 months with us working as a SCX learner. So it's a different, it's a complete, completely change the, the way to, to select a student and the access of this student to a Master degree. A sort of inverted admission. This is the, the, the word that President Rafe used for this, a new way to, to accept a student and it's an inverted admission is we already know the student, the student where we passed during 18 months, more, more or less. And then based on this performance, we are going to, to make the decision. Having said that, the best part of the selection process is exactly the same. I mean, in terms of English level, we are also going to ask for an interview, um, letter of recommendation. So every other single part of the process is going to be exactly the same. So same standards. Um, same. Yeah. Excellent. Okay. So a proctor test in SC4X. Why, why a proctor test in SC4X? We really want you to be prepared for the comprehensive final exam. The comprehensive final exam is a proctor test. So, uh, we will offer in week seven, uh, a proctor test. This is going to represent only 1% of your total grade. This is the minimum grade that we can provide for, for this proctor test, but we really want you to take that and this is mandatory for verified learners. Those that are verified need to take this proctor test. Um, will be a time exam less than two hours. Um, for this proctor test, um, is going to be part of the homework of the week seven. Um, you need to download the software, software secure software, and you need to follow some of the instructions that we will provide. So after the midterm, we will share with you all of the details about this proctor test. The intention in SC4X is just to, uh, prepare you for the CFX. So, um, we will provide all of the details. Um, I hope that we already did the last round of SC4X. We already did the CFX exam. Everything works, uh, well, but we want you to be prepared for, for that. Yeah. And now let's talk about the press connection. All right. Okay. So, yeah. So, um, yeah. So actually, uh, I had the pleasure of joining some of your classmates, um, earlier this month in Portugal, uh, where they competed for the Fresh Connection Global Championship. Now the Fresh Connection is a game that we play here as part of the MicroMasters. It's also something we do on campus. Now, once you get past a certain level, if you're, if you qualify, you can go to this global competition in that you have different teams that have qualified from around the world, different companies. So 300 different teams qualify for this global competition. So there are many more teams under them that don't even qualify. And so this team, uh, competed in this global competition and did really well. In fact, one round they had an ROI of over 70%, which is fantastically awesome. Um, at the same time, they did well enough in that global competition to qualify for the global finals. Now, um, if you do get to go to the global finals, it's an all-inclusive trip paid for, by the Fresh Connection Company in Change. And they will essentially fly you out and put you in a hotel. Um, so you can experience the, uh, global, uh, Fresh Connection Challenge. Um, so the top 10 teams from around the world have qualified for that. This year, and one of them was our team. In the end, they came out on top and they were first placed. So the MicroMasters team paid out companies from around the world to be number one, which is a great, great accomplishment. Definitely. Yes. Absolutely. So we actually have a, uh, a trophy for the students one. So, um, if, uh, let's see if we can get a little closer. Yeah. We see it here. All right. Great. So, um. Yes. And I want to add that we are very proud of, of, of this team. Uh, this team, uh, they, they had the opportunity to play for the first time, the first connection because of SIFORX. Absolutely. So they, they took SIFORX last fall. They did the four runs with us. They were selected as, as, as conurbation by, by the Fresh Connection Company. And finally, they, they won, but they want to highlight that they did a lot of, um, individual work before going there. They played by themselves the four roles as you have now the opportunity to do in this run of SIFORX. And this was the first time that these four, uh, people met in person and play, uh, in person the game. So it was a great experience. I'm here at MIT. All of the team are very proud of this result and this achievement. So yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So, um, at the same time, we, we, uh, got a chance to, to go to this, or I got a chance to go to this competition and cheer for them. Um, so the, the team was there doing all of the hard work. Some of them spent actually before coming, um, 40, 50 hours around when they were doing it actually during the class. So they put a lot of time and effort into this game. They put a lot of applied concepts that they learned in the class in a way that would allow them to achieve the best ROI possible in the game, the best score that they could achieve. Um, so then once they got to the global competition, uh, they were actually dubbed the United Nations teams, uh, or the United Nations team. Essentially, the students came from Italy, um, but working in Vietnam, I think, um, we had one from El Salvador, we had one from Brazil, and then we had one from Mexico, but he's living in Colombia. So it was a truly like United Nations global team, a very interesting competition. And so, um, it was, it was a great opportunity to get there, to see them work, um, and to, to meet them actually for the first time when they met each other as well. Definitely. Yeah. Okay. So let's go now to the first connection debrief. Um, let's see how you did in this first round of the first connection. So we have a total of 435 participants in this first round. However, uh, only 262 were active participants. This means that make some decisions through the platform, save the changes and submit the changes. So, uh, some of you maybe just have access, um, uh, don't make any, any decision or forgot to save that. That is something that, uh, if you, if you want to change something in the platform, unless you save this, this is not going to, to take effect. So do not forget to, to save your, your changes in, in, in the platform. Um, 60% of these active participants are verified the student, um, around 30% audit student. The average score was minus 3.6%. But this is totally normal. This is the first round. Um, it's really hard to, to improve this ROI, to be honest. Um, now I, I'm going to show you the detail and you will see the distribution of, of the learners in, in this, and the median score was minus 0.5%. Yeah. So that means half of our, half of our students did better than 0.5, negative 0.5%, which is, it's a really great improvement. It's a great improvement. And this is round one. So, uh, do not forget that you are going to have three more rounds to improve these results. So, um, yeah, here is the, are the details you can see based on this histogram that most of the students are over this minus 1% of ROI. Um, the most number of students we have is around 1% of, of return of investment. Um, some of you reach a, around 6% of ROI, which is a great, great result for our first round. Absolutely great result. One thing I'd also like to point out here is, uh, those students that aren't doing well, I'd like to encourage you, actually in the global competition, we had some of the teams do like negative 28%. And, and they're still the top 10 teams in the world. This game can be very challenging and a little mistake can actually hurt you very badly. So, um, changing that upper next round, making little tweaks, adjusting your overall strategy and aligning it to the different scenarios in the game can allow you to quickly get that back up. So we see a lot of teams that start out poorly that come back and do very well. Some of the students last year started out very poorly, actually ended up coming back and one of them was one of the global champions. Yeah. And don't, and don't be shy. It's a, it's a game. So play, play with the different decisions that you can make and try different things. Um, the most important thing here, and this is why we are not grading the, one of the reasons we are not grading this game is we just want you to, to, to play and to make decisions. And the, the most relevant thing here is that these decisions that you are making in one area of the company are going to have an impact in another areas. And at the end in the performance of the supply chain. So yes, play with that. I think also that the first connection is a great way to apply concept that you have learned in zero, in one, in two, in three, in all of the previous courses in, as part of the program. And it's a really good way to, to have a kind of real example and play with that and simulate what happened if I increase the safety stock for the inbound material, for instance, or the outbound or whatever. So I just encourage you to take risk to make decisions to apply your concept. You are going to have four rounds. And as Connor mentioned, this is part of the game. So yeah, don't be afraid to fail. Don't be afraid to fail. I also recommend you to, to watch the videos in week zero. You have all of the videos that explain you each role in the company and the reports and the main, the main data and information you can find them. So I really encourage you to go through the videos. Connor also prepared a case study that is also very helpful. Reviewing the documentation, I think always helps in order to understand better the game. And finally, play the game. Play the game, play the four roles and see how it works. So as we mentioned, 37, almost 40% of our students score more than 1%. That for the first round, this is spectacular. This is a huge improvement. Almost 70% over the starting point, which is also very good. You make some decisions that at the end improve the results of the company. And for those that didn't improve, sometimes it's because you want to include that two and you include that 20 or you didn't save the change that you think you were saving. So I always insist in this part because one of the more typical error is don't forget to save or typos or these kind of things. So just be aware about that. In terms of the top players here, we have Maria, Paul and Diego. And the few of them are almost around or over the 6% of return of investment. This is a fantastic score. This is one of the best scores you can get in these early rounds. So I'm very proud of them. Very proud. Yes, we are very proud of them. I agree. In terms of the strategy, so we want to bring here the following thing. The first connection is a complex game. And there are many decisions that you are allowed to make. As I mentioned, it's just to see the impact of one decision over the other. But there is not here a recipe. There is not here something that is, if I do this and this, then I'm going to have this performance. No, here is more everything is about to define your own strategy. And once you define your strategy, it's just to be aligned in the different areas of the company with this strategy. And there are different approaches. Different approaches to have, for instance, a 6% of ROI in the performance of the company. So for instance, for the first player, you can see that this player focus more on the stock of final product and invest more on this final product inventory than on the inventory of components. And you can see the reason that they did this was because then they can cut the stock of their components. So their inbound warehouse is going to have less of a stock, which means they're going to run out more often, but they make up for it in that investment that you said in their final goods warehouse. They might also have suppliers that aren't nearly as good at providing supplies on time, which means they can save money in that area. And so then it costs them more in a different area. But it's just weighing these tradeoffs and making sure that they all work together. On the other hand, you can see player number two, he invests more on inbound on a stock of components and also take care a lot about the reliability of the suppliers more than on the stock of the final products. But he also achieved almost more than 6% of ROI. And the last player, he really, really invests in the reliability of the supplier, almost 100% of availability of components. Even though his stock was a little bit lower. Did you see that? Because he invests a lot on this availability of components. That's absolutely right. So then the thing we want to bring here is different, you can have different approaches. So what we want you to do now is to join the breakout rooms. Go to the breakout rooms and discuss about what strategy did you use during the first round of the first connection. We don't want you to discuss about if you decide to have eight weeks of safety stock in the inbound warehouse. No, we want you to discuss about the strategy and the pros and cons that now you can see because of this strategy. And finally, we want you to discuss about how did you align your supply chain with your own strategy. So let's go to the breakout session, discuss these three questions. And after 20 minutes, 15 minutes, we are going to discuss with you your your your answers and the questions you you may have. Okay. See you. Bye.