The Supply Chain Project is building the operating system for the Second Supply Chain™: connecting surplus goods and unused capacity with verified human need. Universities help develop the intelligence, frameworks and evidence that make this possible. We call that the University Impact Engine.
Pick one to start. Most partners begin with a single course, lab or student team and grow from there.
Study the coordination problem as a system: market design without a price signal, scoring surplus risk and need urgency, decision rights, impact measurement.
Propose a study →Capstones, hackathons and case competitions on a live problem from a real territory, with real data and a partner who will use the answer.
Bring a class →Students and graduates work inside the network as analysts, project leads and field support, and leave with operating experience employers recognize.
Place students →Co-design a pilot in a territory: pair a supply-side test with its demand-side twin, set the thresholds, run it, and publish what it shows.
Join a pilot →Help build the evidence standard: Surplus Wellbeing Yield (SWY), WELLBYs per $1,000 of rescued surplus, evidence-gated and honest about attribution.
Shape the standard →Documented, unsolved operational questions from a working network, with the data behind them and a named practitioner contact.
Three working frameworks (supply side, demand side, marketplace) shared with reviewers under agreement. Every critique and its answer is printed in the next revision.
A seat in the proof program: pre-registered pilots with published thresholds and stop rules. Your measurement design, our network.
Named contributions, co-authorship where it is earned, and a reference from the practitioners the students worked with.
A capability model that strengthens the Second Supply Chain. Beyond excess inventory, it covers any underutilized asset: goods, space, time, labor and capacity.
Research operating models and next-generation solution design.
Economic analysis, prediction and re-pricing of surplus, partner collaboration.
Verified need, the nonprofit network, dignity in fulfillment.
Logistics, repurposing pathways, execution design.
Data, artificial intelligence with human reasoning, measurement, proof.
One sequence, applied to what is at risk and to what is needed, until the two meet.
Identify unused goods, space, time or capacity, and verified community need.
Score how likely value is to be lost, how urgent the need is, and whether it can actually move.
Compare every option on the numbers and connect available resources to verified need.
Coordinate the partners who own the trucks, docks and warehouses. A match is complete only when movement is scheduled.
Track value, impact and outcomes, and claim only what the evidence supports.
Uncover waste and predict where surplus will appear.
Prioritize and match solutions to needs.
Deploy and scale pathway pilots.
Measure outcomes and drive continuous improvement.
The same path every pilot follows. A faculty team can enter at any step and carry a question through to a published result.
Understand assets, opportunities and needs in a territory.
Create solutions and operating models with practitioners.
Pilot, validate and refine against published thresholds.
Demonstrate impact and value, including when the answer is no.
Grow, replicate and multiply impact. The standards are open so others can run them.
The Supply Chain Project is defining the Second Supply Chain and building its operating system. Three frameworks have been through a structured critique cycle: 85 critiques answered, each printed with its resolution. The model is documented and buildable now.
Claims about results wait for pilots with published thresholds. When the pilots run, we publish what they show, including if the answer is no. Independent academic review is the next step, and we welcome it.
"Our focus is to take the best from the for-profit supply chain world and marry it with the nonprofit arena."
Steve Robinson, Chairman & CEO, The Supply Chain ProjectName a faculty lead, select an impact area of focus, and tell us how you want to engage. We reply within a week with the research brief and the reviewer's pack.
Success looks like a validated model connecting predictable supply with visible, verified demand, and a cohort of graduates who know how to run it.
