Supply chains of the Roman Empire had much in common with modern supply chains. Supply chains then

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Supply chains of the Roman Empire had much in common with modern supply chains. Supply chains then and now require development of good mental models to understand them and keep them working well. Some ancient supply chains can also teach us lessons about sustainability that we could use today. It is the year 300 AD, and you have just been promoted to the head of a large trading company dealing in olive oil. This company is owned by one of the wealthiest families in Roman Africa - the Septimii. They come from the city of Leptis Magna and they own extensive olive growing estates in the province of Tripolitania. You are a major player in the lucrative olive oil business that supplies the city of Rome. Are you up to the challenge of running this company and the supply chain that supports it? In this case study you will see a supply chain as complex as many modern supply chains even though it operated a long time ago. The basic tasks involved in moving products from one place to another have not changed that much over the centuries (only the technology used to perform those tasks). As you run simulations and see the results, you will start to form an intuitive understanding or "mental model" of how this supply chain works. 43345452 This supply chain moved olive oil, wheat, and dates from provinces in Roman North Africa to supply the City of Rome You will use your mental model to see where to make improvements to keep this supply chain running as efficiently as you can. The Romans didn't have computers, and even simple math was pretty complicated... have you ever tried to do calculations with Roman numerals? So they must have relied on mental models or professional judgement based on years of experience in order to manage the complexity and keep their supply chains running. This skill in forming good mental models is still critical for managing supply chains today, maybe even more so! Though we now have powerful modern technologies, supply chain managers still need to know what they are doing and understand why they are doing it. Computers and telecommunications make business happen a lot faster than it used to, so situations can quickly get out of control if people do not understand what is happening and how to respond appropriately. Computers, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics allow us to manage larger flows of products in faster moving supply chains - but technology alone will not save us. We still need good mental models to understand how supply chains work and make good decisions to keep them running and keep improving them. A Picture of the Olive Oil Supply Chain Rome got most of its wheat and a significant portion of its olive oil from its provinces in North Africa. The province of Tripolitania (now part of Libya) produced an enormous amount of olive oil (and still produces a lot even now). Huge fortunes were made growing olives and exporting the oil. Olive oil was used as food, as fuel for lighting, and as an ingredient in everything from paint, soap, cosmetics, and ointments. It was one of the most valuable commodities in the empire. Here is a picture of the supply chain that moved olive oil from North Africa to Rome. There were five main parts to the supply chain as shown below. 43345477 The five main parts of the supply chain that delivered olive oil from Tripolitania to Rome are still quite visible today. We'll look at those five parts and create a supply chain model that shows how those parts worked together to move products between Rome and Leptis Magna. You will appreciate what it must have been like to manage this supply chain, and the skills needed to be successful. You will also see that most of those same skills are still needed to manage supply chains today. 1 - The Green Sea (A Sustainable Supply Chain) This supply chain originated in an area of North Africa once called the "Green Sea" because it was literally a green sea of olive trees. People had been cultivating olive trees in this area for centuries and under the Roman Empire it reached its peak. Much of the coastal plain of Tripolitania was a forest of olive trees. This was an example of what we would now call a "sustainable supply chain." Instead of supporting human activity that stripped and polluted the land, this supply chain supported human activity that enriched the land and reclaimed the desert by planting trees. Could something like this be done again using modern technology? Olive oil was one of the most valuable commodities in the Empire. It was used for food, fuel, lighting, and as a component in everything from paint to cosmetics and ointments. Because it was so valuable, extensive waterworks to support olive growing were built inland up into the dry hills at the edge of the Sahara Desert, and also out in desert valleys far from the coast. Terraces and retaining walls were built on hillsides to cause the occasional rains to soak into the earth instead of rushing into the ravines. Water that overflowed the retaining walls was captured in ditches leading to underground cisterns where it was stored for later use. And water that reached the ravines and valleys was stored behind low dams built across the valley floors, so it seeped into the soil of the valley floors instead of draining off the land in flash floods. The result was olive trees, date palms, and crops like wheat and millet could be grown on formerly barren hillsides and desert valleys. Roman demand for olive oil created a market and a supply chain that literally changed the landscape as shown in the pictures below. Picture 1 shows a satellite view of Tripolitania. The roads between various centres of olive oil production are shown in blue. Picture A shows a close up of abandoned water works, hundreds of low dams across now empty desert valleys. Where there is just drifting sand, there were once forests of olive trees. Picture B shows a desert valley and ravines far out in the Sahara. The darker bands across the valley and ravines are strips of vegetation growing where the remains of Roman waterworks still allow water to collect, and trees can grow. 43345487 43345493 2 - City of Leptis Magna All roads led to a city on the coast where olive oil was loaded onto coastal freighters for shipment to Carthage and then on to Rome. This city was an impressive city with public buildings and monuments modeled on those in Rome. The oil of Tripolitania flowed through its port. It was also the family home of the Septimii, and from this family came a dynasty of Roman emperors - the Severan dynasty. When Septimius Severus became emperor in 195 AD, he endowed his already prosperous city with a fine new harbor, and a new forum and basilica and other buildings built on a scale to match those in Rome. Picture 2 below shows the plan of Leptis Magna and its harbor. You can see the regular street plan, the big public buildings in the center of the city, and the now silted up harbor. It was a circular harbor with a lighthouse on the point of land extending into the sea. What is now a stretch of beach was once the entrance to the harbor, and ringing the harbor were stone quays and large, two story warehouses where olive oil was stored in shipping containers called amphorae and loaded onto waiting ships. This is illustrated in a rendering that shows how the city once looked. 43345508 43345511 3 & 4 - Harbors at Carthage and Ostia Those ships sailed west from Leptis Magna along the coast to the capital of Roman Africa - Carthage. In the big harbor at Carthage the oil was transferred from the coastal freighters to the large ships of the grain fleet that carried wheat and olive oil from Africa to the port of Rome. Picture 3 shows the remnants of the harbor at Carthage. The circular harbor (A) was the military harbor, and the commercial harbor (B) is next to it. Picture 4 shows the harbor on the other side of the sea that was the destination for the ships from Carthage. It was the port of Rome at the mouth of the Tiber River. The port was named Ostia and its harbor was built in the shape of a huge hexagon (A). Floods from the Tiber have since silted up the harbor entrance from the sea. On a good voyage, the trip took three or four days from Carthage to Ostia. Through this port came food and other products needed to support the largest city in the western world at that time (at least a million people). The harbor was ringed with warehouses where olive oil in large amphorae were offloaded from seagoing ships. The oil was then loaded onto river barges that were pulled by gangs of workers up the Tiber River (B) to Rome. 43345516 The picture below on the left shows a harbor crane unloading a ship docked alongside a quay at a harbor such as Carthage or Ostia. On the right is one of the warehouses at Ostia where products were stored (the marble inscription above the main entrance says it was owned by two freedmen, Epagathus and Epaphroditus). The building was built during the reign of the Emperor Claudius circa 145-150 AD (CE). 43345523 (Roman cargo loading crane drawing courtesy Ostia Antica,http://www.ostia- antica.org/index.html. Roman warehouse at Ostia courtesy Wikimedia Commons, photo by Patrick Denker, 2007, https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ostia_antica-17.jpg). The picture below shows the modern harbour of La Spezia on the coast of Italy north of Rome. Note the harbour cranes for loading and unloading ships, and the storage containers for storing products (things are bigger but still much the same). 43345528 5 - Roman Emporium and a Mountain of Amphorae On a busy day hundreds of barges loaded with olive oil and other products were pulled up the Tiber and unloaded at a huge dock and warehouse complex named the Emporium (A). There the olive oil was poured from the shipping amphorae it came in and stored in large holding tanks. The shipping amphorae were then transported several blocks away to a disposal site (B). At that disposal site today is a mound of broken shards of olive oil amphorae that is still some 115 feet high (35 meters) and a bit more than half a mile in circumference (1 kilometer). Picture B shows a close up of this mound - it is now known as Monte Testaccio. Note its size compared to the buildings around it. 43345535 Evidence from this mound and other sources indicates Rome was importing at least 2 million U.S. gallons (7.5 million liters) of oil annually. In the rendering above showing the Emporium on the Tiber River, the disposal site for empty olive oil amphorae, Monte Testaccio, can be seen in the upper right corner. Because of the biodegradable packaging material used to make the olive oil amphorae, this disposal site did not become a toxic waste site filled with plastic and deadly chemicals as so often happens with modern supply chains. Instead, it became a tree covered hill, and a local tourist attraction. Can you manage this supply chain? Compared to modern supply chains, the technology is simple. But there is more going on than you might think. There is a lot to figure out if you are going to run this supply chain efficiently and keep the business profitable. We'll investigate a model of this olive oil supply chain and simulate its operations to see how it works. Prices and costs used in this case study and supply chain model are denominated in the Roman silver coin called a denarius (plural is denarii). We know about these prices and costs because of an edict on prices issued by the emperor Diocletian in the year 301 AD (see more about this in the next article). Diocletian's edict on prices combined with well researched archaeological evidence provides enough detail to make this a very accurate supply chain model and simulation. After reading the articles below to get a deeper understanding of this supply chain and how it works. What you learn from these articles will show you how to get started with the following challenge. Questions CHALLENGE — Improve profits and operating efficiency. Make adjustments to the supply chain. Find ways to lower operating and transport costs and do a better job of balancing on-hand inventories with product demand at the different facilities. You need to resolve both problems to meet this challenge, and position yourself to take on the challenge of expanding the supply chain. 43345581 Here are some things to think about as you work on this challenge: Supply chains in the ancient world and the modern world are governed by some basic principles that have not changed much over the centuries. How is this supply chain similar and how is it different from modern supply chains ? What supply chain principles would you put into action in the areas of inventory management, transportation and delivery scheduling? What actions can you take to smooth out inventory flow through the supply chain and lower on-hand amounts of products while still meeting demand? What actions can you take to lower transportation costs? Summarize your answers in a short report. Use data to illustrate what you did to lower operating costs and inventory levels.

Describe the model of your supply chain that has formed in your mind, list the important parts of the model, and describe how they work together to produce the results you want.