What Makes a Modern Supply Chain Professional?
By David Aquino and Kevin O'Marah -- Supply Chain Management Review, 5/1/2009
As recently as ten years ago, the impact of the Internet on business was minimal. Connectedness between supply chain sites such as factories and warehouses as well as operational links to other business functions like research and development or sales was limited at best. The dominant model for finding supply chain talent boiled down to recruiting managers with direct experience in narrow functional skills like logistics and transportation, inventory control, or purchasing. Professional associations played a key role by certifying mastery of specific techniques. For site-specific jobs, unburdened by the 24x7 pressures of our post-Internet global supply chain, these largely vocational talent pools were adequate.
An interesting thing happened, however, along the way to 2009. Supply chain professionals, especially those steeped in principles like Lean and Six Sigma were among the first to really grasp the implications of our new connectivity for the materials management core of all these disciplines. Inventory gradually morphed from being regarded as an asset to more of a liability, and practitioners saw that integration from customer demand back through distribution all the way to procurement of raw materials was the key to business performance. Once supply management fully embraced the outsourcing of manufacturing to third parties in low-cost countries, the picture of our 21st century global supply chain had come into focus—and with it the emerging ideal supply chain organization.
Unfortunately, the degree programs in many major universities were still largely teaching to functional skills rather than the broader view demanded by this new global supply chain. At one level, the concept of “value chain,” as popularized by Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School, had begun to take root. However, this was more often applied as a purely conceptual tool used by consultants to help business rethink strategy rather than as an operating blueprint for execution.
The need for a strong voice pushing for strategic relevance combined with practical applicability had become clear. Enter the Global Supply Chain Professional Development Committee.
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