The need for STEM skills in the supply chain

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the March-April 2016 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

March-April 2016

When I visit my millennial-aged daughter in Chicago, I’m amazed at the number of packages dropped off by UPS, FedEx and the USPS at her three-unit building on a daily basis. It’s as if she and her neighbors are single-handedly keeping Amazon in business. All those drop-offs got me to wondering: Does any of this make sense if you think about a carbon footprint? Rather than deliver millions of packages to one address at a time every day, wouldn’t it be more sustainable if we all just drove to the mall to do our shopping? After all, doesn’t research indicate that a signi cant percentage of consumers, especially millennial consumers like my…

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The complexity of modern supply chains and the advancement of technology in the field have led organizations to place greater importance on the need for supply chain employees to possess STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills. APQC has found that a slight majority of organizations look for STEM skills in their new hires for supply chain positions. The most highly sought after of these skills are engineering and operations research, or the use of analytics to optimize transportation networks.

As in many fields, STEM skills are not widely available or fully developed among supply chain professionals. APQC has found that some organizations are tackling this problem by creating development programs for new professionals.

However, lasting solutions provide development of STEM skills among both new and more tenured employees. Some organizations have found this balance and seen positive results for the business.

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