Research results, what does supply chain need?

Lewis Hines photograph of Amoskeag workers' children in the company playground, from the wall of the Millyard Museum Panorama oppositethe penstock in the Amoskeag Mills, Manchester, NHWhy Supply Management (and IT) Rules!

What Hiring Managers are Looking for Today, a new survey from SCMR and Logistics Management, by Bridget McCrea,  www.scmr.com, Jan/Feb 2012

Supply Chain Management Review, the premier magazine edited by veteran Frank Quinn, produced an “Executive Education Special Supplement for Jan/Feb 2012” that includes desired performance strengths, preparation by subject area, and education programs for supply management professionals.  What I love about this supplement is that the information it offers can be used by professionals in other areas of the integrated enterprise – new product engineers, for example, who want to understand sourcing and supplier development, or manufacturing people who need to understand what is happening in the global supply chain.  They won’t get this kind of in-depth information from manufacturing publications and certification seminars. 

Exhibit 2 looks at “Courses Most Useful to Enter Supply Chain Field,” starting with supply chain/logistics management/strategies, what might be called the basics, at 89%. Next in descending order are:  International, Global Supply Chain at 59%, Computer Skills at 55%, down through Managment, Finance/Accounting, Statistics/Math at 49%. 

The survey revealed surprising responses to the question of where candidates brought in by hiring managers came from.  Sixty-six percent of the graduates hired in the past 12 months had logistics/supply chain degrees, 23% engineering, 21% finance/accounting, and 55% “other business degree.”   So to the LinkedIn discussions asking if a supply management/logistics degree pays off, these statistics say yes.  Survey respondents listed 75 different schools, of which 8 received more than 10 mentions each:  Michigan State. U. Tennessee, Penn State, Ohio State, Georgia Tech, Arizona State, MIT, and U. Michigan.

One survey respondent noted that most of the new hires he sees are strong in supply chain technology and “knowledgeable about lean manufacturing concepts.”  So the standing question remains, how many lean manufacturing professionals could pass his test for basics and systems knowledge of the global supply chain? The answer is - a smaller number than supply management pros, in fact,  because as manufacturing shrunk it pulled away from its connections to other functions, disengaged, and grew inbred with isolated islands dedicated to culture change and lean transformation, unplugging the computers as it aged.   All this matters now, if we are to put the pieces together in the global Integrated Enterprise.

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