The world today is interconnected in ways that weren’t dreamt of earlier. Technology has dramatically reduced the distance between two parts of the world, making it easy for companies to attain deeper market penetration levels. This signifies the increased scope of business and higher revenue possible for a company if they could use this interconnectedness effectively. Global Supply Chain Management is becoming a necessary skill to help you tap into the world market in the most efficient way possible. In the race of winning customers, getting to them faster is a significant advantage over the other players in the market.
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The well-known user of supply chain strategy is Amazon. Their continuous innovation in global supply chain management has helped them become an undisputed leader in the domain of online shopping. Talking about pre-pandemic levels, they have delivered around 2.5 billion packages in 2019. This number is going up at an increasing rate owing to their continuous enhancement in the efficiency of supply chain management.
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What is Management in Supply Chain?
Management in Supply Chain involves the entire procedure from sourcing raw materials and overlooking the production process to getting the final product delivered to the customer. Ensuring a memorable experience for the end customer boosts sales and revenue considerably. Companies are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of having supply chain strategies and are hiring specialists to help them with the strategy tailored to their business. The strategies help in smoother and timely product delivery to customers.
A Step-by-Step Process To Becoming a Supply Chain Manager
The steps you need to follow to become a supply manager are-
Step 1: Get a Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain or other related fields such as Business, Finance, etc.
The degree can open up doors of opportunities for you to enter into the domain of supply chain management. It will equip you with all the theoretical knowledge needed to venture into the field.
Step 2: After completing the Bachelor’s, the next step is to gain early work experience. You need to have experience in many subsections of the field, such as inventory management, business operations, interdepartmental skills, to name a few. Having hands-on experience helps you gain detailed knowledge about the on-site job responsibilities and makes it easier for you to get hired.
You can even go for a Master’s in the Supply Chain to further enhance your knowledge and expertise in the domain.
Roles and responsibilities of Supply Chain Manager
The roles and responsibilities of a supply chain manager are numerous. Being the one to facilitate the final delivery of the product requires knowledge and adeptness in various aspects. Some of which are listed below-
Facilitating the logistics of the final product as well as raw materials
One of the main tasks of a supply chain manager is making sure that the final product reaches the customer on time and in perfect condition. To ensure this, one of the many vital aspects is logistics. The manager’s responsibility is to decide upon the warehousing and transportation facilities according to the final product’s shelf life and fragility. For instance, cold storage facilities with acceptable industry standards are required to store perishable goods. These goods have a shorter life span which requires faster transportation. Taking account of all of these things and strategising along the lines make the entire process smoother.
Maintaining inventories
For any business to function well, it is necessary to ensure the continuous flow of goods. It becomes the responsibility of the supply chain manager that the product is ready to be shipped as soon as the order is placed. They make the supply chain strategies taking into account the season of high demand and forecast the inventory level to be maintained to cater to the predicted demand. To ensure the availability of products, Flipkart has warehouses in main cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, to name a few and in small towns as well. They ensure they have the required inventory stored in the warehouses to facilitate the timely delivery of products.
Keeping an eye on quality standards and ensuring safety standards
Ensuring quality standards is necessary for any company to make a credible brand image in the respective domain. Supply managers ensure that proper quality standards are met and research ways to improve the quality subject to the budget constraint. They have to ensure that the safety standards are met and that no accidents occur.
Resolving issues
While working with different sorts of people, disputes are bound to arise. It becomes the manager’s responsibility to sort out the differences among employees, with vendors and with customers.
Scope for a supply chain manager
Being one of the emerging fields, it offers a huge career scope. In the race of becoming efficient and improving services, companies are hiring supply chain managers to help with the entire process, from sourcing raw materials, overlooking the production process, and delivering the final product. You can get into numerous subfields of supply chain management, such as customer management, data analysis, to name a few. With the rise of new industries and many existing companies realising the importance of making the entire supply chain faster and more efficient, the jobs in the field are increasing as well. It has already become one of the most sought-after jobs. The global supply chain management industry is expected to grow at the rate of 11.2% from 2020 to 2027.
Skills you need
Management in the supply chain has a huge scope in the coming future. Apart from the subject knowledge and technical skills, such as knowledge of software, business acumen you also require some interpersonal and soft skills such as excellent communication, problem-solving, etc.
If you are interested in making a career in Global Supply Chain Management, you can check out Global Master Certificate in Integrated Supply Chain Management offered by Michigan State University in collaboration with upGrad. The course is ranked No. 1 for Supply Chain/Logistics Graduate Degree Programs as per the U.S. News & World Report 2018-2022. It helps you gain a deeper understanding of supply chain management. Also, it prepares you for the job with the help of live discussions with peers, career counselling with industry experts, among many other benefits.
Conclusion
An efficient global supply chain management is the backbone of companies. Planning out the supply chain strategy and executing them earns the goodwill and trust from customers, which is the key ingredient behind the success. It is undoubtedly one of the most desirable jobs of the coming age. The nature of the job is dynamic and hence sharpens your skills, which serves as an added advantage and enhances your future career scope.
Featured Program for you: Global Master Certificate in Integrated Supply Chain Management
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