Other Voices: Shaping professionals for the next generation supply chain

Editor’s note: The following column was written by Matthew Liotine, director of graduate studies, supply chain and operations management, College of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago. This is part of Modern’s Other Voices column, a series featuring ideas, opinions and insights from end-users, analysts, systems integrators and OEMs. Click here to learn about submitting a column for consideration.

————-

Recent years have shown explosive growth in professional opportunities in supply chain and operations. Much of this is attributed to some pervasive trends that are overtaking industry, technology and society. These include data warehousing, cloud computing, e-commerce, mobility, social media, globalization and automation, such as robotics, drones, 3D printing and smart autonomous vehicles. Altogether, these trends have set the stage for a new kind of supply chain professional of the future.

The New Profile
Supply chain professionals, either new or existing, must maintain a confluence of skills in some of the following key areas:
● Data and Analytics
Supply chain operations have become data-driven. Professionals with skill sets related to extracting, processing and analyzing data for business intelligence are in high demand. Those managers versed in descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytical modeling have an edge, and familiarity with machine learning and artificial intelligence methods can add even more value.
● Technology
The aforementioned technological advances in data and automation require professionals who know how to leverage these new functionalities to innovate and effectuate change in supply chain related operations and business processes. This requires skills in analyzing and evaluating a technology’s potential, leading innovation efforts, and building the business cases needed to prove-in adoption within the enterprise.
● Domain Knowledge
Domain knowledge of supply chain functions, business and operational processes is a must. Professionals must understand the roles of logistics, transportation, forecasting, warehousing, distribution, production, quality and risk within fulfillment processes. Furthermore, they must understand the salient decisions related to each of these areas and be familiarized with the required decision analysis tools, methods and techniques to make sound management decisions.
● Enterprise Systems
Enterprise systems are the information machinery that serve the functional areas just mentioned. Professionals must understand the functions that they provide, the kinds of information that is shared between these systems, and how they relate to business operations and related decisions. Familiarity with the information technology behind these systems is a plus.
● Management
By now it is evident that supply chain professionals must have multifaceted skills and the ability to interface with individuals from diverse organizations within an enterprise. This requires strong people skills, including the ability to articulate what sometimes may be complex concepts to others in a clear and concise way. They must have the team skills needed to collaborate with diverse stakeholders and the ability to problem solve and provide thought leadership when called upon.

The New Curriculum
It is incumbent upon supply chain university degree programs to design a curriculum that embodies the above skill sets. To this end, a sound supply chain graduate program requires the following features:
● Quantitative learning with requisites in business statistics
● Required domain knowledge in operations and supply chain management functions
● Core skills in database, analytics, modeling and information systems
● Experiential learning opportunities
● Tailoring to accommodate different student interests and career paths

Experiential Learning
Experiential learning is now viewed by many companies as a requirement for a supply chain education curriculum. The UIC Business Master of Science degree program in supply chain and operations management (MSSCOM) program requires each student to complete a capstone course which allows them to work on an actual supply chain-related problem sponsored by a real-world company. Students are given the opportunity to work in teams and apply their coursework knowledge towards completing a project from beginning to end. Projects are submitted from small, medium and large companies representing a variety of industries, including logistics, retail, health and medical, manufacturing, consumer products and others. The projects vary in nature and include those involving data analytics, process specifications, best practices, process improvement, proof-of-concepts, systems development and business research.

The UIC’s Center for Supply Chain Management and Logistics is designed to further integrate major companies from Chicago’s business ecosystem with UIC’s programs related to this field. Supported by an advisory board comprised of representatives from major Chicagoland companies, the center engages students in research projects, co-authoring of books and publications, symposiums and job fairs related to the field of supply chain and logistics.

A major challenge within the supply chain field that is partly responsible for an acute shortage of candidates is a lack of awareness of what the supply chain field involves. Younger students, particularly at the undergraduate levels, are often unfamiliar with what a supply chain does or are unaware of the enormous career opportunities that it provides. UIC collaborates with enterprises through outreach programs designed to create awareness of the supply chain profession. Guest speakers from industry are often invited into the classroom to give presentations about their companies to ultimately increase student awareness.

Enterprise supply chain operations are undergoing major transformation driven by trends in data, automation, e-commerce, mobility, social media and globalization. Consequently, there has been explosive growth in career opportunities in the supply chain field. Tomorrow’s supply chain professionals will require a blend of domain, data, technology, systems and managerial skills.