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How to become Supply Chain Manager in 2024

Supply Chain Manager Direct or coordinate production, purchasing, warehousing, distribution, or financial forecasting services or activities to limit costs and improve accuracy, customer service, or safety. Examine existing procedures or opportunities for streamlining activities to meet product distribution needs. Direct the movement, storage, or processing of inventory.

Supply Chain Manager is Also Know as

In different settings, Supply Chain Manager is titled as

  • Global Supply Chain Director
  • Material Requirements Planning Manager
  • Solution Design and Analysis Manager
  • Supply Chain Director
  • Supply Chain Manager

Education and Training of Supply Chain Manager

Supply Chain Manager is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Supply Chain Manager

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Education Required for Supply Chain Manager

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Degrees Related to Supply Chain Manager

Training Required for Supply Chain Manager

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Supply Chain Manager in different industries are

What Do Supply Chain Manager do?

  • Select transportation routes to maximize economy by combining shipments or consolidating warehousing and distribution.
  • Diagram supply chain models to help facilitate discussions with customers.
  • Negotiate prices and terms with suppliers, vendors, or freight forwarders.
  • Meet with suppliers to discuss performance metrics, to provide performance feedback, or to discuss production forecasts or changes.
  • Document physical supply chain processes, such as workflows, cycle times, position responsibilities, or system flows.
  • Develop or implement procedures or systems to evaluate or select suppliers.
  • Design or implement plant warehousing strategies for production materials or finished products.
  • Confer with supply chain planners to forecast demand or create supply plans that ensure availability of materials or products.
  • Define performance metrics for measurement, comparison, or evaluation of supply chain factors, such as product cost or quality.
  • Analyze inventories to determine how to increase inventory turns, reduce waste, or optimize customer service.
  • Analyze information about supplier performance or procurement program success.
  • Participate in the coordination of engineering changes, product line extensions, or new product launches to ensure orderly and timely transitions in material or production flow.
  • Develop procedures for coordination of supply chain management with other functional areas, such as sales, marketing, finance, production, or quality assurance.
  • Design or implement supply chains that support business strategies adapted to changing market conditions, new business opportunities, or cost reduction strategies.
  • Conduct or oversee the conduct of life cycle analyses to determine the environmental impacts of products, processes, or systems.
  • Design or implement supply chains that support environmental policies.
  • Design, implement, or oversee product take back or reverse logistics programs to ensure products are recycled, reused, or responsibly disposed.
  • Evaluate and select information or other technology solutions to improve tracking and reporting of materials or products distribution, storage, or inventory.
  • Identify opportunities to reuse or recycle materials to minimize consumption of new materials, minimize waste, or to convert wastes to by-products.
  • Investigate or review the carbon footprints and environmental performance records of current or potential storage and distribution service providers.
  • Locate or select biodegradable, non-toxic, or other environmentally friendly raw materials for manufacturing processes.
  • Review or update supply chain practices in accordance with new or changing environmental policies, standards, regulations, or laws.
  • Determine appropriate equipment and staffing levels to load, unload, move, or store materials.
  • Manage activities related to strategic or tactical purchasing, material requirements planning, controlling inventory, warehousing, or receiving.
  • Implement new or improved supply chain processes to improve efficiency or performance.
  • Monitor suppliers' activities to assess performance in meeting quality or delivery requirements.
  • Monitor forecasts and quotas to identify changes and predict effects on supply chain activities.
  • Identify or qualify new suppliers in collaboration with other departments, such as procurement, engineering, or quality assurance.
  • Forecast material costs or develop standard cost lists.
  • Appraise vendor manufacturing capabilities through on-site observations or other measurements.

Qualities of Good Supply Chain Manager

  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.

Tools Used by Supply Chain Manager

  • Laptop computers
  • Laser facsimile machines
  • Personal computers
  • Radio frequency identification RFID scanners

Technology Skills required for Supply Chain Manager

  • Adexa Supply Chain Planning
  • Advanced business application programming ABAP
  • Aldata Warehouse Management
  • CDC Supply Chain
  • Dex Warehouse
  • Epicor SRM
  • Epicor WMS
  • Graphics software
  • HighJump Software Supply Chain Advantage
  • HighJump Warehouse Advantage
  • i2 Collaborative Supply Execution
  • i2 Intelligence
  • i2 Supply Chain Visibility
  • IBM ILOG Inventory Analyst
  • IBM ILOG LogicNet Plus XE
  • IBS MRP
  • IBS Supply Chain Management
  • IFS Applications for Supply Chain Management
  • Infor Lawson Supply Chain Management
  • Infor SCM
  • JDA Master Planning
  • Lawson S3 Supply Chain Management
  • Manhattan Scale
  • Manhattan Supply Chain Process Platform
  • Master scheduling software
  • MEDITECH software
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Dynamics
  • Microsoft Dynamics AX
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft SharePoint
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Microsoft Visio
  • Microsoft Word
  • Minitab
  • NetSuite ERP
  • Oracle E-Business Suite Financials
  • Oracle e-Business Suite Supply Chain Management
  • Oracle Hyperion
  • Oracle Inventory
  • Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne
  • Oracle PeopleSoft
  • Purchasing software
  • QAD Adaptive ERP
  • Red Prarie Warehouse Management
  • SAP APO
  • SAP BusinessObjects Crystal Reports
  • SAP SCM
  • SAP software
  • Simulation and modeling software
  • Structured query language SQL
  • Swisslog WarehouseManager
  • Warehouse management system WMS