Supply Chain Management : Multifarious career

Though the courses in SCM are very few and lesser known to the students across the country, yet there are a number of candidates who are pursuing courses in this field.

The scope of SCM is global in nature, and a right step in the right direction would prove fruitful to a deserving candidate

Mr Sundeep Gulati, a Times of India Career Services Dept. executive, says, “Supply Chain Management has a great scope both in India and abroad.

To keep pace with the changing times, an aspirant must pursue job-oriented courses like SCM, which, upon completion, would not only ensure greater career-building opportunities to the candidates but also open a window for them to rise, and reach the pinnacle of their career.

A final year B.Com student, Aftaab Ahmed, was in a dilemma as to which field of specialisation to pursue after his graduation. Most of his friends were opting for the more conventional M.B.A. degree after their graduation. Aftaab, however, had different dreams and aspirations. A few days ago, he read a literary work on how a degree or diploma in Supply Chain Management (SCM) was being viewed as a good career option. After giving much thought, he decided to seek the help of a noted career counsellor, Dr (Mrs) Kavita Nagpal.

Dr (Mrs) Nagpal’s advice charted the course for an altogether new career objective for him. She said, “Supply Chain Management is a combination of art and science that goes into improving the way a company finds the raw components it needs to make a product or service, and then, deliver it to customers. A candidate who has the ability to manage, supervise and give, whenever required, 100 per cent of his calibre can only persist in this field. SCM is an action-oriented career where slow movers do not stand a chance.”

Aftaab pondered over what the counsellor had said, and then decided to opt for SCM as his subject of study. Though the courses in SCM are very few and lesser known to the students across the country, yet there are a number of candidates who are pursuing courses in this field.

The scope of SCM is global in nature, and a right step in the right direction would prove fruitful to a deserving candidate.

SCM: what it means

Supply Chain Management plays a quintessential role in product development life cycle. It is, therefore, given due importance in every organisation. The better the supply chain management system of a company, the more improved will be its performance, and, hence, the profit-augmentation. SCM is based on five important components, which include planning, sourcing, making, delivering and returning.

Planning: It includes devising strategic means to approach a solution that could lead to managing the resources well, and catering to the customer to meet the increasing demand of the product or service. Performance monitoring is one important aspect of planning that provides an adequate, superior quality and higher value product or service to the customers.

Sourcing:  Suppliers are chosen to deliver the goods and services in order to distribute the product in an efficient manner. Other tasks involved are setting the pricing, prompt delivery and payment processes with the suppliers. Management of inventory is an essential aspect, the processes involve receiving shipments, verification, transferring them to the manufacturing facilities and authorising supplier payments. 

It is equally vital for the SCM personnel to maintain healthy ties with the supplier for better results.

Making: This being a step in manufacturing, one has to schedule the relevant activities for production, testing, packaging and preparation for delivery. At this point, the quality standards are maintained, the production output is taken care of and much emphasis is given to improve the worker productivity.

Delivering: Often referred to as logistics, this process brings the SCM personnel in touch with the customer. This is a significant part of the supply chain process, involving coordination of the receipt of orders from customers, developing a network of warehouses, picking carriers to get products to customers and also setting up of an invoicing system to receive payments.

 Returns: Post delivery process, it is meant to eradicate the problems that customers have encountered. This involves creation of a network for receiving the defective and excess products back from customers and responding to ensure that customers who have problems with the delivered products are properly taken care of. 

Experts’ comment

Mr Sundeep Gulati, a Times of India Career Services Dept. executive, says, “Supply Chain Management has a great scope both in India and abroad. With the coming of MNCs in India, the demand for expertise has increased. The future would bring many openings for SCM professionals, especially in the areas like materials management, logistics, sales, distribution, ERP and SAP. According to me, the candidate must also have a great profile along with the specialisation-degree or diploma in SCM, because it is the mind over matter that creates an effect after all.” 

“A series of courses have been introduced in their educational institute,” says Mr. L. Ganesh, Chairman, CII Institute of Logistics. “There is a huge demand for professionals in SCM with good knowledge on optimising transportation and warehousing. Among the various courses offered by our institute, we have certificate programme for working professionals and general certification programmes involving public workshops at different cities for heterogeneous groups on Supply Chain Management. Post-graduate diploma in Supply chain Management is also offered---flexible and spread over two years in distance education mode. The Institute of Logistics has tied up with management colleges to conduct five days’ intensive certification programmes on SCM,” adds Mr Ganesh.

In a message to the young career aspirants in SCM, Mr Ganesh, conveys, “SCM would be a very exciting and challenging field to work on. The country would soon be witnessing huge demand for qualified supply chain professionals in fast growing industries like retail, IT, automobile, apparel, F&B et al. Students would find better job opportunities if they get specialised training in Supply Chain Management, where new concepts and best practices are developing fast.”

To keep pace with the changing times, an aspirant must pursue job-oriented courses like SCM, which, upon completion, would not only ensure greater career-building opportunities to the candidates but also open a window for them to rise, and reach the pinnacle of their career.