For some reason the supply chain is dominated by men and there certainly are incredible opportunities for women in a host of different industries for careers in supply chain management. Supply chain jobs are often ideally suited to women who have been shown by endless research to be more inclined to collaborate in order to achieve a desired income and the supply chain is one of those sectors that requires many different people to collaborate in order to get the job done, on time, in time, in the most cost effective fashion.
Read the following definition of supply chain management:
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the management of the flow of goods and services. It includes the movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption. Interconnected or interlinked networks, channels and node businesses are involved in the provision of products and services required by end customers in a supply chain. Supply chain management has been defined as the “design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand and measuring performance globally. Source: Wikipedia
Think about almost any company and imagine a role along the supply chain that would like to be involved in. There is a place for you in any business you can dream of, just ensure that you are suitable qualified.
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Women are overlooked in the competition when it comes to supply chain talent.
This position was predominantly for males, but recently some parts of the sector have been showing some signs of change. There is an increase in the female enrolments for this field of work and woman who are already employed in the chain supply have said that this position is strongly suited to the female workers. Soft skills like collaboration, creativity and problem solving are in high demand by companies and the women who are already employed in this industry have said that they enjoy their work very much because of the daily multi tasking, the daily challenges they face and then there is the fast paced nature of this kind of work.
This is however not a “woman issue” at all but more about the shortage of skilled employees and the high percentage of pending retirement. Because of these reasons it would be extremely beneficial to view every person as a potential contributor to the work place.
It would make great sense to employ woman in the supply chain field which would also benefit the human resources challenges.
Supply chain management opens doors to all sectors as well as industries
One of the great things about the supply chain division is the fact that there are supply chain functions and sub-functions in almost all the parts of the economy and not-for-profit world.
This basically means that a person can choose in which division they would like to work in for example: energy, retail, health care, tourism, public sector and the list goes on. With this a person can build a career development strategy with the necessary skill sets to match, as well as leverage their knowledge of supply chain and skills as a way to open the door for employment.
Another great aspect of the supply chain sector is the fact that there are supply chain functions as well as occupations found in various kinds of global communities. These include rural areas, smaller communities, larger urban centres and internationally. A person with supply chain skills can choose in which location, community or country they want to work in.
Making a difference using transferable supply chain skills
As we now know the supply chain sector is broad, but it can also be transferred into all other sectors and these include public and non profit organisations. People who are already in the field are very positive about the sector and say they are proud to be part of work that matters.
The skills needed by employees for applying for supply chain jobs are as follows:
The planning of finances
Forecasting
Knowing about international business practices
Knowing the law and its regulations
Knowing about logistics, supply chain management and transport
Having mechanical skills
Workflow optimization
Knowledge of overall management and business
Various languages
The sub functions of supply chain sector:
Higher management (senior)
Systems with logistics information
Warehousing
Transport
Stock control
Purchasing
Advertising and sales
Customer services