basictraining
Context – Is supply chain performance presented as a key
contributor to corporate (enterprise) performance, with
major impacts on asset leverage, return on equity, profit
margins, and cash flow? Or is it seen as a cost management
tool with specific, but limited, roles in controlling procurement costs, transportation spend, and materials unit costs?
Concentration (or Balance) – Is one aspect of supply chain
management, or operating function, emphasized, with
other elements included as “by the way” content? Why? If
so, how does that mesh with your career objectives?
Contention – Is supply chain management (or logistics)
included as part of a broader curriculum (e.g., operations and
supply chain management)? Does that
dilute the quality and/or content of both
elements? Is that important in the long
term, as either a positive or a negative?
Confabulation – Is another curriculum passed off, either deliberately or
through misguided hopes, as being
“virtually the same as” or a “vital prerequisite to” a supply chain-focused set
of courses? (See the note regarding
industrial engineering, above.)
Confusion – Could a similar curriculum sound like supply chain management and yet be something else entirely? For example, is a supply management program the same as SCM, or simply another name
for sourcing and procurement? Does an SCM program that
is premised on manufacturing techniques actually deal with
the full range of modern supply chain management topics?
Currency – Does the program embrace and promote new
and emerging concepts, or does it rest on last-century perspectives and definitions? Are you able to tell the difference?
Appellations – Is the program a logistics curriculum? Or a
supply chain program? This can be a tricky area. Today,
almost everyone has jumped on the supply chain bandwagon. So, the terminology might not have depth, even if it
sounds right. The strong pioneering programs, most of
which remain among the leaders today, have “logistics” in
their names. This merely reflects that they began before
“supply chain” terminology gained currency; they are frequently – even usually – full-fledged supply chain programs. In those cases, logistics versus supply chain is a difference without a distinction.
Control – Does the program report into another college
or curriculum? For example, is SCM part of marketing, or
the business school, or engineering? Can the program make
independent decisions about program content, direction,
and resource deployment?
Collaboration – Is curriculum content (and faculty)
imported from other colleges and programs to create more
robust offerings, e.g., engineering, finance, marketing – but
under the control of and at the direction of the SCM pro-
gram? Does the program invite selective participation from
outside the academic ranks to add spice, currency, and
street cred to its content?
A BIG JOB – TOO BIG?
Right, the processes and elements outlined above are
demanding and challenging. And we may have merely
scratched the surface. But it seems to be a reasonable
approach before committing “x” years and “y” thousand
dollars to preparation for a career. Ask yourself if a medical
student might not be looking into the same kinds of issues
before targeting a school and a practice specialty.
Worth it? You be the judge. And consider the potential
economic and emotional costs of not doing it. At the best,
this isn’t about a working-for-wages vocational education
choice; this is about getting on track to consummate professionalism and a lifetime of satisfying contribution to
business and personal success. ;
Art van Bodegraven, practice leader at S4 Consulting, may be reached at (614)
336-0346 or avan@columbus.rr.com. You can read his blog at http://blogs.dcve-locity.com/the_art_of_art/. Kenneth B. Ackerman, president of The Ackerman
Company, can be reached at (614) 488-3165 or ken@warehousing-forum.com.
