The global economy has entered the era of supply chain. Especially so for the manufacturing industry where implementation of technology and streamlining of processes are gaining traction for business sustainability and profitability.
This article is written by Grace Zheng - Senior Manager, Supply Chain & Manufacturing. She has over 14 years of recruitment experience hiring Supply Chain & Manufacturing talents for Medical Device, Pharmaceutical, FMCG and Retail industries.
Future of Supply Chain Management
With supply chain management playing a huge role in the entire business process, many organizations are steering towards adopting intelligent supply chain management systems as their strategic policy moving forward. One element that will make or break that will be the people managing the supply chain. Undoubtedly, talent resources are the key to support this strategic development.
Our Experience
My team and I have been interacting with manufacturing companies for 11 years. Many of times, they indicated their need and concern for supply chain talents. The requirements have been evolving over the years due to changing needs. Back then, supply chain management was rather independent from the operations of other business departments or processes. As such, supply chain management talents are only equipped with either logistics or procurement knowledge.
However, supply chain management runs through the whole enterprise operations today.
- Front-end market demand analysis
- Product Design & Development
- Supplier Development
- Supplier Management
- Quality Management
- Production Operation
- International Trade
- Warehousing logistics
- After-sales Service
- Management of Policies and Regulations
- Information Technology
- Customer Relationship Management
With technology advancements, all these are made possible. New technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and big data are integrated in the supply chain management processes to achieve efficiencies.
Key characteristics for Job Seekers
Supply chain talents will need to have good holistic knowledge and not just a function of supply chain management. From what we see, strategic thinking of the entire supply chain, knowledge and operation of various sub areas of supply chain, management and execution capabilities and new technologies will be necessary to perform today’s supply chain management responsibilities. The speed of change is so fast that being adaptable and keen to learn new skills become the biggest two traits that talents should have too.
With that said, being up-to-date with the latest trends and skills will always be helpful for both employers and job seekers.
Grace Zheng – Senior Manager, Supply Chain & Manufacturing. She has over 14 years of recruitment experience hiring Supply Chain & Manufacturing talents for Medical Device, Pharmaceutical, FMCG and Retail industries. She is currently managing a team of 9 consultants and have more than 300 successful cases in the last 3 years.
