According to R.J. Bowman, author of The Secret Society of Supply Chain Management, demand for supply chain professionals exceeds supply by a ratio of six to one. Looking forward, it appears that demand for supply chain professionals will only increase. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that demand for supply chain talent will increase by 26 percent between 2010 and 2020 – a growth rate that is twice as fast as 14 percent of all occupations.
In response to the demand for supply chain professionals, universities have introduced undergraduate majors, M.B.A. concentrations and even entire degree programs dedicated to procurement, inventory management and global supply-chain strategy. The Wall Street Journal has even gone so far as to declare supply chain management the “hot new MBA.”
The University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics is one university which offers MBA courses focused on supply chain management. This semester Fronetics has had the opportunity to work with students in one of the school’s supply chain management courses. Students in the school’s Supply Chain Management MBA course learn how to design, plan, and operate supply chains for competitive advantage; develop an understanding of how the key drivers of supply chain operations can be used to improve performance; and develop knowledge of logistics and supply chain methodologies and the managerial context in which they are used.
Over the next several weeks Fronetics will share topical supply chain management articles written by several of the MBA students. The students are inclusive of full-time graduate students and professionals who attend the MBA program part-time. The articles point to the diversity of this group of students as well as the student’s breadth of knowledge on supply chain issues.
A full list of the students’ articles follows below:
- Internet of Things and its Impact on Supply Chain Management
- Pet Food Industry Supply Chain Challenge
- Is Amazon Ever Going to Stop Surprising Us?
- Surprise! We all use Six Sigma
- RFID and its Effect on Supply Chain Management
- The business continuity plan and supply chain resilience
- With big data comes big responsibility
- Is 3PL right for your company? 4 questions to ask yourself
- The Chipotle Carnitas Crisis: PR Dream or Provision Disaster?
- The GM Recall and the Supplier Relationship