Question

1. If you decided to be a professional supply chain manager, what skills do you believe you need to improve in order to be highly effective? How do you go about attaining skills?

2. Technology is changing supply chain management profound way year basis. Knowing everything we know that you would prefer see when technology and software replaces the human aspect of supply chain management? In other words, do you foresee a time when supply chain managers become obsolete? Why or why not?

Answer 1

1) The to skills required to be honed for becoming a successful supply chain manager is as below:

Skill Set	Measures to achieve
Business Skills A supply chain manager requires an holistic understanding and awareness of the busienss. He should be able to converse efficiently and be understood by the senior execurtives precisely. An understanding of financial terms like ROIC, EBITDA , Net Profit etc is also required and should be part of day to day vocabulary for explaining the real impact of supply chain in terms of business value. From sound knowledge of demand planning/forecasting to possesing abilities like discussing cash flow at the treasurer’s office;a supply chain professional should be able to handle all. Good oral and written communication skills along with a solid interpersonal skills ensures smoother transaction.	Know all about your business. Read its annual report. Follow the indsutry specific news regularly. Follow even your competitors performance and business strategy.
Analytical and technological skills A supply chain manager life is all about numbers, historical data and optimization. A superior analytical skills coupled with strong strategic and numerical thinking skills are one of the most pertinent traits required in a supply chain manager.	Expose yourself to data crunching tools like excel/powerBI etc. Work and know all numbers associated with your companya nd your supply chain flow.
Planning skills A supply chain manager coordinates end to end flow of product from source to destiny at an optimized cost. To be able to successfully achieve all aspects of a supply chain strong planning/forecasting, scheduling and replenishment skills is required.	Try and take data driven decision. Learn major models/framewroks like decision modeling , decision tree,demand forecasting etc. Online Courses with practical life projects can help.
Problem solving skills A typical suplly chain is exposed to day to day errors often. Instances like wrong deliver, late shipment, large inventory, pilferage are very very common in a supply chain. To be able to succesfully manage and minimize these a sound problem solving skills is must for a supply chain manager.	Attention to details and having a solution oriented approach. Frameworks like root cause analysis , 5 Why analysis. And lean approach like 5S , Kanban cards can always help. Read some quality and lean management books.
Soft skills Soft skills is required for negotiating and building foundation of a strong relationship with customers , suppliers, vendors and team members.	Communicate often with stakeholder . Try to understand their pain point. Treat your customers and vendors like your family.

2)

With rapid digitization and supply chain becoming more and more system and tool oriented there is no doubt human intervention is decreasing in supply chain. In a digitized supply chain companies are capturing, analyzing and integrating high quality real time data seamless. Everything varying from forecasting to placing order to efficient indenting is done by system itself.

However, a system cant fill for veteran industry professionals who possesses not only deep wisdom of supply history but are also capable of nurturing a strong relationship with suppliers and customers. A system always act basis the inputs given to it, but who will manage and support the system and how system can respond to new problem sets or any expected pandemic change in customer behavior.

Its no doubt that with time supply chain managers will require completely different skill sets and capabilities but necessity of a Supply Chain manager can never become completely obsolete.