SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Supply chain management is mainly concerned with the procedure to manage the design, planning, implementation, control and monitoring of all the supply chain activities from goods which are from the origin of the point to their consumption. The main objective of Supply chain is in creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, managing demand with supply and evaluating performance, which is a highly sough after profession in today's modern world. For achieving success in this filed one has to concentrate on distribution network configuration, inventory management, distribution strategy, information, and cash flow.

In the world of globalization, many manufacturing firms today want to have efficient supply chain system for the effective distribution of their respective commodities. Therefore, such organizations are always on the hunt and in the need for skilled supply chain managers. Keeping in view of the ever increasing demand for professionals to work in supply management, many institutes in India are offering courses related to the field.




Logistics and Transportation: This process involves moving of raw materials, processed goods from one point to another keeping in mind three major things - lowest cost of transportation, high speed of delivery and keeping goods safe and intact.
Inventory Management: Inventory usually deal with the goods stored in various storage centres. The products may be in the form of raw materials, work in progress, or finished goods. Inventory basically is considered as the blocked capital as it does not have any productive use during storage, but it gradually gains importance as it acts as a buffer for supply disruptions and transportation delays and for keeping production steady.
Procurement and Vendor Management: A person who is specialized in this field has to carry on with managing multiple vendors including relationship management, quality assessment and support, and extracting maximum long term value from vendors. The main focus is to get the maximum from vendor at least rates.



It is considered as the one of the most challenging and rewarding career. After completing their courses, students can work in any business organizations as Commodity Buyer, supply planner, supplier manager, implementation manager, and procurement officer, material manager, head of supply and head of procurement, purchasing executives, inventory manager. Career in Logistic and Supply Chain Management is booming and has a lot of demand in this industry. Today in every organization globalization has introduced a lot of changes. In order to meet the international challenges and to control the purchase- supply chain performance the organizations are making efforts to bring changes in their organizational structure.

These changes have generated several jobs in logistics and supply chain field in India and abroad. There is a high demand for supply chain managers in almost all sizes and kinds of organizations. Several management graduates start their career as Management Trainee, Supervisors and Analysts. When one starts gaining managerial experience, he/she can move to superior level with much more responsibilities and higher salary. Few major employers in this field are L&T Ltd., Anchor Electricals, Tata Steel, Dell, Toyota, Nokia, etc. Few of the options could be Director of Transportation, Project Manager, Demand Planner, Supply Planner, Sourcing Manager, Director of Operations, Commodity Buyer, Implementation Manager, Head of Supply, Senior Consultant, Inventory Manager, Procurement Officer, Material Manager, Supplier Manager and Purchasing Executives. Few of the job sectors for supply chain are Wholesalers, Shipping Companies, Packaging Companies, Construction Firms, Consulting Firms, Research Organizations, Educational Institutes and Retailers.

Supply Chain Management Mostly the courses in supply chain management are being offered at post-graduate / diploma levels. There are several management and technical institutes in India offering this course. To be eligible, however, one has to be a graduate, preferably in retail management, B.E. /B. Tech/BBA. Institutes: Institutes offering this course are Indian Institute of Management (IIMs), Indian Institute of Materials Management (Navi Mumbai), Centre for Supply Chain Management (Gurgaon), Supply Chain Management Institute (Mumbai), CII Institute of Logistics (CIL) (Chennai), National Institute of Retail Management (Bengaluru). University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (for MBA in Logistics & Supply Chain Management), Dehradun, etc.

Freshers can earn mostly between Rs 10000 and 20000 per month, in the field of supply management. A person with two or three year experience may get around Rs 18000 - 22000 per month. The salary package for those, who are working at the higher level, could be easily Rs 8.00 - 12.00 lakhs p.a.