Supply Chain Management Courses– What is Its Importance?

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is an integral element to achieving operational efficiency. The concept of SCM can be diversely applied to customer satisfaction & company success and also within societal settings that include disaster relief operations, medical missions; cultural evolution and any other types of emergencies, to aid in improving the overall quality of life. Because of this vital role played by SCM organizations, employers wanting to have the right talent in house seek employees with a decent level of SCM skills and knowledge. Supply chain management courses that deliver these cutting edge skills sets are thus critical to business operations & success. Through these supply chain management courses an individual gets to understand the various business processes in an organisation. Here are a few reasons why supply chain management courses gain prominence:

Global necessity of SCM
The world around us can actually be thought to be a global supply chain where the aspects of supply chain management touch bases on major issues like the rapid growth of multinational corporations (MNCS) and the strategic partnerships existing, global sourcing & expansion, fluctuating oil & gas prices and environmental concerns. Each and every fragment of these issues adversely affects corporate strategy and the bottom line. Because of all these emerging trends today, supply chain management courses that actually deals with imparting supply chain related knowledge becomes the most vital and critical business domain in the world.

SCM as a vital aspect in our society
Supply chain management is also a vital constituent to the base & infrastructure within various societies. SCM in a well-established community can create number of job opportunities, reduce pollution if properly planned and also decrease the energy usage from the fossil based fuels used commercially worldwide and in turn increase the standard & quality of humans. Let us see an example where SCM played an important role to benefit the society at a key stage:

• Hurricane by the name Katrina that hit US in 2005
In the year 2005, a hurricane by the name Katrina flooded New Orleans a city in the state of Louisiana, leaving the residents without any access to safe drinking food and water. This resulted in a massive rescue operation to evacuate a large no. of residents from the flood hit area. At that point during the first weekend of the rescue and relief effort approximately 1.9 million packets of meals & about 6.7 million litres of water were delivered to those affected by the flooding that resulted.

Lays the necessary foundation towards economic growth
An economy or society that lays great emphasis on developing the basic necessary infrastructure like good road, railways and sea links to other parts of the world then many goods can be traded at a lower cost to pass the benefits to the consumers as well. In fact business & consumers will be able to obtain these goods faster resulting in economic growth. All this are some of the aspects that various supply chain management courses impart as practical aspects that can be applied to the real time scenario.

Reasons for paying attention to SCM in the Business scenario:
From the above sections we can definitely come to agreement that SCM does play a vital role with its existence. The impact that SCM has got onto the business is definitely significant & exponential and this affects businesses in 2 ways like the ones given below:

• Customer Service gets a major boost
SCM impacts the customer service by mapping and delivering the right proportion of product assortment and quantity at the right instant of time. In addition to this, these products shall be available in those preferred locations of the customers. As a result of this the customers also stand to receive high quality after-sales customer support from the company. This is taught by institutions as a part of various supply chain management courses in their courses.

• Bottom Line Improvement
SCM has a telling impact on the bottom line of the firms. The firms highly value the supply chain managers as they engage and use large fixed assets like the plants, transportation vehicles and warehouses present in the supply chain. Also the cash flow levels increase because if there is this delivery of the product that can be properly and timely expedited then the resultant profits will also be received in a shorter span of time.

The supply chain management courses through the individuals enrolled in these course works by providing necessary knowledge to streamline everything in a firm from day-to-day activities related to product flows to handling unexpected natural disasters. With the necessary tools and techniques imparted through these supply chain management courses the individuals shall gain necessary insights and shall have the required ability to properly identify & diagnose problems in their work environment, work around factors that act as disruptions & ultimately determine ways to efficiently move products from the crisis situation.

What is learnt by those attending these supply chain management courses?
By studying these supply chain management courses individuals will be able to solve complex problems faced by firms relating to the journey of products and services from the manufacturer end or provider to the end customer.

A completed understanding of the techniques required to manage and improve the integration of processes, resources, design and customer requirements happens.

Cores Areas to opt during the study of supply chain management courses
The various subjects that come under the ambit of supply chain management courses include topics in production planning, business process design, operations management, business logistics, supply chain management and scheduling a quality management.

At the postgraduate level one could explore designing, managing and process improvement initiatives of systems and networks in use within & between firms. Research areas of study include quality management, systems thinking, manufacturing & service systems modelling, supply chain modelling & coordination, and health care delivery.

Opportunities in store post completion of supply chain management courses
Depending on course an individual completes in an undergraduate or postgraduate level one could work as supply chain consultant, ERP consultant, production and scheduling planner/manager, operations analyst/consultant/manager, business process engineer, quality manager or change manager.

Zoom Kobe XII ZK12