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by Jeff Moad, MA Editorial Staff Posted on Friday, May 16, 2008 10:35:04 AM   | Abstract: | At issue is a wide difference of opinion about how to define the relatively new supply chain management discipline. |
Manufacturing companies hoping to build excellent supply chain management organizations face a crisis due to a worsening lack of properly trained and prepared supply chain professionals, according to a recent survey and report prepared by AMR Research for the Supply Chain Council's Global Supply Chain Professional Development Committee.
The report, based on a survey of 198 organizations, found that, because the supply chain management discipline is relatively new, there is little agreement over what the responsibilities of the supply chain organization should be. Most organizations (79%), for example, include responsibility for delivering products under the supply chain organization. But relatively few include new product development (28%) or post sales support (25%). Out of 198 companies surveyed, the report found 122 unique spans of control for supply chain organizations.
Such inconsistent ideas about what a supply chain organization is supposed to do have made it difficult for the profession to define the skills needed by supply chain professionals. "There are serious deficiencies in bench strength, primary talent development strategies focused on personnel poaching internally and externally, and legacies that require leading organizations to self-train or pay for subject-matter expertise across the breadth of responsibility," the report says.
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