Careers In Intelligent Supply Chain

Start with the basics of Supply Chain Management and strengthen your understanding to tap into existing potential for growth. 
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Behind every packet of milk that gets delivered in less than 10 minutes and official merchandise from Hollywood that gets delivered in five business days lies a robust supply chain network. Over the last decade, we’ve been moving away from conventional supply-chain models — involving spreadsheets and phone calls — to their intelligent counterparts. This next-generation model effectively mitigates visibility challenges associated with order fulfillment milestones and offers transparency in the movement of goods during low-probability-high-impact scenarios like wars, natural disasters, and even a pandemic.

Leveraging emerging technologies like data science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotics, and more, smart supply chain models are complementing enterprise visions to offer better customer service as well.

New roles

The onset of data-driven models, automation, and AI is giving rise to new and niche job roles that offer rewarding career paths. We are looking at a new era of opportunities such as:

Predictive analytics specialists: who develop effective models to identify patterns from historic data and forecast trends and events in the future with respect to supply chain opportunities and hindrances.

AI supply chain analysts: who build AI-powered statistical models to analyse massive volumes of supply chain data for insights, anomalies, patterns, threats, and opportunities .

Supply chain managers: who lead teams of AI supply chain analysts and translate their efforts into business outcomes and be the bridge between data scientists and business stakeholders for data-driven decision making.

Digital supply chain architects: who design and deploy digital transformation strategies to optimise supply chain operations and look for ways to seamlessly integrate AI and machine learning models for a connected supply chain ecosystem.

Cybersecurity experts: who fortify the digital infrastructure of the entire supply chain ecosystem and ensure no back doors, loopholes and vulnerabilities exist for hackers to exploit. They are also responsible for nurturing cyber awareness across hierarchies for safe practices of digital systems.

Robotics engineers: who design robots, edge systems, and IoT devices to enhance warehouse workflows, operations, and allied logistics and automation processes

Academic prerequisites

For a career in this space, a strong foundation of supply chain concepts is necessary. Ideally, the academic prerequisites include Undergraduate degrees in supply chain management, industrial engineering, information systems, and business administration; Master’s and relevant specialisations in supply chain electives; Technical skills such as exposure to data science, analytics models and tools, AI and machine learning, programming languages like Python and R, digital technologies such as IoT, cloud computing, edge computing, blockchain, cybersecurity, or others; Professional skills such as problem-solving capabilities, the thirst for perpetual learning, strategic thinking, analytical and logical reasoning, interpersonal skills, and leadership qualities

A promising space for freshers and enthusiasts who envision a rewarding career path, supply chain also demands strong skills and capabilities. So one needs to do is to:

• Develop strong foundational knowledge on supply chain concepts and industrial engineering

• Gain as much practical expertise as possible by getting hands on with tools, programming languages, statistical models, and AI algorithms

• Be on the constant lookout for changes and be adaptive and resilient to quickly pick up new competencies

• Consistently work on communication, data visualisation, and storytelling aspects

• Seek a mentor for the right guidance and direction in the domain

Apart from these, aspirants should look for online training and certification programmes to work on all these aspects simultaneously. Top Indian institutions have some of the most industry-specific and agile curriculum on supply chain that also emphasises practical learning through sandbox labs and tools for experiential learning.

While carving a career in intelligent supply chain may sound daunting, at its core, jobs revolve around core aspects from conventional supply chain models such as demand planning and forecasting, process optimisation, inventory management, vendor coordination, order fulfillment, and more. What is getting an upgrade is the medium and way to accomplish such goals. So, start with the basics and strengthen your understanding to tap into existing potential for growth.

The writer is the Vice President-Emerging Technology, UNext Learning.