Supply Chain Body of Knowledge – for supply chain professionals!

February 25, 2011 | By In Uncategorized |

The supply chain and logistics management profession encompasses many sectors like Transport, Freight, Warehousing, Stevedoring, procurement & purchasing, inventory management and just about anything relating to the logistics of getting something manufactured to selling it. It employs roughly about 10% of the global working population and contributes to roughly 20% of most economy’s GDP’s. It’s huge and hugely important to all industries and businesses. Some research suggests that the health of a business’s supply chain directly impacts up to 25% of their net profit margin. Every business has a suppy chain and most have multiple.

It’s a very responsive profession focussed on operational issues impacting the health of the global supply chain. It’s a profession not well practised at dealing with strategic things (e.g. the GFC and global shortages) likely to impact it in the decades ahead. Agreed upon unaimously by most senior supply chain professionals internationally is the fact that we cannot get agreement on where our industry starts and finishes; that is, a definition for supply chain (or logistics .. or anything else relating to what it is we do).

One of the big differences between organised professions like accounting and project management (amongst many others) – who are not dis-similar to supply chain professionals (in that we perform critical functions in all businesses and all other industries) – is that they have an agreed and established framework of definitions, processes or methodologies that underpin and standardise everything that they do as professionals.

This is their ‘concrete foundation’ that underpins them as a legitimate, healthy and evolving profession. This then makes defining what it is they do easy; gaining agreement across the profession on anything technical much easier; defining job roles and processes much easier; recruiting and retaining supply chain people much easier; justifying for conditions and salary increases much easier; lobbying government and other industries on better outcomes for our profession much easier. The Supply Chain profession does not have this ‘concrete foundation’.

A Supply Chain Body of Knowledge (SCBOK) is something that has been talked about and pleaded for by most within our profession (globally) for over a decade. FINALLY … an 820page SCBOK (first edition) has been developed and captures the complexities, processes and definitions of the complete supply chain spectrum.

It is a complete body of knowledge for professionals in supply chain, logistics, transport, distribution, warehousing, procurement and many other related roles. The scbok.com resource is an international supply chain, logistics, transport & distribution information resource that will help management at all levels optimise, improve and better understand their supply chain.

Better understanding leads to better management. Better management leads to better utilisation. Better utilisation leads to greater profit. The scbok.com 2012 publication will give you access to the most important suite of industry websites and online tools, a complete list of industry associations and contacts, an industry consultant search facility and many other tools and information sources required for better Supply Chain management within your business.

If you’re in business, you have at least 1 supply chain. If you have a supply chain and don’t understand it, you have no control over 25% of your business profits. If you don’t understand your supply chain, your competitors continually have a 25% advantage over you. You must understand your supply chain and the first edition of the Supply Chain Body of Knowledge will certainly help you do that.

Pete Moore is Co-Founder of award winning website builder, ezweb123.com (http://www.ezweb123.com).
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