Advances in Supply Chain Management

To face present-day climate challenges, supply chain managers must ensure resilience in their supply chains and implement future-proof strategies. This requires leaders to invest in innovative solutions that mitigate climate change risks while protecting profitability and growth.

While supply chain managers have been attuned to potential disruptions for decades, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of managing risks through the end-to-end supply chain. The scale of the pandemic was so grand that it impacted all areas of supply chains across industries and around the globe. The University of Tennessee's EPIC Framework helps global supply chain managers assess their supply chain location decisions, identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the different world regions.

With the digitalization of business, cyberattacks have become a top risk. Recognizing the severity of the risk they’re exposed to, many companies have enhanced their cybersecurity measures. However, building a so-called security fortress does not prevent cyberattacks entirely.

The new SCM Planning Academy kicks off September 16 with eight weeks of synchronous and asynchronous learning aimed at developing the planning skills and insights most desirable in tomorrow’s business leaders.

In most organizations, planning leaders have spent time reacting to their area’s operational realities, not occupying senior-level positions with responsibilities tied to strategic initiatives. Companies have failed to combine robust educational opportunities with processes, metrics, and incentives to create broad-based experiences for growth.

In addition to core competencies for individual planners, our research team identified five organizational action areas to support the development of the skills modern-day planners need. These five action areas are broad, mutually supportive, and simultaneously help develop a range of abilities.

Mindful of the five critical challenges facing the planning profession, supply chain decision-makers must ensure that when they hire, they develop their talent to be successful in their roles. These are the core competencies planning professionals must have to succeed for themselves and the business.

This is the first in a series of blog posts based on the applied research report, “Developing the Next Generation of Supply Chain Planning Talent and Leadership,” by the research team of Dan Pellathy, Michael Burnette, and Ted Stank. It explores the challenges facing talent development for planning.

This is the third post in a blog series based on the applied research report, “Advanced Supply Chain Planning: Leading Edge Capabilities Needed to Win in 2030,” by the research team of Michael Burnette, Dan Pellathy, Karen Mathews, and Daniel Myers. Download the white paper.

This is the second in a series of blog posts based on the applied research report, “Advanced Supply Chain Planning: Leading Edge Capabilities Needed to Win in 2030,” by the research team of Michael Burnette, Dan Pellathy, Karen Mathews, and Daniel Myers.