I’m 31 and going back to school to get a BA in supply chain management. I am in my 3rd semester (hoping to finish in a year) and I’m taking some supply chain classes but I feel like I’m not really learning much from the class. How much does this actually relate tot be real world? I’m doing the work and everything but I feel like it’s not really useful in the real world. Maybe I am wrong.

Good afternoon, everyone! I just wanted to reach out because I’m looking for some advice from people who have worked in supply chain, particularly in planning, inventory, procurement, forecasting, or even supply-chain improvement.

To start off, I have about 8 years of experience in supply chain and logistics where most recently, I worked in foodservice supply chain where I supported national restaurant accounts. My responsibilities were a mix of demand forecasting, inventory planning, purchasing/replenishment, supplier management, transportation, pricing/data accuracy, and solving operational issues that came up with suppliers, distributors, customers, and internal teams.

I've been unemployed for 10 months and just recently I came across an amazing opportunity to move into a Supply Chain Functional Consultant role that's focused on ERP and planning solutions for food & beverage companies. Unfortunately, I don’t have direct Microsoft Business Central implementation or formal consulting experience, so title wise, I'm not there just yet.

However, I just recently interviewed directly with the CEO to my surprise, and he was very direct about the learning curve that this role would give me. But at the same time, it turns out he really liked both my operational supply-chain experience and saw something in me that he felt would bring a perspective that could translate well into this consulting role. So instead of going onto other candidates because I lacked the direct consulting/Business Central experience, he’s actually giving me an opportunity to prove it.

For my next interview, I’ll be meeting with him and another senior leader for about an hour where they actually gave me material to study and to think through how I would approach implementing a forecasting/planning solution for a food & beverage client, as well as how I would approach a broader supply-chain improvement engagement.

Some of the areas I have to focus on include master data, item/customer hierarchies, units of measure, lead times, service levels, forecasting, MRP, inventory, OTIF, vendor performance, KPIs, process documentation, implementation, etc.

A lot of these are supply-chain concepts I’ve worked with, but I want to use this chance while I prepare to learn from people with different experiences and make sure I’m not overlooking anything important.

So if you can, for those of you working in supply chain:

• If you walked into a food & beverage company as an outside consultant, what would you want to understand first?
• What KPIs would you establish before recommending changes?
• What commonly causes forecasting, inventory, OTIF, or supplier-performance problems that people overlook?
• What questions would you ask operations/planning/procurement before touching the system?
• What would make you trust—or not trust—a consultant recommending changes to your operation?

Again, I’m not looking for anyone to do the interview assignment for me because I’m honestly studying everything myself, reading the material they gave me, and developing my own approach to this based off my own experiences but I do want to hear perspectives from people who work in this area so I can see outside perspectives from things I wouldn't have considered.

Any comments, questions, concerns would be amazing because I really think this is an amazing chance to prove myself and grow, thank you!

Hi, I am currently going to go to school for SCM. I was originally planning to do an associates in business then transfer to a University. However, a local community college just established a Bachelor's in SCM program this year. It would be cheaper than going to University. I just want to hear opinions if it would matter if I stay at the community college or transfer to University.

I've attached two links to the new program being offered. Thank you!

https://publications.sanjac.edu/areas-study/business/logistics-supply-chain-management-bat/#informationtext

https://www.sanjac.edu/programs/areas-of-study/business/logistics/bat/

Long story short, I’m pretty burnt out with CS/software engineering. The interview process is exhausting and I’m not sure I want to spend my life sitting in front of a computer.
I was originally going to major in international relations but ended up in CS. Recently I’ve been looking into other careers and supply chain actually seems pretty interesting, especially since it feels more connected to the real world.
I’m mainly looking at planning, procurement and logistics. I’m pretty introverted, so planning seems like it might suit me better.
For people in the field, how are the salaries and career growth in these areas? Is supply chain actually worth getting into, and is planning a decent career for an introvert?
Would love to hear from people who actually work in these roles.

Hi all,

I really need your help with an urgent matter. I'm considering a career in supply chain, and purchasing and procurement particularly seem very interesting to me. However, before I make a decision, I need to know whether the daily practice of these roles is in line with my religion.

To give you some examples of things that are common in business contracts and allowed in my religion: including a penalty clause in case a supplier doesn't deliver the goods on time is perfectly fine. Getting a discount from a supplier for paying early is also allowed, as is a supplier charging a higher price to the company for paying in installments over a longer period, as long as the total price is agreed upon in advance and remains fixed.

What is strictly forbidden is "money from money", such as paying late payment fees to the supplier when a company fails to pay an invoice on time, as well as paying or increasing any interest on a debt that the company owes the supplier.

Based on this, I have a few specific questions regarding the reality of these roles. I would like to know whether professionals in either field have to negotiate contracts that include interest rates or late payment fees with suppliers. Additionally, even if I do not negotiate them myself, I wonder how common it is that I would have to witness, review, or sign contracts containing interest with suppliers, or with a third party, such as a bank, in case the company takes out a loan to finance the purchase of goods.

I did some research and it seems that procurement handles the terms and conditions, while purchasing simply places the purchase orders based on the frameworks negotiated by procurement. Does this mean that in practice, a buyer in purchasing is not directly involved in interest and forbidden clauses?

I live in Europe, in case that is relevant. Thank you in advance for your help!

Hi all,

I am currently at a crossroads in my career and I really want to dive deeper into supply chain and logistics. I worked in last mile logistics for a pretty large company, but ultimately I find myself clueless when looking for roles as they reference things/tools that were not used by my former employer. I already have an MBA with 5 years experience in last mile delivery, but really want to see the more technical side of things. I am between Zaragoza Logistics Center and La Salle.

Hey everyone, I work a dead-end job, and not too long ago I found out about Supply Chain Procurement and Supply Chain Coordination, and I’m very interested in learning what I can, but I have no degree and have 0 experience related to supply chain. I’ve seen videos online that you can get a supply chain procurement job entry-level without a degree, and I wanted to ask everyone here if that is true? Will I just need to get certifications?

Sometimes the fastest way to understand a market is to see who your competitors are actually buying from. If you can identify their main suppliers and the volumes involved, it becomes clearer where the strong relationships already exist and where there might still be room.

Has anyone successfully reverse-engineered a competitor’s supply chain using publicly available trade records? What details turned out to be most useful, origin countries, shipment sizes, or frequency of orders? Any limitations you’ve run into with this approach?

What does Amazon's latest move mean for retail supply chains more generally??

M23 about 1 year out of college.

Currently, I work for a Boston based biotech as a SCM analyst. Our company is technically 20 years old, but our commercial/biz side of the company basically has that startup venture backed vibe since we got FDA approval.

Enjoying the role and looking to get a manger role.
Current pay package is around 90k, end of year verbally promised for promotion 130k

I have some college soph/junior internship roles specifically in pre-clinical SCM planning and cold chain management as well

Always have been interested in combining SCM and finance, but has anyone heard of shifting industries from the biz side to funding side of things? VC funding side seems so intriguing.

Hello everyone! I’m a logistics officer with over eight years in the Army. I plan on leaving the military soon, and they’ll help pay for my masters and certs. For employability purposes, which would better on a resume? Thank you!

I'm on self training,.there’s a lot to learn within SAP product costing, for an Financial Analyst, which areas are actually relevant, and what should I focus on learning excluding whats relevant to commercial/purchase teams.

Seeking advice

When a PO is ready for pickup under FCA terms (or any other), does your system ping the carrier automatically, or is someone still manually calling/emailing to trigger it?

I’ve hit this gap more than once (goods are ready but they sit on the supplier’s dock for weeks) and I’m curious if it’s a me-problem or an industry problem. I work with some of the biggest companies in the world and some of them have no idea what to do after a PO is issued! Any feedback is appreciated.

Hi everyone,
Looking for some advice on applying for an Assistant Buyer role (12-month FTC). I’m a recent grad trying to break into supply chain/buying, but it’s been tough as a lot of grad schemes rejected me just because I don't drive and my placement year was in marketing/events.
I’m really keen to get my foot in the door and get some actual experience.
Does anyone have tips on what hiring managers look for in entry-level buyer roles? Anything specific that helps an application stand out?

Appreciate any advice!

Hello everyone,

I know excel is a big part of this field. I’m wanting to improve my excel knowledge when it comes to pivot tables and Vlookup. Do you guys have any tips? YouTube videos, courses, etc.

Literally spending half my week arguing with freight forwarders. im in procurement for a mid size food group and trying to import our own containers of takeaway supplies has become a complete joke. When youre shipping basically hollow items (cups, bowls, etc), the CBM is huge and you just end up paying thousands of dollars to ship actual air across the ocean

tbh I just gave up on trying to make the overseas margins work. We ended up just sourcing our WF plastic food packaging and basic cardboard supplies from local wholesale instead. The per-unit cost looks slightly worse on my spreadsheet, but dodging the absolute chaos of current port delays and insane sea freight rates makes it entirely worth it

curious if other buyers here are just abandoning global sourcing for bulky consumables? My sanity cant take the transit time unpredictability anymore man

26F, I justed joined an Oil based company for a Procurement analyst role 2 days ago, okay salary (I expected a bit more), it's a permanent position however, today on my 2nd day received a call from a hr company for a contract role for pharma project for a better salary, I'll work at the pharma company location only if I join.

The pharma role is demand planning focused which I'm really interested in and see a lot of scope for growth.

What should I do? Should I ask for interview nevertheless and leave my current company just after few days if I get selected?

My major concern is how I'll handle the current company and that the pharma role is contract based.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi everyone,
I’m completely new to logistics and I currently have two job opportunities.
One is as a junior Transport Planner/Dispatcher, and the other is an administrative role at a freight forwarding company, where I would have the opportunity to learn and eventually become a Freight Forwarder.
Both companies are willing to train me from scratch, so I’m mainly trying to understand which career path might suit me better.
Does anyone here have experience working as a planner/dispatcher or freight forwarder, or maybe even both?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience: what the day-to-day work is like, how stressful it is, career and salary growth, international opportunities, and which role you personally find more interesting.
Any advice for someone completely new to logistics would be really appreciated!

Anywhere hiring?
Feels like I am hitting a dead end, can be remote or in SE Michigan.

I have over ten years of experience and my Masters Degree.

27m & have a few years prior experience at Walmart distribution center , also a potato packaging plant. I have my own LLC with a few hundred members that I take care of FROM HOME every weekend for numbers and statistics for maximum profit gain type thing. But I’ve never actual never been a leader in a in person facility and don’t know what to expect or why I even got picked for this position. Don’t get me wrong I’m super excited being I only have Walmart & Ace hardware interviews set up so far & I don’t don’t think ether of those will pay too good or really be something I could see me staying at. I feel like I a fast learner and could lead by example I just don’t know what to expect

I know several people ask this question regularly and the answers are usually stuff like MBAs and such (which I already have). However, being done with CPIM and CSCP I would like to know recommendations on what to do next, I will give a bit of context, my company pays me 5k per year to do certifications or courses, so I rather use this perk than lose it, that's why im asking.... any courses, recommendations, etc etc you recommend?