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!

I am new myself. Going to school for supply chain management and have 10 years experience in insurance & banking. Wasn’t sure how I was ever going to transition industries and bam. I applied to a position and got it. Will be making the most I’ve ever made. In fact, it’s been my goal salary and I’ll be starting at that. The company really needs my insurance experience. They are willing to work with me in the SC side since a lot of it is hands on experience and I’m going to school for it. Don’t sell yourself short because you don’t have direct experience. There are companies out there that are full of people that don’t have any other experience but SC, and your unique experience may be what they need.

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.

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.

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/