Supply Chain Manager's Primary Duties Paper Example

Introduction

Managing a supply chain is controlling the movements of services and goods from where they are being manufactured to where they are being consumed. The supply chain manager is responsible for supply chain management; this job position comes along with various duties and responsibilities. The supply chain manager should be capable of communicating necessary information professionally to the involved parties through different platforms such as emails, face to face, mobile phones, etc. Good communication is one aspect that enhances the operations of the supply chain. The manager must be in a position to come up with a valuable solution to communication challenges and solve issues that keep of arising.

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The manager of a supply chain is responsible for creating and sustaining different strategies and plans of the supply chain. It involves controlling and monitoring production activities so as to be in a position to foresee orders and fulfills the client's requirements (Kiessling et al., 2014). The manager must ensure the available resources are utilized appropriately with an aim of reducing the cost of production. They must be able to uses systems that aid in the management of warehouses and planning f enterprise resources such as WMS and ERP. Managers are given the duty of evaluating performance and capacity of a monthly basis to make sure that schedules and forecasts are integrated.

A supply chain manager at Walmart would be given the responsibility of controlling and managing inventory. The manager creates functions of reporting and concise metrics to enhance growth within the organization. It is also the role of the supply chain manager to conduct an assessment of the risks associated with trends of supply, product mitigation, factors of demand and perishability of goods. They are responsible for reducing the obsolescence of a product by efforts re-balancing and review of inventory. The manager must also determine what drives obsolescence and efficiently pass the solutions to the third-party providers of logistics.

Supply chain manager manages the cost of labor, individual productivity, the accuracy of data, stocking plan and the levels of inventory. they do so by developing sustainable safety instructions at work and standard procedures of doing things. The manager is also head of transportation; ensures the proper procedures of importation and exportation are followed by the service providers that have been contracted (de Abreu & Alcantara, 2015). The annual wage of a supply chain manager should range from $70000 to $125000 without any bonuses. If the bonuses are included the annual salary rises to approximately $105000 but the managers who perform well are capable of earning more.

Information from Other Entities

Supply chain manager must rely on information from other entities for the efficient and effective flow of activities. The supply chain is at the center of the business operations and therefore it must coordinate with other departments so as to achieve the organizational goals of Walmart. The manager of the supply chain must collect information from all the suppliers. This information entails things such as the location of the supplier, the cost of the materials being supplied, the expected delivery time of the goods to be supplied, etc. This information helps the manager to have a strategic plan on what needs to be done at any given time.

Information from customers is important as well; the manager should be aware of what the customer needs and whether the customers are satisfied or any improvements needed. Supply chain management must also relate well to the manufacturing department to gather information on how resources need to b allocated so as to know the necessary supplies. The marketing department is also important to the supply chain management since it guides the manager on which products need to be market and where the marketing should be done. Supply chain management requires financial information from the accounting unit so that it is able to manage and control the budget.

Key Performance Indicators

Taking a closer look at the supply chain, Walmart has invested hugely on people and equipment to make sure that execution is flawless and continuously find ways to assess the operations' success. Determining the performance of a supply chain manager is complex process however it can be narrowed down to particular important questions. Check whether the supply chain has met the organizational requirements. Has the client's needs or requirements been met? are the operations of supply chain conducted at the proper time and at the right cost Supply chain manager success can be gauged using the following primary indicators of performance.

The usage of storage space which can be defined as the volume of storage, warehouse or capacity utilized over a particular period (Chae, 2009). It assists the manager to determine whether to adjust the storage size and layout and identify the goods that require relocation. Using this method, it's possible to know whether the flow of materials should increase or reduce. It is key to note that the optimization of storage spaces or rather the warehouses do not occur when they are at full capacity. Approximately 80% is the optimal capacity of the warehouse since it allows the manager of the warehouse to respond to demand shifts.

Timely shipments and deliveries are the other measures of performance because the clients expect shipments and deliveries to be on time. The question which is more important between timely delivery and on time shipment depends on the nature of the business. It is therefore important that every employee ensures that the deliveries and shipments are timely so that supply chain operations are efficient and high customer satisfaction is retained. A supply chain manager who is performing well ensures that shipments and deliveries are on time and those that have the deliveries and shipments delayed can be said to be performing poorly.

The perfect order metric is an advanced way of determining performance which consists of a collection of performance indicators. It keeps on changing which enables it to determine whether different elements have worked together successfully such as whether shipments arrived within the expected period, without damages, to the required destination, to the correct client accompanied with the right invoice. By gauging the perfect order, the client is able to get a perspective of the whole delivery process. Every client expects the delivery to be perfect otherwise it would be considered as a poor performance which could affect customer service. It ensures the satisfaction of customers by considering different factors.

The rate of filling orders which refers to the number of orders which can be recorded depending on the currently available. The manager is able to know whether an inventory is balanced or not by examining the percentage rate of filling orders. They are also able to predict the number of sales that can be made. The higher the order fill rate the higher the capability to complete more sales thus maintaining high customer satisfaction. It is an indication of a supply chain manager who is performing well.

Job Promotions

Specialists utilize a lot of resources to strategize their next moves in their career so as to achieve long-term goals. Each individual develops an independent career path. It is clear that there is knowledge and skills that a supply chain manager should acquire so as to be promoted to the next job position (Apics, 2014). The manager is likely to get better positions as the career advances towards the peak. The job promotion is entirely dependent on the competencies and skills of the manager because one must be able to execute the assigned duties and responsibilities effectively.

Some of the job positions that one could be promoted in the middle of the career of supply chain management include material manager, production supervisor, commodity manager, senior analyst, supervisor etc. At this stage, the role and responsibilities change as well. One is expected to manage contracts, negotiate complex deals, coordination, and motivation of the team, management of projects, performance control, certification of vendors and control of the budget. At the peak of the supply chain manager career, one could be promoted to become the CEO, COO, vice president or the president. This promotion comes along with completely different roles and responsibilities within the farm. One should be capable of risk management, redesigning the chain of supply, controlling the achievement metrics, management of business departments and strategic planning of the firm.

References

Apics. (2014). OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT CAREER PATHS AND ... Retrieved from http://www.apics.org/docs/default-source/careers-white-papers-webianrs/operations-and-supply-chain-management-career-paths-and-patterns.pdf?sfvrsn=28

Chae, B. (2009). Developing key performance indicators for supply chain: an industry perspective. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 14(6), 422-428.

de Abreu, A., & Alcantara, R. L. C. (2015). Supply chain managers: professional profile and the role in the cross-functional integration of supply chain management. Independent Journal of Management & Production, 6(1), 44-63.

Kiessling, T., Harvey, M., & Akdeniz, L. (2014). The evolving role of supply chain managers in global channels of distribution and logistics systems. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 44(8/9), 671-688.