Anyone in Supply Chain?
Discussion
Hi All
I currently work within the SC Department as a Customer Demand Planner. 5 years in and need a change/some advice on the next step.
So does anyone work in the industry and if so, what would be your next position/advice for a more rounded and interesting role?
We here review customer forecasts daily, liaise with sales on accuracy, forecast setups, customer reviews to name but a few tasks, but id like a more involving position and id like some advice if possible from experienced people or people who may have been in my position.
Any advice or direction welcome
Thank you
I currently work within the SC Department as a Customer Demand Planner. 5 years in and need a change/some advice on the next step.
So does anyone work in the industry and if so, what would be your next position/advice for a more rounded and interesting role?
We here review customer forecasts daily, liaise with sales on accuracy, forecast setups, customer reviews to name but a few tasks, but id like a more involving position and id like some advice if possible from experienced people or people who may have been in my position.
Any advice or direction welcome
Thank you
I wouldn't say I'm an experienced person but I have been in Procurement intensely for 2.5 years.
Your role sounds more SC & logistics focused where it's about receiving stuff on time, quality, price etc
I would consider widening your view. Have you considered perhaps procuring other products/services? Companies buy a heck a lot of varied stuff: technology, software, corporate services, property and so on.
You should also look at your specific role .e.g strategic buying roles and category manager roles. It's an interesting place to work where you can suddenly have access to C-suite managers and get more recognition. Soft skills become much more important - managing stakeholders, managing opposing objectives, presenting and negotiating. You'll also get to add more value and work on interesting projects.
You could go in to project management?
Your role sounds more SC & logistics focused where it's about receiving stuff on time, quality, price etc
I would consider widening your view. Have you considered perhaps procuring other products/services? Companies buy a heck a lot of varied stuff: technology, software, corporate services, property and so on.
You should also look at your specific role .e.g strategic buying roles and category manager roles. It's an interesting place to work where you can suddenly have access to C-suite managers and get more recognition. Soft skills become much more important - managing stakeholders, managing opposing objectives, presenting and negotiating. You'll also get to add more value and work on interesting projects.
You could go in to project management?
Great advice from SN.
In addition; you’ve been looking around yourself at others. What have you seen that you like the look of? Investigate and see if you have what it takes to apply.
Or breaking free from your industry; what’s your dream job if it’s not in your industry? Again, have you got what it takes to head in to that? If not, could you get the quals/experience and then apply?
Good luck!
In addition; you’ve been looking around yourself at others. What have you seen that you like the look of? Investigate and see if you have what it takes to apply.
Or breaking free from your industry; what’s your dream job if it’s not in your industry? Again, have you got what it takes to head in to that? If not, could you get the quals/experience and then apply?
Good luck!
I work in Supply Chain and have done so for 20+ years. I’m with a consultancy (and SC software business) now.
Is there the opportunity to move from the demand to the supply side in your business?
Not necessarily procurement, but supply or production planning?
The reason I say that is that the demand side is going to become more and more of a punch bag in the years to come as it becomes apparent, to businesses who aren’t already aware, that improving forecast accuracy by throwing more and more tech’ at it and implementing ‘demand sensing’, etc, aren’t going to bring the benefits being claimed. In reality the “improvement” seen is in getting the wrong answer faster.
And whilst a forecast is required to set up and condition the supply chain, time-phased forecast accuracy isn’t the golden egg claimed by the high end demand planning software and process experts - “roughly right” is better than “precisely wrong”, which is where forecasting is heading.
Apologies for the waffle but I want to get the point across that if you want to work in SC, moving to the supply side is what I would target. There’s a much broader scope and more opportunity to meaningfully improve performance on that side, and with improvements come recognition and reward.
TL;DR? You need to move to the other side of the fence, in my opinion.
Is there the opportunity to move from the demand to the supply side in your business?
Not necessarily procurement, but supply or production planning?
The reason I say that is that the demand side is going to become more and more of a punch bag in the years to come as it becomes apparent, to businesses who aren’t already aware, that improving forecast accuracy by throwing more and more tech’ at it and implementing ‘demand sensing’, etc, aren’t going to bring the benefits being claimed. In reality the “improvement” seen is in getting the wrong answer faster.
And whilst a forecast is required to set up and condition the supply chain, time-phased forecast accuracy isn’t the golden egg claimed by the high end demand planning software and process experts - “roughly right” is better than “precisely wrong”, which is where forecasting is heading.
Apologies for the waffle but I want to get the point across that if you want to work in SC, moving to the supply side is what I would target. There’s a much broader scope and more opportunity to meaningfully improve performance on that side, and with improvements come recognition and reward.
TL;DR? You need to move to the other side of the fence, in my opinion.
Edited by PorkInsider on Saturday 13th January 09:04
Much of the hard crunching and forecasting management done in supply chain will be automated. I work with robotic process automation and I cannot see why this type of thing couldn't be automated. It is rules based and risk focused. Just programme it and take the human out. All investment banks and hedge funds use algorithms extensively, in place of jobs that would have been done by humans only a few years ago.
If your job can be written down in a manual, it will be automated or commoditised or both.
If your job can be written down in a manual, it will be automated or commoditised or both.
silent ninja said:
I wouldn't say I'm an experienced person but I have been in Procurement intensely for 2.5 years.
Your role sounds more SC & logistics focused where it's about receiving stuff on time, quality, price etc
I would consider widening your view. Have you considered perhaps procuring other products/services? Companies buy a heck a lot of varied stuff: technology, software, corporate services, property and so on.
You should also look at your specific role .e.g strategic buying roles and category manager roles. It's an interesting place to work where you can suddenly have access to C-suite managers and get more recognition. Soft skills become much more important - managing stakeholders, managing opposing objectives, presenting and negotiating. You'll also get to add more value and work on interesting projects.
You could go in to project management?
Its is more of the Customer Demand Planning side, not the indepth SC setup's but aiding and seeing aspects that need changing to fulfil the customers needs. Basically making sure we pipeline correctly, on time and with the best accuracy possible. Your role sounds more SC & logistics focused where it's about receiving stuff on time, quality, price etc
I would consider widening your view. Have you considered perhaps procuring other products/services? Companies buy a heck a lot of varied stuff: technology, software, corporate services, property and so on.
You should also look at your specific role .e.g strategic buying roles and category manager roles. It's an interesting place to work where you can suddenly have access to C-suite managers and get more recognition. Soft skills become much more important - managing stakeholders, managing opposing objectives, presenting and negotiating. You'll also get to add more value and work on interesting projects.
You could go in to project management?
I need to broaden my experience as you've mentioned, here we have Asset who are buyers but not in the sense of procurement, they generally carry out the same sense checks we do, but from a buying side of the business.
I like the Accuracy and stats side of the business so far, also liaising and finding solutions to improve the customer experience.
Ive been on the Six Sigma course 6months ago and we have a Forecast Accuracy Project ongoing that I need to get my teeth into once our team is back to full strength. But apart from that, this job has become mundane and pretty automated. Its the next step and what my CV would attract is my main concern
rog007 said:
Great advice from SN.
In addition; you’ve been looking around yourself at others. What have you seen that you like the look of? Investigate and see if you have what it takes to apply.
Or breaking free from your industry; what’s your dream job if it’s not in your industry? Again, have you got what it takes to head in to that? If not, could you get the quals/experience and then apply?
Good luck!
This has always been the million dollar question...ive never known what I really wanted to do with my career. Just wandered my way along.In addition; you’ve been looking around yourself at others. What have you seen that you like the look of? Investigate and see if you have what it takes to apply.
Or breaking free from your industry; what’s your dream job if it’s not in your industry? Again, have you got what it takes to head in to that? If not, could you get the quals/experience and then apply?
Good luck!
PorkInsider said:
I work in Supply Chain and have done so for 20+ years. I’m with a consultancy (and SC software business) now.
Is there the opportunity to move from the demand to the supply side in your business?
Not necessarily procurement, but supply or production planning?
The reason I say that is that the demand side is going to become more and more of a punch bag in the years to come as it becomes apparent, to businesses who aren’t already aware, that improving forecast accuracy by throwing more and more tech’ at it and implementing ‘demand sensing’, etc, aren’t going to bring the benefits being claimed. In reality the “improvement” seen is in getting the wrong answer faster.
And whilst a forecast is required to set up and condition the supply chain, time-phased forecast accuracy isn’t the golden egg claimed by the high end demand planning software and process experts - “roughly right” is better than “precisely wrong”, which is where forecasting is heading.
Apologies for the waffle but I want to get the point across that if you want to work in SC, moving to the supply side is what I would target. There’s a much broader scope and more opportunity to meaningfully improve performance on that side, and with improvements come recognition and reward.
TL;DR? You need to move to the other side of the fence, in my opinion.
No opportunity to move to SC, it was moved from our dept to another European country about 12mths ago.Is there the opportunity to move from the demand to the supply side in your business?
Not necessarily procurement, but supply or production planning?
The reason I say that is that the demand side is going to become more and more of a punch bag in the years to come as it becomes apparent, to businesses who aren’t already aware, that improving forecast accuracy by throwing more and more tech’ at it and implementing ‘demand sensing’, etc, aren’t going to bring the benefits being claimed. In reality the “improvement” seen is in getting the wrong answer faster.
And whilst a forecast is required to set up and condition the supply chain, time-phased forecast accuracy isn’t the golden egg claimed by the high end demand planning software and process experts - “roughly right” is better than “precisely wrong”, which is where forecasting is heading.
Apologies for the waffle but I want to get the point across that if you want to work in SC, moving to the supply side is what I would target. There’s a much broader scope and more opportunity to meaningfully improve performance on that side, and with improvements come recognition and reward.
TL;DR? You need to move to the other side of the fence, in my opinion.
Edited by PorkInsider on Saturday 13th January 09:04
I'm honestly getting this feeling that my role will be automated more and more and reading this has backed this up somewhat.
It makes sense now that the SC moved to the Top Dogs office.
I've moved from commercial planning to logistics and have enjoyed the shift. I now control the airfreight and railfreight from the far east of a UK retailer. If you like the planning side have you considered a big shipper like Hapag-Lloyd/MSC etc? There you would also get the opportunity to move into other roles as it's such a vast business?
Kingdom35 said:
Hi All
I currently work within the SC Department as a Customer Demand Planner. 5 years in and need a change/some advice on the next step.
So does anyone work in the industry and if so, what would be your next position/advice for a more rounded and interesting role?
We here review customer forecasts daily, liaise with sales on accuracy, forecast setups, customer reviews to name but a few tasks, but id like a more involving position and id like some advice if possible from experienced people or people who may have been in my position.
Any advice or direction welcome
Thank you
Not sure I can offer advice as such, but I can waffle about my experience and you can take what you will from it. I left university 20 years ago not knowing what I wanted to do, and nothing really has changed since. But my whole career has been in supply chain, and your dilemma resonated with me.I currently work within the SC Department as a Customer Demand Planner. 5 years in and need a change/some advice on the next step.
So does anyone work in the industry and if so, what would be your next position/advice for a more rounded and interesting role?
We here review customer forecasts daily, liaise with sales on accuracy, forecast setups, customer reviews to name but a few tasks, but id like a more involving position and id like some advice if possible from experienced people or people who may have been in my position.
Any advice or direction welcome
Thank you
1st Job: Woolworths HO, managing store replenishment (2 years)
2nd Job: Local firm that imported things from China (2 years)
3rd Job: Procter & Gamble. Started as a Demand Planner for about 3 years - tough job and (at the time) very low pay. Basically every month leading to a meeting where you get b
ked for either forecasting too high or too low, and your Brand team stabbing you in the back by saying "yeah, your forecast might be "Y", but we're putting "Yx2" because it means we'll get a bigger marketing budget, but we'll still let you explain why you were wrong next month".However, during that role I worked with the Global Product Supply team based at a nicer site 10 miles away, so expressed an interest working there and got taken on as Production Planner. Now I was having to deal with the crappy forecasts the Demand Planners were inputting, and working with Europeans contract manufacturing plants to secure supply. Did that for about 5 years and then made noises to move into project management, or NPI/NPD (New Product Introduction/Development).
Now I'm working with similar 3rd Party companies and using the communication skills ive developed, but looking after 15-20 projects and coordinating small teams in our office (production planners, QA staff, admin staff that write the technical specs) and updating the global category managers with the status of projects etc. Did that for about 7 years and then got made redundant this time last year!
After a few months dossing around started looking for a job doing something similar to my NPI role, or a broad "supply chain manager" role. To be honest, found it a bigger challenge than I expected - at P&G it was always said "once you've done 5+ years here, any company will snap you up". But my 15 years experience didn't quite guarantee that!
- I secured interviews (and 2nd/3rd interviews) at big companies (Pepsi, Bayer, Mars etc) and generally got good feedback, but competition was predictably fierce
- I didn't get many interviews at smaller companies, and when I did almost every one contained the question "but you worked for a huge amazing company like P&G, why would you want to work for us?" and regardless of the answers I gave (ie, I'm happy working for a small local company, as it was actually the truth) I think they just assumed I would jump ship as soon as Pepsi called me back.
The other thing I noticed is that there are a hell of a lot of Demand Planning roles out there now. Initially I didn't even bother applying for those as I still remembered the P&G experience, but eventually I relented and in fact that's what I'm doing now, at Roland/V-MODA (musical instruments, in case you don't know). Thankfully, despite the actual job title, 50% of the role is managing supply too, and even more importantly, its a lovely place to work - I don't dread going into work like I did at P&G. And the pay is the same as I left P&G on, so that's nice too.
So in summary, and as mentioned by other posters, broaden your supply chain experience - work in production planning so you know what effect your forecasts can have on the rest of the supply chain, and while doing that push to get some project work which will allow you to work with a diverse range of supply chain people. What bagged me this job, and impressed other interviewers, was I had a fair amount of experience throughout the supply chain, and during interviews could answer questions by giving solutions from both a demand side ("we could change the demand plan like this") or a supply side ("we could reduce MOQs, or increase inventory etc")
However, what I didn't have, which I think did hold me back from some "supply chain manager" roles was procurement experience. Yes, I placed purchase Orders, but didn't source suppliers and didn't agree prices with them etc.
Anyway, good luck with whatever you do!
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