Each day it seems there is breaking news of a real or impending inventory shortage affecting consumers. The outrage is palpable and real. While inventory shortages are hardly a nascent phenomenon, they have been exacerbated and garnered much more attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, starting with personal protective equipment, then paper products, cleaning supplies, canned foods, meats, exercise equipment, and, more recently, semiconductors, building materials, and holiday gifts. It is a fact that some of these items have experienced unprecedented surges in demand as well as off-the-charts irrational hoarding and panic-buying behavior.
 
Regardless of their nature, business problems, described as supply chain problems, lead inevitably to finger-pointing and the blame game. A generous share of the blame for recent supply-demand disparities is now being directed to Lean Thinking, and more specifically, just-in-time (JIT) inventory techniques. The common critique is that companies in all industries have cut inventories below reasonable levels as a consequence of Lean initiatives with money-saving efficiencies as a desired outcome. As a case in point, a New York Times article titled How the World Ran Out of Everything asserts that companies have gone too far in paring down inventories through the use of JIT. In addition, other prominent news outlets have jumped onto this same bandwagon and railed against the widespread adoption of Lean Thinking.

The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and Supply Chain Quarterly will soon release the next annual salary survey for supply chain management professionals. This collaborative survey focuses on collecting data to analyze the current state of salaries and overall compensation for professionals working in supply chain. Survey questions will review data that spans salary by years of experience, position, education level, certification, title and job function, geographical location, and overall job satisfaction data. 
 
In the meantime, take a closer look at results from the 2021 Annual Salary Survey.

The 2021 survey results shared how the global pandemic shocked the world and brought the logistics and supply chain industries under the microscope. While the supply disruptions certainly put a strain on logistics and supply chain professionals, it wasn’t enough to sour them on the profession: A full 93% of the 386 respondents to CSCMP Supply Chain Quarterly’s Second Annual Salary Survey said they would recommend the field to someone entering the job market or contemplating a career change.

SCPro™ Certification is a three-tiered program that assesses progressive knowledge and skills across integrated supply chain activities. This process validates an individual’s ability to strategically assess business challenges and effectively implement supply chain improvements through the analysis of real-world case studies and developing a comprehensive project plan to achieve results such as a positive ROI.

San Francisco Roundtable
"I originally joined CSCMP in 2017 after being invited to be an EDGE conference presenter discussing IoT and sensor driven supply chain technology applications. I have been familiar with CSCMP for many years through our local roundtable participation and company sponsorship. Best advice I have for new members is twofold: 1. Participate in local roundtable events. This is a great way to meet other members, stay current on industry topics, and expand your professional network. 2. Read the excellent content published by CSCMP. In addition to meeting highly knowledgeable content experts when I attend events, I find the industry research and report data in CSCMP publications to be highly relevant and insightful in helping me roadmap ALOM's technology development strategy."

"As a young analyst, I joined in 1984 to get exposed to new ideas. And boy did I get some new ideas! I'd leave the annual conference and start trying to get them implemented in my company. Talk to everybody: practitioners, vendors, CSCMP staff. There is a lot of value in these conversations and the personal connections that can come from them. Having been to a few annual conferences, I see great value in reconnecting with the thought leaders each year. (See you in Nashville.)"

With a passion for logistics, BlueGrace believes in making every business better by being prepared and proactive in logistics strategy and service execution. BlueGrace improves business value and success through their national network of offices and team of supply chain professionals. They serve over 10,000 customers annually and their technology platform, BlueShip^®, has connectivity with more than 250,000 carrier suppliers. BlueGrace is part of the technology portfolio of Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm.

CSCMP Corporate Member, Wagner Logistics, a third-party logistics company, announced that it has partnered with LongueVue Capital (LVC), a New Orleans-based private equity firm to recapitalize the business and provide growth capital to fund the Company's continued expansion. Headquartered in North Kansas City, MO, Wagner is an asset-light third-party logistics (3PL) provider focused on contract warehousing, fulfillment, and related transportation services to customers across a variety of industries, including paper & packaging, heavy industrials, aerospace and defense, outdoor equipment, automotive, and direct-to-consumer, among others.

Join CSCMP's Member Engagement Manager, Timothy Pajak, to learn about member-to-member relationship building, professional development, local Roundtables, the annual EDGE Conference, the Career Center, how to access the Member-Only directory, volunteer opportunities, and more.
Register today!

According to the December Logistics Manager’s Index Report^®, the overall index is 70.1, down from November’s reading of 73.4. This continues the streak of readings over 70.0 to 11 months extending back to February. In the previous 12 months, December 2020 and January 2021 were the only months in which the overall index came in below 70.0. Given the continued lack of capacity and large levels of inventory that remain in supply chains, it will be interesting to observe whether January’s reading remains above 70.0. Much of this month’s growth is driven by high inventory and warehousing readings upstream, and high transportation readings downstream. This is the most bifurcated these two groups have been in the history of the LMI, likely representing the highly differentiated roles upstream and downstream firms play during the December holiday rush.

 

Become an official EDGE 2022 Supply Chain Exchange Exhibitor today to position your brand as a global innovator and leader in the end-to-end supply chain.