What are the best practices to increase my supply chain knowledge?

by Next Level Purchasing SPSM® Certification

Supply Chain Management: The Management of the Procurement, Purchasing, Production, and Logistics Functions. In other words, it is the total set of activities ranging from the translation of customer requirements, selection of suppliers, acquisition of raw materials to conversion to finished products and services that are delivered to customers.

Factors impacting the Total Cost of Ownership such as quality, efficiencies, delays, stock outs, obsolescence and carrying cost are heavily emphasized in the Supply Chain discipline.

To learn and master the above skill sets takes time and depends one’s learning style. Individuals seeking to learn the science of Supply Chain Management should do some research of their learning styles.

The following are what we recommend as the best ways to learn procurement:

1. Vision: create one: Design Desired Outcomes for your procurement Career.

2. Body of Knowledge (BOK): get one, spend time reviewing it

3. Determine Knowledge Gaps to the BOK: firstly, ascertain your mental and physical aptitude to learn the Procurement BOK: Then study your knowledge gaps

4. Skills Acquisition: this can be acquired in various ways depending on your availability of time, budget and degree of knowledge gap. Some ways to do this are as follows:

Mentor: Get a Supply Chain Expert as your mentor who can guide you through the following:
BSc. or MSc. In Supply Chain Management. Remember the MS degree focuses on making one a Subject Matter Expert.
Certification: Such as the Senior Professional in Supply Management (SPSM). This program is strong on applied theory. The SPSM program delves deep into the “what and how to of procurement”
SPSM® Certification: 3 Steps to Supply Chain Success,
LEARN (Learn the most modern procurement best practices and put them to use immediately.)
PROVE (Prove your advanced capabilities by passing the SPSM® Exam)
APPLY (Apply what you’ve learned to achieve measurable results; save more money, improve performance, and more)

5. Attend Supply Chain Webinars and Blogs: these mediums can yield great benefit, especially if are done by industry experts. NLPA offers excellent blogs and webinars on a wide range of supply chain topics.

6. Make your own Blog and Write Articles: this will push you learn through collaboration and dialog that an interactive blog can provide

7. Teach: this will enhance collaboration on supply chain topics and will force you to expand your knowledge base. Students will naturally challenge you to provide cutting edge leadership.