THE WORLD-CLASS SCM MANAGER

Supply Chain Management is the optimized operation of the supply chain. It requires someone who can optimize the resources while at the same time interacting with the forces that cause pressures against the supply chain. Itrequires someone who can develop a strategic plan for continuous optimization and improvement. It requires a supply chain manager. So what is a supply chain manager? This individual is someone who can identify the critical resources that move through the supply chain; someone who can identify the forces that come into play and that affect the performance of these resources; and someone who can use this information to develop goals,objectives, and a strategy around which to optimize the flow of the supply chain. This sounds like a big task, and it is. But numerous tools are available to help you with this task, and as we move forward we will learn more about these tools. There are several types of managers, and they can be categorized in numerous ways. One type is the sunrise manager who has a view toward the future, as opposed to the sunset manager who fights fires in the here and now. Another way to classify managers is to consider their attitudes toward their subordinates. The two extremes are the authoritarian manager and the participative manager.