Logistics skills and competencies for supply chain managment

Journal of Business Logistics, 2001 by Gammelgaard, Britta, Larson, Paul D

In another recent article, Giunipero and Pearcy (2000) report results of a survey on "world-class" purchasing/supply management skills. They gathered importance ratings on thirty skills from 136 purchasing professionals. Each skill was rated from 1 (not important) to 5 (very important). The following ten skills were rated most important: interpersonal communication, ability to make decisions, ability to work in teams, analytical, negotiation, managing change, customer focus, influencing and persuasion, strategic, and understanding business conditions. Giunipero and Pearcy also factor analyzed the thirty skill items and extracted seven factors.

Presutti (1999) presents a list of 48 "supplier essential competencies," necessary to improve the purchasing link in the supply chain. These skills include: communication, computer skills, conflict management, negotiation, decision making, awareness of diversity issues, ethics, flexibility, creativity, leadership, problem solving, project management, teamwork, and training ability.

Borin and Watkins (1998) developed a list of 29 critical skills for marketing students. In addition to many of the skills mentioned in the previous paragraphs, their list contains the following "skills"-ambition, self-discipline, ability to work independently, selling, and foreign language. A skills questionnaire in use at an American business school in the West lists several further skill areas, such as: working under pressure, appreciation of cultural diversity, and global awareness (Anonymous 1998).

Guided by these sources, and interviews with several logistics executives, a SCM skills survey was designed. The survey, shown in Appendix A, asks respondents to rate the importance of 45 specific skills for SCM, on a scale from 0 (none) to 9 (very high). In addition, the survey includes a set of "demographic" questions (e.g., respondent experience with SCM, size of organization) to describe and classify respondents.

Results

During Spring 1999, the survey was faxed to 24 logistics practitioners and administered among students in two logistics courses. Survey results served as input to the design and promotion of a university SCM course. Thus, responses from both students (course customers) and practitioners (course consultants) were sought. Practitioner and student responses were compared to understand perceptual similarities and differences between the two groups, on important skills for SCM. The practitioners were all members of a logistics program advisory board for an American university. On average, the 15 practitioner respondents had 24.7 years of professional logistics experience, and worked along with 63 other logistics personnel in their firms or facilities. Student respondents (n = 42) had an average of 6.2 years overall work experience and had already taken 2.2 logistics courses.

Table 1 shows separate top ten skills lists for practitioners and students, in terms of mean importance ratings. The following seven items appear on both top ten lists: problem solving, decision making, teamwork, ability to see the "BIG picture," prioritizing, written communication, and oral communication. Thus, there is substantial agreement between students and practitioners on important skills in logistics and SCM. However, listening is an interesting exception. Though this skill received the highest mean rating by practitioners, it failed to make the students' top ten list. It is unclear why students rated listening relatively low. Perhaps listening is taken for granted and not recognized as a skill. Or, perhaps students perceive that others should listen while the supply chain manager speaks. Further research is needed to clarify students' views on listening.