The Tech-Savvy Supply Chain Practioner

In the rapidly evolving world of supply chain management, technological fluency is crucial for both supply chain effectiveness and personal effectiveness. Supply chain practitioners must embrace and understand technology to connect it with real-world processes and avoid failed implementations. Personal technological skills are equally important, as self-reliance in an increasingly self-service, do-it-yourself world is vital for success in the 21st-century supply chain industry.

Today’s supply chain practitioner, as much as any other professional, must not be just tech-savvy, but tech-facile to survive. We experience everyday the ever-increasing pace of technology evolution. And it’s only going to get worse! (Or better, depending on your perspective!)
Those who don’t keep pace with the evolution of technology are
doomed to go the way of the dinosaur.

Much has been made of the differences between us older farts and the younger “Gen Y–Net Generation–Millennials–Echo Boomers– iGeneration– Google Generation” who have grown up immersed in a Digital– Internet– iPod–Cyber-Cellular– Virtual– Web– MP3– MTV– Mobile– XBox– Google– RFID– MySpace world. In most cases, the kids are teaching the grownups how to use technology.

For those of us who are not spring chickens anymore, we must work harder to keep our minds young, flexible, inquisitive, focused, and fast at learning new things. These days, adaptability and versatility can take precedence over experience. The ability to quickly find answers has become more critical than knowing the answer. Staying virtually connected to peers and communities has also become essential.

In short, skilled use of technology is vital to both supply chain effectiveness and personal effectiveness.

Supply Chain Effectiveness

It is a given that supply chain practitioners must excel and keep up on the best practices in their domain, whether it’s operational planning, commodity management, forecasting, logistics or whatever. But it is not enough. Today’s practitioner must really understand this technology and how to connect it to real world processes and best practice on the factory floor, the warehouse/DC, the yard, and the offices.

Technology is not the IT department’s issue. It is the supply chain executive and practitioner’s issue, because technology applied in the wrong way can backfire, whereas technology applied correctly enables the next generation of best practices. The road to supply chain technology nirvana is littered with failed implementations – almost never because of the technology itself, but because of lack of knowledge or involvement on the part of the practitioner, applying the wrong technology to the problem, and resistance to change by the end-users due to fear of the new and unknown.

Personal Effectiveness

I can still remember the days when I actually had a secretary (now I’m beginning to sound like a geezer in
his rocking chair reminiscing about the “good old days”). Oh, the joy of having someone else schedule a meeting with half a dozen other busy executives, or make my
travel arrangements for a multi-city trip. I might be
tempted to say mine is the fate of a “lone-wolf consultant”, but these days we are all, in a way, lone-wolf consultants. No longer can we settle into the security of a life-long position as a “company man”, knowing you’ll retire with
a pension. We have to change with the times and
become self-reliant.

Self Reliance—Technology Survival Skills
In many cases you can’t depend on the technology providers for help when things aren’t working. I often don’t even bother with vendor’s tech support anymore. If the problem is hard enough that I’m struggling to figure it out, then they usually can’t help me. Typically, after being put on hold for an hour or so (I never call tech support without my telephone headset so I can work while on hold), the call is answered by “John” with a thick accent who’s primary skill set is knowing how to read a script (“What version are you running?, “Did you try rebooting?”).
It is imperative to become technologically self-reliant.

Increasingly, we live in a self-service, do-it-yourself world. You can’t be personally effective without becoming skilled at a diverse range of personal technology. A few examples:

Proficiency with spreadsheets—I learned this as a department manager and later building ROI models.
It can be a great tool for all kinds of things.

Effective use of PDAs.

If you’re traveling internationally, you need to understand protocols, frequencies, coverage areas and plans, etc. to stay connected.

The intricacies of making various wired and wireless networks actually work and keep working … have you ever had to change your DNS or wireless security settings?

How to do effective Internet searching – this is an incredibly valuable skill.

PowerPoint design skills – very important these days since it is such a frequently used communications vehicle.

Knowing about security and anti-virus software – keep disasters away.

The list goes on and on. Every day there is something new to learn. The goal is not to become a gadget-head or super-geek. But you are at a really big disadvantage without these skills. Technological fluency is an integral part of being a great supply chain practitioner in the 21st century.