10 Reasons Why I Love Working in Supply Chain (2024)

I can't say I always thought that Supply Chain would be my career path, it didn't happen to me that while studying industrial engineering suddenly had a vision of the importance of Supply Chain and its importance on every industry.

To be honest I would say none of my university schoolmates knew where our professional career will be headed, I dare to say fate set the road for each of us. In my case before graduating I started working at a company that serviced airlines and airports by providing the staff and equipment necessary to clean the airplanes, baggage handling, leading the pilots for safe docking, etc..

My initial assignment was to program schedules of employees using a labor management software, it contained algorithms to calculate the optimal crew requirement vs the flights scheduled, I learned that theory needs to live with reality so I went with the people in the airports to understand the challenges they faced to implement the schedules and got their feedback, I was also able to make some minor changes to the program to make it faster and with some graphics interface. This experience was enough to make me decide to continue my career in any similar operations field where I could analyze information and contribute to improve things.

As I've always had the instinct to make things better I luckily found out that Supply Chain was a perfect match, as in this area you always have the opportunity to improve here and there based on facts, your experience and imagination to solve problems, and not only on your own but with the collaboration of your teammates.

When you start your career you try to learn as much as possible trying to climb the corporate ladder as fast as possible, however you realize that when you talk about logistics and supply chain is a really huge field involving so many functions that you find it difficult to become an expert in every aspect, so you need to get back to your basics, be humble and respect your coworkers for the experience they have put together, learn by watching them and not forgetting that you can contribute to improve whatever you see at any moment.

Nowadays Supply Chain is still an evolving field where its importance is increasing within the business environment, of course you will always need Sales starting the process to deliver the goods by closing the deals, but ultimately once they make it our job starts, and it really starts before when you work on forecasting, demand planning, etc..

So in my case I love working in Supply Chain because:

1. You get the chance to improve whatever you decide to focus on.
2. You have the great opportunity to learn from really savvy and experienced people.
3. You can really make a huge contribution into your business by reducing costs and designing processes.
4. You find that one of your biggest rewards is helping your teammates to excel in their assignments by sharing your experience.
5. You will continuously face new challenges, for example incorporating new technology, staying cost competitive, improving quality are a sample.
6. You realize that you can make the difference when facing tough circ*mstances that bring out your best performance.
7. You learn to trust in your teammates to get the job done as logistics is not a one man job.
8. You find great satisfaction when you see that your effort translates into happy customers after receiving their goods as expected, and it gets even better if you continously deliver great service becoming a factor to increase your company's market share.
9. You get to know all the company and how it works as you need to interact with almost every department.
10. You get involved in strategic projects and this immediately gives you the opportunity to have a voice in defining your company's strategy.