Matching supply with demand in supply chain management education

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-03-2015-0058
• Pages: 837-861
• Date: 14 November 2016
• Published date: 14 November 2016
• Author: Amit Sinha,William P. Millhiser,Yuanjie He
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics

Matching supply with

demand in supply chain

management education

Amit Sinha

Deloitte Consulting LLP, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

William P. Millhiser

Narendra Paul Loomba Department of Management, Baruch College,

New York, New York, USA, and

Yuanjie He

Technology and Operations Management Department,

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California, USA

Abstract

Purpose –The field of supply chain management (SCM) evolves dramatically due to factors of

globalization, innovation, sustainability, and technology. These changes raise challenges not only to

higher education institutions, but also to students, employing organizations, and third parties like

SCM-related professional bodies. To understand the challenge, the purpose of this paper is to examine

the gap between demand and supply of SCM-related knowledge areas, answer-related design

questions, and make recommendations to close the gaps.

Design/methodology/approach –To compare the demand and supply of SCM-related knowledge

areas, demand data is collected from a professional career website and supply data is gathered from

operations management (OM) and SCM course syllabi from AACSB-accredited business schools in the

USA. Cluster analysis identifies how supply and demand are matched on the data collected.

Findings –First, gaps exist between SCM talent requirements from industry and the knowledge/skill

training by US business schools. This paper identifies matching, under-supplying, and over-supplying

knowledge areas. Under-supply in emerging areas such as SCM information technology and certain

logistics management topics are found. Some traditional OM topics are over-supplied due to out-of-date

industry applications and should be revised to reflect the field’s transition from an OM to SCM view.Last,

this paper makes recommendations to different stakeholders in this matching supply with demand process.

Originality/value –This studycontributes to the literature in two ways.First, it provides an up-to-date

understanding on demand and supply of SCM talent in USA. Second, it provides insights and

recommendationsnot only to educators on curriculumdesign, but also to potential candidatesinterested

in SCM careers, to companies’job recruiters, and to professional organizations (such as APICS and

Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals) to reduce the gaps between demand and supply.

Keywords Higher education, Supply chain management, Demand and supply analysis

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

The supply chain management (SCM) job growth outlook remains one of the strongest

in all areas of business. Sustained growth in supply chain business over the past

decade –especially since the recent recession recovery ( Joyner, 2012) –has revealed

a significant shortage in professional SCM talent in the USA. Business schools are

responding to this shortage with more SCM education programs, and yet Fawcett and The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 27 No. 3, 2016

pp. 837-861

©Emerald Group Publis hing Limited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-03-2015-0058

Received 20 March 2015

Revised 11 September 2015

Accepted 16 October 2015

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-4093.htm

The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the editors of International Journal of

Logistics Management, and two anonymous reviewers for their guidance and constructive

comments which helped improve this paper significantly.

837

Supply chain

management

education

Rutner (2014) found that the gap between job demand and talent supply continues to

widen. The gap is so significant that the MIT Center of Transportation and Logistics

called it a “supply chain talent crises”(Cottrill, 2010) and the University of Tennessee

Global Supply Chain Institute’s corporate advisory board said “nurturing the right

talent”is among its most critical issues (Bowman, 2012). The undersupply of SCM

talent is catching the attention of the business press. For example, Fortune calls a

SCM career “the hottest job you never thought of”(Fischer, 2010). In turn, the

professional societies are responding. APICS Supply Chain Council executive director

Peter Bolstorff said of their 2013 employment outlook survey that:

The value of supply chain management to the organization is proven; the talent gap is

recognized; it is up to each of us to understand how to prepare ourselves to fill that gap and be

recognized for these exciting careers with education and certifications (APICS, 2014).

The aim of this paper is to bring new insight into the gap between education programs

and the needs of supply chain hiring managers. The research specifically inspects how

the knowledge and skills taught by the top BBA and MBA programs at US business

schools align with the needs of industry. We assess this need from a census of the more

than 6,000 SCM-related job advertisements posted on LinkedIn.com that we ultimately

pared to 600 jobs, and thus analyze the knowledge required to qualify for the available

US positions in the management of supply chains. We compared these skills with the

purported learning goals and course objectives listed on 85 operations management

(OM) and SCM course syllabi at top US business schools. This reveals the correlation

between the knowledge and skills required for the SCM jobs and those provided by

business educators.

The key findings of our analysis are:

(1) The gaps between demand and supply of SCM knowledge areas can be

significant; we identify the knowledge areas that match industry job needs, that

are over-supplied, and that are under-supplied.

(2) Our job survey data confirms that there is strong demand for talent in

information technology (IT) and supply chain planning. Some business schools

are responding with more IT course offerings while sales and operations

planning (S&OP) and supply chain planning are under-supplied. Evidence of

this was found in both OM and SCM course syllabi. Similarly, few SCM courses

provide sought-after project management knowledge.

(3) OM and SCM syllabi reveal an over-supply in the context of SCM job needs of

traditional OM topics such as quality management, product/service design, and

waiting line analysis. Also, knowledge areas such as sustainability and supply

chain risk management are over-supplied according to our study, and we infer

that industry demand will increase in these areas in the future.

Literature review

Talent supply

Our paper continues along the path of Johnson and Pyke (2000) who surveyed

engineering and graduate business school SCM curricula in the 1990s, though we offer

a sharpened focus on business education at America’s leading business schools, both

undergraduate and MBA. Indeed, we agree with Rutner and Fawcett (2005) in that,

“universities across the country are redesigning their business curricula to include

supply chain management,”but we continue to see a mismatch with industry demands

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