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CSULB NewsLink Supply Chain Management

299 views · Published 2 May 2016 · 5:33 · Indexed 12 November 2026

Channel: Beach TV CSULB · 2016 · Education

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Welcome to NewsLink, I'm Nina Cash. When you hear the words supply team management or global logistics, do you think of this? Well, stay tuned because you're going to find out it is about this and so much more.
So one of the biggest misconceptions about this industry is that it's often perceived as one where dominated by men in steel-toed boots working in warehouses. And I think it's important for people to understand that this is quickly emerging into an information driven industry. They'll think about the idea that a car actually comes you know, through a supply chain very similar to what your iPhone does.
Here I am today in a scarf and a pretty dress, a few weeks ago I was wearing my jeans and my company shirt while was taking apart a shipment because my receiving guys were too busy to handle everything that came in that day. From doing that I was able to talk to the supplier about some ways that they needed to change packaging.
The nice thing about this industry is the opportunities are endless. So I take myself as an example, I'm originally from the UK, I joined the company as a management training. I've travelled across the globe and I've worked in operations as an ocean export supervisor, managed the inside sales team and today I manage the west coast sales team.
Supply chain is very broad so there are many different roles people have. I can think of for one example one of our professional track students, a typical day for her would be trying to make a strategic decision about how many of product A to bundle with product B in order to optimize the firm's profits on that product. And they have to figure out how to optimally take that container full of goods and allocate it across multiple shipments in order to reduce the transacting costs.
So data, data, data, if you make a decision that is not soundly based upon data it is very likely to be the wrong decision.
We use all the data that we have in order to proactively manage our customer's business, we're managing international transportation, sea freight, air freight, we're doing warehousing, distribution.
The most important thing they go through is simply keeping your company in stock. If you're company is out of stock, they're out of business. If your factory is out of stock, you don't have parts on the shelf for your workers to work a full day.
The ideal candidate I feel needs to have a lot of enthusiasm, be very open to learning new things, be excited about logistics. That is a huge part of it, I mean excited about the idea of the movement of things and the processes to make sure goods get to customers you know in a timely manner, that's a huge part of it.
Supply chain management is not a job to go into if you're afraid of working hard, that's going to be somebody with spot on follow through skills, good data, analytical skills, very, very thorough, detail oriented people are drawn into this field.
Yes, there's lots of working hard but they're also playing hard and to address that we have a ping-pong table in the kitchen, we go on regular walks as a company, we play volleyball in the summer at Mimosa Beach.
We need students that have a strong quantitative background, that want to and are not afraid of the quantitative tools that they'll need to learn so that's very important. We also want students who are amenable and interested in going into a management position because we're really trying to prepare them for a management position.
I have graduates who come back and say you know all the statistics and technical training you gave me I use that every day at work.
So coming into this program the students are able to go straight through, they can take four classes a semester and they're done in 16 months, it prepares them and gives them lots of experience. We also have lots of internships that help them get started and get some practice so that when they go into apply for jobs they have some basic experience. The other group that we focus on are middle managers, the people that are in industry already, they are working, they're trying to build their careers and this is the perfect program for them because not only do they come into the program and take all the same courses as the other students, they're also doing it at their pace. Which is two classes a semester.
The ideal graduate in supply chain would be somebody that has a positive attitude, is open, flexible to travel and has a thirst for knowledge.
Supply chain management will hook you because something goes wrong all the time and it's solving that problem that falls to you and it's really exciting. Something different will go wrong every single day and you get to figure it out.
So there's a lot more to supply chain management and global logistics than just a warehouse. Thanks for watching this segment of NewsLink, I'm Nina Cash, we'll see you next time.

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