The Fourth Supply Chain Flow: Human Capital

The article below highlights a little examined need in the management of supply chains.   That is the control and deployment of people to manage the materials, visibility data and financial information that compose a supply chain.   

Personnel involved in supply chains can range from corporate executives, logistics managers to temporary workers, as well as contracted staff through 3PL's.    Management of people has always been a critical element to a companies success.   Given the length and complexity of supply chains today, that fact becomes even more critical.

I previously wrote about the demand for HR staff in China, which is the manufacturing engine of global commerce today.   The article below provides interesting additional commentary to that note.

The complete article can be read on line at the link below to themanufacturer.com.

clipped from www.themanufacturer.com by Ng Buck-Seng, Manufacturing Insights A broadly accepted view of supply chain management (SCM) today is that it involves managing three important flows along the chain of operational activities bringing products to consumers: materials, information, and financials. Whilst there has been plenty of visibility and recognition with regard to managing the flow of materials or goods, information and finances along manufacturing supply chains, scant attention had been paid to managing the human capital aspects of supply chains. Ask any human capital management professional if he/she considers himself/herself to be a strategic part of the company's supply chain, and the response is likely to be negative. The limited focus on human capital in supply chain research is indeed rather surprising, considering the fact that people are the manipulators of all three key supply chain flows. In this regard, there is real scope to consider extending the definition of SCM to include management of a fourth flow – human capital. As with others, manufacturing organizations used to be depicted as tall solid pyramid structures with many layers in the hierarchy. In the 1980s and 1990s, a spate of organizational "down-" and "right-sizing" resulted in flatter structures within firms. Today, the evolving structure for many manufacturing firms is a "shadow pyramid" (Figure 1) – this is represented as a shorter pyramid consisting of: A core of the firm's own human capital resources – from the senior management resources who set the vision, values and strategic directions, to operational staff that carry out the day-to-day activities of the firm (purple part of the pyramid). A "shadow structure" of temporary workers, as well as contract and outsourced staff (green part of the pyramid). A second "shadow structure" of resources from joint ventures, partnerships and other strategic alliances (blue part of the pyramid).

Add Freightdawg.com to your social bookmarks!

Comments

[Eric]

Hi Shawn. Thanks for commenting. Finding talented people in logistics is very hard in the US as well. I remember back in the 1980's when you could still get people from Ivy League schools to apply (and they wanted to come!) to companies like Sea-Land and United States Lines etc. Those companies are gone now, and so are a lot of the talented people who worked there.

Eric

[Shawn in Tokyo]

Hi Eric,

I have written quite regularly and passionately about "people power" in logistics at my site--specifically in the following post:

http://asiagander.typepad.com/asia_gander/2006/04/people_power_in.html

I don't know how the US market is these days, but Japan is tough when looking for talented people in logistics.

Best,

Shawn