Supply Chain Director

The Supply Chain Director is the one who must oversee the entire chain from procurement of the raw material to getting the finished product into the customer's hands. That takes a lot of know-how, coordination, negotiation and management skills.   You have to know your product well and every link the chain.  It not only requires managing the personnel but the chain process as well. Most likely this person will have a degree at a Masters level, as well as many years of experience in the field and in mid-level management.

The supply chain can only run as smoothly as the director dictates it.  At the executive level of management, this position requires the ability to be the go-between for the company's officers  or owners and each of the other companies' Supply Chain Manager.  There will be a manager over the extraction or development of the raw materials, the technical machinery to produce the product, the supplying of the inventory, packaging, sales and shipping, etc. Like a symphony orchestra, it all needs to interconnect and blend. The Supply Chain Director is like the conductor waving his baton.

If it is a large conglomeration, there can be several levels of management. There will be one for  operations, one for personnel, one for inventory, one for budgets and accounting and one for inter-communications with stores, suppliers, technicians, shippers and customers. The world of business is demanding more and more interrelation between companies. It would be like coordinating several orchestras to play in one big extravaganza symphony over the Internet.  Nowadays, one may be in China, one in Brazil, one in the US and one in the Philippines.

Being a Supply Chain Director can be stressful, but also very rewarding. Supply Chain Operations cannot exist without an excellent one at the podium.