Supply Chain Management Major

Procurement and sourcing functions are part of the inbound supply chain, which is a great place to gain an understanding of how sales, service, and inventory management, and logistics mesh together in balancing supply with demand. Procurement focuses primarily on identifying and purchasing the raw materials needed to create products and is a key part of what keeps supply chains going. Procurement positions like procurement analyst and procurement officer focus on one specific aspect of purchasing. At the more senior level, there are purchasing managers who oversee the purchasing decisions for an entire organization.

The goal of a supply chain is getting products into the hands of consumers and meeting that goal would not be possible without logistics. As a result, there are many exciting career opportunities related to logistics including roles like a transportation analyst or logistics analyst and more senior roles like being a transportation manager. Although there is variation in the responsibilities of these positions, their primary focus is getting products from the factory to the consumer.

Planning is the forward-looking process of coordinating assets to optimize the delivery of goods, services, and information from supplier to customer, balancing supply and demand. Planning is necessary at just about every stage in the supply chain. Different planning roles include supply chain planner, demand planner, or inventory planner.