Bachelor of Science Degree in Supply Chain Management

Almost every product in the marketplace appeared because of various entities working together in a supply chain. Supply chain management deals with how businesses turn raw materials into finished products and transport and distribute those products to consumers.   
Supply chains are systems that link organizations to their suppliers, allowing them to produce and distribute goods and services. These systems organize various activities, resources, and information. They also serve as networks that connect:

• Producers
• Transportation companies
• Warehouses
• Distribution centers
• Retailers

Supply chain management works to design and implement the most efficient and cost-effective supply chain process possible. Companies understand that when a single link in the supply chain breaks, it costs valuable time and money.

As such, supply chain management uses various strategies to centrally control internal and vendor inventories, internal production, distribution, and sales to cut unnecessary expenses.  Accurate information helps manufacturers and retailers produce and transport only what they can sell. This eliminates the unnecessary expenses associated with producing, insuring, and shipping inventory a company can’t sell.

Components of Supply Chain Management

A careful review of the components of supply chain management also referred to as the supply chain management steps can further illuminate what supply chain management is and why it is important.

• Planning - Before the supply chain begins, organizations need well-designed strategies to effectively manage each stage of the process. They develop plans to determine the overall costs, profits, and required manpower to get the job done. Supply chain management experts weigh the pros and cons of various supply chain methods and develop a blueprint for how to proceed.
• Sourcing - Organizations rely on suppliers to provide the different raw materials to make their products. Finding suitable quality materials at good price points makes it possible for a business to create quality, offer competitively priced products, as well as build a strong reputation in the market. It also involves choosing suppliers who provide services to run a particular component of the business. 
• Manufacturing - It involves assembling, quality testing, and packing for delivery. To ensure products meet specified standards and manufacturing efficiency, supply chain professionals decide how to best perform the following tasks.
• Delivering - Also called logistics, includes transportation and warehousing. This component of supply chain management involves processing customer orders, scheduling deliveries, distributing, and transporting orders, Invoicing, and receiving payments.
• Returning - Creating a smooth process for customers to return purchased products. While organizations may have robust quality control programs, defective or damaged products that customers want to return are inevitable. Whatever the issue, organizations need responsive networks that smoothly manage returns. This protects a company’s reputation and demonstrates goodwill.

Brief Statement of the Program

The proposed Supply Chain Management (SCM) program is designed to address an unfilled need in management education—to increase the available pool of highly capable supply chain management professionals. Supply chain management has become a very complex field over recent years, due not only to the intricacies of sourcing and delivering quality products and services internationally but also by the need to make supply chains safe and reliable. Managers must hold their numerous employees and suppliers to the highest ethical and legal standards. At the same time, the immense volumes of goods transported globally must arrive in a timely and cost-effective manner without disruption.

Graduates emerging from non-business and general business undergraduate programs require specialized education to find meaningful employment in entry-level analytic or managerial supply chain positions in private, public, or non-profit organizations. As well as recent graduates, others who currently are working in the industry will be able to advance their careers in supply chain management via this proposed degree.

In recent years, the need for Supply Chain Management has become clear with good restrictions affecting every business.   Only six South Carolina institutions currently provide such a program, although there are a few community colleges offering courses in this area. Our proposed program is unique in that it provides an opportunity for underserved and underrepresented students’ preparation for supply chain management.

Overall, the program is designed to provide in-depth knowledge and skills that are necessary to navigate and manage in a highly complex and competitive field that encompasses business, government, and not-for-profit organizations. While students are exposed to all relevant technical methods required in the field of supply chain management, the program focuses on developing candidates’ ability to manage in the supply chain. As a result, students will complete not only supply chain courses but also courses in other management disciplines. The final term experiential project will also help students to practice and further develop a mixture of technical and managerial skills.

Supply Chain Management Careers

Embarking on a program in need of workers will provide development and training of students prepared to immediately engage in the workforce upon completion.  Preparation for careers in the discipline such as logisticians that oversee the entire lifecycle of a product, meaning they manage all the steps it takes to acquire raw materials, turn them into products, and then distribute those products. Logisticians earned a median annual income of $76,270 in May 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Top earners made as much as $122,580 a year. The BLS also projects a 4% increase in job growth for logisticians between 2019 and 2029, which is in line with the national average for all jobs.  Supply chain analysts, which collect and evaluate large amounts of data to identify problems in the supply chain, understand the reasons behind those problems, and develop strategies to fix them.  They can expect to earn a median annual salary of around $60,900, according to July 2021 data from the compensation website PayScale. While the BLS does not report data specific to supply chain analysts, it forecasts that management analysts (a career very similar to a supply chain analyst) will see an 11% job growth rate between 2019 and 2029, almost triple the national average for all jobs.  Transportation managers, which organize and direct an organization’s transportation activities, such as routing and dispatching and tracking aircraft, trucks, railroad cars, or other transportation vehicles, and involves overseeing staff to ensure all activities align with safety laws and regulations and company policies. As of May 2020, transportation managers earned a median annual income of $93,390, with top earners making as much as $164,140 a year, according to the BLS.  Although the BLS does not track job growth for transportation managers specifically, the role falls under the umbrella of logistics, a field the BLS expects will grow 4% between 2019 and 2029.  Purchasing managers, which develop policies and procedures to establish standard methods for buying goods and services from suppliers and vendors. They earned a median annual salary of $66,690 in May 2020, according to the BLS. Incomes ranged between $39,810 and $112,170 a year.  The BLS projects a 7% growth rate between 2019 and 2029 for purchasing managers, almost twice as fast as the average for all jobs.

Drive Innovation in Supply Chain Management

Nearly every industry needs experts who bring solutions and innovations to complex supply chain networks. As analytics and artificial intelligence drive change in the supply chain industry, and organizations seek more dynamic supply chains models, the need for talent in the field is only likely to grow.  The program will target professionals who want to expand their knowledge in all areas of supply chain management, including logistics, inventory management, and procurement.

Currently, only six institutions in South Carolina offer Supply Chain Management programs, The Citadel, College of Charleston, Anderson University, Erskine, Charleston Southern University, and University of South Carolina Aiken.  All of these are public, four-year, predominantly white serving institutions.  Morris College would be the first private, four-year, Liberal Arts institution to offer such a program that would specifically provide an opportunity for low-income, first-generation students to have access to intense training and preparation for a career in supply chain management.