Case studies : Supply chain manager: Michael

Michael has daily contact with commercial teams, buyers, demand planning teams, sub-contract teams, customer services and warehouses.

Following a degree in product design and manufacture at Loughborough University, Michael applied for several graduate training schemes through online graduate recruitment websites in supply chain. These included one which, in the advertisement, focused on the tasks involved in the job. Attracted to these tasks, he applied to a large, global cosmetics company, L'Oréal, which he wouldn’t otherwise have associated with this area of work. His degree also had a one year sandwich placement which Michael feels helped his confidence and skills development.

After a successful interview and assessment centre, he started in September 2006 with their supply chain management training scheme. The L’Oréal graduate scheme typically lasts one year and involves three four-month placements which allow you to work in different areas of the business. He thoroughly enjoyed this scheme and gained real responsibility working on high-profile projects. Being on the supply chain scheme, he requested to have two supply chain placements, one in product planning and the other in one of their Manchester distribution centres. This enabled him to experience the whole of the L’Oréal UK supply chain. For his third placement he opted for a commercial stage in one of L'Oréal’s consumer brands - a new experience which put him out of his comfort zone. This year gave Michael experience in supply chain and sales which has proved invaluable to his current role as supply chain executive for one of the largest retailers in the UK. He spends part of his week at the customers' head offices and part of it at L’Oréal.

Michael's main responsibilities are: to maintain the forecasting and master data on the customer's system; to place customer's orders for them, maximising service levels and product availability; to build collaborative relationships between L’Oreal and the customer's departments in order to drive process improvements; to act as a day-to-day L’Oreal ambassador; to identify and implement projects that will improve service levels and on-shelf availability as well as reduce logistics costs.

Michael has daily contact with commercial teams, buyers, demand planning teams, sub-contract teams, customer services and warehouses, so there are lots of things that crop up during a day that he has to react to. Current main projects involve working on ordering efficiency, maximising truck fill and prevention of overstocks after promotions. There are definitely opportunities to travel with his work. Within the UK, he regularly travels to his distribution centre in Manchester, customer head offices and various other locations for training exercises (e.g. Poole, Cranfield University). There are also opportunities to travel internationally. To succeed in this sector, Michael believes that you have to be passionate about the industry and passionate about what you do.

He feels that the following qualities are important to be successful in the job: being good at relationships management; being responsive, adaptive and able to multi-task; having excellent communication skills and problem-solving skills; the ablility to perform detailed analysis and have good attention to detail; the ability to think laterally; integrity - as you have to gain the trust of the customer; good organisational skills.

Regarding entering the industry, Michael stresses the importance of networking - making sure that you grab every opportunity to meet new people and make a good impression. You never know what opportunities might come your way! It's also important to research thoroughly and prepare properly. He loves the challenge of his work and sees a long-term future with his company. He looks forward to some interesting developments within their supply chain.