Supply Chain Managers
On the Job
Supply Chain Managers work to make businesses run more efficiently. They focus on a variety of processes, including production, purchasing, warehousing, distribution, or financial forecasting services. They often make sure that inventory is processed efficiently.
Typical Work Tasks
People who work in this career often:
- Confer with organizational members to accomplish work activities.
- Coordinate with external parties to exchange information.
- Estimate cost or material requirements.
- Estimate labor requirements.
- Implement organizational process or policy changes.
- Implement transportation changes to reduce environmental impact.
- Analyze data to assess operational or project effectiveness.
- Analyze data to inform operational decisions or activities.
- Manage operations, research, or logistics projects.
- Evaluate environmental impact of operational or development activities.
Typical Working Conditions
- Having telephone conversations.
- Using e-mail.
- Working with a group or team.
- Meeting strict deadlines.
- Working indoors in environmentally controlled conditions.
- Responsibility for outcomes and results.
- The freedom to determine tasks, priorities, and goals.
- Freedom to make decisions without supervision.
- Sitting.
- Being in situations in which conflicts arise.
- High levels of competition.
This page includes information from the O*NET 24.2 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Source: You can learn about our data sources in the About Us section.
