How to be a qualified logistics manager

How to be a qualified logistics manager

At present, more and more young people are graduating from logistics major in universities, which means that more and more people are starting to run? Logistics manager? The scenery of four words is infinite. Some even make ambitious career plans and expect to achieve a certain position within a few years. However, what is the actual situation? Logistics manager is a very fashionable profession, but it is not as beautiful as everyone thinks. If you expect to get this position easily, but don't have enough psychological preparation, you are likely to encounter setbacks in the first two or three years.

Advice to Logistics Graduates

Logistics graduates who are fresh out of school often make a perfect career plan for themselves, and then begin to embark on the journey of logistics career. One question they have to answer is: the responsibility of logistics manager is so great, why do you let the company give you the position of logistics manager?

Rubin is the logistics director of a foreign-funded enterprise in Guangzhou. A few years ago, his company began to develop and expand the logistics team. In a team expansion, Rubin recruited a college graduate majoring in logistics.

at first, the graduate did very well. Two years later, Rubin promoted the young man to the youngest director in the company. Despite the resistance from the human resources department, Rubin still insists on his appointment and is ready to promote him to the manager of East China.

The young man seems to have a bright future, but after all, he didn't give himself a chance for further promotion. Two years later, Rubin had to give up his original idea.

what happened during this period? Rubin's explanation is that these young people who just graduated are always used to being in? A box? Considering the problem inside is limited to the theoretical knowledge in books and can't jump out of the narrow circle of logistics.

In Rubin's eyes, as a logistics manager, it is far from incompetent to complete the instructions and plans of the top management. He needs to constantly submit plans to the company and make the company's logistics closer and closer to perfection.

Moreover, a good logistics manager should have done different industries, even many jobs unrelated to logistics, so as to think openly. Only in this way can we have the ability to deal with problems flexibly. The most common thing in the work is the change of plan. No matter how well the logistics is done, once the sales plan changes, the logistics has to change immediately, which is also the most common pressure for logistics managers. Only by forging at the grassroots level can we grasp some key details and thoroughly understand how to implement and manage them. Rubin then suggested that logistics must give yourself a time to accumulate, especially after graduating from college.

Some business executives put it more simply: I don't need your certificate, but your work experience. A senior manager of Guangzhou Wanjia once recruited a group of logistics graduates, but dismissed them before the probation period. Although these young people are trained and have many certificates in their hands, they can't use them in the distribution center of the supermarket. Later, he recruited two college graduates majoring in mathematics, and his calculation and planning ability was recognized by the company.

every supermarket with a small scale will set up a number of distribution centers throughout the country. Especially for fast-moving consumer goods, it is necessary to grasp the appropriate delivery timeliness, while ensuring efficiency and reducing costs as much as possible. Therefore, when choosing the address of distribution center, it is necessary to make accurate calculation, and more often, it is necessary to develop quite complicated digital models. As a logistics and supply chain manager, it is very necessary to have a good mathematical quality, because a lot of work needs to be calculated in planning.

it seems that it is really not so easy to be a good logistics manager. ? If you want to learn poetry, you have to work outside it. ? The professional education of logistics is only a foundation. To be an excellent or competent logistics professional, you must also master the relevant knowledge of other majors.

If you perform well and your position rises, you will face greater responsibilities and pressures, and the knowledge you need will be broadened accordingly. There is no end to learning.

experience is more important than career planning

Joven is a graduate of a famous university majoring in logistics, and almost every course is excellent. When he entered a logistics company in a suit and tie, he found that all his colleagues around him came from other majors in ordinary universities, and many college students and even secondary school students. As a result, his heart produced a sense of superiority that could not be concealed. He feels that his knowledge of logistics is better than anyone else, and he always pops up a few words of English when talking with his colleagues. For this reason, he adjusted his career plan: he reduced his time as a supervisor from three years to one year.

after working for a month, Joven's full of blood can no longer boil. He found that he didn't really understand logistics, such as picking goods, placing goods, tonnage of transport vehicles and fuel consumption. He knows that if he wants to be a qualified logistics worker, he must start all over again.

He submitted a transfer application to the company, and went to the warehouse to be the warehouse keeper, so as to learn about the warehousing process, the location of goods, the matters needing attention when picking goods, and the application of the warehouse information system. Later, he also went to the freight department to learn about the matters needing attention, road selection and delivery order in the city, the rules of the game, the control of oil consumption and the distance between regions in long-distance transportation, and personally made several long-distance trips to understand the drivers' voices and what they might encounter and happen on the way. Finally, he came to the business department and stayed here for two years. Business departments are often the essence of logistics companies, and logistics knowledge of any department can be learned here. After more than two years of grassroots practice, Joven understood how naive his original idea was. He found that there is always something to learn in the logistics industry, and new situations happen every day.

in the third year of entering this company, Joven successfully became a logistics manager, and did a brilliant job in his post.

Of course, proper career planning is necessary. But when you put career planning above practical experience, mistakes will inevitably happen. Facts also show that when you have relevant professional experience, you can still get the corresponding position even without career planning in advance.

Lucky is such a person. He entered the logistics industry almost by mistake. After he worked for a company for six years, the company suddenly needed to set up a logistics manager position, but it was difficult to find a specialized logistics personnel. So, the general manager appointed Lucky as the logistics manager. Later, although it took a lot of time to adapt to the post, his work was praised by the general manager. For personal development opportunities, it is not so much luck that can't be met, but rather a kind of accumulated efforts that have paid off.

dilemma under the surface of scenery

Under the surface of scenery, logistics managers are faced with some unimaginable situations. Anyone who is interested in logistics will find it difficult to adjust the psychological gap if he doesn't know enough about it.

As it involves cross-departmental work, the logistics manager as a manager must have excellent coordination and communication skills, as well as good psychological quality when facing criticism. None of this can be learned in school.

for example, when sales are not very good or customers complain, it is often the logistics department that is criticized. If you are a logistics manager of a manufacturing enterprise, you will sometimes deal with third-party logistics companies as a tenderer, so you have become a respected figure. As a logistics manager, we often have to face the change of identity, such as accepting criticism and criticizing others, pleading with others and being begged, and sometimes we will encounter two days of sadness and joy in one day. Obviously, if you can't grasp your role well and control your emotions effectively, this position is very easy to get lost.

in many cases, logistics managers have to deal with troubles. Such as cost exceeding budget, production line breaking suddenly, insufficient warehouse, insufficient delivery time, and missing the peak sales season. In the eyes of the outside world, logistics is a golden profession, which makes people envy. But in many cases, you have to work hard, and even have to do some manual work such as following cars and moving goods.

The general manager of Guangdong Ande Logistics Company once said that the manager is always being repaired, and the general manager is always being repaired. He complained that people take it for granted when you perform well; When you are a little negligent, others will think it is very inappropriate. Therefore, logistics managers have to be cautious. But despite this, all kinds of unexpected things will still happen. At this time, psychological quality is very important.

in addition, the logistics manager should have excellent emergency coordination ability. When the peak season of sales comes, it is often a surprise shipment in the days at the end of the month, and it is common to work all night.

all this is for nothing? Logistics manager is very important? Add arguments to the argument. Obviously, the logistics manager is a very sensitive position, and the whole logistics process he is responsible for is related to all the operations of the whole company in production, storage and sales. A slight omission may cause the company to suffer unbearable losses.

this is a job that can easily make people crazy, and it is also a job that can easily inspire people's fighting spirit. Although the work is always busy and tired, and it is easy to be blamed. But if you can break through the tight encirclement step by step, you will easily find the charm of this job.

Technology is not the main condition to decide whether you are excellent or not

In the future, logistics managers will have to be an actor who is good at coping with all kinds of changes, not just a technician who has all kinds of logistics knowledge. The challenge of change lies in how to improve the speed and flexibility of logistics capacity after integrating into the process of generating customer value.

We live in the era of machines, and precision, speed and accuracy are the primary values of this era. We always ask:? How fast does it run? Or,? How long will it take you to go there? The highest praise for something is that it works well. But obviously, technology and skills will no longer be the factors limiting the progress of logistics. Even if there are no new technologies in the next 1 years or even longer, we still can't make full use of all the current technologies. In other words, technology, as a new method to improve productivity, is not the main condition to determine whether a logistics manager is excellent or not.

At present, many concepts and methods used in logistics are outdated, such as activity-based cost, time-based competition, ABC inventory analysis, continuous replenishment, rapid response and separation. Therefore, the challenge of logistics management is to improve from the traditional increasing thinking, strive to obtain the latest demand information, and re-create the products and services that consumers need.

just a few years ago, when it came to best practices, we first thought of relevant data, but now we want real methods, processes and ways of thinking.

In an enterprise, we can define which is the worst practice, and the worst practice is usually an opportunity for improvement. A few years ago, our best practice may be to introduce warehouse management system, transportation management system, automatic identification technology, etc., but now we emphasize? Process-oriented? , rather than technology or skill-oriented.

This is not to belittle the importance of technology, but the reality is that technology is just a servant in the process. For example, an enterprise has installed a transportation management system and it has played a role, but if employees don't know how to use or input correct data, then the whole equipment and system are just placed. We need to go beyond technology and pay attention to the process, first design the correct process, and then use system technology to accelerate employees to implement the correct process. This requires continuous improvement of enterprises and continuous improvement of processes.

Closer to rationality

Although the challenge of continuous improvement has always existed in the second half of the 2th century, some manufacturers have almost never made real changes. Under the trend of economic globalization, the process of logistics will experience many cultural subjects, which requires cultural changes in the practice of basic logistics work. But obviously, this change is not easy to achieve.

moreover, logistics has been developed into the concept of supply chain and a very complete system, including not only the flowing water on the production line, but also a series of supply and demand, which is a complete chain.

For example, after Dell Computer entered China and set up a production base in Xiamen, it also brought its global logistics partner Burlington to China, and at the same time, a number of computer parts manufacturers followed Dell into China.

For example, before entering a market, McDonald's and KFC should bring their production, sales and transportation partners to new markets. Two years before entering the China market, McDonald's first set up a potato production line and chicken farm in China. When everything was ready, McDonald's re-entered the market, and the whole chain was immediately connected in series. Moreover, there is no difference between the points in its supply chain, which are equal to each other and the chain is very stable.

comparatively speaking, the local logistics supply chain in China is relatively fragile. Often there is only an incomplete chain between supply and demand, while the further upstream and downstream basically do not form a supply chain alliance. Moreover, the relationship between supply and demand is in an unequal position, and the powerful party is overbearing. Often, one party is dissatisfied and immediately leaves, so the chain is very easy to crack, which easily leads to chaos and imbalance in the development of domestic logistics industry.

the real context of future logistics managers

To a great extent, the ability of logistics managers to formulate or implement strategies determines the future competitiveness of enterprises, and there is a direct relationship between them.

because the products provided by logistics activities are intangible logistics services, and the customers of such services are very different, in order to satisfy different customers, there must be different management modes and competition methods, which poses quite difficult challenges for senior managers engaged in logistics management.

in the future, what kind of development trend will the logistics profession present? What kind of logistics manager will enterprises need? What qualities and abilities do logistics managers need?

what should be the logistics profession? Very simple: everything is for customers. Sometimes, it is very difficult to explain and understand why. But in business practice, almost all companies need to reposition themselves to achieve this basic goal. Even non-profit organizations are no exception.

at first, everything including logistics seemed complicated, especially the logistics.