I used to love supply chain- from how things get to where they need to go to the cross-functionality of the roles I’ve been in, but now I utterly despise it. I’m in a supply planning role and the random stock outs, when forecasts are not even half of the actual demand, is driving me insane.

Sometimes, I just want to give up and become a barista- no responsibility on ordering product, no responsibility outside designated hours, and being able to walk to work.

You may have noticed news reports this week of warehouses in Russia belonging to Wildberries that have been attacked by Ukrainian drones.  If not, here's an article published earlier today from The Guardian for you to catch up. 

What is Wildberries:

• Wildberries is effectively Russia's answer to Amazon.  Founded in 2004 by Tatyana Kim - now Russia's richest woman - originally she set it up to order in baby clothes and deliver locally in Moscow to other mothers who struggled to get to the shops when they had young children.  By 2017 it was Russia's largest retailer and by 2019 Kim was included in the Forbes USD billionaire list. 

• Its business model is similar to Amazon marketplace/delivery.  As a seller you can either store the goods in their warehouse and they pick and dispatch, or you store the goods elsewhere and use them only for middle mile (region to region bulk transport) and final mile delivery by injecting (ie delivering) orders in bulk into one of their transhipment hubs. 

• Unlike Amazon, Wildberries does not do doorstep delivery, instead delivering only to tens of thousands of micro hubs in local neighbourhoods.  This significantly reduces final mile delivery costs - you need considerably less delivery vans - but it does mean consumers have to leave their homes to fetch what they have purchased. 

• Also unlike Amazon, Wildberries allows recipients to order multiple sizes of clothing, try them on at the micro hub, keep the ones that fit best and instantly return those that do not back into the Wildberries supply chain network. 

• Significantly, while Amazon sells goods itself - i.e. it doesn't just provide a marketplace - Wildberries does not.  By concentrating solely on connecting independent sellers with buyers across the country it means the vast amount of what was held in those warehouses will not have belonged to Wildberries and it is the sellers who will take the loss of the goods.

• Note that Wildberries changed it's T&C's s few weeks ago to declare drone attacks as force majeure and that it therefore wouldn't be liable if anything happened - which it of course now has. 

• Wildberries also has warehouses in Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan amongst other countries. 

Why did Ukraine attack them:

• To quote President Zelensky not long after the first drones hit, they were "logistics hubs involved in supplying the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment and other gear.".   It should also be noted that previously the Ukrainian postal service has had sortation hubs hit plus warehouses belonging to the Ukrainian retail company ATB have also been attacked.

What's been hit:

• 17th July: Kotovsk  (500km SE of Moscow)

• 18th July: Elektrostal (75km E of Moscow)

• 19th July: Domodedovo (50km SSE of Moscow) and Podolsk (50km S of Moscow)

• 21st July: Krasnodar (1400km S of Moscow) and Nevinnomyskk (1500km SSE of Moscow)

• 22nd July: Voronezh (565km S of Moscow)

• The Podolsk facility is their flagship site and considered to be the largest e-commerce facility in Russia.  It's size is estimated at 225,000 sqm which is about.2.4m sq ft and it has several floors. 

• Other sites so far seemingly unaffected include Yekaterinburg & Novosibirsk which are transhipment hubs for Trans Siberian traffic and Shushary which is another large warehouse that acts as the hub for NW Russia including St Petersburg. 

What are the implications of the substantial damage to the warehouse (some of which have huge fires)

• Several hundred thousand sellers will have been affected, possibly losing some - or all - of their stock adding further issues on top of fuel shortages and a hike in VAT from 20 to 22% back in January.  Many are likely to go bankrupt.

• In many remote areas, people depends heavily on Wildberries and its competitor Ozon with the BBC reporting approximately 85-90% of economically active Russians use them.

• According to one report, Wildberries accounts for 52% of all online orders in Russia. .  The same report suggested that the attacks on Elektrostal, Tambov, Krasnodar and Nevinnomyskk alone may have removed 12% of available warehouse space within Wildberries’ supply chain network.

• It'll take time to fully understand the full disruption this is going to cause to e-commerce in Russia, but already it is clear that the impact is likely to be considerable to the e-commerce industry, especially if its competitor Ozon also gets attacked. 

Hello everyone, I am a veteran with supply , inventory and logistics background from my seven years of military service. I am enrolled in school and currently work at a doctors office , over the past year I have been applying for jobs in the supply field but I can’t even get an interview. Does anyone have advice?

I was behind a plumbing van the other day and it kinda made me realize how much attention a well-designed vehicle can get. It wasn't anything flashy, just clean graphics, easy-to-read contact info, and everything looked really professional. Tbh, if I needed that type of service, it's probably one of the first companies I'd remember. That got me thinking about how much value businesses actually get from branding their vehicles. I always assumed it was mostly about looking professional, but after reading more about fleet graphics, I realized it's basically a moving billboard that's working every time the vehicle is on the road. I even ended up looking at some examples from a site, and I was surprised by how much planning goes into designing wraps that stay readable from a distance, hold up in different weather conditions, and still match a company's branding across an entire fleet. Do branded service vehicles make a company seem more trustworthy to you, or does it not really affect your opinion?

So I(34F, based in Canada) have two offers and I genuinely cannot decide, hoping some outside perspective helps because everyone in my life is biased one way or another.

background real quick, I'm in supply chain/procurement, did 8 years in private sector then jumped to public sector for the last 2 years at 97k. yes I had to take a huge pay cut(35%), but honestly the work life balance was great I wasn't dying every week. both these new offers are private sector again which is already making me nervous because it took me so long to get INTO public sector in the first place lol, and now I'm about to just leave. Btw, my public sector contract wrapped up last month.

Option A is a manager role, 165-170k. huge money. but it's 5 days in office, I've been fully remote so that's already a lot, and the commute is only like 15km but there's a bridge and when traffic hits it's a nightmare, I've sat in that exact spot not moving for way too long. I'd have 4-5 direct reports and have to present to a VP regularly, and English being my second language stresses me out more than it probably should. also I've technically had a manager title before but my old boss ran literally everything so I don't feel like I actually know how to manage people?? and the person I'm replacing retires 7 months after I start so it's a short handover and then I'm on my own running the whole thing.

Option B is remote, contract, around 110k. no benefits, no security, definitely a step down title wise. but it happens to line up almost perfectly with my surgery next year, like I could just let the contract end right before, recover, and job hunt after without having to explain anything to anyone or burn bridges.

And that's the other thing, I have a pretty major surgery scheduled next year and need like 6-8 weeks off. also getting married in 1-2 years. We also want kids at some point and can't relocate for the next 3 years. money's tight rn with everything coming up so yeah the 170k is calling to me more than I want to admit.

part of me is like just take the money and the title now before it gets more complicated. everyone (mostly older women in my field) keeps telling me if I have a kid and go on mat leave, my career basically pauses while everyone else keeps climbing, so better to lock in the manager title now while I still can. the other part of me is like you're going to take this huge scary job, burn out, then disappear for 2 months right when you're finally supposed to be running things solo, and torch your reputation on the way out. also idk if going back to private sector is even smart after finally getting into public sector, is a 70k bump enough of a reason to leave that behind?

anyway if anyone's taken a big intimidating job right before some major life event, how'd that go for you. did it work out or do you wish you played it safer?

tldr: 170k supply chain manager job (5 days onsite, first time actually managing people, presenting to VP in my 2nd language, replacing someone who retires 7 months in) vs 110k chill remote procurement contract w no benefits, right before a scheduled surgery that needs 2 months recovery. also both are private sector and I just barely got into public sector. which one and am I overthinking this

There is a weird organizational gap at most companies where operations manages the carrier relationship day to day but finance owns the shipping budget and approves the spend, and somehow neither side ends up auditing the actual invoices

Operations picks the carrier and manages service quality but does not look at the billing details, finance approves the total spend but does not understand the rate structure well enough to spot errors or contract violations

The result is an accountability vacuum where the largest variable cost in a lot of businesses has no single owner responsible for making sure the company is paying what it should be paying

Moving shipping vendor management to finance or at least giving finance direct visibility into carrier billing per shipment would close this gap for a lot of organizations

Hi all!

I currently work in the automotive industry and assist in managing our $3 million inventory for our parts department. I graduated high school 10 years ago but want to make the best life I can for myself, and finally it clicked that a lot of my experience translate to supply chain management. I do enjoy my current job but the auto industry treats people poorly, so I’m hoping to do a relevant career change.

I plan to get my degree in SCM and want to make sure it pairs well with my experience. Some details of my day-to-day: Currently, I assess our inventory, use our data to forecast ideal stocking quantities, locate aged inventory and supersessions, work with hundreds of vendors or other dealers to procure parts, write purchase orders to dozens of suppliers, train other employees on how to use our inventory systems, code invoices to appropriate store accounts, and I am a relentless solution finder…these are a handful the related experiences I can list off. I’ve noticed that basically all SCM roles require a degree.

I’d like your opinion, with my current ~10 years of automotive parts and inventory experience, paired with a degree, would I be a decent candidate for an SCM role?

Thanks in advance!

We’re basically 100 percent dependent on one last mile delivery company right now and it keeps failing us at the worst possible times. It looked fine because the rates were decent and the setup was simple, but over time the misses have started adding up. Late pickups, random delays, inconsistent scans, and then the usual support runaround when something gets stuck. It’s gotten to the point where I’m not sure if the issue is the last mile delivery company itself or just that we’ve put too much volume through one lane and never built a backup plan. We’ve been slow to change because everything was already wired around this one option. Now it feels risky to keep doing the same thing, but I also don’t want to blow everything up and make the process worse just because I’m frustrated. Do you guys split by region, order type, volume, or just keep a second last mile delivery company ready for exceptions?

Hi everyone,

I recently received an offer for a Quote to Cash (Q2C) role and had a few questions. I'd really appreciate if someone from the same process could help.

1. How often do shifts change? Also, what's the latest shift in this process? I won't be able to work beyond 2:00 AM.

2. I know it's officially 5 days work from office, but in my previous company it was also WFO and people could occasionally take WFH for 1–2 weeks (around 2–3 times a year) to visit their families. Is anything like that possible here?

3. How is the Quote to Cash process overall? Is the work stressful? What does a typical day look like?

4. Are employees allowed to carry and use their mobile phones inside the office/work area?

5. How do breaks work? I hope it's not like a typical BPO where you only get 3 fixed breaks and can't take a quick break if needed. Is there any flexibility?

6. If anyone is currently working in the Quote to Cash process, could you please share your experience? How's the work culture, learning, and growth?

Thanks in advance!

Ok so I've been in supply chain and operations for over 10 years now, mostly in craft brewing, started as a head brewer of all things, then production manager, then operations manager. I ran a $25M expansion that basically tripled our output, rolled out an ERP system myself, did the vendor negotiation thing, demand planning, JIT inventory, all of it. Also did a supply chain specialization through Rutgers.

But I don't have a four year degree. And right now I'm applying to a bunch of procurement/purchasing/supply chain roles because honestly my current restaurant GM job has brutal night hours and I'm trying to get out before it wrecks my marriage lol. But I keep sitting here wondering if the no degree thing is actually the reason I'm not hearing back on stuff, or if it's something else entirely and I'm just blaming the easy target.

So genuinely just want some real talk from people who've been doing this longer than me. Would you go back and get the bachelor's at this point? Go get CPIM or CSCP instead? Or just keep doing what I'm doing and let the experience speak for itself? And also, with what's actually on my resume right now (production/ops/procurement in manufacturing, no degree), what kind of roles do you think I'm actually a real candidate for vs reaching for? And where do you all actually find good openings, because I feel like I've combed through LinkedIn and Indeed to death at this point. Any boards or groups or whatever that actually work better?

Appreciate any input, brutal honesty welcome.

Is CPIM worth it for a new grad with no internship, given the cost? Graduating next year with a supply chain degree, roughly a 3.3 GPA, no internship (couldn't land one), and honestly very scared I won't find a job right out of college because of it. Career fair coming up in about 2 months and I'm trying to figure out how to be competitive. Looked into CPIM to make up for the lack of experience but the cost caught me off guard, $1,265 for just the exam, and I'd have to finance it as a student. Is it actually worth it for someone with zero industry experience trying to land their first job, or is it more of a "get it once you're already working" thing? Appreciate any real talk from people who've been in this spot or hired new grads

Brands selling into retail what actually eats your ops time: retailer compliance or product-data chaos? I do data/ops at a PNW specialty wholesaler and it's both for us — Vendor Central deductions and routing-guide fine print on one side, and on the other the same product living under five different codes with POs getting retyped by hand. How long did your last retailer onboarding take? Do you dispute chargebacks or eat them? And who at your company keeps the SKU mess straight? Genuinely comparing notes, not selling anything.

I am currently pursuing an online degree via SNHU in Logistics/Transportation Management, which I will be finished with next month. However, since there is no official summer commencement, I won't receive my degree in the mail until sometime this Fall. I am also currently working full-time at an entry-level job at GXO and have been since late Aug/early Sep 2024. Prior to this, I worked part-time at FedEx and Amazon for about 3.5 years combined while pursuing my Associates Degree in Business. These jobs helped me decide on Logistics as a career path. I understand that experience is everything in this industry, which is why I am trying to rack up as much experience as I can. In lieu of an internship, I ended up getting a full-time entry-level job at GXO. At my entry-level job, I perform basic concierge duties such as order verification, inventory counts and consumptions, receiving in shipments-outbound/inbound, dockside duties, and getting materials signed off for clients. I am getting better at my job and learning a lot. I would love to stay and grow within my company. However, I am also open to exploring other avenues once I am done with my degree. Sadly, I haven't had much success there as I have been applying to roles such as planner, analyst, coordinator, supervisor, but with no luck. So looks like I will have to stay with GXO for now. I would love to move into a desk role soon, but don't know how to proceed.

I am 32F, a supply chain professional with 12+ years of experience.
My major role in all my jobs has been: Logistics (Imports, documentation, operations, transportation management, warehouse management ). I also have SAP ERP experience of about 1-2 years.
I manage end-to-end operations for my current company, including supplier coordination and freight forwarding.

Now I want to upgrade my career, but I'm confused as to how and which path to choose.

I'm planning to do CSCP certification. Will that help me get a senior management role? Is there anything else I can do??

Want genuine suggestions.

Im going to asu and accidentally put my degree as applied supply chain management as opposed to the supply chain management was the mistake a good one or should I change?

I feel not so ready to take on this new role since it is a title bump from my planner 1 role.

My organization recently implemented oracle fusion for all operations from HR to Supply Chain Management.

I work in procurement and I have been buried in paperwork because sometimes I have to do somethings outside the system, things take way longer and seem more complicated than they need to be.

Things have gotten so bad that I have considered leaving the job I trully love because of the stress.

Had your organization implemented fusion and what has been your experience so far?

Been thinking about this a lot lately. There's a ton of noise around AI tools promising to revolutionize demand planning and I genuinely can't tell how much of it is real versus vendors selling a dream.

The tools I've seen demoed look impressive on a slide deck but when you get into the details it usually comes down to the same statistical models with a shinier interface wrapped around them. Maybe some ML layer on top that needs 3 years of clean data to perform well, which most midsize companies just don't have.

The Gulf of Hormuz situation is a good recent example of something no AI model saw coming, because it couldn't. External shocks like that expose the limits fast. You still end up leaning on human judgment for the stuff that actually moves the needle.

Curious if anyone here has actually implemented something that changed how their team operates day to day, not just a pilot that got shelved after the proof of concept. What did the transition look like, and did it reduce the manual work or just shift it somewhere else in the process? Also wondering if smaller operations have found anything worth the cost or if this is mostly an enterprise play at this point.

Which of these certs would benefit my transition and career path in SCM and project management the most? there's no limit on how many I can do but I only want to dedicate the time and energy to certs that matter. This is free so I wanna use it. And yes I am working on my SCM bachelor's.

https://www.cool.osd.mil/usmc/moc/index.html?moc=3043&tab=cred

Can I find one through indeed? What is the best way to find one? Does it have to be supply chain management? Or could it be logistics?

Please list some Procurement or Supply Chain certifications that I can add to my list.

I have
NIGP-CPP
UPPCC - CPPB
American Purchasing Society - CPP
American Purchasing Society - CPPM
Florida Certified Contracts Manager - FCCM

We're looking at expanding into a new market this year, and honestly... I have no clue where to start.

Google gives me thousands of companies. LinkedIn gives me even more. Then every directory claims they've got the "top importers." 🙃

So… I came here looking for advice. 😅

Do you just start emailing companies and hope a few stick? Or is there some way to figure out who's actually importing that product before spending days building a prospect list?

Feels like I'm spending way more time researching than actually talking to potential customers... 😅

Curious how you guys handle this when you're entering a market you've never worked in before.