Not so long ago, the administration department used to be the heavy-weight wing of an organisation, but personally, I did not find it function much other than managing and maintaining utilities, leases, legalities, etc. Two crucial strategic and operational functions of an organisation, ie human resources (HR) and supply and logistics (S&L), were covered under the sheet named administration. However, the good thing is that the management bodies of comparatively younger generation have rightly understood the necessity of splitting administration into several pieces. And that has helped functions like HR and S&L to own their identity and get recognition for their own achievements, rather than being apprised as a good “admin” fellow.
In Bangladesh context, occupations have less academic relevance. Apparently, it forces an incumbent to start a professional career into a new area of knowledge and skill sets, which often challenge his or her capability. Hence, a new learning curve is started from almost zero to cope with the professional sector. Our young folks are smart and capable enough to cope with a new discipline of knowledge.
In the academic arena of Bangladesh, human resources is yet to be an independent discipline of study, having been incorporated into MBA programmes as a “major.” Until a couple of years back, not many students were interested to enrol for HR as their major. Instead, more focus was given on marketing, management and finance. However, it is encouraging that students have been showing enthusiasm for HR in recent years, and private universities no longer have to struggle to get adequate number of students to offer HR as a “major.” This has happened mainly due to the fact that employers are recognising that position holders should have sectoral academic relevance.
However, logistics and supply chain management has far wider opportunities in the employment markets in business, civil and non-government sectors. Management of such organisations no longer understand only purchasing by the term “logistics and supply chain.” Organisations nowadays exercise supply planning at the beginning of operations for a project. Post-distribution monitoring and evaluation of the process is also captured under the supply chain management. Hence, it does no longer deal with only purchasing or hiring a truck or renting a warehouse. Supply chain is an integrated system, which can be better described by a coordinated business process that begins from sourcing and ends after the delivery reaches the end users.
While the entire supply chain process needs strong coordination amongst its functions, the individual functions are equally important to ensure efficiency of the operation. Value for Money (VfM), nowadays, is a crucial consideration for all organisations. Apart from cost minimisation, timeliness, quality and institutional risk mitigation are also equally considered. The best possible combination of the different monetary and non-monetary value factors are the core of VfM, and that can contribute to the overall performance of a supply chain system.
Let me come back to the discussion on academic relevance. Taking the increasing awareness of supply chain management into consideration, it has become a core academic topic in the recent decade. Logistics and supply chain management has become an independent discipline in many renowned universities across the world. This subject is taught in different ways, ie dissertation paper in MBA study, a few subsidiary subjects within a different “major” of study, or comprehensive logistics and supply chain study as an independent discipline. Fritz Institute is one of the leading logistics and supply chain education centres, while the National University of Singapore (NUS) has an independent department of logistics and supply studies. The Logistics Institute of Asia Pacific (TLIAP) is a renowned study centre at the NUS.
We are yet to make progress with the academic education of logistics and supply chain management in Bangladesh. A couple of years ago, a group of professionals initiated a certified purchasing manager course in affiliation with international institutes. But such types of distance education linked to overseas universities are quite expensive and scholarship is not easily available for such studies.
From that point of view, we can see clearly a good prospect for including such courses at public and private educational institutes of the country. In one hand, an adequate number of capable professionals can be grown in country, while on the other, Bangladesh can export logistics and supply experts to other countries.
I firmly believe that our people have the capabilities to cope with a new discipline of work in quite a short span of time. There are so many logistics professionals working here and abroad without any academic qualifications in logistics and supply chain. If we can widen the opportunity of logistics and supply study in Bangladesh, interested students can choose the subject as a discipline, while professionals can get its benefit through consolidating their relevant knowledge base.