Prior to characterizing a supply chain professional, it is necessary to define the SCM profession. The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) provides the following definition:
Supply chain management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management activities. Importantly, it also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers. In essence, supply chain management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies.
This integrated view of the supply chain has evolved over many decades. The roots of this perspective date back to the early 1960s when transportation managers and researchers realized that transportation decisions affect other activities of the firm, particularly inventory management and production. The emerging concept of logistics management demonstrated that companies could trade-off functional costs. They could, for example, spend more on premium transportation to reduce inventory and, potentially, total cost.
Interest in integration heightened during the 1990s under the banner of supply chain management. While logistics was traditionally viewed as an individual function focused on distributing finished goods to customers, high-performance supply chain management required that logistics also coordinate with inbound supply to minimize congestion and maximize utilization. Supply chain management affected other parts of the firm as well. Manufacturing, for example, was no longer viewed as a separate function but as a value creation process in the larger supply chain context. SCM focused on breaking down functional silos to create integrated processes. Firms embraced a total systems approach to facilitate coordination internally and with supply chain partners, often using enhanced communication and information technologies.
The desire for increased integration also was evident in the actions of professional associations and universities. CSCMP was originally founded in 1963 as the National Council of Physical Distribution Management. As the value of functional integration became increasingly evident, the association changed its name first to the Council of Logistics Management in 1985 and more recently to the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals in 2005. Other organizations have undergone similar transformations replacing a narrow, functional focus with a broader, integrated supply chain perspective. Two examples are the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) (formerly the National Association of Purchasing Managers) and APICS-the Association for Operations Management (formerly the American Production and Inventory Control Society). In addition, new associations have been formed. One prominent example is the Supply-Chain Council, whose mission is to define critical processes, practices, and metrics in the supply chain.
Finally, universities have also participated in this evolution. For example, all four institutions participating in this research initiative (Arizona State, Michigan State, Penn State, and University College, Dublin) have refined their academic and research programs to offer students an integrated supply chain perspective