Articles
Education & Careers

Trends—November 2012
CSCMP: Notes, Quotes, and Totes The 2012 Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) conference in Atlanta was awash with new ideas and strategies, discussions of recurring economic and regulatory challenges, and examples of supply chain best practices. Logisticians and supply chain practitioners on both sides of the supply/demand coin mingled within the expansive Georgia […]
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How Supply Chain Executives Can Earn a Place in the C-Suite
First there was Chief Executive Officer, then Chief Operating, Chief Financial, and Chief Marketing Officers joined the "C-suite." Isn’t it time Chief Supply Chain Officers took their place at the top? Despite supply chain’s functional cachet in business circles, many top supply chain executives don’t even report to the CEO. Why is that? Service and […]
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Amy Polt: Safety First
Amy Polt is operations supervisor, Houston warehouse, for The Mosaic Company, a global provider of crop nutrients. She has served in this position since June 2012. Responsibilities: Supervises daily operations for the Houston warehouse, including all environmental, health, safety, security, shipment, housekeeping, quality, and customer service activities. Manages scheduling for personnel and all inbound and […]
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Sherry Askew: Beauty Calls
Sherry Askew is transportation manager at Revlon Consumer Products in Oxford, N.C. She has held this position since 2010. Responsibilities: Managing pricing and contracts, analyzing data, and serving as a liaison with the freight payment provider for Revlon’s U.S. and Canadian transportation, both inbound and outbound. Experience: Retail associate, data entry clerk, buyer’s secretary, Rose’s […]
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Dennis Omanoff: Hard-Driving Man
Dennis Omanoff joined Seagate in 2011 and serves as senior vice president of supply chain and procurement. Based in Cupertino, Calif., Seagate is a leading manufacturer of hard drives and storage solutions. Responsibilities: Supply and demand planning, commodity management, procurement, retail supply chain, service supply chain, logistics, and freight. Experience includes: Several positions in manufacturing […]
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Mary Foster’s Excellent Adventure
Mary Foster has served as vice president, supply chain management, at Inteva Products in Troy, Mich., since 2007. Inteva is a major global supplier of automotive closure systems, interiors systems, motors, electronics, and roof systems. Responsibilities: Direct and indirect material purchasing, logistics. Experience: Capacity planning, purchasing, Ford Tractor Operations; various positions in purchasing and production […]
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Battlefields and Boardrooms: The Military-Private Sector Connection
Military skills are put to good use in the private sector. The traits of an exceptional soldier—leadership, persistence, teamwork, order—are also the traits of exceptional logistics professionals.
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Michael Gilbert: A Fresh Start
Michael Gilbert is director of logistics and facilities at Indianapolis Fruit Company, which provides fresh fruits and vegetables to grocery stores and restaurants in eight midwestern states. He joined the company in 2011. Responsibilities: Supervising a team of four managers who run the warehouse’s shipping department, the facilities maintenance and sanitation department, and regional inbound […]
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John Snider Does It Best
John Snider joined Do it Best Corp., Fort Wayne, Ind., in 1985, and has served as vice president of retail logistics since 2000. A buying cooperative that serves more than 4,000 independent member stores in the hardware, lumber, and building materials industry, Do it Best offers approximately 67,000 items. Responsibilities: Warehousing, inbound and outbound transportation, […]
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Universities Produce Supply Chain Management Talent
Where do companies find their supply chain talent? Does that talent match their needs? Are supply chain management skill requirements the same across all industries? Firms, universities, and professional associations have struggled with these questions for years, and there are no one-size-fits-all answers. Universities are similar to manufacturing companies in that, to survive and prosper, […]
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Capt. Kazimir Kostrubala: Winging It
Capt. Kazimir Kostrubala, USAF, is squadron operations officer and installation deployment officer with the 19th Logistics Readiness Squadron, 19th Airlift, at Little Rock Air Force Base (AFB) in Arkansas. He received the 2011 Beyond the Call of Duty: Logistician of the Year award for his work with the Institute for Defense and Business. Responsibilities: Supervising 550 […]
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Supply Chain Education: Ask The Professors
Show of hands: who has questions about supply chain education and pursuing a career in the field? Leading professors are here with the answers.
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Don Riley: Building for the Future
Don Riley joined Denver-based ProBuild Holdings as executive vice president of supply chain and technology in November 2011. ProBuild is a leading supplier of building materials, with more than 430 locations nationwide. Responsibilities: Supply chain, manufacturing, information technology, enterprise resource planning (ERP) deployment. Experience: Developer, Singer-Link Flight Simulation; various positions culminating in account executive, Electronic […]
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Wes Kemp: Portrait of a Leader
Wes Kemp recently retired after a 42-year career with LTL carrier ABF, where he rose from management trainee to lead the company as president and CEO. In this exclusive interview, Kemp shares his insights on the transportation industry, trucking regulation, technology, and his new role teaching the next generation of logistics leaders.
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John Hodge: Feeding a Need
John Hodge is director of supply chain at Prince Agri Products, a global manufacturer and marketer of trace minerals and specialty feed ingredients to the animal nutrition industry. Based in Quincy, Ill., Prince Agri, a division of Phibro Animal Health Corporation, serves manufacturers, large integrated producers, and distributors/blenders in the livestock, poultry, and pet food […]
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Online Education: An Ideal Medium for Logistics Professionals
Although continuing education offers logistics professionals many benefits, long hours, shift schedules, travel, and jobs in remote locations can make attending classes difficult. Online education has quickly emerged as a preferred learning method for logistics professionals. Today’s online classroom offers dynamic peer interaction, based more on real-world, practical applications than traditional theory. This focus enables […]
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Purchasing Managers: Minding Everyone’s Business
As key players in the supply chain, purchasing managers have to think about innovation, growth, and cost-savings in all aspects of the company’s business.
Read MoreThe Invisible Discipline
For all of its name recognition, supply chain management can be almost invisible within an organization.
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Jill Hesselroth: Opportunity Knocks
Jill Hesselroth is vice president, global supply chain at Nortech Systems in Wayzata, Minn. An electronics manufacturing services provider, Nortech Systems produces wire and cable assemblies and printed circuit board assemblies, and provides diagnostic repair and integration services. Responsibilities: Analyzing the company’s supply chain to identify opportunities for improvement, then implementing those improvements. Experience: Various […]
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Warning! Dangerous Lack of Support for Hazmat Professionals Ahead
It is often said that dangerous goods handling compliance becomes an issue only when a non-compliant situation is discovered. The better dangerous goods professionals perform, the less necessary they appear. Lack of recognition for dangerous goods management professionals’ contributions, increasingly complex global transportation regulations, and insufficient career development opportunities may prevent the most qualified management […]
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