Skill profile of logistics professionals and implications for educational providers

• Main Author: Huang, Hongyuan.
• Other Authors: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business::Management::Logistics; DRNTU::Engineering::Maritime studies::Maritime management and business
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/40086
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this fast-changing business environment, the skills profile of logisticians is constantly changing to adapt to the new environment, especially when logistics is constantly evolving. The importance of this skills profiling is viewed differently between the logistics industry players and the educational providers. Hence as the logistics trend changes, there is a need to assess the importance of these skills and knowledge of logistics practitioners from both the industry and educational providers’ perspectives. With the assessment under this research paper, educational providers are able to develop better logistics programs or courses to enhance and upgrade the attributes of logisticians. This report will highlight literature reviews based on the logistics perception by the industry from the past to the present. Using Murphy and Poist’s Business, Logistics, Management (BLM) framework and literature reviews for the skills profiling, our group will come out with a new framework - HNV framework, which we will be using to identify and assess new logistics skills through case studies, surveys and interviews from the logistics industry practitioners and educational trainers. We discovered some significant changes of the importance of certain skills profile not just between the logistics industry and educational providers, but also between the entry and senior level logisticians within the logistics industry. The industry players regard management-related logistics skills as the most important; whereas educational providers view business-related logistics skills as the most important. Logistics skills cannot stand on its own – they need to be incorporated with business and management skills in order for logisticians to maximize their potential. The skills profiling suggests the need for logistics industry and educational providers to work hand-in-hand in order to establish a more perfect logistics formal education to cater to the industry needs.