Crafting human capital for contemporary supply chain needs

Transport and logistics play a critical role in transforming our economies. As early as the first quarter of the 20^th century, Frederick JD Lugard, then an administrator in the British Foreign Affairs Office, said it succinctly: “The material development of Africa can be summed up in one word – Transport.”

Transport is a catalyst for the economic and social transformation of societies and nations, as well as facilitating access to resources and markets without which economic growth will be curtailed. A good transport system provides better logistics and supply chain efficiency, reduces operational costs, and promotes service quality.

The importance of transport and logistics in practice was mirrored in the academic development of these disciplines. Up to the mid-20^th century, transportation as a discipline was addressed mainly through engineering sciences. Subsequently, formal transport educational programmes were established at tertiary institutions. Logistics emerged as an applied discipline during the latter part of the 20^th century and in the last two decades a number of academic and professional institutions have introduced programmes in supply chain management, which has now become a “buzz axiom”. 

Corporate requirements are changing rapidly, and a mere qualification in the field of transportation, logistics, and supply chain management may no longer be enough. Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies are not only changing the supply chain ecosystem, but also transforming the world of work. In the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023, over 85% of organisations surveyed identified the increased adoption of new and frontier technologies and broadening digital access as the trends most likely to drive transformation in their organisations. These trends are therefore expected to drive future job growth.

While educational providers do their best to address the needs of the changing work environment and ensure they produce graduates relevant to market requirements, the onus remains on the individual to embrace these changes. Increasingly, the question that one needs to constantly ask is: “What value do I add if I am employed in a supply chain organisation?” 

Technology adaptation will remain a key driver of business transformation in the foreseeable future. According to Murphy and Poist’s 2006 study in Transport Journal, “The logistics role no longer involves ‘coordinating transportation, packaging, warehousing and inventory management but is rather driven by a number of factors, including globalization, computerization and cross firm relationship management’.”

The movement towards a more competitive global economy would entail an increasing demand for appropriate skills to manage more efficient supply chain systems. Progressively, human-machine working ratio is fast tilting towards the machine, meaning that a greater proportion of work will be undertaken by technology. Investment and facilitation in ‘non-human’ logistics do not necessarily remove humans from the equation, but current skills need to be reshaped and new skills need to be acquired to embrace new technologies and supply chain processes. Barloworld’s Logistics Supply Foresight Report 2012 placed the supply chain skills shortage as one of the top five constraints on South African supply chains and the single biggest constraint to competitiveness, noting: “It’s not just that we are short of people with skills, but we are short of people with the right skills: people who link their functional role and activities to the needs of the supply chain within which they operate.”

A 2017 survey conducted by DHL of over 350 supply chain and operations identified strategic and critical thinking, problem solving skills, and creativity as required skills for the future. The need to upskill and reskill employees is, therefore, imperative. One of the most pervasive phrases in the business world is “thinking outside the box”. This entails dispensing with constraints and using critical and creative thinking in an era of increasingly powerful technological systems. This is the kind of thinking that machines can’t do well, and so brings a relevance and significance to human intervention.