A quick search in LinkedIn, a professional networking platform reveals that India has about 20 Lakh professionals having account in LinkedIn. If we assume that only 50% of the supply chain professionals have account in LinkedIn then we can estimate that India has around 40 Lakh professionals in the SCM domain.
The search was carried out on 20-July-2017 with the keywords such as supply chain, logistics, transportation,
warehouse, distribution and inventory. Also if we look at how many of them are CSCP certified it is about 1000, which makes CSCP certified SCM professionals form an elite club (0.025%) within the supply chain industry in India. Today most of the professionals working in the supply chain area primarily comes from engineering, science and arts background – meaning they do not have a formal education in the supply chain field.
Their knowledge is primarily derived out of their work experience by working in the SCM domain for several years. But with the advent of ecommerce and complex supply chains, industries need professionals who have a thorough understanding of the end-to-end supply chains to formulate supply chain strategies for the organization. This demands a formal education or certification like Certified Supply Chain Professionals (CSCP). One can attain CSCP credential only with months of committed preparation and deep understanding of the supply chain management body of knowledge established by APICS, USA containing three modules. A supply chain management professional having CSCP demonstrates the following:
- Commitment towards the supply chain management profession
- A vast knowledge and understanding of the supply chain management domain
- Have gone through the rigor of an internationally well acclaimed certification process considered as a gold standard within the supply chain industry
- Being associated with APICS constantly brings the recent developments and trends in the supply chain field
- Recertification requirements keep the professional to stay updated in the field
