Few Americans are aware of the extensive inland waterway system that includes the Great Lakes, the Intracoastal system, and rivers such as the “Mighty Mississippi.” About 15 percent of America’s total transportation now moves on its inland waters.

Barges carry much of this freight, which consists principally of chemicals, grains, forest products, iron, steel, and petroleum products. These vessels are not manned nor are they self-propelled, but are pulled by a tug or pushed by a towboat.

Most towboats have a crew of two, the captain or master, and the pilot or mate. They work together closely, each standing two six-hour watches per day. If it is a longer route there may be a second mate and they stand two four-hour watches per day. Those boats that ply the western rivers or the Gulf of Mexico inland waterways need a steersman, who steers the vessel while an engineer is on duty down in the hold of the engine room if it is a larger boat. Towboat cooks are responsible for serving the food they prepare, but deck hands may perform this work on smaller boats.

Responsibilities of the deck hand vary according to the size of the boat and its cargo. Aside from routine duties on the boat, the deck hand ties together the barges to be pulled and later breaks them apart when they reach their port of destination. He or she usually works six hours on, six off, a certain number of days on and off each month, creating a type of schedule and lifestyle that will not appeal to everyone. The work can be dangerous and boring too, but the chance to travel over the waterways has a definite appeal to many.

Another important position is that of the tankerman who loads and unloads liquid cargoes. En route, the tankerman watches the condition of the liquid and checks pumps and engines. He or she may also work in ports, refueling seagoing vessels from bunker barges.

The idea of coupling warehousing and transportation is what would become logistics. Some consider the evolution of the logistics concept not a major industry until the 1990s, to be a secondary phase of supply chain management.

Cutting down handling time for goods as well as storage time is a key component of supply chain management. In recent years, the growing emphasis on reducing inventories and travel time has spawned a whole new industry that’s commonly called logistics.

With the evolution of specialized logistics companies employing the most advanced technologies to quickly sort and ship products, there’s a consequent decline in vendor or supplier managed inventory. Many suppliers are turning to third-party logistics companies (3PLs) to manage inventory for them, including customer migration, demands of mass merchandisers, cross-docking trends, and the growing trend of continuous store replenishment.  Logistics jobs will be in demand for many years to come.

Today’s supply chain management field evolves out of work on inbound/outbound inventory flows that started in the late 1950s.

Material requirements planning (MRP), which entered practice in the 1970s, is considered the real beginning of supply chain practice.

The idea of just-in-time shipping/manufacturing emerges in the 1970s/80s as computerization and electronic communication make it possible to speed up information flow between manufacturers, customers, and suppliers, allowing for speedier cycle times and reduced inventories.

Click here to find help for finding supply chain jobs.

In the 1980s, Americans particularly become aware of Japanese manufacturing processes that employ JIT methods and start imitating those processes.

Sometime around 1993/94 the actual phrase “supply chain” entered the general business vernacular.

By 1995/96 the supply chain is all the craze. Journals and magazines are devoted to the topic. Many business graduate schools establish supply chain programs.

In the early 1990s, the notion of a supply chain had not entered the popular business vernacular. People talked about manufacturing or sourcing, transport trends, or distribution trends. They practiced MRP, efficient consumer response (ECR) – an early form of demand-chain orientation – and set up continuous replenishment programs. If you had mentioned the supply chain before 1993 or 1994, you would have drawn blank stares from a general business audience.

Then, almost overnight, (1995/96) it seemed that the supply chain was all the craze. Trade and general business magazines devoted solely to the supply chain started to be published. Conferences with supply chain themes were all the rage. And it’s been that way ever since. We have entered a phase called the ‘‘integrated supply chain.’’

The emergence of the supply chain as a popular practice can very much be tagged to the advancement of technology and its introduction into manufacturing settings, truckers’ cabs, warehouses, and etail outlets – all of which makes JIT and lean manufacturing possible. You cannot reduce cycle times effectively by manufacturing and shipping just-in-time without some form of electronic communication more advanced than the telephone. Simultaneously, there has been an increased concern about meeting customer satisfaction and quality. Supply chain management aims to deal with all of those concerns.

To see Supply Chain Jobs from Zeno Distribution Jobs click here

Supply chain management is as much a mindset as a practice. It involves looking beyond one organization and imagining all the entities involved in manufacturing and shipping a product or service, and then linking all of those entities so they can work efficiently and eamlessly as a team. That means uniting customers, suppliers, shippers, and more recently competitors, into a supply network for the most efficient use of time and resources.

There are several key functions that make up the supply chain. All functions have their own cycle times, which have to be addressed for cost containment to be achieved.

Click here to find supply chain recruiters to help with your job search.

- Procurement of both raw goods and materials, as well as components, is a good place to start. Then there’s the manufacturing process itself.
- The warehousing and shipping aspect of the supply chain used to be called distribution and is now commonly called logistics – often “third-party logistics” as much of this work is now outsourced to independent contractors.
- Then there is the actual transport and delivery of goods and services, both the finished product to customers and retail outlets as well as shipment of materials required to both support a company and manufacture a product.

Once you can visualize the interaction of all these parties and functions, it is possible to move to the main purpose of supply chain management – cost containment through reduced cycle times and improved inventory management that just-in-time shipping makes possible.