What do they do?

Direct or coordinate production, purchasing, warehousing, distribution, or financial forecasting services or activities to limit costs and improve accuracy, customer service, or safety. Examine existing procedures or opportunities for streamlining activities to meet product distribution needs. Direct the movement, storage, or processing of inventory.

Also known as:

Global Supply Chain Director, Material Requirements Planning Manager, Solution Design and Analysis Manager, Supply Chain Director, Supply Chain Manager

Typical Wages

Projected Growth Rate

Employment of Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers is projected to grow 8 percent from 2022 to 2032, about as fast as average compared to all occupations.

Projected Employment For All United States

No Data Available
  • 8.2%

    Change

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    15,900

    Job Openings

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Education Level

Percent of workers in this field with these degrees:

  • High school diploma equivalent  (28%)
  • Some college, no degree  (25%)
  • Bachelor's degree  (24%)
  • Associate's degree  (10%)
  • Master's degree  (7%)
  • Less than high school diploma  (5%)
  • Doctorate or Professional Degree  (1%)

Typical College Majors

Most Popular Majors that prepare Supply Chain Managers

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People in this career often have these skills:

  • Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
  • Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
  • Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
  • Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
  • Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
  • Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
  • Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
  • Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
  • Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
  • Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
  • Systems Evaluation - Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
  • Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
  • Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
  • Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
  • Systems Analysis - Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
  • Management of Material Resources - Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
  • Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.

People in this career often know a lot about:

  • Transportation - Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
  • Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
  • English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
  • Economics and Accounting - Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
  • Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
  • Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
  • Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
  • Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.

People in this career often have talent in:

  • Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

People in this career often do these activities:

  • Estimate labor requirements.
  • Estimate cost or material requirements.
  • Manage inventories of products or organizational resources.
  • Implement transportation changes to reduce environmental impact.
  • Develop organizational goals or objectives.
  • Develop procedures to evaluate organizational activities.
  • Manage operations, research, or logistics projects.
  • Develop operating strategies, plans, or procedures.
  • Confer with organizational members to accomplish work activities.
  • Analyze data to inform operational decisions or activities.
  • Negotiate contracts for transportation, distribution, or logistics services.
  • Analyze data to assess operational or project effectiveness.
  • Monitor performance of organizational members or partners.
  • Implement organizational process or policy changes.
  • Develop organizational methods or procedures.
  • Coordinate with external parties to exchange information.
  • Monitor external affairs or events affecting business operations.
  • Develop sustainable organizational policies or practices.
  • Document organizational or operational procedures.
  • Evaluate quality of materials or products.
  • Identify opportunities for green initiatives.
  • Evaluate potential of products, technologies, or resources.
  • Evaluate environmental impact of operational or development activities.

This page includes data from:

O*NET OnLine Career data: O*NET 28.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (“USDOL/ETA”). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Logo Occupation statistics: USDOL U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics

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