New, better logistics jobs p1 - Military Transition - Military Times EDGE

Some 13,000 unique parts from 35 countries go into one of JCB Construction Equipment’s High Mobility Engineer Excavators.

It’s Chris Saucedo’s job to get each part to JCB’s Savanna, Ga., assembly plant — just in time to keep production running smoothly but not so soon that the company has to pay for costly, unnecessary warehousing.

Delivering the first nine of 800 excavators on flatbed trailers to Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., was easy compared with designing, testing and building the excavator, said Saucedo, JCB’s general manager of military products.

The 120-mile delivery was no task at all compared with moving 1.5 million gallons of fuel daily from Jordan and Kuwait to stations in Iraq.

A two-time Iraq war veteran and past Marine Corps Reserve chief warrant officer with the 2nd Beach and Terminal Operations Company, 4th Marine Logistics Group, Saucedo now leads a 50-member team of civilians deployed around the world to work on JCB’s military equipment.

Streamlining the delivery of goods in order to save on costs — in Saucedo’s case, planning down to the minute — is a trend in logistics. The practice known as just-in-time has resulted in fewer lower-level jobs, particularly in warehouses, but it has also led to new opportunities, especially with third-party logistics providers or “3PLs.”

Growing industry

In Saucedo’s view, logistics is part of every profession.

“Even at the most upper echelons, project management is an exercise in logistics,” Saucedo said. “I actually see the logistics field as being one of the cornerstones of commerce. It will continue to grow, and it will continue to grow on a global scale.”

Logisticians such as Saucedo analyze and organize a company’s logistical functions, overseeing “the entire life cycle of a product, including acquisition, distribution, internal allocation, delivery, and final disposal of resources,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There were more than 90,000 logisticians employed in the U.S. as of May 2007. They earned a mean annual wage of $66,240, with the highest concentrations of workers in Michigan, Virginia, Washington, Utah and Oklahoma.

Service members seeking to take their logistics skills to the civilian world will find opportunities not only with companies that move and store their own products but also with 3PLs.

“The industry is huge,” said Alan Montgomery, a former Army logistics officer and vice president of recruiting at Navesink Logistics Inc., which provides executive recruiting and consulting services in the logistics field. “There are plenty of opportunities out there,” he said. “This has been an active and booming area.”

One example of a 3PL is Penske, which provides logistical services to Ford Motor Co., Knoll Inc. and Mission Foods International among others, according to its Web site.

Your prospects

Employers in logistics — whether they’re 3PLs or companies that manage their own supply-chain functions — are looking for supervisors who can communicate effectively, motivate their employees and resolve any conflicts that may arise, Montgomery said.

“It’s a good time to be in a position of looking,” said Jim Chadbourne, managing partner with MRI Executive Solutions, a Fairlawn, Ohio-based firm that places executives in transportation, logistics and supply-chain management jobs. “There’s a shortage of top talent.”

Service members making the switch to civilian logistics may encounter one hurdle in their job searches, Montgomery said: the difference between the military’s supply-chain systems and the more advanced systems used in the commercial sector.

But Saucedo says not to worry: He finds the civilian systems easier to use.

“The military systems tend to be more dated and cumbersome and may actually require more user skills,” he said. “The civilian systems are much more user-friendly.”

Getting hired

While warehouse jobs are declining, other logistics careers are growing, Saucedo said — particularly in management and software development.

Chadbourne said civilian recruiters — such as he — can help speed up the hiring process “because they tend to have more contacts and better contacts.”

“Try to find one or two or three good recruiters,” Chadbourne advised.

Montgomery said job seekers should heed the “time immemorial advice” of networking by contacting people they know in logistics.

“Ask for advice, and if the people [you] talk to don’t know of particular positions, then get them to refer you to someone else,” Montgomery said. “And then use their name and network. That just is always the most powerful way to find employment.”

TALKING POINTS

Consulting firm Capgemini, Georgia Institute of Technology, Oracle and DHL in October released the results of their 2008 Third Party Logistics Study based on a survey of 1,644 logistics executives in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Key findings according to Capgemini:

• Executives almost universally consider “green supply chain initiatives” essential to the industry’s future, but most are unwilling to spend more for the sake of “the greening of the supply chain.”

• Material theft remains executives’ top security concern, but new security threats are emerging, “from the theft of intellectual capital and natural disasters, to the closure of ports and product tampering.”

• Strong relationships are needed among all parties in the supply chain. “Through deliberate efforts to form solid relationships with logistics providers using detailed contracts and metrics, companies can achieve significant cost savings, shorter order cycles, better customer service and improved business efficiency.”

LEARN MORE

Consult professional associations to find out more about jobs in logistics:

• Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals

• National Transportation & Logistics Association

• International Warehouse Logistics Association

• American Logistics Association

(Originally published Nov. 3, 2008)