From SCDigest's On-Target E-Magazine

Program is Latest in Series of Steps to Build Supply Chain Presence beyond Materials Handling Roots

SCDigest Editorial Staff

MHI - the former Materials Handling Institute of America - continues its aggressive moves to become a supply chain focused organization from its long roots in materials handling systems with a new initiative aimed at promoting careers in supply chain.

Called iWorkinTheSupplyChain, the effort is focused on increasing awareness of careers in supply chain and championing the role of blue and white collars serving in supply chain related positions.

The awareness campaign has a number of elements, starting with a home page that features a number of individuals working in the supply chain who share their stories of how they came upon a supply chain related career and their current roles.

This will be an on-going effort, presumably with dozens or hundreds of other supply chainers sharing their personnel stories in coming months and maybe years by posting to a blog on the site. Each post can include links on YouTube or other sites where a person's story can be told in video form as well.

Those posting on the blog are automatically entered to win the 2016 MHI "Face of Supply Chain" award. This designation will honor a supply chain professional whose personal story "demonstrates the hard work, creative-thinking and a commitment to innovation it takes to succeed in this industry," according to MHI.

Official criteria for the award include:

• The nominee's story as it ties together the influence the supply chain has had on them, their company, family, and/or their community.

• The nominee's ability to create positive impact on the people around them.

• The nominee's ability to positively represent the supply chain industry.|

• The nominee should be respected and recognized by his/her peers within their company.

Diane Garforth, Director of Distribution Systems for retailer David's Bridal, for example, offers her story of starting her career off as a distribution center temp workers at the company before eventually rising to her current director level position.

The award winner will be announced at MODEX 2016 trade show April 4-7 in Atlanta.

In addition to those personal stories, the new MHI web site include a four and a half minute video of a variety of individuals talking about their connections to the supply chain, including well known television personality Mike Rowe, captured as with others in the video at MHI's annual conference in Jacksonville, FL in early October, where Rowe was a keynote speaker.

Naturally enough today, there is also a Twitter feed, which can be found at #iworkinthesupplychain.

There are several tangents to this new campaign. First, it is connected to MHI's recent focus on a "talent shortage" across many areas of the supply chain, a theme Daniel Stanton, who came to MHI from Caterpillar as vice president of education and professional development in 2014, has been emphasizing since his arrival.