Here is a sample personal statement of a supply chain professional who applied and was admitted to top graduate programs in supply chain and inventory management. She has graciously shared her successful essay so that prospective applicants can benefit from it.
Sample Personal Statement in Supply Chain Management
In today’s world, few have the chance to complete high school, even fewer get to go to college, and only a handful are fortunate enough to pursue graduate studies. My country ranks 91 out of the 150 nations on the global literacy index and evens lower in female literacy; being raised in a rural area of the country where education is the least of priorities, I was exposed very early in my life to the disparities that exist between the haves and the have-nots. Therefore, my academic and professional endeavours over the past four years are an attempt at fulfilling the responsibility which comes with my good fortune of being amongst the affluent. In what follows, I discuss how these experiences have shaped my interests and led me to pursue an academic career in Supply Chain Management.
We all have role models – for me, it was my father. As an immigrant to France, he established an extremely profitable restaurant chain from the ground up. He achieved what others take generations to accomplish through meticulous planning, motivation, and perseverance. He always encouraged me to work with him at his restaurant during my vacations which I gladly did. By closely working with him for several years, I have acquired his qualities of superior management and quantitative analysis – essential for a career in business management.
My practical voyage in supply chain began early at my father’s restaurants. At the restaurant, using historical data and applying forecasting techniques, I learned how to handle better lead time to produce better results for our company. In addition, excel-based quantitative modelling and inventory management tools allowed me to accurately stock what was required and discard what was not. These measures significantly reduced our warehousing costs and space.
However, my first academic exposure to the Supply Chain course came when I had to lead a group project for “New Mexico Spinning Mills”, – a textile production facility. After doing brief research by interviewing several employees at the production unit and getting our hands on their supply, demand, and procurement data, I learned how the firm reduced costs and increased productivity by accurately forecasting future needs. They had complex predictive models to churn out expected order levels with high accuracy. This was particularly new for me since the company used Monte Carlo simulation and advanced modelling techniques to ensure excellent precision. Being able to determine their demand, they placed precise orders and effective contracts with their suppliers and reduced any uncertainty.
Recent decades have seen a fundamental shift in the market landscape, with companies taking full advantage of supply chain techniques to improve businesses. Being particularly intrigued by its value proposition, I began my full-time internship at “Morlo Spinning Mills” in their Supply Chain Operations department. My work entailed using various modelling techniques to develop inventory models and creating a performance monitoring system for key business metrics. Here, not only have I acquired a diverse set of analytical skills, but I have also developed an admiration for research in its ability to tackle complex problems arising in practice.
Beyond course and fieldwork, perhaps the most inspiring experience for me was reading the article “Efficient consumer response in Japan Industry concerns, current status, benefits, and barriers to implementation.” It clearly and vividly laid out the importance of the supply chain. Specifically, it talks about one application of supply chain – efficient consumer response (ECR). ECR revolves around using technology and efficient processes to ensure greater customer value. This paper demonstrates how Supply Chain is changing how we think about such problems and continuously improving upon existing solutions to drive efficiency and profitability. As an aspiring academician, I look forward to contributing to this effort.
Through my coursework and internship experiences, I have developed an interest in predictive and descriptive modelling. In my work at my father’s restaurant and internships, I have always seen the immense need for statistics and other analytical techniques to solve procurement issues and dynamic statistical models that govern order replenishment in supply chains.
Because decision problems in these settings involve complex networks, multiple periods, and many products, I have also taken a keen interest in other approximation methods. Therefore, I am visiting Turkey later this month to research entrepreneurship in Supply Chain Management and the role played by universities in Istanbul and business incubators to improve the supply chain in Turkey. I plan to gather information by interviewing our selected audience, including Vice-Chancellors, Rectors, Deans, and Head of Departments or Institutions. The outcome of this is expected to come up with some research papers on and identifying the similarities and complementarities between the two countries in this field.
Warwick’s program in Supply Chain Management is particularly well-aligned with my interests, and I find courses in Procurement & Inventory management and applied statistics particularly appealing. Today, competition in the marketplace is compelling companies to become increasingly creative in optimizing their supply chain. As a result, I am eager to learn advanced techniques through coursework and projects that would eventually help me overcome hurdles that I faced in the restaurant business – and continuously strive to improve profitability.
The interdisciplinary nature of Supply Chain Management at Warwick stems from the diverse backgrounds of its faculty and students; this enables the program to span the spectrum of cutting-edge applied and theoretical research in Supply chain. Given the range of professional experiences, I have had over the years, being a Masters’s student in this department would be the ideal start to my academic career. I am particularly looking forward to studying in the highly competitive environment of Warwick because competition brings out the best in me. In addition, this program will fulfil my passion for applying mathematical theory to solving complex problems and allow me to leverage my analytical skills and industry experience to contribute to the program’s intellectual diversity.