Is Supply Chain Management a Good Option for Business and Logistics Career Paths?

A degree may open the door to a variety of opportunities and diverse career paths. The degree programs offered at AIU will not necessarily lead to the featured careers. This collection of articles is intended to help inform and guide you through the process of determining which level of degree and types of certifications align with your desired career path.

If you’re interested in business and logistics and are trying to decide on a degree program, you’ve probably noticed there are different options out there. Business administration, operations management, logistics, and supply chain management degree programs are just a few examples.

For some, the sheer number of choices may feel overwhelming: How do you decide whether supply chain management is a good option for you versus, for example, operations management or business administration? Understanding the differences can help you to make a more informed decision about your academic future.

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Supply Chain Management vs. Operations Management vs. Business Administration

What Is Supply Chain Management?

According to the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), supply chain management refers to “the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management activities... and includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners.... In essence, supply chain management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies.”¹

Though supply chain management is sometimes confused with logistics management,¹ the terms are not interchangeable. Logistics management actually falls under the supply chain management umbrella and refers to “that part of supply chain management that plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective forward and reverse flow and storage of goods, services and related information between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customers’ requirements.”¹

What Is Operations Management?

Operations management refers to “the strategic design, orchestration and ongoing optimization of business operations to facilitate efficiency, resilience and scalability.”² In other words, the focus of operations management is on strategically optimizing a business’s efficiency and growth. This could mean looking for ways to lower costs, prevent or fix bottlenecks, create more resilient production or business processes, or efficiently scale operations.

Although operations management is not primarily focused on the supply chain, implementing strong supply chain management processes could lead to lower delivery and procurement costs, which could, in turn, help operations managers achieve their overall objectives.

What Is Business Administration?

Business administration is a broad field of study. Rather than focusing on one specific business discipline, students in business administration degree programs often study concepts and principles across a variety of business disciplines, including accounting, finance, marketing, operations management, logistics and human resources. In this way, business administration students can work to build a strong foundation in general business skills and knowledge that can be applied in various career paths and industries. Some Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree programs may give students the option to select a concentration or specialization—a pre-determined bundle of courses focused on a specific area of study—in lieu of selecting individual electives.

American InterContinental University’s BBA in Operations Management online degree program is designed to give students the ability to study various principles and applications of operations management. Courses may include:

Industrial Labor Relations: Provides an overview of the U.S. industrial relations system and covers topics such as the history and future of labor unions, domestic industrial relations, international industrial relations systems, public- and private-sector industrial relations, and dispute resolution.

Cost Control Management: Explores ways to keep business costs down and covers topics such as materials management challenges, benchmarking, inventory management and control, production processes, lean manufacturing and waste in manufacturing.

Production Planning and Quality Management: Covers aggregate production planning, capacity planning, materials requirement planning, scheduling and advanced techniques. Also covers production planning and control approaches used in the design of manufacturing, quality and service systems.

Supply Chain Management and Purchasing: Explores the basic principles of supply chain management in modern organizations and covers topics such as supply chain economics, supply chain strategies, e-procurement, logistics management, global supply chain issues, vendor selection and measurement of supply chain performance.

Strategic Manufacturing Policy: Explores processes and technologies involved in manufacturing strategy and supply chain functions, with a particular emphasis on aligning resources with the strategic plan, configuring and integrating operating procedures to support the strategic plan, and implementing change.

This degree program may help students prepare themselves to pursue a range of supply chain management career paths, including those in warehouse and distribution management (e.g., transportation, storage and distribution managers), logistics (e.g., logisticians, logistics analysts) and manufacturing and supply chain management (e.g., supply chain managers).

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Potential Business Operations & Supply Chain Management Career Paths

General and Operations Manager

General and operations managers plan, direct or coordinate the operations of an organization, and they oversee multiple departments or locations. They may develop organizational policies, manage daily operations and engage in material requirements and human resources planning.³

General and operations managers’ job responsibilities may include:³

directing or coordinating activities of businesses or departments concerned with the production, pricing, sales or distribution of products;
directing or coordinating financial or budget activities to fund business operations, maximize investments or improve efficiency;
monitoring goods and services suppliers to ensure that they are providing goods or services efficiently, effectively and within budgetary limits; and
managing the movement of goods into and out of production facilities to ensure operational efficiency, effectiveness or sustainability.

Supply Chain Manager

Supply chain managers direct and/or coordinate production, purchasing, warehousing, distribution, or financial forecasting services or activities. They aim to keep costs down while improving accuracy, customer service and/or safety. They try to identify ways to streamline existing processes to meet product distribution needs, and they also direct the movement, storage and/or processing of inventory.⁴

A supply chain manager’s job responsibilities may include:⁴

conferring with supply chain planners to forecast demand and create supply plans that assure material or product availability;
monitoring forecasts and quotas to identify changes or to determine their effect on supply chain activities;
analyzing inventories to determine how to increase inventory turns, reduce waste and improve customer service; and
managing activities related to strategic or tactical purchasing, material requirements planning, inventory control, warehousing and/or receiving.

FAQs

Is a supply chain management degree better than a business administration degree?

Whether a business degree in supply chain management is better than a business administration degree is subjective. Because business administration degree programs are meant to cover general business skills and knowledge, pursuing one can help you prepare to pursue a range of business career paths. Supply chain management degree programs, on the other hand, are going to be more focused on topics related to the distribution of goods.

If you are interested in pursuing a versatile broad degree program but are also interested in topics like supply chain management, purchasing, strategic manufacturing policy, and cost control management, then you might also consider a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in Operations Management degree program.

What skills do supply chain managers need?

In addition to understanding various fundamental supply chain principles (e.g., supply chain logistics, inventory management, quality control processes), supply chain managers can benefit from possessing certain hard and soft skills. In terms of hard skills, they may need to know how to use specialized software, including:⁴

Analytical or scientific software (e.g., Minitab, SAP APO, simulation and modeling software)
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software (e.g., Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle PeopleSoft, SAP business and customer relations management software)
Inventory management software (e.g., IBM ILOG Inventory Analyst, inventory management systems, Oracle Inventory)
Project management software (e.g., Microsoft Project)

In terms of soft skills, they may need to utilize the following:⁴

Can you work remotely in supply chain management?

It is possible to work remotely in supply chain management, but nothing is guaranteed. Whether a particular job is remote, hybrid or in-office is something that can vary by employer and/or the role. It may even vary depending on the candidate’s experience: according to a recent study, companies are generally reluctant to hire inexperienced recent graduates for remote roles, in large part because it is harder for managers to train and mentor them.⁵ In light of this, entry-level career paths in supply chain management may be less likely to offer remote opportunities. But that doesn’t mean you won’t ever find a remote position—it may just take longer to find the right one.

What industries hire supply chain management graduates?

Because the supply chain is “the chain of processes, businesses, etc. by which a commodity is produced and distributed,”⁶ that means any person or organization that buys or sells a product or a product component, or is involved in sourcing or creating that product or product component, is a part of it. When you think about it that way, it becomes easy to see why supply chain management is relevant in so many businesses and industries.

For transportation, storage and distribution managers, the largest employers are in transportation and warehousing; wholesale trade; manufacturing; and government (excluding local and state education and hospitals).⁷ For logisticians, the largest employers are in manufacturing; the federal government; professional, scientific and technical services; and wholesale trade.⁸ For administrative services and facilities managers, the largest employers are in healthcare and social assistance; educational services; professional, scientific and technical services; and finance and insurance.⁹

What career paths could you potentially pursue with a supply chain management degree?

Examples of career paths you could potentially pursue with a supply chain management degree may include:*

Logistics analyst
Logistician
Transportation, Storage and Distribution Manager
Supply chain manager
Logistics analyst
Logistician
Transportation, Storage and Distribution Manager
Supply chain manager

*AIU cannot guarantee employment, salary, or career advancement. The list of potential career paths related to this program is based on a subset from the Bureau of Labor Statistics CIP to SOC Crosswalk. Some career paths listed above may require further education or job experience.

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Majoring in supply chain management could be a good option if you are interested in studying business and logistics, but it isn’t the only option. Pursuing a degree in business administration, perhaps a BBA in Operations Management, is an alternative worth considering.

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AIU cannot guarantee employment, salary, or career advancement. Not all programs are available to residents of all states. REQ2242625 07/2026

¹ Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), “Definitions and Glossary of Terms,” https://cscmp.org/CSCMP/Educate/SCM_Definitions_and_Glossary_of_Terms.aspx (last visited July 20, 2026).
² Ivan Belcic & Ian Smalley, “What Is Operations Management?” (April 22, 2026), https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/operations-management.
³ National Center for O*NET Development, O*NET OnLine, “11-1021.00—General and Operations Managers,” https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/11-1021.00 (visited July 20, 2026).
⁴ National Center for O*NET Development, O*NET OnLine, “11-3071.04—Supply Chain Managers,” https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/11-3071.04 (visited July 20, 2026).
⁵ Emanuel, N., Harrington, E., & Pallais, A., Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Liberty Street Economics, “Remote Work Leaves Younger Workers Sidelined” (June 1, 2026), https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2026/06/remote-work-leaves-younger-workers-sidelined/.
⁶ Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, “Supply chain,” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/supply%20chain (last visited July 20, 2026).
⁷ Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Transportation, Storage and Distribution Managers,” https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/transportation-storage-and-distribution-managers.htm (last visited July 20, 2026).
⁸ Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Logisticians,” https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/logisticians.htm (last visited July 20, 2026).
⁹ Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Administrative Services and Facilities Managers,” https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/administrative-services-managers.htm (last visited July 20, 2026).