‘Supply Chain Security Professional, Where Are You?’: An Interview with Mr. Daniel Choi, Supervisory Executive Officer School of Continuing and Professional Education | 供應鏈保安人才何處? - 專訪香港城市大學專業進修學院課程統籌蔡國輝先生

Though Hong Kong is already a would-class logistics hub, Hong Kong is now in a competing location with Pearl River Delta and Shanghai. Hong Kong has to maintain the position of being the busiest logistics hub by promoting the concept of supply chain management and supply chain security. However, the focus of developing logistics industry is still on infrastructure such as the creation of efficient integrated logistics platform, Value Added Logistics Parks and high-speed transportation network. The promotion of the supply chain security concept and the training for supply chain security professional are still the neglected areas.

Mr. Daniel Choi, the Supervisory Executive Officer of SCOPE at City University of Hong Kong also agrees that there are numerous courses for studying logistics but the supply chain security is excluded in majority of courses. ‘There is not many professional training courses on supply chain security available in the market. This is due to the immature development of logistics industry in Hong Kong. Most of the logistics courses in the market only cover some essential aspects of logistics management, giving students a general idea of Hong Kong logistics industry, such as the development of logistics platform, product delivery, information management and so on. The advantage of this course design is to enable students to understand each aspect of logistics in a more systematic way. However, it seems that Hong Kong’s competitive position in developing the logistics industry will be replaced by the Pearl River Delta if Hong Kong logistics professionals only focus on actual operation technique. Hong Kong should change the development focus from actual operation to knowledge transfer. In other words, the role of Hong Kong should be professional logistics consultant instead of an actual operation center. Thus, I believe that the specific logistics training are much more likely to be chosen.’ Says Choi. ‘911 Terrorist Attack’ aroused all enterprises concern for security measures. Supply chain security includes the management of the man flow, product flow and information flow and each aspect involves professional knowledge. It is certain that supply chain security training course will be a hot pick for students.

How to choose the best course?

As supply chain security in Hong Kong is still developing, with various kinds of training courses, how can the students choose the most suitable course? Choi suggests that students should choose based on their own ambition. ‘Before applying any course, students should ask themselves the reasons that they want to study logistics. If the students just want to pursue continuing education and training courses, they can have more flexibility to choose the courses which they are really interested in. But if the students want to develop their career in the logistics industry, I recommend that they should start from the beginning to gain experience. This is because ‘experience’ is more essential than theory in the logistics industry. Keen competition cannot be avoided. To succeed, students should grasp the right time with flexibility, transfer the textbook knowledge and the successful experience of other countries into a set of tailor-made knowledge of Hong Kong.’

Continuing Education – Supply Chain Security

‘Supply Chain Security’ (Course code: 22580), a continuing education course which offered by SCOPE at the City University of Hong Kong, is the most comprehensive training course available in the market. This course aims at training supply chain managers, logistics managers, warehouse managers, operation managers and audit professionals who are required to understand, manage and evaluate supply chain security. This course is designed into 3 modules. The content of the course adopts important SCSM (Supply Chain Security Model) and international & national standards of ISO 17799, TAPA, RAR. The special feature of this course is to turn the security standard in practice. It provides participants with an opportunity to apply and implement world-recognised standard on the supply chain in Hong Kong, as well as how to perform the security system audit. Since it is an intensive course, participants who have pre-requisite knowledge or some work experience in logistics-related field will have an advantage.

供應鏈保安人才何處?
- 專訪香港城市大學專業進修學院課程統籌蔡國輝先生

縱然香港現時大力發展物流業，其發展重點仍然是在基建方面，譬如建立高效率的綜合物流平台、增值物流圜和道路接駁系統等，但對於全面的供應鏈保安概念推行似乎仍未能加以配合，完全忽視提供真正全面的供應鏈管理教育。

香港城市大學專業進修學院﹝SCOPE﹞課程統籌蔡國輝先生也同意，為迎合發展物流這個大趨勢，市面上有不少物流、供應鏈管理等課程涵蓋的內容都甚少涉及供應鏈保安。「香港專為培訓供應鏈保安人才的課程確實不多。原因很簡單，因為香港的物流發展尚未成熟，現時市面所提供的課程自然是會涵蓋各個方面，讓各學員先對香港的物流業有一個概括認識，譬如物流平台的發展、貨物配送、信息系統管理等，然後才循序漸進了解物流業中所牽涉的每個專門範疇。但隨著物流業發展日趨成熟，香港的物流專才若只停留在營運技術上，根本是無法與珠江三角洲的物流中心競爭。若要突圍而出，就必須從營運技術方面轉型至知識轉移方面。簡言之，即從實際營運的角色轉型至物流專業顧問之角色。因此我相信，物流業的專門課程勢必成為熱門的課程。」蔡國輝更指出「九一一」事件喚醒各大企業對保安措施的關注。供應鏈保安於物流過程中涉及人流、貨流和資訊流的管理，當中每一項管理都涉及專門的知識。待香港物流發展得較成成熟時，有關供應鏈保安課程將會成為學員的熱門選擇。

怎樣選擇合適的課程？

雖然供應鏈保安的相關課程尚未發展成熟，但面對其他五花八門的物流課程，學員又該如何選擇？蔡國輝認為，選擇的關鍵在於學員自己的志向。「其實報讀任何課程之前，先得問問自己為什麼要報讀此課程。若學員純為自我增值，志在汲收多一方面的知識，他們可以較有彈性，選擇自己較有興趣的單元去修讀。至於有志投身物流業的在職人士,，我會建議他們從基層工作開始發展，慢慢累經驗，因為物流業是非常著重經驗的行業。劇烈競爭是沒法避免，最重要的是　學員懂得掌握時機及靈活變通，將書本上學到的知識，並融合外國成功的經驗，轉化成一套適合香港和內地物流發展的知識，這樣才可以踏上成功之路。」

供應鏈保安持續教育課程

由香港城市專業進修學院﹝SCOPE﹞所提供的「供應鏈保安持續教育課程」稱得上是全面的供應鏈保安管理的課程，主要對象是供應鏈管理人員、物流專才、倉庫管理人、營運經理以及審核員。修畢這個課程讓，他們便會對供應鏈保安系統管理和評估有更深的認識。此課程共分為三個單元，內容廣泛，全面觸及電子物流管理的各個重要層面，比方現今最被廣泛採用的供應鏈保安模式，以及重點介紹國際認可的標準如ISO 17799、TAPA 和 RAR。這個課程的最大特色，是各學員皆有機會去學習如何應用和執行國際認可的供應鏈保安標準於香港的供應鏈保安系統，並且學習如何去審核整套供應鏈保安系統。由於這個課程是非常密集，若是學員是具備基本物流業或供應鏈管理的相關知識或工作經驗，在學習上是會較為有利。