Case Study: Mattel's Solutions to Supply Chain Talent Shortage Issues

This case study examines Mattel Inc.'s strategies for addressing the shortage of skilled labor in its supply chain operations. The study identifies three major issues: the decline of manufacturing in North America and Europe leading to a scarcity of technical skills, the lack of real-world experience among college graduate supply chain managers, and the imbalance between the number of people working in logistics, sourcing, and production versus program management specialists. Mattel's actions include testing employees, hiring business graduates, changing metrics for evaluating supply chain managers, and transferring strategic managers to overseas plants. The study recommends leveraging social media for talent sourcing, providing training and development opportunities, and implementing talent development programs. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of adopting proper hiring strategies and educational programs to overcome the supply chain talent deficiency.

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

 The study reflects on how the firms find people for
managing complex supply chain amid deficiency of skilled
workers.
 SCM involves systematic as well as strategic management
for supplying products needed by the customers end. This
study highlights that the Mattle Inc puts their employees to
test and hires skilled individuals for filling gap in supply
chain management.
Strategic objective
The objective of the firm is to effectively implement supply
chain management (SCM).
INTRODUCTION

 As Mattel Inc is the multinational toy
producing company in US, finding skilled
individuals has been really harder for the
company. The three major issues that have
been identified are given below:
First Issue
Manufacturing has been less prevalent in
North America and Europe and so it
becomes harder to find technical skills
owing to fewer individuals.
IDENTIFICATION OF THREE MAJOR
ISSUES

Second Issue
The company faced huge difficulty while recruiting
supply chain managers as these individuals are college
grads and did not have real line experience.
Third Issue
Huge gap occurs in the company’s operation as large
numbers of people are working in logistics, sourcing
and production while small number of people have
program management specialist across these functions.

SCM plays an essential part of business activities and
operational efficiency that is applied for achieving
success and satisfying customers. However, the
solutions or actions that this toy manufacturing
company considers are –
 Placing their employees to the test as well as hiring
business graduates for filling gaps in their supply chain
management
ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE COMPANY

The company has changed their metrics for
evaluating their supply chain managers in order
to take holistic outlook of job function.
The company have also transferred two
strategic managers from their Mattle’s
headquarter to work in Malaysia and Mexico
plants for diversifying their experience.

This toy company can overcome supply chain
talent shortage by-
 Leveraging the utilization of social media-
Living in the era of social media where
information access is endless, Mattle should
empower their employees by leveraging
utilization of social media for sourcing talents
around the world with matching skills.
RECOMMENDATIONS

Provide training and
development- This Company
should also provide training and
development to their employees for
improving their skills so that they
can attain both professional as well
as personal growth. However, this
will help the SCM of the company
to attract new talents.
Talent development programs-
The organization should adopt talent
development programs for providing
high-affect solutions as well as
advice to HR mangers so that they
can implement efforts to enhance
their capabilities to attract and hire
supply chain talent

The company should adopt proper hiring strategies
for overcoming the supply chain talent deficiency.
However, hiring talent from the undergraduate
programs allows the entity to mold these workers into
supply chain managers. In addition, adoption of
educational programs is also considered as long terms
solutions to the organization for shortage of supply
chain talent.
CONCLUSION

 Jacobs, F. R., Chase, R. B., & Lummus, R. R.
(2014). Operations and supply chain
management (pp. 533-535). New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
 Dubey, R., & Gunasekaran, A. (2015). Shortage of
sustainable supply chain talent: an industrial training
framework. Industrial and Commercial
Training, 47(2), 86-94.
REFERENCES