Supply chain - a career switch path?

"Supply chain management" is a term you hear a lot now with globalized and outsourced production. It's a new buzzword.

This seems to split the interdisciplinary seam between engineering and business. It might show up in systems engineering, engineering management, or logistics.

Supply chain management has become a big issue with the H1N1 flu vaccine. It's hard to get it right now! Producing H1N1 vaccine has run into problems, but distributing it may be the supply chain weak link.

Like a lot of vaccines, it needs to be carefully refrigerated from production to injection, in a "cold chain" with a managed chain of custody showing that it's been kept in the correct temperature range. It can't get too warm or too cold - there are reports of thousands of hard-to-produce doses being lost.

See http://www.wptv.com/mostpopular/story/Vaccine-ruined/jXS5Vw6cmk6CG6quQ9opBw.cspx

(What kind of equipment and skills would this take? There are medical-grade refrigerators and freezers. Do you also need medical-grade truck drivers and medical-grade custodians and building guards?)

Here's one school that suggests supply chain management as a career switch path:
http://www.umsl.edu/divisions/business/mbaonline/phd/overview.htm