Top 12 Distribution manager Skills to Put on Your Resume

In the fast-paced world of logistics and supply chain management, a distribution manager keeps product moving and customers happy. Your resume should signal sharp technical judgment, operational discipline, and the people skills to steer teams through shifting priorities without losing speed or accuracy.

Distribution Manager Skills

1. SAP
2. Oracle
3. WMS (Warehouse Management Systems)
4. ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
5. RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification)
6. Excel
7. Power BI
8. Tableau
9. Lean Six Sigma
10. SQL
11. TMS (Transportation Management Systems)
12. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)

1. SAP

SAP is an enterprise platform that unifies core business processes—planning, procurement, warehousing, transportation, finance—so distribution operations run with tighter control and better visibility.

Why It's Important

SAP centralizes inventory, orders, and transport events, improving fulfillment speed, accuracy, and traceability. The result: fewer surprises, faster decisions, stronger customer satisfaction.

How to Improve SAP Skills

Sharper SAP capability starts with the right mix of configuration and discipline.

1. Adopt the right modules: Use S/4HANA with EWM for warehouse execution and TM for transportation planning and freight settlement.
2. Streamline the UI: Roll out SAP Fiori apps for role-based, faster workflows and fewer data-entry mistakes.
3. Tighten master data: Govern product, location, and partner masters to reduce exceptions and rework.
4. Automate routine tasks: Apply output management, batch jobs, and workflow rules for order releases, ASN posting, and invoice checks.
5. Use embedded analytics: Leverage embedded analytics or SAP Analytics Cloud for service levels, dwell time, and pick productivity dashboards.
6. Integrate end to end: Connect SAP with WMS robotics, carriers, and EDI flows for real-time status and fewer manual touches.
7. Invest in training: Build super-user depth and refresh training after upgrades to lock in adoption.

How to Display SAP Skills on Your Resume

2. Oracle

Oracle delivers database, analytics, and supply chain applications (on‑prem and cloud) that support inventory, order orchestration, transportation, and financials at scale.

Why It's Important

It provides resilient, high-performance data and SCM tools that keep distribution networks flowing, from forecasting through fulfillment and settlement.

How to Improve Oracle Skills

Make the stack faster, cleaner, and safer.

1. Tune SQL: Optimize joins, filter early, review execution plans, and use bind variables to reduce parsing.
2. Index and partition wisely: Index hot columns; partition large tables to accelerate queries and maintenance.
3. Archive cold data: Shrink active tables and speed nightly jobs by moving historical rows to dedicated partitions or archives.
4. Monitor continuously: Use performance reports to spot bottlenecks and lock contention, then remediate.
5. Harden and update: Apply patches, enforce least-privilege roles, encrypt sensitive data, and enable auditing.
6. Leverage Oracle Cloud SCM or OTM: Standardize planning, order management, and transportation workflows for end-to-end visibility.
7. Upskill the team: Cross-train analysts on SQL, data models, and key SCM modules to reduce handoffs.

How to Display Oracle Skills on Your Resume

3. WMS (Warehouse Management Systems)

WMS software coordinates receiving, putaway, slotting, picking, packing, cycle counts, and shipping to raise accuracy and throughput while lowering cost per order.

Why It's Important

It’s the heartbeat of the warehouse—without it, inventory drifts, labor balloons, and service degrades.

How to Improve WMS (Warehouse Management Systems) Skills

Make the system lighter for users and tougher on waste.

1. Integrate across the stack: Sync WMS with ERP, TMS, and carrier systems for real-time status and single-source data.
2. Elevate data capture: Standardize barcoding, add RFID where it pays, and enforce scan compliance.
3. Optimize slotting: Place fast movers near pack stations; re-slot seasonally to cut travel time.
4. Tighten inventory control: Use cycle counting, directed moves, and replenishment rules to keep pick faces healthy.
5. Modernize picking: Apply cluster/batch picking, waveless releases, or voice guidance to reduce touches.
6. Use labor management: Track engineered standards and incentives to lift productivity fairly.
7. Mobilize the floor: Provide rugged mobile devices and simple screens for speed and fewer errors.
8. Plan for scale: Choose a WMS that can grow—modular features, API-first, and options for automation. Note: HighJump is now Körber Supply Chain.

How to Display WMS (Warehouse Management Systems) Skills on Your Resume

4. ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)

ERP unites finance, procurement, inventory, sales, and operations, giving distribution leaders a single version of truth and the controls to act on it.

Why It's Important

It links demand, stock, and spend in real time, so decisions hit fast and land cleanly across the network.

How to Improve ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Skills

Reduce friction and raise signal quality.

1. Integrate cleanly: Connect channels, suppliers, WMS, TMS, and EDI through stable APIs and event-driven updates.
2. Customize thoughtfully: Configure first, extend second. Keep custom code minimal and well-documented.
3. Harden master data: Establish ownership, validation rules, and audit trails for items, locations, partners, and pricing.
4. Use analytics: Deploy role-based dashboards for DIFOT, days on hand, backorders, and margin leakage.
5. Strengthen access controls: Map roles to duties; monitor changes to pricing, credit, and inventory adjustments.
6. Stay current: Apply updates on a cadence, test thoroughly, and deprecate old processes after go-live.

How to Display ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Skills on Your Resume

5. RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification)

RFID uses tags and readers to identify items wirelessly, enabling fast, non-line-of-sight inventory checks and real-time location snapshots.

Why It's Important

It boosts count accuracy, speeds receiving, and curbs loss—especially powerful for high-SKU, high-velocity operations.

How to Improve RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) Skills

Design the environment for read reliability.

1. Select the right tags: Choose UHF vs. HF, on-metal vs. general, and memory size based on use, distance, and materials.
2. Engineer reader coverage: Tune antennas, power levels, and placement to minimize dead zones and ghost reads.
3. Standardize placement: Document where tags go on cartons, totes, and pallets to maximize readability.
4. Integrate with WMS/ERP: Route read events into inventory and order processes for actionable updates.
5. Filter and analyze: Use middleware to clean noisy reads and surface exceptions worth acting on.
6. Pilot, then scale: Start with receiving or cycle counts, validate ROI, and extend across workflows.
7. Audit regularly: Recheck read rates as layouts, SKUs, and materials change.
8. Engage suppliers: Push source tagging and consistent standards to speed dock-to-stock.

How to Display RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) Skills on Your Resume

6. Excel

Excel is the day-to-day workbench for analyzing demand, inventory, routes, and cost drivers—quick to iterate, easy to share.

Why It's Important

It turns raw data into decisions—forecasts, staffing plans, slotting changes—without waiting on long development cycles.

How to Improve Excel Skills

Go beyond grids and totals.

1. Use advanced functions: Master XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, SUMIFS, IFERROR, and dynamic arrays like FILTER, SORT, and UNIQUE.
2. Build PivotTables and charts: Summarize large datasets fast; create slicer-driven dashboards for daily huddles.
3. Lean on Power Query: Clean, merge, and reshape data reliably with repeatable steps.
4. Model with Power Pivot: Create star schemas and DAX measures for robust, scalable analysis.
5. Automate: Apply macros or Office Scripts to eliminate repetitive steps and reduce error risk.
6. Protect and validate: Use data validation, named ranges, and sheet protection to prevent accidental breakage.

How to Display Excel Skills on Your Resume

7. Power BI

Power BI turns scattered operational data into interactive dashboards and reports that spotlight exceptions and trends.

Why It's Important

Leaders see what’s slipping, what’s surging, and where to intervene—faster than email threads or static spreadsheets.

How to Improve Power BI Skills

Design for clarity and speed.

1. Model cleanly: Build a star schema, define relationships, and avoid bi-directional filters unless necessary.
2. Master DAX: Create measures for fill rate, OTIF, dwell time, and pick rate; use time intelligence for period comparisons.
3. Enable real-time where needed: Use streaming datasets or DirectQuery for live operations views; schedule refresh thoughtfully elsewhere.
4. Harden governance: Apply row-level security, certify datasets, and control workspace access.
5. Automate actions: Trigger alerts and workflows (e.g., notify carriers or open tickets) when KPIs cross thresholds.

How to Display Power BI Skills on Your Resume

8. Tableau

Tableau delivers fast, visual exploration of distribution data with dashboards that invite drill-down and discovery.

Why It's Important

Complex patterns—seasonality, route bottlenecks, SKU mix shifts—become obvious at a glance.

How to Improve Tableau Skills

Shape the data, then shape the story.

1. Prep your inputs: Use Tableau Prep or SQL to clean, join, and standardize fields before building visuals.
2. Design with intent: Build focused dashboards for daily ops, weekly review, and executive overviews—each with the right level of detail.
3. Use LOD expressions: Calculate metrics at different granularities (order, customer, carrier) without breaking context.
4. Drive interaction: Add parameters and actions so users can pivot instantly from network view to lane or SKU detail.
5. Tune performance: Extract where sensible, minimize custom SQL on the fly, and reduce high-cardinality visuals.

How to Display Tableau Skills on Your Resume

9. Lean Six Sigma

Lean strips waste; Six Sigma crushes variation. Together, they tighten processes so throughput rises and defects fall.

Why It's Important

Fewer touches, fewer errors, less firefighting. More capacity from the same footprint.

How to Improve Lean Six Sigma Skills

Make continuous improvement a habit, not a project.

1. Run DMAIC: Define the problem, measure honestly, analyze root causes, improve with experiments, control with clear owners.
2. Map the value stream: Visualize end-to-end flow; remove steps that add time but not value.
3. Stabilize the floor: Use 5S, standard work, and visual controls to reduce variability and training time.
4. Apply SPC: Monitor critical metrics with control charts; respond to signals, not noise.
5. Engage teams: Daily huddles, short kaizen events, and open idea funnels keep momentum alive.
6. Anchor to the customer: Tie improvements to service levels and promises customers actually feel.

How to Display Lean Six Sigma Skills on Your Resume

10. SQL

SQL manages and queries relational data—fuel for analyses that guide stocking, routing, labor, and service commitments.

Why It's Important

Direct access to data trims delays. You answer your own questions, validate assumptions, and spot issues before they flare.

How to Improve SQL Skills

Write queries that are correct, readable, and fast.

1. Master the core: SELECT, JOIN, WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING, and ORDER BY; practice inner vs. outer joins on realistic datasets.
2. Level up: Use CTEs, window functions, CASE, and subqueries to compute rolling averages, ranks, and cohort metrics.
3. Think about indexes: Understand how and when indexes help; avoid functions on indexed columns in predicates.
4. Read execution plans: Spot scans vs. seeks, costly sorts, and cardinality misestimates.
5. Be safe: Wrap multi-step updates in transactions and add safeguards to prevent accidental wide updates or deletes.
6. Document as you code: Comment intent and assumptions; make queries reusable and maintainable.

How to Display SQL Skills on Your Resume

11. TMS (Transportation Management Systems)

TMS platforms plan, tender, track, settle, and analyze transportation across parcel, LTL, TL, and ocean/air—controlling cost and service from pickup to proof of delivery.

Why It's Important

It cuts freight spend, raises on-time performance, and makes exceptions visible before they become claims.

How to Improve TMS (Transportation Management Systems) Skills

Turn the system into a control tower, not just a rate shop.

1. Integrate deeply: Connect TMS with ERP, WMS, carriers, and telematics for clean order-to-cash data and live tracking.
2. Automate decisions: Standardize carrier selection, consolidation, appointment scheduling, and freight audit where rules are clear.
3. Enhance visibility: Use real-time status, exception queues, and geofencing to escalate risks early.
4. Optimize networks: Analyze lane performance, cube/weight utilization, and mode shifts to trim spend without harming service.
5. Diversify capacity: Build a healthy carrier mix and scorecard performance to manage risk and seasonality.
6. Support sustainability: Track emissions, favor efficient routes, and report carbon impacts alongside cost.
7. Close the loop: Tie claims, accessorials, and chargebacks back to root causes and fix upstream processes.

How to Display TMS (Transportation Management Systems) Skills on Your Resume

12. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)

EDI standardizes electronic document exchange—purchase orders, ASNs, invoices—between systems and trading partners.

Why It's Important

Automation replaces manual keying, shrinks errors, and tightens the flow of orders, receipts, and payments across the network.

How to Improve EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) Skills

Make it reliable, secure, and painless for partners.

1. Standardize mappings: Maintain clean maps for X12, EDIFACT, and partner-specific variants; version them clearly.
2. Simplify onboarding: Use templated agreements, reusable profiles, and checklists to add partners quickly.
3. Validate aggressively: Apply syntax and business-rule checks to catch issues before they hit downstream systems.
4. Monitor and alert: Track acknowledgments, late ASNs, and failed transmissions with clear SLAs and alerting.
5. Secure the pipes: Use AS2/SFTP with encryption and certificates; log access and keep keys rotated.
6. Plan redundancy: Build failover paths and message retries to withstand outages without losing documents.
7. Bridge to APIs: Where partners prefer REST, run an EDI-to-API gateway to keep flows standardized internally.

How to Display EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) Skills on Your Resume