Car-makers get regular reports of car sales, then they plan production around these sales trends. They order the parts they need and arrange their shipping based on these plans.
All of the steps involved in getting the resources required to meet business goals are (together) called a supply chain.
And you can create a supply chain for skills. You figure out what skills you'll need to meet your customers needs. You draw up a list of these skill requirements and then you recruit to satisfy the needs.
The list is called a taxonomy and you have to keep it up to date to maintain the proper skills inventory for your needs.
Business planners use skills taxonomies and reports of available talent pools to assess the realism of their plans and to develop plans of action and budgets to supply the people they need.
As talent becomes a scarce resource, this sort of skills planning will become more important. Right now, IBM is a leader in this field.
