Download 2014 - APICS

APICS IN THE NEWS
PRESS CLIPPINGS
2014
MERGER NEWS
Breaking News: Supply Chain Council to
Merge with APICS
By Bob Ferrari
April 29, 2014
A somewhat stunning but not all that unexpected announcement is breaking
today that will certainly capture the attention of our Supply Chain Matters
readership. That announcement is that two premiere professional membership
organizations focused on supply chain management are about to come together.
Both the Supply Chain Council (SCC) and APICS are today each
communicating with their various internal communities that the boards of
directors of both organizations have approved an agreement under which Supply
Chain Council will merge with APICS subject to ratification by SCC member vote.
A formal press announcement is expected sometime tomorrow which Supply
Chain Matters has obtained. That announcement will outline a combined
organizational structure where Abe Eshkenazi will remain as CEO of APICS, and
Joseph Francis, the current Executive Director of Supply Chain Council will serve
in a new role as Executive Director of the APICS Foundation. The announcement
will also outline an expanded transitional Board of Directors involving both
organizations. A resource web page explaining the intent of this merger can be
accessed at this SCC web site.
This combination unites two prominent certification brands, both individual and
corporate in focus. The APICS Certified in Production and Inventory
Management (CPIM) and the more prominent Certified Supply Chain
Professional (CSCP) designations are directed at individual skill certification for
supply chain management professionals across the globe. The SCC SCOR
Framework Model and SCOR-P certifications are corporate process focused,
where organizations adopt framework certification to improve supply chain
capabilities. The combination has the potential to provide cross-selling
opportunities for both focused training and certification programs.
The combination of these two organizations further opens opportunities for added
operational efficiencies in membership support and educational programming.
According to email communication from SCC, voting members of record will
receive an email on May 19th asking them to participate in the voting process,
and the voting period will extend until May 30th.
Obviously, this combination is a powerful one that unites two well respected and
globally focused supply chain management organizations. A closer association
among these two organizations began in 2009 when both organizations agreed
to provide uniform member-discount access to each other’s training and
certification programs.
Last month, this author had the distinct pleasure to interview Abe Eshkenazi, the
CEO of APICS which was shared in a Supply Chain Matters commentary. While
there was absolutely no hint of today’s announcement, a statement from that
interview now has much more meaning: “The final pillar described was being a
globally-driven organization, extending both educational and certification
programs across broader geographic regions across the globe. Today’s supply
chains extend to Asia, Latin America and other countries and the need for skilled
supply chain talent is just as important. “APICS certifications need to be relevant
across the globe” according to the CEO.”
Relevancy of certification and global branding is indeed our interpretation of
primary strategy takeaway for this announcement.
Those of us who have been involved in supply chain management are well aware
that there are many creeping overlaps among the current array of professional
organizations that focus on the various functional areas of supply chain
management. As supply chain business processes have evolved to a much
broader functional umbrella, each of these individual organizations now compete
for mind share. Sponsored training programs, membership meetings and annual
conferences seem to overlap in content. By our lens, this announcement
concerning SCC and APICS will provide added pressures for additional clarity
and perspective.
We will share more details regarding this major announcement as further details
and developments emerge.
Stay tuned.
APICS, Supply Chain Council to merge
April 30, 2014
Two prominent supply chain industry associations to combine forces,
pending vote by members.
Two nonprofit industry associations that serve the supply chain space, APICS
and the Supply Chain Council, announced yesterday that their boards of
directors have voted to approve a merger between the two. The merger is
expected to be completed in July, pending a vote of approval from Supply Chain
Council members.
APICS, a supply chain and operations management professional association, is
well-known for its professional certification programs, such as the Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) and the Certified in Production and Inventory
Management (CPIM). APICS was founded in 1957 as the American Production
and Inventory Control Society, eventually expanding to include operations
management and the wider supply chain and changing its name to APICS. The
Supply Chain Council was formed in 1996 and made a name for itself based on
its frameworks and methodology for improving supply chain operations, such as
the Supply Chain Operations Reference model or SCOR.
"Our organizations have collaborated on a number of occasions and jointly
determined that, as a combined entity, we can provide greater opportunities to
our members, customers, partners, and employees," Abe Eshkenazi, APICS
CEO, said.
The APICS brand name will remain the same, and Eshkenazi will remain as CEO.
The APICS Foundation, which is a separate entity that is still part of the APICS
corporate structure, will be renamed the APICS Supply Chain Council and will be
run by the Supply Chain Council's current executive director, Joe Francis.
"The APICS Supply Chain Council will focus on advancing supply chain and
operations management innovation through research, educational programs, and
workforce development. It is the research arm of the organization, and Supply
Chain Council's products line up nicely with the Foundation's activities,"
Eshkenazi said.
The SCOR model will continue to be supported under the new organization.
In order to go through, the merger must be approved by Supply Chain Council
members. Members will receive an email on May 19 asking them to participate in
the vote and will have until May 30 to respond.
APICS and Supply Chain Council to
merge
By Jeff Berman, Group News Editor
April 30, 2014
Two renowned supply chain-centric organizations––APICS, a professional
organization for supply chain operations management and provider of research,
education, and certification programs focused on elevating supply chain
excellence, innovation, and resilience, and the Supply Chain Council, a global,
non-profit management organization focused on helping its membership make
significant supply chain process improvements, are set to merge.
APICS and SCC officials said that their respective boards of directors have
formally approved an agreement under which SCC would merge with APICS
upon ratification by SCC member vote.
APICS told LM that the SCC member vote will take place between May 19 and
May 30, and upon affirmation by SCC voting members, APICS will file the
required legal documents, with the expectation that the merger will be complete
by July. The joint organization will be known as APICS and the APICS
Foundation will be called APICS Supply Chain Council, with the SCC brand
being maintained and leveraged post-merger, according to APICS.
The organizations said that this merger brings together two industry leaders with
complimentary offerings to “create the premier global provider of supply chain
research, education, and certification programs and offer a single source solution
for individuals and corporations that want to evaluate and augment their supply
chains.
APICS CEO Abe Eshkenazi said in an interview that there were multiple drivers
behind this merger. “APICS and SCC have collaborated on a number of
occasions in the past, during which time our organizations got to know each
other and understand the possibilities that could be created by unification,” he
explained. “This merger not only brings our organizations closer, but also unites
us with an important purpose¬¬––advancing supply chain performance and
developing supply chain talent.” Corporations, said Eshkenazi, want to know that
professional standards are aligned with corporate supply chain competencies
and innovation, and the combination facilitates this alignment. And he said that
with this merger comes significant market opportunity, noting that as this market
has matured, companies, and APICS’ customers, are looking for a single source
for their supply chain education, training and certification programs. “Both SCC
and APICS realized that the ability to distinctly serve our members, customers,
companies and partners through a single-source solution that combined our
highly complementary products was the best option, he said, noting that “this was
the driving force behind our merger.”
One of the primary reasons cited by Eshkenazi for combining the two
organizations was the increased benefits a joint organization would bring to both
APICS and SCC members, explaining that while APICS has individual members
and SCC has corporate members, there are benefits for both types—with greater
access to resources, and more opportunities to learn and network serving as
some of the key benefits.
When asked to offer up some examples of how this merger will provide an
improved portfolio of products to elevate supply chain performance and develop
supply chain talent, Eshkenazi said that SCC SCOR (the Supply Chain
Operations Reference-model, the supply chain management community’s most
widely accepted framework for evaluating and comparing supply chain activities
and performance) is already an important element in the APICS certification
programs, with closer integration and further enhancements anticipated as a
result of this combination.
“APICS powerful network and global presence will enable greater access to
SCC’s SCOR-P and other training programs, and trained professionals who can
use SCOR frameworks to implement improved supply chain processes,” he said.
“Ultimately, this will elevate global supply chain performance. SCC’s strong
corporate relationships with supply chain leaders will increase access to key
decision makers who champion supply chain training programs, leading to more
opportunities to educate and certify supply chain professionals.
This merger takes two industry leaders and joins them together to offer best-inclass research, education, training and certification for the supply chain industry
– it’s a huge opportunity for existing and new members and customers, added
Eshkenazi.
When the merger is made official, Eshkenazi will continue to serve as CEO of
APICS and SCC Executive Director Joseph Francis will serve as executive
director of the APICS Foundation. And through the end of 2014, APICS and SCC
said that there will be an expanded, transitional Board of Directors with board
members from each organization’s Board.
“This agreement reflects our ongoing efforts to ensure that SCC’s and APICS’
content and capabilities remain at the forefront of our industry, providing our
members, customers and the supply chain community at large the most up-todate, relevant and complete body of knowledge in supply chain and operations
management,” said Jason Wheeler, chair of the APICS board of directors, in a
statement.
Supply Chain Council to Merge with APICS
Both APICS and SCC believe that this combination creates a global leader in
supply chain solutions, poised to benefit members, customers, partners and
employees in several ways.
By: Jeff Berman
April 30, 2014
Two renowned supply chain-centric organizations––APICS, a professional
organization for supply chain operations management and provider of research,
education, and certification programs focused on elevating supply chain
excellence, innovation, and resilience, and the Supply Chain Council, a global,
non-profit management organization focused on helping its membership make
significant supply chain process improvements, are set to merge.
APICS and SCC officials said that their respective boards of directors have
formally approved an agreement under which SCC would merge with APICS
upon ratification by SCC member vote.
APICS told LM that the SCC member vote will take place between May 19 and
May 30, and upon affirmation by SCC voting members, APICS will file the
required legal documents, with the expectation that the merger will be complete
by July. The joint organization will be known as APICS and the APICS
Foundation will be called APICS Supply Chain Council, with the SCC brand
being maintained and leveraged post-merger, according to APICS.
The organizations said that this merger brings together two industry leaders with
complimentary offerings to “create the premier global provider of supply chain
research, education, and certification programs and offer a single source solution
for individuals and corporations that want to evaluate and augment their supply
chains.
APICS CEO Abe Eshkenazi said in an interview that there were multiple drivers
behind this merger.
“APICS and SCC have collaborated on a number of occasions in the past, during
which time our organizations got to know each other and understand the
possibilities that could be created by unification,” he explained. “This merger not
only brings our organizations closer, but also unites us with an important
purpose”––advancing supply chain performance and developing supply chain
talent.”
Corporations, said Eshkenazi, want to know that professional standards are
aligned with corporate supply chain competencies and innovation, and the
combination facilitates this alignment. And he said that with this merger comes
significant market opportunity, noting that as this market has matured, companies,
and APICS’ customers, are looking for a single source for their supply chain
education, training and certification programs.
“Both SCC and APICS realized that the ability to distinctly serve our members,
customers, companies and partners through a single-source solution that
combined our highly complementary products was the best option, he said,
noting that “this was the driving force behind our merger.”
One of the primary reasons cited by Eshkenazi for combining the two
organizations was the increased benefits a joint organization would bring to both
APICS and SCC members, explaining that while APICS has individual members
and SCC has corporate members, there are benefits for both types—with greater
access to resources, and more opportunities to learn and network serving as
some of the key benefits.
When asked to offer up some examples of how this merger will provide an
improved portfolio of products to elevate supply chain performance and develop
supply chain talent, Eshkenazi said that SCC SCOR (the Supply Chain
Operations Reference-model, the supply chain management community’s most
widely accepted framework for evaluating and comparing supply chain activities
and performance) is already an important element in the APICS certification
programs, with closer integration and further enhancements anticipated as a
result of this combination.
“APICS powerful network and global presence will enable greater access to
SCC’s SCOR-P and other training programs, and trained professionals who can
use SCOR frameworks to implement improved supply chain processes,” he said.
“Ultimately, this will elevate global supply chain performance. SCC’s strong
corporate relationships with supply chain leaders will increase access to key
decision makers who champion supply chain training programs, leading to more
opportunities to educate and certify supply chain professionals.
This merger takes two industry leaders and joins them together to offer best-inclass research, education, training and certification for the supply chain industry
– it’s a huge opportunity for existing and new members and customers, added
Eshkenazi.
When the merger is made official, Eshkenazi will continue to serve as CEO of
APICS and SCC Executive Director Joseph Francis will serve as executive
director of the APICS Foundation. And through the end of 2014, APICS and SCC
said that there will be an expanded, transitional Board of Directors with board
members from each organization’s Board.
“This agreement reflects our ongoing efforts to ensure that SCC’s and APICS’
content and capabilities remain at the forefront of our industry, providing our
members, customers and the supply chain community at large the most up-todate, relevant and complete body of knowledge in supply chain and operations
management,” said Jason Wheeler, chair of the APICS board of directors, in a
statement.
The boards of directors of both APICS and Supply Chain Council have approved
an agreement under which Supply Chain Council (SCC) will merge with APICS
upon ratification by SCC member vote.
The APICS Board vote was conducted at the meeting on April 25. They expect
the transaction to be complete in mid-July.
Answers to frequently asked questions:
Why do APICS and SCC want to merge? Independently regarded as leaders,
the combination creates the premier global organization focused on supply chain
performance and talent development. The strategic rationale is compelling and
will lead to greater opportunities for members, customers, partners and
employees.
Why does this deal make business sense? While we are in the same space,
we see ample opportunities for growth. Our customer bases and products are
complementary and will enable us – and our partners – to deepen our
relationships with our customers by providing more high-quality products and
services.
Which organization initiated the talks? It was mutual—-APICS and SCC have
collaborated on a number of occasions. This brings our organizations much
closer and unites us with an important purpose – to advance supply chain
performance and develop supply chain talent.
Why merge now? Corporations want to know that professional standards are
aligned with corporate supply chain competencies and innovation, and the
combination facilitates this alignment. We also see significant market opportunity.
As this market has matured, companies –and our customers - are looking for a
single source for their supply chain education, training and certification programs.
Have the risks been carefully considered? What could go wrong? We’ve
done significant financial and legal due diligence including the evaluation of
financial pro formas, intellectual property and contracts. Unlike many mergers of
publicly traded companies, this merger doesn’t involve buying shares or
assuming debt. The intellectual property, client relationships, and the handful of
full-time staff will be absorbed into APICS’s operations. The merger will leverage
each core competency of the combined organization to serve members,
customers, partners and the supply chain community at large.
What steps are being taken to ensure the success of the merger? We have
a strong commitment from the Boards of both organizations, and our executive
team has integration experience. Work was done up front to ensure capacity,
compatibility and alignment with corporate strategy. We have an integration
strategy and our integration task force team will follow best practices and provide
transparency throughout the process.
Is this a merger or an acquisition? Which company is doing the
acquiring? This transaction can be described as a merger or combination that
allows our organizations to come together to meet the total supply chain
development needs of individuals and companies.
What has occurred and what’s next? On April 13 the SCC Board approved the
merger. On April 25 the APICS Board approved the merger, setting into action
the SCC member vote. Following an affirmative SCC member vote, legal
documents will be filed. An integration task force will execute the integration
strategy that was created as part of the due diligence process.
What are the next steps in the unification process? The merger needs to be
ratified by the SCC members. The voting window opens on May 19 and closes
on May 30.
When will the merger be done? The legal filings will be complete mid-July.
Which organization will have the majority of the seats on the new board of
directors? Through the end of the year, there will be an expanded, transitional
Board with members from each organization. In January, as Board members
naturally roll off, the Board will have twelve directors responsible for the
combined entity. Officers and committee leaders will be chosen in compliance
with the bylaws.
Which company’s executives are filling most of the executive roles? We
anticipate few changes in executive leadership as our organizations come
together. Abe Eshkenazi will remain the CEO of APICS. Joe Francis, who is
currently the executive director of SCC, will become the executive director of the
APICS Foundation. Sharon Rice will continue to serve as executive vice
president of APICS and support APICS and the APICS Foundation.
Where will the organization be headquartered? Chicago.
What will happen to the SCC office in Houston? There are no plans at the
present.
What will be the name of the combined organization? APICS name will
remain the same. The APICS Foundation will be called APICS Supply Chain
Council post-merger. We will ensure to maintain and leverage the SCC brand.
Will there be a new name and brand? The APICS brand will remain the same.
How is the membership treated? Today APICS has individual members and
SCC company memberships. While APICS has individual members and SCC
has corporate members, we see benefits for both types of members—greater
access to resources, more opportunities to learn and network are some of the
key benefits.
Do the SCOR certified trainers remain? Yes, SCC qualified instructors will
remain the same and we see opportunities for instructors to learn how to train on
additional products.
What is the benefit for SCC members, why should they vote: yes? While
APICS has individual members and SCC has corporate members, we see
benefits for both types of members—greater access to resources, more
opportunities to learn and network are some of the key benefits.
Is every employee of a SCC member company now an APICS member with
the APICS membership rights? No. There is no change to the SCC or APICS
membership programs for the balance of the year. We are working on a
combined membership strategy now.
About the Integration
How will the integration take place? What will be integrated? An integration
task force will examine the areas of our business highlighted in the integration
strategy prepared as part of the due diligence. The committee will be comprised
of volunteers and staff from both APICS and SCC and will evaluate
recommendations and help with the integration.
How will cost savings be captured? Will there be layoffs? The point of this
merger isn’t primarily to create cost-savings—nonprofit mergers are often
different from mergers of publicly traded companies in this respect. We anticipate
some natural efficiencies as activities are combined, economies of scale are
achieved and activities that were outsourced are brought in-house. APICS and
SCC are highly complementary organizations that together create a strong
platform for growth. The combined entity will need people to realize its potential.
SCC has a small, but very talented full-time staff, we don’t anticipate
redundancies and want to ensure ample resources.
How will members be impacted? While APICS has individual members and
SCC has corporate members, we see benefits for both types of members—
greater access to resources, more opportunities to learn and network are some
of the key benefits.
How will chapters be impacted? Both APICS and SCC have chapters, but they
are very different. APICS chapters and student chapters are located throughout
North America and offer local instructor-led certification review courses,
professional development training and peer-to-peer networking opportunities. We
anticipate that the APICS North American chapters will have more opportunities
to sell and deliver courseware and training. SCC has nine chapters that cover
large geographic regions (Australia & New Zealand, Europe, Latin America,
Middle East, North America, South East Asia, Southern Africa, Greater China
and Japan). These chapters represent members’ interests and offer
local/regional events. Together we are exploring how to maximize them as we
unite.
How will volunteers be impacted? Volunteers are the heart and soul of both
organizations! We will continue to greatly value the dedication of our committed
volunteers and expect to expand the ways in which they can serve our
organization.
How will APICS partners and SCC sales affiliates be impacted? We
anticipate that partners will have more products and services to sell and deliver in
the future.
Will instructors be impacted? One of the biggest opportunities coming from the
unification is to expand the base of instructors qualified to teach SCC courses.
We see opportunities for instructors to learn how to train on additional products.
Is this good for our customers? We believe that it is good for all of our
customers – individual customers and corporate customers alike because it will
improve our ability to develop and deliver the research, education, training and
certification programs today’s supply chain professionals and their employers
require. Throughout the integration we continue to be focused on ensuring that
we provide all of our customers with the distinctive customer service they have
come to expect.
How will it impact our designees? There is no change for our designees and
no changes are planned for our current programs other than the usual work of
the committees to ensure that our body of knowledge and certification programs
are up-to-date and aligned with current standards and practices. However, we do
anticipate creating new opportunities for our designees to expand their
knowledge and increase their value to their corporate employers.
How does this improve the industry? It provides greater resources, creating a
stronger proponent for supply chain innovation and research. It also ensures the
long-term viability and relevance of SCOR frameworks and training programs,
and a tighter integration between SCOR and the APICS certifications.
Follow-up on Announced Supply Chain
Council Merger with APICS
By: Bob Ferrari
April 30, 2014
This commentary is a follow-up to our previous breaking news posting regarding
the announcement that supply chain corporate and individual certification
organizations Supply Chain Council (SCC) and APICS will unite as one
organization.
Today, the official announcement was distributed along with additional
information and details regarding the proposed merger. Members of both
organizations as well as all others can access all of this information at this web
link.
Plans call for legal filings to be completed by mid-July with an interim board of
directors established for the remainder of 2014. In 2015, as terms of board
members naturally roll-off, the combined organization will be led by a single
board of 12 members. Officers and committee leaders will be chosen in
compliance with bylaws in effect.
Make no mistake that this is significant news in supply chain management talent
management circles.
Earlier today Supply Chain Matters had the opportunity to speak directly with Abe
Eshkenazi, the CEO of APICS regarding the announcement. While the briefing
materials are extensive, we wanted to gain some additional background
information. As we noted in our initial commentary, prior collaboration among
these two organizations have occurred for some time. According to Eshkenazi,
the talks heated-up last spring and summer; the more that these discussions
progressed, the more apparent it became that this was an “opportunity to
advance the industry.” Because both of these organizations are classified nonprofits, the effect of this merger is a combination of balance sheet assets,
revenues and expenses. SCC has had some prior challenges with its balance
sheet and expense controls.
Eshkenazi further indicated that an important consideration in the overall
planning is retaining the value of the important brands among the two
organizations. While the APICS brand will be maintained, the planned new
branding for SCC activities will be branded as APICS Supply Chain Council,
which will also oversee efforts that are currently organized under the APICS
Foundation segment. Both organizations are content developers and there is
recognition that this is the real power of this combination. Regarding certification
programs, this merger provides the opportunity for a tighter integration between
corporate and individual certifications along with combined body of knowledge
and thought leadership regarding supply chain management.
A question we raised was the important yet significant differences among both of
these organizations in the delivery of training programs. APICS currently
provides the bulk of its member training through its local chapters offering a wide
range of instructors while SCC delivers much of its training directly to corporate
members by a smaller cadre of specialized instructors in regionally scheduled or
corporate member training sessions within global chapters. APICS has a strong
presence in North America along with roughly 90 instructional partners across 40
countries. Eshkenazi indicated confidence that the best of both models will be
evaluated to assure continued value. He further pointed out that the combination
with APICS provides SCC the benefit of increased scale and resources.
Finally, we wanted to explore with Eshkenazi what the impact of this proposed
merger might be on other supply chain management focused organizations. Abe
was very forthcoming in indicating that he has personally called the leadership of
Institute of Supply Management (ISM) and the Warehouse Council and extended
an open invitation for further joint collaboration. The APICS CEO will be
personally attending the upcoming Annual ISM Member Conference that begins
on May 9 and is invited to sit at the table of Thomas Derry, ISM’s CEO. Readers
can certainly speculate on that conversation.
From our lens, after talking with a number of supply chain colleagues, it would
appear that APICS is positioning itself as the evolving “kahuna” of supply chain
management training, certification and process frameworks.
There is no secret that there are probably too many organizations currently
marketing supply chain focused training and process excellence and this
announced merger may be a forerunner to the thinning of the herd. Time and
broader supply chain management individual and community endorsements will
determine how all of these efforts ultimately turn out.
Bob
Ferrari
© 2014, the Ferrari Consulting and Research Group LLC and the Supply Chain
Matters blog. All rights reserved.
SCOR! APICS Merges with Supply Chain
Council
By: Dave Blanchard
April 30, 2014
The merger unites two organizations with complementary offerings to create a
global provider of supply chain research, education and certification programs.
Two of the leading supply chain certification associations—APICS and the
Supply Chain Council—have approved an agreement under which Supply Chain
Council (SCC) will merge with APICS. The merger is subject to ratification by
SCC member vote. Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed.
The merger unites two organizations with complementary offerings to create a
global provider of supply chain research, education and certification programs.
Together, SCC and APICS will offer a solution for individuals and corporations
looking to evaluate and improve supply chain performance.
Following the close of the transaction, APICS intends to integrate Supply Chain
Council with its existing operations. Abe Eshkenazi will remain the CEO of
APICS, with Joseph Francis, executive director of SCC, serving as executive
director of the APICS Foundation. Through the end of the year, there will be an
expanded, transitional board of directors with board members from each
organization’s Board.
The merger unites the supply chain associations that were ranked #1 (APICS)
and #2 (SCC) recently in a poll conducted by SCM World. The SCC SCOR
model and SCOR Professional (SCOR-P) brands will be leveraged along with
APICS’s Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designation brands. The unified entity will
offer resources and opportunities to members, customers, corporations and
partners in over 100 countries.
The combination is expected to identify operational efficiencies and greater
economies of scale primarily in back-office and support areas and through the
sharing of technology platforms.
Supply Chain Council to merge with
APICS
By: Bob Trebilcock
May 01, 2014
Earlier this week, APICS and the Supply Chain Council announced that the
boards of directors of both organizations have approved an agreement under
which Supply Chain Council (SCC) will merge with APICS upon ratification by
SCC member vote. Abe Eshkenazi will remain CEO of APICS and Joseph
Francis, executive director of SCC, will serve as the executive director of the
APICS Foundation. You can read more about the details of the merger in the
news story by my colleague Jeff Berman.
The news release declared that the combination would create a global leader in
supply chain, research, education and certification programs. Without question,
The SCC SCOR model and SCOR Professional brands and the APICS CPIM
and CSCP certifications are industry leaders. And while the press release itself
was restrained, the subject line in the email sent to media organizations spoke a
little more loudly: “APICS set to shake up supply chain industry.”
Without question, the merger comes at a time of transition for the four
organizations that have traditionally served the various interests of the supply
chain – back before they thought of themselves as supply chain organizations:
APICS spoke to the needs of manufacturing and operations
personnel; ISM served purchasing, CSCMPfocused on logistics, and MHIA, the
predecessor of MHI, represented the materials handling industry. Today, each of
these organizations has branched out from their historical roots to position
themselves as supply chain organizations. Hey, just this week I moderated a
panel on investments in U.S. port infrastructure at the WERCconference. This is
another way of saying that each is looking to increase its slice of the pie.
Eshkenazi agreed at least in part with that assessment when we spoke on
Wednesday. “Supply chain seems like a mature market but it’s an evolving
market,” he told me. “I think each organization is positioning itself for what the
market wants today and for the future.” At the same time, he added, the names
of organizations may change – Material Handling Industry of America may
become simply MHI – but “regardless of what you call it, the DNA of an
organization doesn’t change.”
What then is the DNA of APICS and SCC and why does it make sense to bring
them together? As Eshkenazi sees it APICS has always been a content
developer that provided educational materials, training and certifications for
individuals that are recognized standards for the industry. “Organizations want to
know that the training is aligned with their corporate strategy,” he told me. “That’s
been our hallmark.” Meanwhile, SCC is known for providing innovative and timely
research to the organizational level.
“We believe that if we combine them, you get both education and research from
one source,” Eshkenazi said. “We can be a single source solution for
organizations and individuals.”
At the same time, Eshkenazi sees opportunities for collaborating with some of
the other organizations serving the supply chain. “We have collaborated with ISM
and WERC and expect to do so going forward,” he said. “Instead of taking an
inside out approach, we’ll look for ways to collaborate with other organizations. I
think we have a better opportunity to collaborate than to compete.”
APICS and Supply Chain Council
Announce a Merger: Facts, Implications,
and Observations
By: Pierre Mitchell
May 1, 2014
The Facts
APICS and The Supply Chain Council (SCC) have announced that they are
merging. APICS (an acronym that previously stood for the American Production
and Inventory Control Society) was founded back in 1957 and has over 38,000
members at over 10,000 companies. SCC was founded in 1996 and is much
smaller, with roughly 500 corporate members. If all goes well, the board/member
voting and legal proceedings should wrap up by August. The new entity name
will remain APICS, but the APICS Foundation (a subset of APICS that “advances
supply chain and operations management and innovation through research,
educational programs and workforce development”) will be known as
APICS Supply Chain Council (catchy, huh?). The firm will be headquartered in
Chicago (SCC is in Houston) and is currently working on some combined
membership plans for 2015.
The Implications
This is a merger that actually makes a lot of sense because the complementary
nature of the two groups. APICS has a huge member base and a well
institutionalized certification program for production / inventory management
(CPIM) for managing operations inside the four walls – and a broader program
for a Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) that looks at broader supply
chain issues. However, many practitioners do think that the APICS body of
knowledge has simply not kept pace with many modern supply chain best
practices. The knowledge is also managed at what I call the “document
management” level versus the data management level that you see in SCC’s
SCOR Model frameworks, which is a supply chain operations reference [process]
model that drills down into supply chain processes and also cross-references to
various related practices.
SCC is pretty much all about the SCOR model, from expanding it to licensing it to
providing training and certification on it—and to benchmarking against it via a
long-time partnership with SCC co-founder PRTM (now part of PwC). You can
get a sense for SCC and SCOR in this presentation. SCC has done a good job
encouraging its membership to volunteer for developing this IP, but perhaps the
over-engagement has led SCOR to lose some of its mojo from the early to mid2000s. There are many more providers, non-profits, SMBs, and chapter-only
memberships in the mix, and I’d estimate only about three to four dozen Fortune
500 firms are really still actively involved in the corporate-level program. Still, the
level of rigor in the IP and the strategic focus provide a welcome competency to
breathe new value and relevance into APICS.
Some Observations
Although there’s clearly synergy present, it still needs to be utilized. The groups
can certainly start by selling to each other’s members, but in my opinion the most
advantageous thing to do would be to merge the IP. More specifically, I think it’s
time to overhaul the structure of the APICS content and align it to the “DNA” of
the SCOR model, although the SCOR model itself will also need to change to
accommodate some of the body of knowledge that has been built over half a
century. Engaging a membership that will be approaching 50,000 members won’t
hurt either.
One area that the combined entity might want to flesh out and upgrade is in the
area of procurement – and also in the area of IT support. Neither group does a
great job here, and the former might be an area where ISM (Institute for Supply
Management) could help out. ISM is a partner of APICS and actually has a lot in
common with it in terms of re-vamped certifications, benchmarking partners, and
the desire to move more strategically into the broader supply chain. With this
latest move, we’ll have to see how ISM responds. There are certainly many
possibilities and we’ll ask ISM leadership when we’re out at the annual
conference in Las Vegas, so, stay tuned for that. ISM is also a research partner
with Spend Matters with our ongoing “snap poll” studies. Shameless plug alert…
the currently active poll, focused on supply chain financing, can be found here).
I’m actually much closer to this story than you might think. As a lifelong supply
chain student and practitioner, I used to be a card-carrying APICS member
before I got into broader areas of ERP, PLM, supply chain optimization, strategic
sourcing, and supply chain benchmarking. I left Arthur D. Little in 1999 to join
AMR Research – both of which were also founding members of the Supply Chain
Council. AMR poached a few top-notch ex-PRTM benchmarking folks and
created a better supply chain benchmark (which unfortunately was left to die on
the vine). That development process also yielded a KPI taxonomy called the
“supply chain hierarchy of metrics” and an associated set of catalogued and
cross-referenced practices/enablers. This “DNA” of a KPI taxonomy and
practices taxonomy was eventually mapped to the SCOR process taxonomy and
adopted natively into the SCOR model framework – a smart move.
I saw this architecture as the future and left AMR in 2004 to join The Hackett
Group. I basically wanted to create the corporate equivalent of the human
genome project to divine the gene sequences of procurement processes and
practices/capabilities/resources that empirically were proven to improve supply
performance. Yes, it’s a massively multi-variate problem, but a geeky supply
dude needs to have his dreams, right? More practically though, I went to help
broaden Hackett’s efficiency-biased back-office performance benchmark into a
much broader IP architecture that we could serve up to CPOs and their teams
within Hackett’s membership based advisory program (where I served as an
advisor until we grew large enough that I switched to do research full time). I
won’t bore you with all the details here, but, if you’re interested in this topic, I did
analyze Hackett and other procurement benchmarkers in the market here, here,
and here on Spend Matters PRO, which along with Spend Matters Plus, helps us
keep bringing this research to you. We appreciate your ongoing support!
STRENGTHENING THE CHAIN: TWO
SUPPLY CHAIN ASSOCIATIONS
BECOME ONE
By: Katie Bascuas
May 02, 2014
In response to a changing market, two associations serving the supply chain
industry recently merged in an effort to offer more services to their respective,
complementary memberships.
Sometimes two is better than one. This was the case for two associations serving
different segments of the supply chain industry that decided to join forces earlier
this week.
In order to better support the industry marketplace, it was announced that APICS,
an individual membership association for supply chain and operations
management professionals, will integrate into its operations the Supply Chain
Council, which serves a corporate membership base.
“APICS and SCC both focus on providing programs that advance supply chain
excellence, innovation, and resilience,” said Abe Eshkenazi, CAE, APICS CEO,
who will remain at the head of the organization, in a statement. “Together we are
a powerhouse poised to quickly realize the benefits of this combination, and offer
greater value to our members, volunteers, partners, customers, and employees.”
The impetus for the merger began last spring when the two organizations, which
had always had a working relationship, realized that by joining together they
could offer more resources to their respective memberships.
“The marketplace was demanding a more comprehensive and consistent delivery
of education, certification, and training and opportunities, so that’s where the
conversation started between the board members as well as the senior staff last
year,” Eshkenazi said.
It’s a combination of two complementary organizations—in fact there is very little
if any redundancy in the services offered by the two associations, he added. With
the merger, members of each organization will now have access to a wider range
of membership benefits, training, and certification programs to augment their
professional development and business performance.
“It really meets the customers based on their needs,” Eshkenazi said. “Too often
associations take an inside-out approach—here’s our products, here’s our
services, take them they’re good for you. This is a merger of two companies that
are being responsive to what the market is looking for and combining their
resources to address the market opportunity or market demand.”
APICS + SCOR = Masters in Supply
Chain
By: Kevin O’Marah
May 02, 2014
An important merger in the world of non-profit professional associations was
announced this week as APICS and the Supply Chain Council agreed to
combine efforts. As a former APICS director-at-large myself, I think this is good
news for industry and the profession. APICS’ 37,000+ members and widely
recognised professional certifications CPIM (Certified in Production and Inventory
Management) and CSCP (Certified Supply Chain Professional) will now be
melded with the Supply Chain Council’s near ubiquitous Supply Chain
Operations Reference (SCOR) model. The end game is a cleaner path to the top
for the next generation of supply chain leaders.
ALPHABET SOUP
We recently published a report listing the top universities and associations
offering supply chain education. The lists were based on nothing more ambitious
than asking hundreds of professionals to name their top three brands as
“markers of talent”. APICS took the association category by a mile, while the
Supply Chain Council came second. If this were a case of the top two grocery
retailers merging, we might expect customer or regulator objections, but in this
situation, customers win.
Certifications abound when associations form to crystallise emerging ideas into
standards. During the early phases of development, this is a natural and positive
surge of innovation. As ideas mature and consolidate, however, further growth
depends on someone locking down a monopoly. No one wants a confusing array
of acronyms cluttering up the CVs of potential hires. Supply chain as a discipline
is in this consolidation phase now.
SUPPLY CHAIN AS BUSINESS STRATEGY
The whole idea of supply chain as a professional discipline akin to finance or
marketing is little more than two decades old. Before the 1990s, people working
on the flow of materials from source to customer generally saw themselves as
experts in one of several precursor functions like purchasing, logistics or
production. Huge changes in the structure of business wrought first by
globalisation and then accelerated by internet connectivity have melted these
functional distinctions into what we now know as supply chain.
The Supply Chain Council was formed in 1996 by Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath
(PRTM), a specialist consultancy, and AMR Research, an analyst firm. The
charter members of the Council were corporate leaders whose intent was to
define a process model in simple English language words explaining how stuff
gets from raw material to consumers. The resulting “plan-source-make-deliver”
mantra at the top of the SCOR model is now known worldwide.
APICS, a professional association for supply chain and operations management,
has been around far longer. It has traditionally been concerned with professional
training in inventory and production control. This has been very successful for
identifying solid technical skills, but less useful as a basis for strategic leverage of
supply chain as a competitive weapon in the marketplace. One result of this
heritage is a solid financial and organisational base among individual
practitioners. Another, however, is less intellectual traction at the board level.
Combining these two players brings 500 or so corporate members of the Supply
Chain Council together with thousands of certified working professionals under
the APICS umbrella to offer a talent development ecosystem able to offer skill
certification in a strategic context. APICS CEO Abe Eshkanazi cites DuPont, Intel,
Coca-Cola, Caterpillar and BASF as key contributors to the momentum for the
merger. From my perspective, the breadth and depth of these companies’ supply
chain leadership lends great credibility to the marriage.
THE FUTURE
Talent development in supply chain remains a hot topic among SCM World
members. I am regularly fielding requests for recommendations of potential
candidates who know the basics but can also rise to meet their counterparts in
sales, engineering or finance on a level playing field. APICS and the Supply
Chain Council have many of the ingredients needed to professionalise this
emerging career path.
Looking ahead, it seems collaboration with other associations like the Institute for
Supply Management (ISM) or the Council of Supply Chain Management
Professionals (CSCMP) could make sense. The ISM, in particular, brings an
element that could help with its widely followed Purchasing Managers' Index
(PMI), materially impacting Wall Street for many years now. Adding a general
business press edge to the mix could thrust supply chain even clearly more into
the spotlight.
Supply Chain Council to Merge with APICS
By: APICS
May 02, 2014
APICS and Supply Chain Council announced today that the boards of
directors of both organizations have approved an agreement under which
Supply Chain Council (SCC) will merge with APICS upon ratification by
SCC member vote.
The merger unites two industry leaders with complementary offerings in supply
chain research, education and certification programs. Together, SCC and APICS
offer a single-source solution for individuals and corporations looking to evaluate
and improve supply chain performance.
Following the close of the transaction, APICS intends to integrate Supply Chain
Council with its existing operations. Abe Eshkenazi will remain the chief
executive officer of APICS with Joseph Francis, executive director of Supply
Chain Council, serving as executive director of the APICS Foundation. Through
the end of the year, there will be an expanded, transitional board of directors with
board members from each organization.
The benefits of the merger include:
Specifically, the merger:
• The SCC SCOR model and SCOR Professional (SCOR-P) brands will be
leveraged along with APICS’s Certified in Production and Inventory Management
(CPIM) and Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designation brands.
• The combination offers greater resources and access to an expanded network
of subject matter experts and volunteers committed to maintaining the
organization’s reputation as the source of industry standards, benchmarks and
thought
leadership.
• Builds strong platform for growth. The combined product portfolio offers
significant cross-sell and global expansion opportunities including the marketing
of SCC's highly-respected training programs based on the SCOR model to
APICS's clients, as well as the marketing of APICS's industry-leading courseware
and designations to SCC's clients.
APICS Finalizes Merger with the Supply
Chain Council
August 5, 2014
Chicago—August 6, 2014—The Association for Operations Management
(APICS) announced that it completed its merger with the Supply Chain Council
(SCC), creating a global provider of supply chain research, education and
certification programs.
“I’m delighted to report the merger with APICS was ratified by a near-unanimous
majority of SCC voting members,” said Jason Wheeler, chair of the APICS board
of directors. “This overwhelming support shows that leaders of many of the most
important global supply chain organizations believe that this combination will
benefit our combined members, customers, partners and employees.”
According to John Sells, chair of the SCC board of directors, “APICS and the
APICS Supply Chain Council (APICS SCC) together offer the first and only
single-source solution for individuals and corporations looking to evaluate and
improve supply chain performance.” APICS SCC is the new entity that combines
SCC and APICS Foundation research and development programs.
“As APICS and APICS SCC, we now have the resources to ensure supply chain
organizations are ready to address two of the most important topics in the global
economy today—elevating supply chain performance and developing supply
chain talent,” said Abe Eshkenazi, CEO of APICS.
The merger creates a global provider of supply chain solutions, poised to benefit
members, customers, partners and employees in several ways. Specifically, the
merger:
•
Creates a portfolio of brands. The SCC SCOR model and SCOR
Professional (SCOR-P) brands will be leveraged, along with APICS’s
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designation brands to help
corporations and professionals achieve their goals.
•
•
•
•
•
Ensures investment, improvement, innovation, and continued relevancy of
training, standards, certifications and intellectual capital. The combination
offers greater resources, and access to an expanded network of subject
matter experts and volunteers committed to advancing the organization’s
reputation as the source of industry standards, benchmarks and thought
leadership.
Strengthens global competitive position. The unified entity offers greater
resources, and creates more opportunities to distinctively serve members,
customers, corporations and partners in over 100 countries around the
world.
Builds a strong platform for growth. The combined product portfolio offers
significant cross-sell and global expansion opportunities, including the
marketing of SCC's training programs based on the SCOR model to
APICS's clients, as well as the marketing of APICS's courseware and
designations to SCC's clients.
•
Captures operational efficiencies. The combination is expected to identify
operational efficiencies and greater economies of scale primarily in back-office
and support areas, and through the sharing of technology platforms.
APICS merger with Supply Chain Council is
a done deal
The joint organization will be known as APICS and the APICS
Foundation will be called APICS Supply Chain Council, with the SCC
brand being maintained and leveraged post-merger, according to
APICS
By Jeff Berman, Group News Editor
August 6, 2014
The planned merger announced in April between two renowned supply chaincentric organizations––APICS, a professional organization for supply chain
operations management and provider of research, education, and certification
programs focused on elevating supply chain excellence, innovation, and
resilience, and the Supply Chain Council, a global, non-profit management
organization focused on helping its membership make significant supply chain
process improvements––has been made official.
The joint organization will be known as APICS and the APICS Foundation will be
called APICS Supply Chain Council, with the SCC brand being maintained and
leveraged post-merger, according to APICS.
The organizations said that this merger brings together two industry leaders with
complimentary offerings to “create the premier global provider of supply chain
research, education, and certification programs and offer a single source solution
for individuals and corporations that want to evaluate and augment their supply
chains.
APICS and Supply Chain Council officials said that this merger creates a global
leader in supply chain solutions and poised to benefit members, customers,
partners, and employees in various ways, including:
-creating an industry-leading portfolio of brands;
-ensuring investment, improvement, and continued relevancy of training
standards, certifications, and intellectual capital;
-strengthens global competitive position;
-building a strong platform for growth; and
-capturing significant operational efficiencies
“As APICS and APICS SCC, we now have the resources to ensure supply chain
organizations are ready to address two of the most important topics in the global
economy today – elevating supply chain performance and developing supply
chain talent,” said Abe Eshkenazi, CEO of APICS, in a statement.
Eshkenazi told LM in an April interview that there were multiple drivers behind
this merger.
“APICS and SCC have collaborated on a number of occasions in the past, during
which time our organizations got to know each other and understand the
possibilities that could be created by unification,” he explained. “This merger not
only brings our organizations closer, but also unites us with an important
purpose¬¬––advancing supply chain performance and developing supply chain
talent.”
Corporations, said Eshkenazi, want to know that professional standards are
aligned with corporate supply chain competencies and innovation, and the
combination facilitates this alignment. And he said that with this merger comes
significant market opportunity, noting that as this market has matured, companies,
and APICS’ customers, are looking for a single source for their supply chain
education, training and certification programs.
“Both SCC and APICS realized that the ability to distinctly serve our members,
customers, companies and partners through a single-source solution that
combined our highly complementary products was the best option, he said,
noting that “this was the driving force behind our merger.”
One of the primary reasons cited by Eshkenazi for combining the two
organizations was the increased benefits a joint organization would bring to both
APICS and SCC members, explaining that while APICS has individual members
and SCC has corporate members, there are benefits for both types—with greater
access to resources, and more opportunities to learn and network serving as
some of the key benefits.
When asked to offer up some examples of how this merger will provide an
improved portfolio of products to elevate supply chain performance and develop
supply chain talent, Eshkenazi said that SCC SCOR (the Supply Chain
Operations Reference-model, the supply chain management community’s most
widely accepted framework for evaluating and comparing supply chain activities
and performance) is already an important element in the APICS certification
programs, with closer integration and further enhancements anticipated as a
result of this combination.
“APICS powerful network and global presence will enable greater access to
SCC’s SCOR-P and other training programs, and trained professionals who can
use SCOR frameworks to implement improved supply chain processes,” he said.
“Ultimately, this will elevate global supply chain performance. SCC’s strong
corporate relationships with supply chain leaders will increase access to key
decision makers who champion supply chain training programs, leading to more
opportunities to educate and certify supply chain professionals.
This merger takes two industry leaders and joins them together to offer best-inclass research, education, training and certification for the supply chain industry
– it’s a huge opportunity for existing and new members and customers, added
Eshkenazi.
Eshkenazi will continue to serve as CEO of APICS and SCC Executive Director
Joseph Francis will serve as executive director of the APICS Foundation. And
through the end of 2014, APICS and SCC said that there will
be an expanded, transitional Board of Directors with board members from each
organization’s Board.
“The completion of this merger is an important milestone for APICA and a historic
moment for the global supply chain industry,” said John Sells, chair of the SCC
Board of Directors. “APICS and the APICS Supply Chain Council (APICS SCC)
together offer the first and only single-source solution for individuals and
corporations looking to evaluate and improve supply chain performance.” APICS
SCC combines SCC and APICS Foundation research and development
programs, the organization said.
APICS completes merger with Supply Chain
Council
LBR staff writer
August 6, 2914
APICS, a provider of supply chain and operations management services, has
merged its operations with Supply Chain Council (SCC) to offer enhanced
services for their customers.
The combined entity is called APICS SCC, which combines SCC and APICS
Foundation research and development programs.
Under the merger deal, the SCC's SCOR model and SCOR Professional brands
will be integrated with APICS's Certified in Production and Inventory
Management (CPIM) and Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP)
designation brands to provide better solutions for corporations and professionals.
The combined entities will ensure investment, improvement, innovation and
continued relevancy of training, standards, certifications and intellectual capital
within the industry.
By sharing technology platforms, the companies will improve efficiency of their
operations and indentify areas to generate economy.
SCC board of directors chair John Sells said: "The completion of this merger is
an important milestone for APICS and a historic moment for the global supply
chain industry.
"APICS and the APICS Supply Chain Council (APICS SCC) together offer the
first and only single-source solution for individuals and corporations looking to
evaluate and improve supply chain performance."
APICS CEO Abe Eshkenazi said: "As APICS and APICS SCC, we now have the
resources to ensure supply chain organizations are ready to address two of the
most important topics in the global economy today - elevating supply chain
performance and developing supply chain talent."
APICS and Supply Chain Council to
merge
By Jeff Berman, Group News Editor
April 30, 2014
Two renowned supply chain-centric organizations––APICS, a professional
organization for supply chain operations management and provider of research,
education, and certification programs focused on elevating supply chain
excellence, innovation, and resilience, and the Supply Chain Council, a global,
non-profit management organization focused on helping its membership make
significant supply chain process improvements, are set to merge.
APICS and SCC officials said that their respective boards of directors have
formally approved an agreement under which SCC would merge with APICS
upon ratification by SCC member vote.
Supply Chain Council to Merge with
APICS
By Business Wire
April 30, 2014
Combination Creates Global Leader in Supply Chain Research, Education and
Certification Programs
APICS and Supply Chain Council announced today that the boards of directors
of both organizations have approved an agreement under which Supply Chain
Council (SCC) will merge with APICS upon ratification by SCC member vote.
The merger unites two industry leaders with complementary offerings to create
the premier global provider of supply chain research, education and certification
programs. Together, SCC and APICS offer a single-source solution for
individuals and corporations looking to evaluate and improve supply chain
performance.
Following the close of the transaction, APICS intends to integrate Supply Chain
Council with its existing operations. Abe Eshkenazi will remain the chief
executive officer of APICS with Joseph Francis, executive director of Supply
Chain Council, serving as executive director of the APICS Foundation. Through
the end of the year, there will be an expanded, transitional Board of Directors
with board members from each organization's Board.
"This agreement reflects our ongoing efforts to ensure that SCC's and APICS's
content and capabilities remain at the forefront of our industry, providing our
members, customers and the supply chain community at large the most up-todate, relevant and complete body of knowledge in supply chain and operations
management," said Jason Wheeler, chair of the APICS board of directors.
"It's a brilliant combination that will give us a broader portfolio of products and
services to address two of the most important topics in the global economy today
─ elevating supply chain performance and developing supply chain talent," said
Eshkenazi. “APICS and SCC both focus on providing programs that advance
supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. Together we are a
powerhouse poised to quickly realize the benefits of this combination, and offer
greater value to our members, volunteers, partners, customers and employees."
"We are excited to join forces with APICS because it makes sense for our
members and customers," commented John Sells, chair of the Supply Chain
Council board. "This combination makes it easier for individuals to advance their
professional knowledge and for companies to strategically and systematically
improve supply chain performance, which improves business performance and
ultimately customer satisfaction."
Strategic Rationale of the Combination
Both APICS and SCC believe that this combination creates a global leader in
supply chain solutions, poised to benefit members, customers, partners and
employees in several ways. Specifically, the merger:
•
Creates the industry-leading portfolio of brands. The combination
unites entities ranked #1 (APICS) and #2 (SCC) recently by SCM World,
each holding the most respected brands in the markets they serve. The
SCC SCOR™ model and SCOR Professional (SCOR-P) brands will be
leveraged along with APICS's Certified in Production and Inventory
Management (CPIM) and Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP)
designation brands.
•
Ensures investment, improvement, innovation and continued
relevancy of training, standards, certifications and intellectual capital.
The combination offers greater resources and access to an expanded
network of subject matter experts and volunteers committed to maintaining
the organization's reputation as the source of industry standards,
benchmarks and thought leadership.
•
Strengthens global competitive position. The unified entity offers
greater resources and creates more opportunities to distinctively serve
members, customers, corporations and partners in over 100 countries
around the world.
•
Builds strong platform for growth. The combined product portfolio
offers significant cross-sell and global expansion opportunities including
the marketing of SCC's highly-respected training programs based on the
SCOR model to APICS's clients, as well as the marketing of APICS's
industry-leading courseware and designations to SCC's clients.
•
Captures significant operational efficiencies. The combination is
expected to identify operational efficiencies and greater economies of
scale primarily in back-office and support areas and through the sharing of
technology platforms.
About Supply Chain Council
Supply Chain Council (www.supply-chain.org) is a global non-profit management
organization that helps members make dramatic and rapid improvements in
supply chain processes. SCC maintains the Supply Chain Operations Referencemodel (SCOR™), the supply chain management community's most widely
accepted framework for evaluating and comparing supply chain activities and
performance.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 37,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit http://apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn
group
at
apics.org/linkedin,
and
follow
APICS
on
Twitter
at
http://twitter.com/APICS.
About APICS Foundation
APICS Foundation advances supply chain and operations management and
innovation through research, publications, education and talent development.
Organizations and academic programs gain access to the information they need
to contribute to the success of supply chains and meet enterprise goals through
the foundation's exceptional network and resources. For more information, visit
apicsfoundation.org.
APICS Finalizes Merger with Supply Chain
Council
New Entity Becomes Global Leader in Supply Chain Solutions
August 5, 2014
APICS announced today that it has completed its merger with Supply Chain
Council (SCC), creating the premier global provider of supply chain research,
education and certification programs.
“I’m delighted to report the merger with APICS was ratified by a near-unanimous
majority of SCC voting members,” said Jason Wheeler, chair of the APICS Board
of Directors. “This overwhelming support shows that leaders of many of the most
important global supply chain organizations believe that this combination will
benefit our combined members, customers, partners and employees.”
“The completion of this merger is an important milestone for APICS and a historic
moment for the global supply chain industry,” said John Sells, chair of the SCC
Board of Directors. “APICS and the APICS Supply Chain Council (APICS SCC)
together offer the first and only single-source solution for individuals and
corporations looking to evaluate and improve supply chain performance.” APICS
SCC is the new entity that combines SCC and APICS Foundation research and
development programs.
“As APICS and APICS SCC, we now have the resources to ensure supply chain
organizations are ready to address two of the most important topics in the global
economy today – elevating supply chain performance and developing supply
chain talent,” said Abe Eshkenazi, CEO of APICS.
The merger creates a global leader in supply chain solutions, poised to benefit
members, customers, partners and employees in several ways. Specifically, the
merger:
•
Creates the industry-leading portfolio of brands. The combination
unites entities ranked #1 (APICS) and #2 (SCC) recently by SCM World,
each holding the most respected brands in the markets they serve. The
SCC SCOR® model and SCOR Professional (SCOR-P) brands will be
leveraged along with APICS’s Certified in Production and Inventory
Management (CPIM) and Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP)
designation brands to help corporations and professionals achieve their
goals.
•
Ensures investment, improvement, innovation and continued
relevancy of training, standards, certifications and intellectual capital.
The combination offers greater resources and access to an expanded
network of subject matter experts and volunteers committed to advancing
the organization’s reputation as the source of industry standards,
benchmarks and thought leadership.
•
Strengthens global competitive position. The unified entity offers
greater resources and creates more opportunities to distinctively serve
members, customers, corporations and partners in over 100 countries
around the world.
•
Builds strong platform for growth. The combined product portfolio
offers significant cross-sell and global expansion opportunities including
the marketing of SCC's highly-respected training programs based on the
SCOR model to APICS's clients, as well as the marketing of APICS's
industry-leading courseware and designations to SCC's clients.
•
Captures significant operational efficiencies. The combination is
expected to identify operational efficiencies and greater economies of
scale primarily in back-office and support areas and through the sharing of
technology platforms.
APICS and APICS SCC plan to share more details about these benefits early
next year. As the integration progresses, members, customers and partners can
expect ongoing communications and view information about the merger on the
APICS website at www.apics.org/apicsscc.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
About APICS Supply Chain Council
APICS SCC advances supply chain and operations management and innovation
through research, publications, education and talent development. APICS SCC
maintains the Supply Chain Reference model (SCOR®), the supply chain
management community’s most widely accepted framework for evaluation and
comparing supply chain activities and performance. For more information, visit
apics.org/apicsscc.
APICS Finalizes Merger with the Supply
Chain Council
Aug 5, 2014
The Association for Operations Management (APICS) announced that it
completed its merger with the Supply Chain Council(SCC), creating a global
provider of supply chain research, education and certification programs.
“I’m delighted to report the merger with APICS was ratified by a near-unanimous
majority of SCC voting members,” said Jason Wheeler, chair of the APICS
board of directors. “This overwhelming support shows that leaders of many of the
most important global supply chain organizations believe that this combination
will benefit our combined members, customers, partners and employees.”
According to John Sells, chair of the SCC board of directors, “APICS and the
APICS Supply Chain Council (APICS SCC) together offer the first and only
single-source solution for individuals and corporations looking to evaluate and
improve supply chain performance.” APICS SCC is the new entity that combines
SCC and APICS Foundation research and development programs.
“As APICS and APICS SCC, we now have the resources to ensure supply chain
organizations are ready to address two of the most important topics in the global
economy today—elevating supply chain performance and developing supply
chain talent,” said Abe Eshkenazi, CEO of APICS.
The merger creates a global provider of supply chain solutions, poised to benefit
members, customers, partners and employees in several ways. Specifically, the
merger:
•
Creates a portfolio of brands. The SCC SCOR model and SCOR
Professional (SCOR-P) brands will be leveraged, along with APICS’s Certified
in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) andCertified Supply Chain
Professional (CSCP) designation brands to help corporations and professionals
achieve their goals.
•
Ensures investment, improvement, innovation, and continued relevancy of
training, standards, certifications and intellectual capital. The combination offers
greater resources, and access to an expanded network of subject matter experts
and volunteers committed to advancing the organization’s reputation as the
source of industry standards, benchmarks and thought leadership.
•
Strengthens global competitive position. The unified entity offers greater
resources, and creates more opportunities to distinctively serve members,
customers, corporations and partners in over 100 countries around the world.
•
Builds a strong platform for growth. The combined product portfolio offers
significant cross-sell and global expansion opportunities, including the marketing
of SCC's training programs based on the SCOR model to APICS's clients, as
well as the marketing of APICS's courseware and designations to SCC's clients.
•
Captures operational efficiencies. The combination is expected to identify
operational efficiencies and greater economies of scale primarily in back-office
and support areas, and through the sharing of technology platforms.
APICS Finalizes Merger with Supply
Chain Council
August 5th 2014
APICS announced today that it has completed its merger with Supply Chain
Council (SCC), creating the premier global provider of supply chain research,
education and certification programs.
“I’m delighted to report the merger with APICS was ratified by a near-unanimous
majority of SCC voting members,” said Jason Wheeler, chair of the APICS Board
of Directors. “This overwhelming support shows that leaders of many of the most
important global supply chain organizations believe that this combination will
benefit our combined members, customers, partners and employees.”
“The completion of this merger is an important milestone for APICS and a historic
moment for the global supply chain industry,” said John Sells, chair of the SCC
Board of Directors. “APICS and the APICS Supply Chain Council (APICS SCC)
together offer the first and only single-source solution for individuals and
corporations looking to evaluate and improve supply chain performance.” APICS
SCC is the new entity that combines SCC and APICS Foundation research and
development programs.
“As APICS and APICS SCC, we now have the resources to ensure supply chain
organizations are ready to address two of the most important topics in the global
economy today – elevating supply chain performance and developing supply
chain talent,” said Abe Eshkenazi, CEO of APICS.
The merger creates a global leader in supply chain solutions, poised to benefit
members, customers, partners and employees in several ways. Specifically, the
merger:
•
Creates the industry-leading portfolio of brands. The combination unites
entities ranked #1 (APICS) and #2 (SCC) recently by SCM World, each
holding the most respected brands in the markets they serve. The SCC
SCOR® model and SCOR Professional (SCOR-P) brands will be
leveraged along with APICS’s Certified in Production and Inventory
Management (CPIM) and Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP)
designation brands to help corporations and professionals achieve their
goals.
•
Ensures investment, improvement, innovation and continued relevancy of
training, standards, certifications and intellectual capital. The combination
offers greater resources and access to an expanded network of subject
matter experts and volunteers committed to advancing the organization’s
reputation as the source of industry standards, benchmarks and thought
leadership.
•
Strengthens global competitive position. The unified entity offers greater
resources and creates more opportunities to distinctively serve members,
customers, corporations and partners in over 100 countries around the
world.
•
Builds strong platform for growth. The combined product portfolio offers
significant cross-sell and global expansion opportunities including the
marketing of SCC's highly-respected training programs based on the
SCOR model to APICS's clients, as well as the marketing of APICS's
industry-leading courseware and designations to SCC's clients.
•
Captures significant operational efficiencies. The combination is expected
to identify operational efficiencies and greater economies of scale
primarily in back-office and support areas and through the sharing of
technology platforms.
APICS and APICS SCC plan to share more details about these benefits early
next year. As the integration progresses, members, customers and partners can
expect ongoing communications and view information about the merger on the
APICS website at www.apics.org/apicsscc.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
About APICS Supply Chain Council
APICS SCC advances supply chain and operations management and innovation
through research, publications, education and talent development. APICS SCC
maintains the Supply Chain Reference model (SCOR®), the supply chain
management community’s most widely accepted framework for evaluation and
comparing supply chain activities and performance. For more information, visit
apics.org/apicsscc.
APICS Finalizes Merger with Supply Chain
Council
August 5, 2014
New Entity Becomes Global Leader in Supply Chain Solutions
APICS announced today that it has completed its merger with Supply Chain
Council (SCC), creating the premier global provider of supply chain research,
education and certification programs.
“I’m delighted to report the merger with APICS was ratified by a near-unanimous
majority of SCC voting members,” said Jason Wheeler, chair of the APICS Board
of Directors. “This overwhelming support shows that leaders of many of the most
important global supply chain organizations believe that this combination will
benefit our combined members, customers, partners and employees.”
“The completion of this merger is an important milestone for APICS and a historic
moment for the global supply chain industry,” said John Sells, chair of the SCC
Board of Directors. “APICS and the APICS Supply Chain Council (APICS SCC)
together offer the first and only single-source solution for individuals and
corporations looking to evaluate and improve supply chain performance.” APICS
SCC is the new entity that combines SCC and APICS Foundation research and
development programs.
“As APICS and APICS SCC, we now have the resources to ensure supply chain
organizations are ready to address two of the most important topics in the global
economy today – elevating supply chain performance and developing supply
chain talent,” said Abe Eshkenazi, CEO of APICS.
The merger creates a global leader in supply chain solutions, poised to benefit
members, customers, partners and employees in several ways. Specifically, the
merger:
•
Creates the industry-leading portfolio of brands. The combination unites
entities ranked #1 (APICS) and #2 (SCC) recently by SCM World, each
holding the most respected brands in the markets they serve. The SCC
SCOR® model and SCOR Professional (SCOR-P) brands will be
leveraged along with APICS’s Certified in Production and Inventory
Management (CPIM) and Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP)
designation brands to help corporations and professionals achieve their
goals.
•
Ensures investment, improvement, innovation and continued relevancy of
training, standards, certifications and intellectual capital. The combination
offers greater resources and access to an expanded network of subject
matter experts and volunteers committed to advancing the organization’s
reputation as the source of industry standards, benchmarks and thought
leadership.
•
Strengthens global competitive position. The unified entity offers greater
resources and creates more opportunities to distinctively serve members,
customers, corporations and partners in over 100 countries around the
world.
•
Builds strong platform for growth. The combined product portfolio offers
significant cross-sell and global expansion opportunities including the
marketing of SCC's highly-respected training programs based on the
SCOR model to APICS's clients, as well as the marketing of APICS's
industry-leading courseware and designations to SCC's clients.
•
Captures significant operational efficiencies. The combination is expected
to identify operational efficiencies and greater economies of scale
primarily in back-office and support areas and through the sharing of
technology platforms.
APICS and APICS SCC plan to share more details about these benefits early
next year. As the integration progresses, members, customers and partners can
expect ongoing communications and view information about the merger on the
APICS website at www.apics.org/apicsscc.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
About APICS Supply Chain Council
APICS SCC advances supply chain and operations management and innovation
through research, publications, education and talent development. APICS SCC
maintains the Supply Chain Reference model (SCOR®), the supply chain
management community’s most widely accepted framework for evaluation and
comparing supply chain activities and performance. For more information, visit
apics.org/apicsscc.
SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN NEWS
How to Improve Supply Chain Sustainability
May 08, 2014
The biggest barrier to the success of a company’s sustainable supply
chain practices is a lack of leadership support, according to a PwC and APICS
Foundation survey.
About 30 percent of operations executives surveyed said their company has a
documented supply chain sustainability strategy, but only 17 percent of
managers and below agreed. As a result, mid-level management is not able to
take the steps needed to drive meaningful change in the supply chain, according
to Sustainable Supply Chains: Making Value the Priority.
While disconnects about sustainable supply chain strategy may occur between
the C-suite and mid-level management, 76 percent of operations professionals
said their companies’ focus on creating a more sustainable supply chain will
increase over the next three years. Already, 43 percent of operations
professionals attributed cost reduction to supply chain sustainability initiatives,
while 35 percent reported improvements in their company’s environmental impact.
A quarter of all respondents reported improved customer satisfaction as a result
of programs tied to improving supply chain sustainability.
The major barrier to supply chain sustainability cited in the survey was that
leadership does not supply the mandate, incentives, and resources to turn
sustainability strategies into action. Additional barriers reported by supply chain
professionals included inadequate sustainability education and training,
significant confusion about the scope and company goals on supply chain
sustainability, and the perception that the impact on shareholder value for such
practices is difficult to measure.
More than a third of professionals (38 percent) said that barriers to success
included the ability to measure and monitor to targets and goals. Another 40
percent believe employee performance measurement and incentives are not
aligned to supply chain sustainability results.
Cross-Organizational
Sustainability Success
Adoption
Breeds
By Hailey Lynne McKeefry, Editor in Chief
June 30, 2014
At supply chain leaders, sustainability efforts are more than just initiatives.
Indeed, efforts are embedded deeply in the organization, and value is measured
from a variety of levels in those organizations that achieve best success. Making
that goal a reality, though, can prove difficult.
Perhaps the biggest barrier is lack of support from top leadership in the company.
"It is widely accepted that supply chain sustainability is a priority for many CEOs,
but this is a complex business issue that brings with it multifaceted challenges at
the management level," says Sharon Rice, executive director of the APICS
Foundation.
Although 30% of operations executives report that their organizations have
documented supply chain sustainability strategies, only 17% of managers and inthe-trenches workers agree with that assessment, according to a survey of global
operations executives on supply chain sustainability from PwC and the APICS
Foundation titled "Sustainable Supply Chains: Making Value the Priority."
The disconnect occurs when the organization fails to create targets and goals for
its supply chain sustainability efforts that can be monitored and assured,
according to the study. "Even though these initiatives are important and strategic,
they don't filter down," Jonathan Thatcher, APICS director of research told EBN
in an interview. "In a practical sense, they report that they don't have good
metrics and they don't have tactics that align well with the strategy. It's a matter
of building maturity on these topics across the profession."
Further, organizations often measure performance and offer incentives for
employees in ways that are counter to furthering the sustainability goals. "This
profession is driven by performance metrics, and compensation is tied to hitting
metrics in the supply chain," Rice told us. "Senior management contines to
measure supply chain professionals more on traditional metrics of supply chain
performance. While sustainability is incredibly important to senior management,
the metrics haven't been defined as targets, and compensation is still awarded
on those older metrics."
On a brighter note, three out of four operations professionals reported that their
focus on creating a more sustainable supply chain would increase over the next
three years, the study found. In those organizations that had focused on supply
chain sustainability, the benefits were clear: 43% reported cost reductions, 35%
had experienced improvements in their organizations' environmental impact, and
25% traced the initiative to improved customer satisfaction.
That's an excellent start. "We need to unleash the potential of our professionals
to figure out how sustainability impacts the bottom line," says Rice. "That's still in
front of us but we believe it will come."
Let us know how your top management is supporting supply chain sustainability
issues in the comments section below.
PWC and APICS study uncovers keys to
improve supply chain sustainability
By PWC and APICS
May 07, 2014
PwC US and the APICS Foundation today released, “Sustainable Supply
Chains: Making Value the Priority,” a survey of global operations executives on
supply chain sustainability. According to PwC and APICS, when companies
broaden their perspectives on sustainability and adopt clear strategies to tap
ethical, economic, social— and environmental—levers across their extended
supply chains, new sources of value can emerge. Companies are realizing the
significance of sustainable supply chain initiatives; however, multiple challenges
continue to impede widespread adoption of sustainability across environmental,
social, economic, and ethical dimensions.
The survey found the biggest barrier to the success of a company’s sustainable
supply chain practices was a lack of leadership support. Approximately 30
percent of operations executives surveyed said their company has a
documented supply chain sustainability strategy, but only 17 percent of
managers and below agreed. As a result, mid-level management is not able to
take the steps needed to drive meaningful change in the supply chain.
“It is widely accepted that supply chain sustainability is a priority for many CEOs,
but this is a complex business issue that brings with it multifaceted challenges at
the management level,” said Sharon Rice, Executive Director, APICS
Foundation. “This study identifies patterns in the challenges that arise, helps us
understand why these barriers remain, and underscores how supply chain
sustainability translates into measurable business value.”
While disconnects about sustainable supply chain strategy may occur between
the C-suite and mid-level management, 76 percent of operations professionals
said their companies’ focus on creating a more sustainable supply chain will
increase over the next three years. Already, 43 percent of operations
professionals attributed cost reduction to supply chain sustainability initiatives,
while 35 percent reported improvements in their company’s environmental
impact. And a quarter of all respondents reported improved customer
satisfaction as a result of programs tied to improving supply chain sustainability.
“There is a clear correlation – and in some instances causality – between
sustainability and supply chain performance for companies who believe they can
do well by doing good,” said Nic Delaye, a director in PwC’s Sustainable
Business Solutions practice. “Companies should aim to better understand the
major dynamics of supply chain sustainability and how to overcome the
obstacles that traditionally arise, in order to both improve their impact on society
and create tangible business value in new ways.”
The major barrier cited in the survey was that leadership does not supply the
mandate, incentives, and resources to turn sustainability strategies into
action. Additional barriers reported by supply chain professionals included
inadequate sustainability education and training, significant confusion about the
scope and company goals on supply chain sustainability, and the perception that
the impact on shareholder value for such practices is difficult to measure.
More than a third of professionals (38 percent) said that barriers to success
included the ability to measure and monitor to targets and goals. Another 40
percent believe employee performance measurement and incentives are not
aligned to supply chain sustainability results.
To learn more about the PwC-APICS study on sustainable supply chains,
register for the APICS Webinar: Sustainable Supply Chains: Making Value the
Priority
on
Wednesday,
May
14
at
1:00
p.m.
CT
at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/630043302.
About the study
PwC surveyed members of APICS in June 2013. The survey was conducted
online, on a confidential basis. For more information or to download the full
study, click here or visit:www.pwc.com/us/operations or apics.org.
Supply Chain Sustainability Focus Grows
By Becky Boyd
June 17, 2014
MANASSAS, VA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/17/14 -- INSIGHT, Inc., top international
provider of planning solutions that power supply chain design for the world's
foremost companies, announces the company is specially poised to help
companies meet their supply chain sustainability goals. In a recent survey,
conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the APICS Foundation, titled
"Sustainable Supply Chains: Making Value the Priority," it was found that 76
percent of operations professionals said their companies' focus on creating a
more sustainable supply chain will increase over the next three years. INSIGHT
helps companies meet sustainability goals by optimizing their supply chain
networks for reduced carbon emissions, less energy usage, and reduced waste.
"INSIGHT customers typically try to find the most efficient supply chain design,
which often results in decreased energy consumption and carbon emissions,"
said Dr. Jeff Karrenbauer, president and co-founder of INSIGHT, Inc. "INSIGHT's
software enables our clients to identify the cost, energy or carbon minimal supply
chain strategies. Alternatively, they can choose to find the comprehensive supply
chain strategy that maximizes profits while simultaneously accounting for
environmental restrictions such as by-product utilization or disposal, carbon
emission targets, and so on. And by incorporating the cost and demand impact of
marketing initiatives with all of operations, including sustainability policies, they
can identify the maximally profitable forecast that can actually be achieved... a
profit maximized corporate strategy."
According to PwC and APICS, "when companies broaden their perspectives on
sustainability and adopt clear strategies to tap ethical, economic, social -- and
environmental -- levers across their extended supply chains, new sources of
value can emerge. Companies are realizing the significance of sustainable
supply chain initiatives." Per the survey, 43 percent of respondents attributed
cost reduction to supply chain sustainability initiatives and 35 percent reported
improvements in their company's environmental impact. A quarter of all
respondents reported improved customer satisfaction as a result of programs tied
to improving supply chain sustainability.
Strategic supply chain planning solutions from INSIGHT help customers to
develop green initiatives by incorporating time, cost or energy constraints. SAILS
from INSIGHT can model the impact of a company's CO2 footprint and determine
whether any waste or by-products can be made into commercially viable
products. What-if analysis can be used to address questions like: What is the
impact of my CO2 footprint if I outsource my manufacturing processes? How do I
minimize the carbon footprint of my distribution network while maintaining
customer service objectives and profitability? What are the cost, service, energy
and carbon impacts of a revised transportation strategy, especially new
consolidation initiatives?
"Why should companies focus on supply chain sustainability? It has been
reported that increasingly companies don't want to do business with supply chain
partners that have poor environmental practices. In fact, the Carbon Disclosure
Project reports that 40 percent of companies will stop working with suppliers who
fail to adopt sufficient carbon management practices," adds Jeff Karrenbauer.
"Sustainability best practices lead to innovative products, improved product
quality, and increased revenues."
About INSIGHT, Inc.
INSIGHT, Inc. provides optimization and simulation-based supply chain
analytics and consulting services to meet today's dynamic business challenges.
Founded by supply chain and operations research experts in 1978 to apply
world-class technology with intelligence and rigor to decision making, INSIGHT
solves the complex supply chain strategic, tactical, and financial planning
management issues of the world's foremost companies, including many of the
Fortune 100 firms, such as ExxonMobil, Nestle, and Abbott Laboratories. Our
software and services help firms minimize costs, maximize profits, free up capital,
streamline operations, and increase customer service levels. For more
information, please visit us on the Web athttp://www.insightoutsmart.com.
Sustainable Supply Chains: Making value
the priority
July 29, 2014
How companies can find more value by using ethical, economic, social, and
environmental levers throughout their supply chains.
In 2013, APICS and PwC joined together to study how current management
thinking leads to different priorities for advancing supply chain sustainability.
Together, they’re focusing on how different people in the organization—supply
chain management, operations management, and senior management—are
developing the capabilities they will need to run their companies more
sustainably. By comparing and analyzing their perspectives, they seek to identify
the levers successful companies can use to help create tangible value from these
initiatives.
OTHER MENTIONS:
MAY
ThomasNet News, Supply Chain and Sustainability: Working Together Toward
the Triple Bottom Line
May 1 – Press Release – Executive from Starwood Hotels Resorts Worldwide to
Share Insights and Provide Case Study on How Triple Bottom Line Approach
Succeeds.
My Purchasing Center, Resilience: A Key Factor in Supply Chain Sustainability
May 29 – Nicholas M. Testa, Jr., CFPIM, CSCP, CIRM
REMANUFACTURING NEWS
Remanufacturing on the Rise
By: Barbara Jorgensen
May 29, 2014
Some businesses call it refurbishing, others call it remanufacturing. It’s the
process of restoring worn products to almost new, and it represents a significant
market opportunity for the supply chain, according to the APICS Foundation.
Remanufacturing is an area of growing interest for supply chain and operations
management professionals, the foundation says. Previously segmented to
specific areas of the B2C supply chain, like customer service, remanufacturing
has established a place in both B2C and B2B supply chain models and is
expanding significantly as additional markets accept and trust the “as good as
new” concept.
“Remanufacturing provides obvious benefit for the forward progress of
sustainable supply chain initiatives,” said Sharon Rice, executive director, APICS
Foundation. “Supply chain professionals are eager for more information about
this quickly evolving area because, as our survey has shown, more than 50
percent of survey respondents felt it was important for supply chain and
operations management professionals to have at least some familiarity with
remanufacturing as they expect a growing demand for remanufactured goods.”
Within the electronics supply chain, remanufacturing is part of a broader aftermarket services offering which can include recycling and disposal. Electronics
distributors, including Arrow Electronics Inc. and Avnet Inc., have been
building after-market units within their core businesses. The distributors sell
products ranging from components to IT systems and therefore can
provide lifecycle management services for OEMs and their customers. Such
products as IT equipment, laptop computers and cell phones are collected by the
distributors and refurbished and redeployed if appropriate. Such services also
increase the industry’s sustainability efforts.
Three key findings arose through the APICS surveys that further identify the
current perception of remanufacturing and distinguish how professionals
anticipate its future industry benefit:
Remanufacturing drives sustainability – Sixty-eight percent of respondents
felt that sustainability was the primary advantage associated with
remanufacturing, and 41 percent already consider it a formal component of
their organization’s sustainability policies.
• Remanufacturing provides vast organizational benefits – While 59 percent
of respondents noted the additional complexity remanufacturing brought to
reverse supply chains, the process was commended for the additional benefit
it brings to an organization: increases customer satisfaction (66 percent),
enhances product and organizational value chain (47 percent), and reduces
production costs in relation to new manufacturing (46 percent).
• Remanufacturing adds career versatility – Remanufacturing requires new
skills in forecasting, planning, and inventory management. With these skills, a
supply chain and operations management professional can better identify
potential for opportunity and innovation in forward and reverse supply chains.
These findings are part of the APICS Foundation’s recent report “Examining
Remanufacturing in Supply Chain and Operations Management.” To gather
information for this report, the APICS Foundation surveyed supply chain and
operations management practitioners in 2013 in response to a growing interest in
remanufacturing and requests for more research. For more information or to
download the report, visit apics.org/remanufacturing.
•
About APICS and APICS Foundation
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate end-to-end supply chain excellence, innovation and
resilience. 37,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers.
APICS Foundation, the research arm of APICS, advances supply chain and
operations management innovation through research, educational programs and
workforce development. Business leaders, academia and global enterprises gain
valuable insights, information and actionable data through the foundation’s
unrivaled supply chain network and resources.
For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group at
apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
Remanufacturing on the Rise
By: Adam Haigh
May 30, 2014
Remanufacturing is an essential part of what we do at Castle Ink, thus we
appreciate the industry as a whole and know we are just one cog in the
ecosystem. According to new research from APICS Foundation, a nonprofit
organization for supply chain and operations management, remanufacturing
plays an essential role in organizations spanning providing opportunities not only
in operations, but also in career advancement opportunities for individuals as well
as fostering sustainability initiatives.
Remanufacturing, essentially, is taking used or worn products and converting
them back into like-new condition. As such it provides fantastic opportunity for
those involved in supply chain and operations management. Historically it had
been reserved for specific areas of the B2C (Business to consumer) supply chain
such as customer service. That said, the industry has grown large enough to hold
a place of importance and value in not only B2C supply chain models, but also
now in B2B (Business to business) ones as well. As more markets are willing to
accept the “‘as good as new’” concept, even further growth is anticipated and
expected.
Sharon Rice, executive director, APICS Foundation, states, “‘Remanufacturing
provides obvious benefit for the forward progress of sustainable supply chain
initiatives. Supply chain professionals are eager for more information about this
quickly evolving area because, as our survey has shown, more than 50 percent
of survey respondents felt it was important for supply chain and operations
management professionals to have at least some familiarity with remanufacturing
as they expect a growing demand for remanufactured goods.’”
From the results of the surveys, APICS reports three key takeaways that provide
insight into the current perception of remanufacturing and what the benefits of it
are down the road:
§
Remanufacturing drives sustainability—68% percent of the respondents
identified sustainability as the top advantage of remanufacturing, and 41% use it
currently have it formalized in the sustainability policies of their respective
organizations.
§
Remanufacturing provides vast organizational benefits—59% percent of the
respondents said while remanufacturing adds a layer or complexity to reverse
supply chains, it was still viewed as a benefit to an organization with 66% stating
that it increases customer satisfaction, 47% stated is enhances the product and
organizational value chain, and 46% state that is reduces production costs of
new manufacturing.
§
Remanufacturing adds career versatility—As stated above, remanufacturing
brings new considerations into supply chain management, thus new skills in
forecasting, planning, and inventory management are needed to ensure success.
Those able to master these skills are predicted to be able to identify the potential
for opportunities and innovation in both forward and reverse supply chains.
The research presented above comes from the APICS Foundation report
entitled Examining Remanufacturing in Supply Chain and Operations
Management. The respondents for the report were current supply chain and
operations managers in 2013 and was conducted, according to APICS, in
response to a growing interest in remanufacturing and requests for further
research. Interested parties can choose to attend a webinar presented by APICS
Director of Research, Jonathan Thatcher, CSCP, CAE, on June 5, 2014 at 1:00
p.m. CT. Additionally, to download the report, visit apics.org/remanufacturing.
Remanufacturing on the Rise
By: Adrienne Seiko
May 30, 2014
Remanufacturing, defined as the process of restoring used or worn products to
like-new condition, is an area of growing opportunity for supply chain and
operations management professionals. Previously segmented to specific areas of
the B2C supply chain, like customer service, remanufacturing has established a
place in both B2C and B2B supply chain models and is expanding significantly as
additional markets accept and trust the “as good as new” concept.
“Remanufacturing provides obvious benefit for the forward progress of
sustainable supply chain initiatives,” said Sharon Rice, executive director, APICS
Foundation. “Supply chain professionals are eager for more information about
this quickly evolving area because, as our survey has shown, more than 50% of
survey respondents felt it was important for supply chain and operations
management professionals to have at least some familiarity with remanufacturing
as they expect a growing demand for remanufactured goods.”
Three key findings arose through the surveys that further identify the current
perception of remanufacturing and distinguish how professionals anticipate its
future industry benefit:
•
•
•
Remanufacturing drives sustainability – 68% of respondents felt that
sustainability was the primary advantage associated with remanufacturing,
and 41% already consider it a formal component of their organization’s
sustainability policies.
Remanufacturing provides vast organizational benefits – While 59%
of respondents noted the additional complexity remanufacturing brought to
reverse supply chains, the process was commended for the additional
benefit it brings to an organization: increases customer satisfaction (66
percent), enhances product and organizational value chain (47%), and
reduces production costs in relation to new manufacturing (46%).
•
Remanufacturing adds career versatility – Remanufacturing requires
new skills in forecasting, planning, and inventory management. With these
skills, a supply chain and operations management professional can better
identify potential for opportunity and innovation in forward and reverse
supply chains.
CNBC “Remanufacturing Key to Growth In
Supply Chain”
May 29
New research from APICS Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advances
supply chain and operations management innovation through research,
publications, education and talent development, finds remanufacturing serves a
broad array of strategic interests for companies, provides considerable career
advancement potential for individuals and has become instrumental in furthering
sustainability initiatives.
Remanufacturing, defined as the process of restoring used or worn products to
like-new condition, is an area of growing opportunity for supply chain and
operations management professionals. Previously segmented to specific areas of
the B2C supply chain, like customer service, remanufacturing has established a
place in both B2C and B2B supply chain models and is expanding significantly as
additional markets accept and trust the “as good as new” concept.
“Remanufacturing provides obvious benefit for the forward progress of
sustainable supply chain initiatives,” said Sharon Rice, executive director, APICS
Foundation. “Supply chain professionals are eager for more information about
this quickly evolving area because, as our survey has shown, more than 50
percent of survey respondents felt it was important for supply chain and
operations management professionals to have at least some familiarity with
remanufacturing as they expect a growing demand for remanufactured goods.”
Three key findings arose through the surveys that further identify the current
perception of remanufacturing and distinguish how professionals anticipate its
future industry benefit:
•
•
Remanufacturing drives sustainability – Sixty-eight percent of respondents
felt that sustainability was the primary advantage associated with
remanufacturing, and 41 percent already consider it a formal component of their
organization’s sustainability policies.
Remanufacturing provides vast organizational benefits – While 59 percent of
respondents noted the additional complexity remanufacturing brought to reverse
supply chains, the process was commended for the additional benefit it brings to
•
an organization: increases customer satisfaction (66 percent), enhances product
and organizational value chain (47 percent), and reduces production costs in
relation to new manufacturing (46 percent).
Remanufacturing adds career versatility – Remanufacturing requires new
skills in forecasting, planning, and inventory management. With these skills, a
supply chain and operations management professional can better identify
potential for opportunity and innovation in forward and reverse supply chains.
These findings are part of the APICS Foundation’s recent report “Examining
Remanufacturing in Supply Chain and Operations Management.” To gather
information for this report, the APICS Foundation surveyed supply chain and
operations management practitioners in 2013 in response to a growing interest in
remanufacturing and requests for more research. APICS Director of Research,
Jonathan Thatcher, CSCP, CAE, will be presenting the report’s findings in a free
webinar on June 5, 2014 at 1:00 p.m. CT. For more information or to download
the report, visit apics.org/remanufacturing.
About APICS and APICS Foundation
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate end-to-end supply chain excellence, innovation and
resilience. APICS Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and
APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry
standard. With over 37,000 members and more than 250 international partners,
APICS is transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach
global customers.
APICS Foundation, the research arm of APICS, advances supply chain and
operations management innovation through research, educational programs and
workforce development. Business leaders, academia and global enterprises gain
valuable insights, information and actionable data through the foundation’s
unrivaled supply chain network and resources.
For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group at
apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
Remanufacturing Key to Growth in Supply
Chain
By APICS
May 29, 2014
CHICAGO, May 29, 2014 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- New research from APICS
Foundation , a nonprofit organization that advances supply chain and operations
management innovation through research, publications, education and talent
development, finds remanufacturing serves a broad array of strategic interests
for companies, provides considerable career advancement potential for
individuals and has become instrumental in furthering sustainability initiatives.
Remanufacturing, defined as the process of restoring used or worn products to
like-new condition, is an area of growing opportunity for supply chain and
operations management professionals. Previously segmented to specific areas of
the B2C supply chain, like customer service, remanufacturing has established a
place in both B2C and B2B supply chain models and is expanding significantly as
additional markets accept and trust the “as good as new” concept.
“Remanufacturing provides obvious benefit for the forward progress of
sustainable supply chain initiatives,” said Sharon Rice, executive director, APICS
Foundation. “Supply chain professionals are eager for more information about
this quickly evolving area because, as our survey has shown, more than 50
percent of survey respondents felt it was important for supply chain and
operations management professionals to have at least some familiarity with
remanufacturing as they expect a growing demand for remanufactured goods.”
Three key findings arose through the surveys that further identify the current
perception of remanufacturing and distinguish how professionals anticipate its
future industry benefit:
•
Remanufacturing drives sustainability – Sixty-eight percent of respondents
felt that sustainability was the primary advantage associated with
remanufacturing, and 41 percent already consider it a formal component of
their organization’s sustainability policies.
•
Remanufacturing provides vast organizational benefits – While 59
percent of respondents noted the additional complexity remanufacturing
brought to reverse supply chains, the process was commended for the
additional benefit it brings to an organization: increases customer satisfaction
(66 percent), enhances product and organizational value chain (47 percent),
and reduces production costs in relation to new manufacturing (46 percent).
•
Remanufacturing adds career versatility – Remanufacturing requires new
skills in forecasting, planning, and inventory management. With these skills, a
supply chain and operations management professional can better identify
potential for opportunity and innovation in forward and reverse supply chains.
These findings are part of the APICS Foundation’s recent report “Examining
Remanufacturing in Supply Chain and Operations Management.” To gather
information for this report, the APICS Foundation surveyed supply chain and
operations management practitioners in 2013 in response to a growing interest in
remanufacturing and requests for more research. APICS Director of Research,
Jonathan Thatcher, CSCP, CAE, will be presenting the report’s findings in a free
webinar on June 5, 2014, at 1:00 p.m. CT. For more information or to download
the report, visitapics.org/remanufacturing .
OTHER MENTIONS:
JULY
Seacoast Online, Rebuilding U.S. manufacturing
July 1 – Dave Turbide is APICS certified and regularly writes on industry topics
NOVEMBER
Daily Record, APICS offers important manufacturing talk, dinner
Nov. 29 – West Jersey Chapter of APICS.
CHRONIC DISRUPTION NEWS
Chronic Disruption Plagues over 73 Percent
of Supply Chain Managers
APICS Supply Chain Council Chronic Disruption Insights and
Innovations Executive Summary
November 4, 2014
APICS Supply Chain Council is releasing the results of a survey that captures the
ubiquity of chronic disruption — a newly defined and pervasive phenomenon.
Chronic disruption, a persistent disruption that degrades, but does not inhibit,
supply chain function and that does not respond to traditional remedies, is an
issue that supply chain and operations management professionals need to
understand and design supply chains to mitigate against. APICS has conducted
a survey to identify areas where supply chain and operations management
professionals can enhance their company’s ability to manage chronic disruption
as part of their ongoing supply chain strategy.
“The APICS body of knowledge covers core aspects of chronic disruption strategy, risk frameworks, supply chain synchronization, and supplier relationship
management,” said Peter Bolstorff, APICS Supply Chain Council Executive
Director. “Achieving excellence in supply chain and operations management
requires the detection and elimination of everything that interferes with optimal
efficiency, including chronic disruption.”
The survey discovered chronic disruption is frequently caused by internal issues
that are hard to recognize and even more difficult to measure. These causes
often include a lack of manpower or trained manpower, a lack of updated
information technology, short-term financial pressures and more.
The survey also found that while many industries are impacted by chronic
disruption, manufacturing was most impacted, 41 percent, followed by health
care and pharmaceuticals, 10 percent, and the food and beverage industry, 10
percent.
“It is important to recognize both chronic and situational disruption because it
enables supply chain and operations management professionals to align supply
chain strategy with risk management processes,” Peter Bolstorff continued.
“Being aware of risks brought on by disruption and having appropriate response
scenarios helps mitigate or avoid negative impact. The SCOR framework is
helping organizations define the value of risk and organize their processes to
manage it.”
APICS will be hosting a webinar on November 7, 2014, at 1:00 PM CST to
discuss report findings at length. Register to attend APICS Supply Chain Council
Chronic Disruption Insights and Innovations Webinar here.
For additional information
apics.org/disruption.
and
to
view
the
full
report,
please
visit
About APICS Supply Chain Council
APICS SCC is a foundation that advances supply chain and operations
management
and
innovation
through
research,
education,
and
publications. APICS SCC maintains the Supply Chain Operations Reference
model (SCOR®), the supply chain management community’s most widely
accepted framework for evaluating and comparing supply chain activities and
performance. For more information, visit apicssupplychaincouncil.org.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
Chronic Disruption Plagues over 73 Percent
of Supply Chain Managers
November 4, 2014
APICS Supply Chain Council is releasing the results of a survey that captures the
ubiquity of chronic disruption — a newly defined and pervasive phenomenon.
Chronic disruption, a persistent disruption that degrades, but does not inhibit,
supply chain function and that does not respond to traditional remedies, is an
issue that supply chain and operations management professionals need to
understand and design supply chains to mitigate against. APICS has conducted
a survey to identify areas where supply chain and operations management
professionals can enhance their company’s ability to manage chronic disruption
as part of their ongoing supply chain strategy.
“The APICS body of knowledge covers core aspects of chronic disruption strategy, risk frameworks, supply chain synchronization, and supplier relationship
management,” said Peter Bolstorff, APICS Supply Chain Council Executive
Director. “Achieving excellence in supply chain and operations management
requires the detection and elimination of everything that interferes with optimal
efficiency, including chronic disruption.”
The survey discovered chronic disruption is frequently caused by internal issues
that are hard to recognize and even more difficult to measure. These causes
often include a lack of manpower or trained manpower, a lack of updated
information technology, short-term financial pressures and more.
The survey also found that while many industries are impacted by chronic
disruption, manufacturing was most impacted, 41 percent, followed by health
care and pharmaceuticals, 10 percent, and the food and beverage industry, 10
percent.
“It is important to recognize both chronic and situational disruption because it
enables supply chain and operations management professionals to align supply
chain strategy with risk management processes,” Peter Bolstorff continued.
“Being aware of risks brought on by disruption and having appropriate response
scenarios helps mitigate or avoid negative impact. The SCOR framework is
helping organizations define the value of risk and organize their processes to
manage it.”
APICS will be hosting a webinar on November 7, 2014, at 1:00 PM CST to
discuss report findings at length. Register to attend APICS Supply Chain Council
Chronic Disruption Insights and Innovations Webinar here.
For additional information and to view the full report, please visit
apics.org/disruption.
About APICS Supply Chain Council
APICS SCC is a foundation that advances supply chain and operations
management and innovation through research, education, and
publications. APICS SCC maintains the Supply Chain Operations Reference
model (SCOR®), the supply chain management community’s most widely
accepted framework for evaluating and comparing supply chain activities and
performance. For more information, visit apicssupplychaincouncil.org.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
Chronic Disruption Plagues over 73 Percent
of Supply Chain Managers
November, 4 2014
APICS Supply Chain Council is releasing the results of a survey that captures the
ubiquity of chronic disruption — a newly defined and pervasive phenomenon.
Chronic disruption, a persistent disruption that degrades, but does not inhibit,
supply chain function and that does not respond to traditional remedies, is an
issue that supply chain and operations management professionals need to
understand and design supply chains to mitigate against. APICS has conducted
a survey to identify areas where supply chain and operations management
professionals can enhance their company’s ability to manage chronic disruption
as part of their ongoing supply chain strategy.
“The APICS body of knowledge covers core aspects of chronic disruption strategy, risk frameworks, supply chain synchronization, and supplier relationship
management,” said Peter Bolstorff, APICS Supply Chain Council Executive
Director. “Achieving excellence in supply chain and operations management
requires the detection and elimination of everything that interferes with optimal
efficiency, including chronic disruption.”
The survey discovered chronic disruption is frequently caused by internal issues
that are hard to recognize and even more difficult to measure. These causes
often include a lack of manpower or trained manpower, a lack of updated
information technology, short-term financial pressures and more.
The survey also found that while many industries are impacted by chronic
disruption, manufacturing was most impacted, 41 percent, followed by health
care and pharmaceuticals, 10 percent, and the food and beverage industry, 10
percent.
“It is important to recognize both chronic and situational disruption because it
enables supply chain and operations management professionals to align supply
chain strategy with risk management processes,” Peter Bolstorff continued.
“Being aware of risks brought on by disruption and having appropriate response
scenarios helps mitigate or avoid negative impact. The SCOR framework is
helping organizations define the value of risk and organize their processes to
manage it.”
APICS will be hosting a webinar on November 7, 2014, at 1:00 PM CST to
discuss report findings at length. Register to attend APICS Supply Chain Council
Chronic Disruption Insights and Innovations Webinar here.
For additional information and to view the full report, please visit
apics.org/disruption.
About APICS Supply Chain Council
APICS SCC is a foundation that advances supply chain and operations
management and innovation through research, education, and
publications. APICS SCC maintains the Supply Chain Operations Reference
model (SCOR®), the supply chain management community’s most widely
accepted framework for evaluating and comparing supply chain activities and
performance. For more information, visit apicssupplychaincouncil.org.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
BRAND NEWS
Death to Spreadsheets! New Directions
in Demand Planning
By: Robert J. Bowman
January 24, 2014
Will we ever get rid of those dreaded spreadsheets?
In a recent survey by Logility and APICS, 47 percent of respondents said they
were still using manually produced spreadsheets to support their demandplanning process. Change is tough in any organization, and it can be a challenge
to convince planners to give up something that’s worked so well for years.
But there’s evidence that spreadsheets today “could be sabotaging your
supply chain,” says Karin L. Bursa, vice president of marketing at Logility. She
oversees the company’s strategy development and marketing programs for
Logility Voyager Solutions, the company’s suite of supply-chain optimization
software. Bursa talks about how spreadsheets are holding companies back from
engaging in critical activities such as the creation of multiple planning scenarios
and “what-if” evaluations. Time to get out of the “firefighting”
mode, she says, and into proactive management of demand planning – to the
point where marketers can even begin to shape demand. Hosted by Bob
Bowman, Managing Editor of Supply Chain Brain.
Look for the next episode of the podcast, which can be downloaded or streamed,
every Friday on the SupplyChainBrain website.
Supply Chain Learning: Think Beyond
Traditional Paths
By: Adrian Gonzalez
February 5, 2014
Two blog posts caught my attention this week related to supply chain education
and leadership development. First, Kevin O’Marah at SCM World highlighted the
Top 10 Industry Associations and Top 15 Universities that executives view as
“markers of supply chain talent” (based on a survey of 331 executives). As Kevin
explained, the survey didn’t define “marker of talent,” relying instead on the
respondent’s instinctive understanding of the idea. You can read the post for
additional details and insights, but here are the top five for each category.
Industry Associations
1. APICS – The Association for Operations Management (CPIM/CSCP)
2. Supply Chain Council (SCOR Professional)
3. Institute for Supply Management (CPSM/CSM/CPSD)
4. Project Manager Professional (PMI certifications)
5. Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (SCPro Certification)
Universities
1. Michigan State University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. Pennsylvania State University
4. Arizona State University
5. Stanford University
What surprised me the most wasn’t the names on the lists or their rankings, but
what was missing: A question gauging how executives view other sources of
supply chain learning and knowledge. In a survey I conducted almost three years
ago, supply chain executives didn’t view universities or industry associations as
the most valuable knowledge source; number one on their list was “direct
conversations with other executives and peers” — in other words, peer-to-peer
learning and networking.
The sample size of my survey wasn’t large (34 supply chain executives), but as I
continue to have conversations with executives about this topic, what I hear
reinforces the findings: “Who better to give me practical knowledge and advice
about a problem or opportunity I’m working on than other executives who have
already been down that road.”
Granted, I’m biased when it comes to peer-to-peer learning considering the focus
of my company. But I’m not alone in believing a new model of learning is required
in supply chain management. In their book A New Culture of Learning, Douglas
Thomas and John Seely Brown argue the following:
“The major pitfall of the 21st century’s teaching model is the belief that most of
what we know will remain relatively unchanged for a long enough period of time
to be worth the effort of transferring it…The old ways of learning are unable to
keep up with our rapidly changing world [emphasis mine].”
I believe this is particularly true in supply chain management, where new
technologies, business models, competitors, legislation, economic issues, and so
on are constantly emerging, which requires companies to continuously evolve
their supply chain thinking, processes, and networks. Just look at trends such as
social networking and omni-channel retailing — neither of these things were
likely included in supply chain textbooks or courses developed just a few years
ago. Thomas and Brown position peer-to-peer learning as a more effective
learning model in rapidly-changing fields like supply chain management.
Bill Taylor, cofounder of Fast Company magazine, makes a similar point in an
HBR blog post published a couple of years ago titled, Are You Learning as Fast
as the World is Changing?:
These days, the most powerful insights often come from the most unexpected
places – the hidden genius locked inside your company, the collective genius of
customers, suppliers, and other smart people who would be eager to teach you
what they know if you simply asked for their insights…Nobody alone learns as
quickly as everybody together.
But the big elephants in the room when it comes to learning and leadership
development are time and money: many supply chain professionals don’t make
the time for it, and many companies underinvest in it and are quick to cut the
budget when times get tough.
For related commentary on this topic, I encourage you to read some of my past
postings:
•
Putting Leadership Development Back on Your Calendar
•
The Most Important Attribute of a Supply Chain Leader
•
What’s Missing from Your 2014 Budget?
The other post that caught my attention this week was Investing in Tomorrow’s
Supply Chain Industry Leaders by Steve Raetz, Director of Supply Chain
Integration at C.H. Robinson (a Talking Logistics sponsor). Steve writes that
“investing in the future starts with the people who will be part of our industry
tomorrow, and next year, and ten years from now. Which brings the question,
how do we invest in people who don’t even work in the industry yet?” He goes on
to highlight how C.H. Robinson works with various universities, programs, and
students “to answer relevant industry questions and solve complex challenges
we all face every day.”
For example, C.H. Robinson sponsored a case competition with the University of
Minnesota, Carlson School of Management’s Supply Chain and Operations
Department. This nationwide case contest was for undergraduate students and
the prize for the winning team totaled $7,500. Here are some details from Steve’s
post:
For those of you who don’t know what’s involved in a case competition, it’s a
unique and rather fun way to learn and develop innovative solutions to some
common (and some not so common) industry challenges. Similar to Mock Trial or
Model U.N., teams of students receive a hypothetical situation and 24 hours in
which to develop a solution for their challenge. After the time is up, students
present their proposed solution to a panel of judges. This proposal is similar to a
closing pitch they would experience in the “real world.” The judges are experts
from companies in the industry. While the judges are provided with a rubric for
choosing a winner, they can also base their selection on their own personal
experiences in the industry. For the Minnesota event this past April, the team
from Indiana University, Kelly School of Management took home the prize.
I believe this is a great example of how industry leaders in the private sector
(manufacturers, retailers, 3PLs, technology vendors) need to work more
collaboratively and creatively with universities to help prepare the next generation
of supply chain and logistics leaders. In my opinion, more work needs to be done
at the community college and high school levels too, but I’m also seeing progress
on those fronts.
The bottom line is that we need to think beyond traditional paths to learning when
it comes to supply chain management. Universities and industry associations will
continue to play an important role moving forward, but so will new peer-to-peer
learning models enabled by social networking technologies and communities
(see A Pulse on Social Networking for Supply Chain Management). We also
need more creativity and collaboration between employers and educators to
make sure the next generation of supply chain professionals — not only students
at “name brand” universities, but also high schoolers and community college
students — are developing the right knowledge and skills to succeed when they
enter the workforce, especially in areas like technology and analytics. And of
course, none of this matters if supply chain professionals don’t carve time from
their busy schedules to learn and teach, and if companies continue to
underinvest in learning and leadership development programs.
Practitioners name top supply chain schools,
certifications
By DC Velocity Starff
February 28, 2014
Which university and certification programs reliably turn out strong supply chain
talent? A list released by SCM World, a U.K.-based organization for supply chain
practitioners, includes some familiar names as well as a few surprises.
The rankings are based on responses from 331 participants in the group's 2013
Chief Supply Chain Officer survey. Respondents were asked to name the three
professional certifications they deem "most valuable" as markers of supply chain
talent, as well as the three universities and business schools they believe are
"most valuable" for turning out supply chain talent. To prevent any bias, the
question was open-ended, with no list for respondents to choose from.
Respondents' picks included well-known U.S. and European supply chain degree
programs, such as those at Michigan State, Penn State, Cranfield, the University
of Tennessee, and Georgia Tech. It also included schools like Harvard and
Stanford, which do not award supply chain degrees—but do turn out highly
sought-after M.B.A.s.
The top professional certification programs included those offered by APICS, the
Supply Chain Council, the Institute for Supply Management, the Council of
Supply Chain Management Professionals, and the Chartered Institute of
Purchasing and Supply. The surprises in that category: Hazard Analysis and
Critical Control Point (HACCP), a certification most often associated with
perishable product quality control, and Certified Management Accountant (CMA),
awarded by the Institute of Management Accountants.
One takeaway from this varied list, said Kevin O'Marah, SCM World's chief
content officer, is that "business wants cross-functional supply chain knowledge
rather than narrow technical skills."
The complete list is available here.
Results Announced in APICS Student Team
Competition
By Bob Ferrari
October 21, 2014 in Distinguised Supply Chain Management Professionals,
Supply Chain Talent Management
A little over a week ago, Supply Chain Matters extended praise and an
enthusiastic Tip-of-the-Hat to supply chain and operations professional
association APICS Supply Chain Council for its efforts in sponsoring,
what we believe to be as the first international student case study competition in
supply chain management. This competition has involved 166 university teams
from around the world, consisting of 4-5 students per team, competing on their
knowledge and enthusiasm in the broad topics related to supply chain
management. The Fresh Connection Global Student contest challenged students
to improve ROI for a fictional fruit juice company with average simulation results
indicating a 24 percent ROI increase.
Earlier today we received word of the winners in this student competition
conducted on Sunday, prior to the start of the APICS Annual Conference which
wrapped-up this evening.
An APICS press release reports that the overall student competition winner was
the team representing Sun Yat Sen University of China. Yes, China.
HEC Montreal and California State University teams were named second and
third place winners, respectively. Each winning team was awarded a scholarship
to aid in their continued studies.
Supply Chain Matters extends our congratulations to the three winning teams
and our shout-out best wishes to all of the teams that have competed in this
competition. We trust that it was fun, exciting, and peaked interest in becoming a
future supply chain management leader. You are welcomed to share your
impressions of this competition in the Comments section attached to this posting.
Good luck and best wishes to each of you.
As promised, this commentary is categorized under our blog distinguished supply
How They Did it: Multi-Enterprise
Collaboration at Intel
By John Dawson
September 1, 2014
Intel has always had superlative internal supply chain processes
within its vertically integrated operations. But until recently, the same
could not be said of one of its business units that outsourced to
subcontractors around the world. In fact, the ad hoc nature of that
unit’s supply chain interactions posed a threat to its competitiveness.
Here’s how a determined team championed a powerful supply chain
collaboration model that is getting real results—and that is now being
rolled out across the company.
John Dawson, CPIM, CSCP, is a Senior Program Manager with Intel’s Global
Sourcing and Procurement organization. He is based in Hillsboro, Ore. and can
be reached at [email protected].
When it came, the sign that something was wrong with one of Intel’s supply
chains was not hard to miss. A key subcontractor for a particular Intel business
unit was awash in excess inventory for turnkey and consigned parts. The cause?
Someone had wrongly entered the required order quantity, and the subcontractor
had acted on that information.
But that was simply the manifestation of the problem. The real problem was that
nobody caught the problem until it was much too late—until this particular
business unit (BU) owned the parts its subcontractor had unwittingly ordered.
Nobody caught it because nobody knew about it: The BU had no proactive way
of identifying, let alone cross-checking, appropriate purchases against actual
demand. It did not have visibility.
What went wrong? That is a question those of us with supply chain
responsibilities have examined at Intel reaching back at least to 2009, when my
team identified a collaboration supply chain software program to address our
outsourcing challenges. While putting this solution in place had to wait until a
corporate-wide software initiative was well underway, rolling it out ultimately
involved a broad training and certification program for supply chain planners,
buyers, and managers. Along with raising the skill level and supply chain
knowledge of our team, it set the stage for the collaborative pilot program that is
currently in place with our partners. What follows are the steps of how we did it at
Intel.
Setting the Stage
First, it’s important to give some background on Intel Corp. The company is a
Silicon Valley legend—a world- class developer and manufacturer of integrated
cir- cuits, notably its microprocessors and memory chips. Now almost 45 years
old, Intel had revenues of close to $53 billion in 2013, with more than 107,000
employ- ees. Intel has had a transformative impact on the world around us,
making possible the first personal computers and much of the computing
infrastructure that drives the Internet, as well furthering fields of significant
scientific endeavor.
Throughout, the company has per-formed strongly, growing steadily and very
profitably. It recently hit an all-time high for quar- terly microprocessor unit
shipments—just one hint that it has an exceptionally effective supply chain.
However, that is largely an internal supply chain: Much of what the company
produces is within vertically integrated operating models. There, its steadily
improved business processes are supported by customized production management software to ensure extremely consistent, cost- efficient outputs. Intel’s
prowess in this respect has not gone unnoticed: For 2014, the chipmaker ranked
eighth in Gartner’s Supply Chain Top 25 listings (page 8).
So it’s natural to ask how any Intel BU fell afoul of the over-ordering snafu
mentioned earlier. The short answer: The problem affected the supply chain of
one BU that is heavily reliant on outsourcing. This particu- lar BU makes boards
and systems that support several Intel product lines. In addition, some of the new
market segments that Intel is pursuing are supplied largely by trusted outsourcing
partners, and with those external arrangements come significant supply chain
challenges.
It’s important to state that the problem was not about outsourcing per se: Intel
had been outsourcing success- fully for many years. But at that time—when the
chronic over-ordering incident happened—outsourcing was still a small part of
the company’s overall business and had not received the focus on the levels of
efficiency that had long been Intel’s internal hallmark on the silicon side of the
supply chain.
Working with suppliers as far away as China, and with many of its buyers and
planners in Malaysia, the Boards/Systems BU had struggled to balance customer
responsiveness against asset utilization, and to juggle both of those with
inventory management. Collaboration was problematic: Often, the BU’s lead- ers
had very limited visibility of the inventory that Intel was responsible for. They
depended on weekly or bi-weekly manual reports from subcontractors, and it was
not always clear whether there was enough or too much inven- tory, so they were
exposed to the worst of the bullwhip effect. Many of the BU’s supply chain
processes were outdated: dependent on manual methods to update and share
Excel spreadsheets, for instance. “Ad hoc” would be a kind way to describe the
way in which its information supply chain ran.
The Push for Real Collaboration Begins
Of course, collaborative inter-company methods were not novel: Groups such as
the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Solutions (VICS, merged into the GS1 US
industry group in 2012) had long ago laid down powerful practices in
collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment. Their methods and
teachings had established best practices for everything from collaboration for
distribution center replenishment to collaborative assortment planning. The ideas
were well-known to experienced supply chain practitioners throughout Intel.
About four years ago, my team and I had succeeded in convincing our BU’s top
managers of the need to remedy our outsourcing supply chain challenges. We
had identified a collaboration software system that would be ideal. But the gears
did not begin to move because Intel—long a user of enterprise ERP systems—
imposed a company- wide moratorium on new software implementations, until
the whole company had been re-platformed onto a more flexible and
interoperable foundation of ERP enterprise software tools.
Time passed: For a $50 billion-a-year organization, a
re-platforming initiative is anything but a weekend fix. Many of us—myself
included—moved onto other roles. But my team never lost sight of the need to
push for our collaboration ideal.
Our chance came in 2009. The IT organization was leading the ERP replatforming, which incorporated industry standard ERP concepts. As part of that
effort, they implemented APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP)
training for applicable IT staff members. As a long-time APICS member (I’d held
many chapter board positions over the years), I knew about this program; I knew
it could it would work well for our business users who had long been used to
Intel’s heavily customized ERP systems (see Exhibit 1).
With the IT’s group’s move as a catalyst, my team and I convinced our BU’s
management team that we needed to run a similar training program for our
planners, buyers, and managers. The beauty of the CSCP program was that it
would get our people from zero knowledge to substantial understanding in a 17week program taught by internal instructors. We certainly understood the value of
the full APICS Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM)
program—training in production and inventory activities within a company’s
global operations that takes more than a year and comes with multiple exams—
but we knew we didn’t have time to embark on that level of customized training.
Firm Foundations for a Collaborative Outsourcing Strategy
In 2010, a broad-based APICS CSCP program began. We conducted internal
classes across several Intel sites worldwide; in just one year, more than 100
employees had become qualified CSCP professionals. As the pro- gram gained
traction, we formed an APICS core team, responsible for administering APICS
education and cer- tification programs across the company. Momentum was
growing rapidly, and as we expanded classes, the knowl- edge derived from
CSCP was becoming a game-changer, especially for the outsourcing supply
chain. The program continues today, with more than 250 Intel employees now
APICS CSCP-certified.
Over the next couple of years, my team and I had long and involved
conversations about collaboration and supply chain visibility with the new
management team at our business unit. Our vision was broader still: We saw
opportunities to bring new levels of supply chain performance to outsourcing
activities all across Intel. But we had to start somewhere, and we knew very well
that we had to design and run rigorous pilot projects to prove out the concepts,
determine returns on investment, figure out vendor selection, and so on.
The Boards/Systems BU was a great place to start. We knew there was an
appetite for real solutions; with competition heating up and the BU’s supply
chains spread worldwide, the management team was keen to have this kind of
collaborative capability. They did not need much convincing about the
vulnerabilities of the “as is” state: They knew the lack of supply chain visibility
and limited use of analytics were acute problems where outsourcing was
concerned. They saw that the collaborative capabilities needed to support outsourcing and internal manufacturing were fragmented and could not scale
enough to ensure future business growth and complexity.
The BU’s operations team had also seen the effects of multiple and siloed
reporting interfaces, systems, tools, and databases. They were familiar with the
problems caused by the lack of data integration. With data distributed in many
forms across several dozen users— much of it on Excel on individuals’
desktops—sharing of data was very difficult, and effective analysis and reporting
were, well, not effective. Band-Aid offline processes were the order of the day.
The management team knew they could not continue this way.
Late in 2012, we had management’s commitment— and funding—for a
Collaboration, Visibility and Business Information (CVBI) program to properly
pilot and test our collaborative supply chain tools and processes. We put together
a use case definition and—picking up on evaluation work we had done years
earlier—we quite quickly selected a vendor of collaborative software-as-aservice (SaaS). This was a significant departure: essentially running many of our
critical processes in the cloud, with the potential risks that data outside Intel’s
firewall might imply. But the SaaS tool came with plenty of benefits: These
included “one version of the truth;” real-time, any-to-any connectivity and visibility
for all participants; the opportunity for participants to self-service online; and with
real ability to scale up.
By the first quarter of 2013, CVBI was off and rolling, starting with assessment
and design of the pilot and on-boarding of selected subcontractors. We would
pilot the program in three of the business unit’s half-dozen manufacturing sites.
Our CVBI teams were coached in the “to be” state: one tool, one interface, one
version of the truth, and near real-time data across the extended enterprise (see
Exhibit 2).
They understood the “what:” the business objectives of increasing revenue,
winning deals, ramping up faster, achieving better supply/demand balance,
improving customer responsiveness, reducing inventory, increasing agility,
boosting employee efficiency, and more. And they grasped the “how:”
implementation of an integrated sys- tem that would become the platform for
multi-enterprise collaboration execution among Intel and its subcontractors, with
streamlined information flow, integrated and automated data, highlighted
business exceptions, and rapid resolution processes.
We kept the teams small—roughly a dozen people representing a cross-section
of the business, including planners and buyers who were our “super users.” I led
the core CVBI team together with a representative manager from IT and one
from the business side; we also had an executive sponsor from each side, and
another from the procurement group. We would meet roughly twice a week.
By the second quarter, we began integrating those subcontractors’ supply chain
data systems with our own, using the new software; configuration and testing got
going in earnest too. By the fall of last year, user training was well under way,
and we were getting ready to go live with the software.
Results Achieved to Date
Our CVBI pilot in the Boards/Systems BU has already proved itself. We’re
closing up the visibility black hole. There is indeed one tool and one version of
the truth out there in the cloud. We are still in the early days—the pilot is only
now wrapping up—but we can already point to real business-to-business
connectivity to and among multiple suppliers. We now have multi- level inventory
visibility across the supply network. We can do exception management, drilling
down into the details. And we have “what if” analytics with which to make faster
decisions. We can now get back to customers with timely answers: In some
cases, we can respond inside an hour whereas this time last year, the quickest
we could have done that would have been a week—a level of response that did
not endear us to customers (see Exhibit 3).
None of what we’ve achieved so far has been plain sailing. Data quality has been
a challenge: It has been really tough to get subcontractors in sync on this point.
Some have good systems and good tools; others don’t. Many question why we
need this data; they need to be persuaded that their data will be safe in the
cloud. Others are concerned that we’re micromanaging them; we have to enlist
Intel’s supplier relationship management experts to help those contractors
understand the benefits to them of identifying supply-demand imbalances more
quickly.
With many others, they are not clear what types of data we need, and in what
formats; many are used to simple spreadsheets. There’s also the question of
timing of the data. We have to be able to “choreograph” the data coming from
multiple sources—from subcontractors, from the warehouses and DCs, from
else- where within Intel—so our buyers and planners can make “apples to
apples” comparisons. Then there are the language barriers. And, some of the
subcontractors in China are so huge that we have to deal with entirely different
groups, with each one like dealing with a different company. Time zones are the
least of our challenges.
There have been plenty of internal challenges at Intel too. The biggest has been
that CVBI is very new, and it takes time for busy people to understand what it can
do. So educating the user community—buyers, planners, and others—is a big
part of what we’ve been doing, and will continue to do. When we present CVBI in
terms of “a day in the life of a planner,” it helps them see how they can be more
efficient and do their jobs better. We do similar outreach for senior managers,
pitching the CVBI initiative in terms of what it’s going to do for entire business
unit.
We’ve run dozens of training sessions, using methods that range from
conference calls and face-to-face meetings with small groups to hands-on demos
of the SaaS tools. We’ve had the super users on our CVBI teams lead training—
and set up and supervise “train the trainer” sessions.
One other big hurdle: getting the new SaaS vendor to understand our business
requirements. That has proved to be heavy lifting. We’ve had what we call “map
days” where we sit down with the vendor and take them through the detail of how
we plan, how we buy, how we work with our subcontractors, and so on. That
education process alone took the better part of six weeks.
Expanding the Initiative
Of course, our results to date represent only one of Intel’s many business units.
And this is very much a work in progress. We still get Excel spreadsheets from
subcontractors, so we still need to have people poring through those
spreadsheets looking for the right inventory data. We’re moving toward the ideal
of the “integrated enterprise” but we’re a ways off yet.
But what is so encouraging is that we now have a broad-based user community
that is very excited about CVBI and the SaaS tool behind it. In fact, we now have
more demand from more places across Intel than we have resources to handle it.
There hasn’t been one big “a-ha” moment: As users start seeing valuable data
coming out of the CVBI system—data and insights they hadn’t been able to get
before, and in near real-time—they want more. There’s definitely a “wildfire”
effect: We have a heavy con- centration of our buyers and planners in Malaysia,
and those in office space next to the staff who already have access to CVBI are
very interested and eager.
Similar effects are happening at management levels within Intel. The general
manager and the director of operations at the Boards/Systems BU are very
enthusiastic about the new collaborative processes; the ops director regularly
jumps on the tool himself. He sees it as a must-have: a good thing too, because
he has to justify the funding for it. So the word is traveling to the heads of other
business units throughout Intel.
We’re now a year into the program, but we’re looking at this being at least a
three-year program. We are now beginning the process of planning a broader
roll-out, using Intel’s formal transition change management processes to
determine what actions we have to take, when to take them, and who will be
responsible for them. Crucially, we want to template these changes: The last
thing we want to do is customize the CVBI process for every business unit in
Intel. Ideally, as we continue to proliferate it, CVBI becomes a standard process,
much like Intel’s famed “copy exactly” manufacturing method.
Moving Forward
Intel now has the tools and methods to be able to run its external supply chain
activities with efficiencies and visibility approaching those of its superlative
internal supply chains. It can now blunt the risks of increasing supply chain
complexity, the steep growth in the number of SKUs, and the rising tide of
competition.
The CVBI system is agnostic with regard to business unit or product; it can be
scaled easily to sup- port the quick ramp-ups that are increasingly typical of
consumer-driven demand today. It helps Intel’s managers lower their exposure to
inventory over- ages, gives them the wherewithal to run “what if” models to make
faster and more accurate fact-based decisions, and makes them much more
responsive to customer queries.
We’ve seen what it has done for one business unit, and look forward to seeing
what it can do for Intel as a whole. Given the enthusiasm for CVBI that we’re now
sensing across the company, we don’t think we will have to wait long.
chain management professionals search category.
GE honoured for excellence in innovation
Adapted from press release by Katie Woodward
October 22, 2014
GE Oil & Gas has won the APICS Corporate Award of Excellence in Innovation
for its commitment to advancing supply chain and operations management, with
a specific focus on its Turbomachinery Solutions business.
The award was announced at APICS 2014, the premier industry event for supply
chain and operations management.
“We are honoured to receive the APICS Corporate Award of Excellence in
Innovation. This award recognises our commitment to continuously improve how
we combine our skilled workforce with the latest technologies and local supply
chain investments to deliver our products and services on time and on budget for
our global customer base,” commented Jim Apostolides, materials manager,
Global Supply Chain - GE Oil & Gas.
Companies were selected based on contributions and innovation excellence in
the field of supply chain and operations management. GE Oil & Gas was
specifically recognised for uniquely implementing the right tools to improve
operational effectiveness.
“GE Oil & Gas’ Turbomachinery Solutions business operates in an extremely
complex supply chain and offers wide product ranges and high degrees of
customisation,” said Lorenzo Romagnoli, materials manager, Turbomachinery
Solutions, GE Oil & Gas.
He continued: “We therefore place a great deal of focus on materials
management excellence. In just five years, we have successfully developed,
tested, validated and activated critical new processes and tools - replacing ways
of operating and thinking that have been around for decades. We’ve drawn
extensively from the APICS body of knowledge to improve the efficiency and
overall quality of our operations and supply chain management capabilities.”
“We were very pleased to award the APICS Corporate Award of Excellence in
Innovation to GE Oil & Gas. The importance of an organisation’s dedication to its
supply chain teams cannot be understated. GE Oil & Gas Turbomachinery is a
shining example of how supply chain excellence is fuelled by engaged,
strategically focused professionals. We are proud to be their partner in success,”
concluded APICS CEO, Abe Eshkenazi.
2nd place for 5 MSc students in the APICS
International competition
October 24, 2014
Congratulations to MSc students Christian Duret, Audray Langlois, CharlesAntoine Marcil, Catherine Vincent and Leonard Vincent for their 2nd-place finish in
the APICS International Student Case Competition, held in New Orleans from
October 17 to 21.
The team, which also won a $1,500 prize, was coached by HEC Montréal
Assistant Professor Julie Paquette and Montreal APICS chapter representative
Nicolai Rassolov, who holds an MSc from HEC Montréal.
The five students represented not only HEC Montréal but Canada as a whole,
having won the Canada-wide competition in January. The competition involved
several rounds of a simulation featuring Fresh Connection, a fictitious company,
and the five finalists had to deliver a presentation on their strategy.
Twelve teams representing different countries made it through to the final round.
Seven were from competitions in the different APICS districts, and five
represented the continents of Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South
America.
About APICS
Created in Cleveland in 1957, APICS (American Production and Inventory
Control Society) is a recognized professional association in the field of operations
management. It offers its more than 37,000 members in some 200 countries
training, certification and research, in addition to producing a number of
publications. CSCP: Understanding the APICS Supply
Chain
by Jessica J. Newell
November 19, 2014
The CSCP: APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional exam, the best is to study
with their own materials which can be purchased online, and the exam takers
need to understand that they have to make efforts to pass and that can be done
so by the help of various courses.
CSCP Study Material: APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional exam has
been put in to use by many professionals up till now the exam takers can get
certified by enrolling themselves are registering online which is the easiest way,
all the professionals that take the exam have to be experience and have at least
the basic knowledge of the supply chain management and also logistics that are
slightly related and are of great use. In terms of certification, the people who pass
are only those that have reviewed the learning materials and have given time to
learn the new topics and understand the challenging ones.
CSCP Actual Exams: APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional exam content
is based on three main modules which have been given here to simplify the
difficulties present in choosing the exam requirements. The first module is APICS
Supply Chain Management Fundamentals in which included are the areas which
are Broad concepts include corporate strategies, considerations for planning,
inventory control, and continued improvement, management of techniques and
Effective customer relationship management (CRM).
The second module is said to be CSCP Supply Chain Strategy, Design, and
Compliance in which the applicants learn about Sustainability practices in design
and communications, its sources, impacts, and the effects Relationship
Management implementation challenges, supplier relationship management
(SRM), including strategies, improved the Inventory planning and control
methods the trigger firing sequence options, conditional predicates in a DML
trigger, trigger, More Trigger Concepts, Define what a database trigger is, events
that cause database triggers to fire, a trigger for a DDL statement, trigger for a
system event, the functionality of the CALL statement, the cause of a mutating
table and trigger information in the dictionary views.
The third module is said to be Implementation and Operations in which the
applicants learn about the areas of Supply chain dynamics and the balance of
responsiveness sources, demand plans, including point-of-sale data and also
Tools and techniques to support continuous improvement.
CSCP Study Guides: APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional Exam has been
subjected to various learning's that related to the supply chain for which the
professionals have to be able to get all the relevant data which can be prepared
by the given resources that are given by the exam takers.
There are many benefits of taking the CSCP Preparation: APICS Certified Supply
Chain Professional exam which includes the benefits of individuals as well as the
organizations in which these individuals work. The exam gives ways and means
of progressing in the professionals' world which offers lots of promises for being
successful.
A lot of ways are given to prepare for the CSCP Certifications Book: APICS
Certified Supply Chain Professional exam, the best is to study with their own
materials which can be purchased online, and the exam takers need to
understand that they have to make efforts to pass and that can be done so by the
help of various courses. Limited numbers of professionals that have already
taken the exam have already taken great advantages which are helping them in
their success in their careers.
APICS looks at challenges in Dubai's
supply chain market
CEO of American Production and Inventory Control Society says
Dubai needs professionals that can support its growth
By: Namitha Madhu
3 December 2014 - 4 a.m.
According to Abe Eshkenazi, CEO of American Production and Inventory Control
Society (APICS), there is a lack of awareness in the region about supply chain
education and the opportunities that lie within the field.
“You don’t see a lot of individuals going to universities looking for a supply chain
career,” he said.
Eshkenazi was speaking on the sidelines of APICS' first ever conference in
Dubai, held recently at JW Marriot. The event, which was attended by
professionals from across the region, looked at challenges of Dubai’s supply
chain market and raised awareness on APICS services and certifications.
The company is looking to work with educational institutions in the emirate to
promote a career in supply chain among students. “There is often a disconnect
between what is taught and what companies are looking for. We could work with
universities to develop their curriculums and also with students to provide them
an understanding of the academic requirements and the certification
requirements companies look for."
Some of the themes discussed at the forum include talent development, sales
and operations planning, integration of supply chain with other departments of
the organization and disruptions to supply chain from environmental, economic or
geopolitical risks.
The event gave supply chain professionals an opportunity to network and share
information. “We were pleased not only with the level of engagement, but also
with the level of individuals that attended the conference. Most were in the midlevel of their careers, either as leaders or individuals affecting change in their
organisations,” Eshkenazi said.
Speaking about the unique challenges faced by Dubai, he said there is a need to
focus on management skills and not just technical skills. “Organisations are
looking for individuals that not only know the technical aspects of the job, but can
manage other individuals and work cross functionally.”
Most importantly, Dubai needs individuals that can support its growth. “The
country has great plans for its future, and this is not just in terms of EXPO 2020.
To become an economic power, it needs a workforce that is indigenous to
Dubai,” he said.
APICS has the biggest network of supply chain professionals in the world and it
works with organisations to identify what makes supply chains effective and
trains individuals on those practices and techniques, he said. “We have over
40,000 members, and when you take a look at the number of people working
with us, it’s in thousands. So there is a strong network that supply chain
professionals can reach out to – to identify opportunities for employment as well
as gaining new employees.”
Eshkenazi said that the society provides a variety of certification courses to
individuals looking to advance their career, the most popular among them are the
Certification for Production and Inventory Management and Certification for
Supply Chain Professionals. “Certification is validation of the individual’s
knowledge base – proof that they not only understand the knowledge but can
apply it to their work. The number of individuals certified with CPIM is over
100,000 and CSCP is over 15,000.”
The conference was organised with an aim to identify partners in Dubai. “An
APICS partner is someone who teaches and helps members gain their
certificates. We have over 500 partners across the globe. They teach, identify
opportunities for individual and ensure they ready to take their certification
exams. We are looking for Dubai-based companies that can represent APICS
and be an extension of its US offices."
Given the success of the first conference, APICS has committed to another one
in Dubai next year. “The first conference confirmed what we thought: People will
come to Dubai if you put on a quality conference and a quality educational
event.”
Supply Chain And Logistics Conferences To
Attend in 2014
By Jeff Berman, Group News Editor
January 06, 2014
There is no shortage of supply chain and logistics conferences. If you can attend
just one, the most important one is CSCMP.
The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) Annual
Global Conference; September 21 – 24 in San Antonio, Texas
I’m involved in a local chapter, and I find that to also be well worth the effort,
particularly the tours of local warehouses, ports, intermodal facilities, etc.
Beyond CSCMP, which I think every professional should attend, the conferences
you choose to attend should reflect your company initiatives, what you personally
want to learn, a show that can help you grow either through networking or by
being associated with a certification program, and – let’s be honest – a location
you would like to visit.
In some cases, a vendor or industry organization has more than one offering. In
those instances, I’ve selected the show that has the deeper supply chain
coverage even if it is the smaller show.
What follows is by no means a complete list.
Industry Conferences
3PL Summit which is held simultaneously with the Chief
Supply Chain Officer Forum (put on by eyefortransport); June
11-13 2014, Chicago
Annual Shippers Conference & Transportation
Expo (nasstrac); April 13-16, Orlando
APICS 2014; October 19–21, New Orleans
ARC Industry Forum Orlando 2014; February 10-13, Orlando
MODEX 2014 (MHI); March 17-24, Atlanta
Retail’s BIG Show (NRF); Jan 12 – 15, New York City
Retail Supply Chain Conference (RILA); February 23-26, San
Diego
Sales & Operations Planning Innovation (Innovation
Enterprise); January 23-24, Las Vegas
Warehouse Education Resource Council 2014 (WERC); April
27-30, Chicago
SCM Software Vendor Conferences
HighJump Innovation; April 13-16, Las Vegas
Infor Inforum; Sept. 15-18, New Orleans
JDA Focus 2014; April 27-30, Las Vegas
Llamasoft SummerCon Supply Chain Design; June 25-27, Ann Arbor Michigan
Manhattan Associates Momentum 2014; May 5-8, Hollywood Florida
MercuryGate User Conference; September 8-10, New Orleans
Oracle Value Chain Summit 2014; February 3-5, San Jose California
Ortec OPTIMUS 2014; September 15-17, Atlanta
SAPInsider Logistics and SCM 2014; April 1-4, Las Vegas
TMC Client Forum: June in Chicago
TMW Systems Transforum 2014; September 21-24, Nashville
Transplace – Shipper Symposium 2014; May 12-14, Dallas
The software companies listed are ARC clients and I will be at attendance at
many of their shows. I will also be at CSCMP, the 3PL Summit, ARC’s Industry
Forum, and Retail’s BIG Show. If you are going to be at any of these events and
would like to meet, drop me a note ([email protected]).
3 Supply Chain Certifications that Will Help
You Land That Dream Job
By Daniel Humphries
January 17, 2014
Supply chain professionals considering a certification face a bewildering array of
options—there are multiple organizations and certifications from which to choose.
While acquiring a certification can have a significant effect on your career
trajectory, it’s a process that requires a considerable outlay of time and money.
For individuals in the early stages of their career, it can be difficult to make an
informed choice.
To help make this decision easier, we set out to learn which certifications are in
fact worth pursuing.
Whatever certification you choose, you should first make sure it is as widely
recognized as possible.
In this article, we focus on three well-known and reputable certifications:
•
The Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) and Certificate in Production
and Inventory Management (CPIM) offered by The Association for Operations
Management (APICS);
•
The Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM) from the Institute
for Supply Management (ISM); and
•
The SCPro™ from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals
(CSCMP).
To find out the benefits each certification offers and what positions they’re ideal
for, we interviewed three supply chain professionals with almost a century of
experience between them:
•
Bob Ferrarri, consultant and industry analyst who runs the prominent Supply
Chain Matters blog;
•
Rich Sherman, “supply chain guru” at consulting firm Trissential and author
of the book, Supply Chain Transformation: Practical Roadmap to Best
Practice Results; and,
•
Monty Boyle, the common process deployment specialist for BP and a
consultant who has received almost all of the certifications discussed in this
article.
CSCP: Ideal for General Supply Chain Careers
Before you select a certification, it’s essential to know what areas of supply chain
management appeal to you. If you’re looking to first gain a broad overview, then
Ferrarri, Boyle and Sherman agree: the best certification is the CSCP from
APICS.
First launched in 2006, over 13,000 supply chain professionals in 78 countries
have since gained the CSCP. According to the APICS, it “provides you with a
mastery of supply chain management best practices and distinguishes you as an
industry expert with specialized, high-level knowledge and skills.”
But what’s actually in it? I asked Ferrarri, who, in spite of his three decades of
experience in supply chain management, took the certification five years ago to
see if he was “up to speed.” His reply? More or less “everything.”
Boyle, who also took the CSCP after working in supply chain management for
decades, elaborates on this: “It teaches you to look at the supply chain from a
broad perspective; to view the relations between the areas of planning, sourcing,
manufacturing and delivering and see how the overall supply chain integrates.”
The eligibility requirements for the CSCP require one of the following:
•
Another APICS or ISM certification, plus two years of related business
experience;
•
A bachelor’s degree or equivalent, plus two years of related business
experience; or
•
Five years of related business experience.
APICS sells course materials and offers online or in-person courses at local
chapters throughout the country. The cost and length of study varies according to
which path you choose. For instance, APICS’ online education program materials
cost $1,250, although a $200 APICS membership will knock $330 off this.
The exam registration fee is $630, or $795 for nonmembers. Ferrarri estimates
that a driven individual could be ready for the exam in three to six months.
APICS’ own research indicates that the CSCP is a worthwhile investment.
According to the organization, individuals with a CSCP certification earn an
average of 21 percent more than their CSCP-free peers, while 62.6 percent of
certified supply chain professionals think their certification had a “positive impact
on their hiring potential.”
Another advantage of the CSCP, Ferrarri says, is that it’s what many employers
want. “More and more companies today are seeking generalists—people with
cross-functional knowledge, experience and skills,” he explains.
Sherman agrees. “Supply chain management is evolving into a truly end-to-end
process that synchronizes cross-functional activities and includes suppliers and
customers,” he says.
“Employers want to have managers that not only have an understanding of the
function they’re responsible for, but for how their processes interact with other
functional processes and organizations. This is especially important as the
person’s career moves forward and their responsibilities include more functions.”
The APICS CSCP: Set Yourself Apart
Plan to move forward with your career in the year ahead. The APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), the first and the only end to end supply chain
certification available, will put you on the path to success. APICS CSCP
designees earn 21 percent more on average than other supply chain
professionals without the designation. Did you also know that hundreds of
employers seek the APICS CSCP designation when making critical hiring
decisions?
Take the free APICS CSCP demo today to learn about the designation and join a
global network of supply chain professionals who are taking charge of their
careers.
The APICS CSCP program sets the standard for supply chain management
certification. Developed in 2006, this professional designation is the most widely
recognized educational program for supply chain and operations management
professionals around the world. For more information on this program, and how
to earn 21% higher salary, visit apics.org/mycscp.
CPIM: Ideal for a Career in Inventory Management
The CSCP can be “mixed and matched” with other certifications, should you later
decide to venture deeper into a specific area. According to our experts, if you’re
seeking a career in inventory management, then APICS’ CPIM is the best
certification to get.
Over 100,000 people have pursued the CPIM since its inception in 1973, making
it the most recognized of all the certifications discussed here. APICS describes
the CPIM in rather broad terms on its site, but Sherman boils it down to the
following: “You get the CPIM if you want to learn production planning and
scheduling and inventory management. It’s very plant floor focused.”
No bachelor’s degree is required, and you need only two or more years of
experience in the field. Boyle, who has the CPIM, says that each individual will
get something different out of it depending on their prior experience, but stresses
that the certification training provides everyone with a solid grounding in the
terminology and thought processes involved in production and inventory
management.
As a result, people who have the CPIM share common concepts and terminology
that are very valuable in the workplace. For example, Boyle highlights the section
of the exam dedicated to manufacturing capacity planning, which analyzes
capacity planning in three ways: according to the factors of a master production
schedule, using capacity bills and using resource profiles. Anyone with the CPIM
will likely approach capacity planning in a similar way.
Be warned, however: unlike the CSCP, the CPIM requires you to take not one,
but five exams on five different modules of study: Basics of Supply Chain
Management, Master Planning of Resources, Detailed Scheduling and Planning
and Execution and Control of Operations.
APICS offers self-study materials and instructor-led online and in-person courses,
where the prices vary from center to center. The online review course costs
$2,645 or $1,995 if you’re a member of APICS. The exams cost $145 each.
According to APICS, those with the CPIM earn 14 percent more than those
without it, while 64.4 percent believe getting certified had a positive impact on
their careers.
CPSM: Ideal for a Career in Procurement
The ISM offers two certifications: the CPSM (Certified Professional in Supply
Management) and the CPSD (Certified Professional in Supply Diversity). The
consensus among our experts is that the CPSD is a highly specialized
qualification best suited to individuals at a relatively advanced stage of their
careers, so we won’t cover it here.
The CPSM was launched in 2008 and has a strong focus on procurement. Or, as
Sherman puts it: “ISM is an organization for procurement and strategic sourcing
people. The certification program is strongly focused on purchasing and
procurement.”
Ferrarri agrees: “It’s very specialized—you’ll study procurement practices,
contract management, financial management and more. From what I see, it’s
good for people who have maybe been in a procurement position for five years,
and now want to advance.”
Boyle, who has the CPSM, stresses again that the certification equips
professionals with shared language, terminology and ideas. And like APICS, the
ISM says that those with the certification can earn more: ISM’s own salary survey
for 2013 states that professionals with a CPSM earn 9 percent more than those
without it.
Requirements for the certification are:
•
Three years of full-time, professional supply chain management experience
(nonclerical, nonsupport) with a bachelor’s degree from a regionally
accredited institution or international equivalent, or;
•
Five years of full-time, professional supply chain management experience
(nonclerical, nonsupport) without a qualified bachelor’s degree, and;
•
Successfully pass three CPSM exams, or pass the Bridge Exam if you’re a
CPM “in good standing.” (The CPM is an older certification from the ISM, now
retired.)
The ISM is flexible and offers a wide array of resources for preparation. David
Panzera, strategic sourcing manager at international chemicals firm Arkema,
became CPSM certified in 2011. He wanted to demonstrate to potential recruiters
that he was up to date in the field after spending a few years working in sales.
Studying by himself, it took Panzera about five months to gain the CPSM. With
the three exams—Foundation of Supply Management, Effective Supply
Management Performance, Leadership in Supply Management—which cost
$199 each for ISM members ($299 for non-members), plus the cost of books, he
estimates he spent around $800 to get certified.
In addition to the benefits of the CPSM certification itself, Panzera says the ISM
offers excellent networking opportunities—he’s very active in his local chapter in
Philadelphia. Sherman says the same thing about APICS, and adds that
managers may be more likely to recruit people with the same certification and
group affiliations that these organizations have.
A Future Investment: The SCPro™
Honorary mention goes to the SCPro™ certification, which is offered by the large
and prestigious CSCMP. Traditionally an organization with a strong focus on
logistics, the CSCMP is seeking to cover the broader supply chain field with its
new certification program, which was just launched in 2012.
Ferrarri and Sherman both highlighted the SCPro™ as a certification to watch,
even if it’s not yet widely recognized. Like the CSCP, the SCPro™ is intended as
an end-to-end course. The certification has three levels, and thus offers those
who take it the opportunity to explore supply chain issues on a much deeper level.
“I think that SCPro™, with its three levels of study, will be much stronger down
the road,” Sherman says. “It’s an advanced certificate in problem solving and
project management. Level One is equivalent to the CSCP. At Level Two, you go
deeper: there are case studies you have to solve, like you’d get in a master’s
degree program. At Level Three, you execute performance improvement in an
actual company—either your own company, or they’ll find you one. You have to
make real world changes.”
Sherman believes that the SCPro™ may ultimately benefit people in the long run,
once the certification becomes more well-known in the job market. “It’s a future
hedge,” he says. “If you have a CSCP or CPIM, look at the SCPro™ to give you
a competitive edge five to ten years down the road. The investment will grow in
value over time.”
Supply Chain Certifications: A Valuable Investment
There are many factors to consider when contemplating whether to get a
professional supply chain certification, but our experts agree: all three
certifications discussed here are excellent qualifications that will most likely set
you apart from the competition when searching for a job.
In Ferrarri’s view, certifications are increasingly becoming a prerequisite in supply
chain careers. Sherman points out that, if confronted with two candidates of
equal experience, one of which has a formal certification, a recruiter will almost
certainly opt for the certified individual. “It’s all about risk mitigation,” he explains.
Boyle agrees, but adds that ultimately, a lot comes down to you—you’ll need to
take the time to do your research and think carefully about your own career goals
to decide which certification is best for you.
Talent is the future of supply chain
management
By Bob Trebilcock, Editor at Large
January 24, 2014
Editor’s Note: This article was originally posted on the web site of Modern
Materials Handling, LM’s sister publication.
You would think that issues like cost reductions, customer service levels and fuel
prices would top the list of things that keeps distribution, transportation and
supply chain managers up at night. After all, those are the items by which we are
most often measured when bonuses are handed out.
But at every industry conference I have attended in the last year, the paucity of
talent has been topic number one. That was true at ProMat last January, at the
MHI fall meeting, and at the APICS and CSCMP annual conferences.
It could explain why supply chain management is the hot new MBA, according to
the Wall Street Journal, or why it was the leading topic of discussion at all four of
the Material Handling & U.S. Logistics Roadmap round table meetings last
summer. I just published a provocative piece out of Penn State on the coming
supply chain talent perfect storm in the January issue of Supply Chain
Management Review.
At the same time, there is a generation of young, dedicated professionals training
for roles in our industry in colleges and universities around the country. Last
night, I got a glimpse into the up and comers at MIT’s Research Expo 2014.
Part of the program included fast and furious presentations from faculty members
such as Yossi Sheffi, Bruce Arntzen, Jim Rice and Chris Caplice. They provided
concise overviews of research they’re conducting around topics such as
visualizing supply chain flows, the role of logistics clusters as economic engines
and demystifying supply chain innovation.
But the real stars were the students and the projects they are working on for
corporate sponsors such as Boeing, Proctor & Gamble, Niagara Bottling and
Ralph Lauren. Nearly 90 projects were on display. They were a window into both
the kinds of issues that corporate America is grappling with as well as the
ingenuity of the students tackling these problems. They ran the gamut from the
esoteric to the prosaic. As one MIT dean put it, they’re not solving the flashiest
problems, but they are tackling some of the biggest problems. So, what did I
see?
First, there are problems that have plagued our industry inside and outside the
four walls of the distribution center for years and will probably continue to plague
us for years to come. For example, a student from Ecuador displayed a network
design project he completed for Kentucky Fried Chicken, recommending that the
Colonel expand from two to three distribution centers in that country. The annual
savings were less than $50,000 a year in cost reductions. However, the third DC
allowed for faster time to market, fresher food and improved customer service in
areas in Southeastern Ecuador where KFC wanted to expand its presence.
A student from Brazil satisfied my obsession with pallets through his project to
improve warehouse processes for AmBev. The culprits in the warehouse that led
to slowdowns on the production line will sound familiar to North American
readers – non-productive lift truck operators and broken wooden pallets. Among
his recommendations – switch to a plastic pallet. Who’d think I’d go to MIT to
learn about pallets.
I also met with two students in the early stages of a project on mitigating risk and
improving resiliency in the supply chain of a high fashion retailer. They are trying
to identify what happens if a supplier fails to ship or a distribution facility is shut
down and how quickly can the retailer bounce back from those kinds of events.
Another student was working on an investigation into 3D printing for a supplier to
big box retailers who wants to quickly and inexpensively create production molds
to prototype new products. Right now, that supplier just shows its customers
concept drawings of what’s on the drawing board because prototyping is so
expensive. 3D printing could allow it to create actual prototypes in a cost effective
way.
What struck me most wasn’t how bright these students were. You expect that at
MIT. Rather, it was how enthusiastic they were about an industry that young
people once shunned in favor of finance and business management. Let’s hope
it’s an indicator of the health of the industry going forward.
Live Webcast: Retail Supply Chain
Collaboration: 3 Catalysts for Success
Logility and Deloitte Reveal How Retailers Can Turn Their Supply
Chains into a Competitive Differentiator
February 12, 2014
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Logility Inc., a leading supplier of collaborative
solutions to optimize the supply chain, and Deloitte will share the three catalysts
for retail supply chain success. The live event hosted by APICS
,“Retail Supply Chain Collaboration: 3 Catalysts for Success”, will begin Thursday,
February 20, 2014 at 11:00 am ET.
Today’s retailers face a growing challenge to ensure the right products are
available at the right place and right time. They must also present customers with
a unified, consistent shopping experience across all channels. In this webcast
attendees will hear real-world examples of how retailers have succeeded in
overcoming these challenges by building a demand-driven network designed for
agility and resiliency, collaborating with suppliers, and improving the new product
introduction process.
Fast Facts
• “Retail Supply Chain Collaboration: 3 Catalysts for Success” Webcast
• Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 11:00 am ET
• Webcast Registration: http://www.logility.com/retail-supply-chain-collaboration3-catalysts
Related Information
Logility's companion white paper, “Retail Supply Chain Collaboration: Three
Catalysts for Success”, examines how collaboration and across-the-board
visibility help bring retailers and manufacturers together to reduce inefficiencies,
remove pain points and increase overall performance. Download your free copy
of this white paper at http://bit.ly/1eqaPoh.
About Logility
With more than 1,250 customers worldwide, Logility is a leading provider of
collaborative, best-of-breed supply chain solutions that help small, medium, large
and Fortune 1000 companies realize substantial bottom-line results in record
time. Logility Voyager Solutions is a complete supply chain management solution
that features a performance monitoring architecture and provides supply chain
visibility; demand, inventory and replenishment planning; Sales and Operations
Planning (S&OP); supply and inventory optimization; manufacturing planning and
scheduling; transportation planning and management; and warehouse
management. Logility customers include Fender Musical Instruments, Parker
Hannifin, Verizon Wireless, and VF Corporation. Logility is a wholly owned
subsidiary of American Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMSWA). For more information
about Logility, call 800-762-5207 USA or visit http://www.logility.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to
substantial risks and uncertainties. There are a number of factors that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by statements
made herein. These factors include, but are not limited to, continuing U.S. and
global economic uncertainty, the timing and degree of business recovery,
unpredictability and the irregular pattern of future revenues, dependence on
particular market segments or customers, competitive pressures, delays, product
liability and warranty claims and other risks associated with new product
development, undetected software errors, market acceptance of Logility’s
products, technological complexity, the challenges and risks associated with
integration of acquired product lines, companies and services, as well as a
number of other risk factors that could affect the Company’s future performance.
For further information about risks the Company and American Software could
experience as well as other information, please refer to American Software, Inc’s.
current Form 10-K and other reports and documents subsequently filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information, contact: Vincent C.
Klinges, Chief Financial Officer, American Software, Inc., (404) 264-5477 or fax:
(404) 237-8868.
Practitioners name top supply chain
schools, certifications
By DC Velocity Starff
February 28, 2014
Which university and certification programs reliably turn out strong supply chain talent? A list
released by SCM World, a U.K.-based organization for supply chain practitioners, includes some
familiar names as well as a few surprises.
The rankings are based on responses from 331 participants in the group's 2013 Chief Supply
Chain Officer survey. Respondents were asked to name the three professional certifications they
deem "most valuable" as markers of supply chain talent, as well as the three universities and
business schools they believe are "most valuable" for turning out supply chain talent. To prevent
any bias, the question was open-ended, with no list for respondents to choose from.
Respondents' picks included well-known U.S. and European supply chain degree programs, such
as those at Michigan State, Penn State, Cranfield, the University of Tennessee, and Georgia
Tech. It also included schools like Harvard and Stanford, which do not award supply chain
degrees—but do turn out highly sought-after M.B.A.s.
The top professional certification programs included those offered by APICS, the Supply Chain
Council, the Institute for Supply Management, the Council of Supply Chain Management
Professionals, and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. The surprises in that
category: Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), a certification most often
associated with perishable product quality control, and Certified Management Accountant (CMA),
awarded by the Institute of Management Accountants.
One takeaway from this varied list, said Kevin O'Marah, SCM World's chief content officer, is that
"business wants cross-functional supply chain knowledge rather than narrow technical skills."
SCM World’s Top 10 Associations & Top 15
Universities for Supply Chain Management
By Kevin O’Marah
March 02, 2014
Supply chain practitioners were surveyed on which institutions were their top three as “markers
of talent” and where in their minds the best supply chain learning is available.
We are about to publish a short report ranking both the universities that teach
supply chain to kids and the associations that train and certify professionals.
The methodology is as simple as pie: supply chain practitioners were surveyed
on which institutions of each kind were their top three as “markers of talent”. The
idea was to get a business leader’s view of where the best supply chain learning
is available to the future leaders of our organisations.
Full disclosure: I am not 100% impartial
Let me say right up front that I have allegiances in this game. I am a senior
research fellow at Stanford University and went to business school there. I have
been an advisory board member of the University of Wisconsin’s Grainger Center
for Supply Chain Management for a number of years. I also have a son who is a
supply chain major at Michigan State University. And in the association world, I
was a director at large for APICS a few years back.
Fortunately, my opinions are largely left out of this analysis since the sole data
source is the 331 respondents who took the time to type their answers in at the
end of our annualChief Supply Chain Officer Survey last year.
The Top 10 Associations and Top 15 Universities
Our method for rank ordering the institutions in these two lists is a simple
weighting, with three points awarded for a #1 selection, two points for a #2, and
one point for a #3. The original questions, which are repeated exactly as survey
respondents saw them in each table, offered no definitions of “marker of talent”,
relying instead on instinctive understanding of the idea.
Keep in mind that respondents were not offered a drop-down menu, so no biases
were built in via pre-defined shortlists, and that answers had to be manually
typed into a free text field – meaning that respondents really had to want to cast
their votes. The results are below:
In terms of Association Certifications (eg, APICS, ISM, SCC) as markers of
supply chain talent, please name your top 3, where 1=most valuable
•
Weighted totals
Top 10 Associations
1. 857 APICS-The Association for Operations Management (CPIM/CSCP)
2. 368 Supply Chain Council (SCOR Professional)
3. 286 Institute of Supply Management (CPSM/CSM/CPSD)
4. 202 Project Manager Professional (PMI Certifications)
5. 198
Council
of
Supply
Chain
Management
Professionals
(SCPro
Certification)
6. 136 Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS Qualifications)
7. 84
Chartered
Institute
of
Logistics
and
Transport
(International
Qualifications)
8. 71 Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)
9. 67 Purchasing Management Association of Canada (SCMP Designation
Program)
10. 56 Certified Management Accountant (CMA)
In terms of Universities/Business Schools as markers of supply chain talent,
please name your top 3, where 1=most valuable
•
Weighted totals
Top 15 Universities
1. 147 Michigan State University
2. 115 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. 99 Pennsylvania State University
4. 75 Arizona State University
5. 69 Stanford University
6. 67 Georgia Institute of Technology
7. 65 Cranfield University
8. 40 University of Tennessee
9. 33 Harvard University
10. 29 Ohio State University
11. 18 Purdue University
12. 15 INSEAD
13. 15 Rutgers University
14. 14 Warwick Business School
15. 9 University of Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
Behind the Numbers
However carefully one scrutinises the lists, two takeaways should dominate the
discussion: first is that business wants cross-functional supply chain knowledge
rather than narrow technical skills. And second is that the scramble to provide it
is suddenly heating up.
Leadership on these lists is up for grabs and the best institutions will need to
move quickly to stay in the hunt.
Cross-functional skill development emerges decisively from both the academics
and the associations. The top universities, especially Michigan State, Penn State
and Arizona State, all make a point of fighting through entrenched interests in
more classical subject areas, including operations and marketing to cultivate a
holistic view of supply chain.
Stanford, despite not actually granting supply chain degrees, manages this well
within the business school, especially for students willing to dip into the
outstanding engineering departments on campus. MIT offers similar breadth and
depth, but takes Stanford one better by at least offering a 10-month master’s in
supply chain and logistics.
As for the associations, most have relatively narrow historical focus areas, but all
seem to be converging on a common end-to-end view of supply chain. From my
perspective, the SCOR model of the Supply Chain Council is probably the bestunified picture of the elements that comprise modern supply chain, and yet its
institutional health is questionable. APICS, for all its obvious dominance at the
top of the list, struggles with different challenges, especially keeping its
intellectual property up with the times.
Who Will Move Up and Who Will Move Down?
These rankings are not exactly scientific and, unlike those produced by US News
& World Report, do not draw on any kind of complicated formulae that can be
gamed. It really is a simple beauty contest. And beauty, after all, is in the eye of
the beholder. The beholder in this case though is the employer.
Game on.
Source: SCM World Top 25: Leaders in Learning
About the Author
Kevin O’Marah, SCM World Chief Content Officer
As Chief Content Officer, Kevin and his organisation are responsible for the ongoing delivery of SCM World’s cutting-edge, practitioner driven supply chain
content and information. Leveraging the combined experience and learning of
over 19,000 practitioners within SCM World’s membership, Kevin and his team
deliver an innovative and interactive learning curriculum that meets the needs of
today’s supply chain professionals across industry, through a unique peer driven
approach.
APICS and APICS Foundation Honor
Rockwell Automation for Supply Chain
Management Excellence
By APICS
April 17, 2014
At the APICS 2014 Shanghai conference, Rockwell Automation Asia Pacific
Business Center (APBC) was honored with the APICS Corporate Award of
Excellence-Asia for their commitment to advancing supply chain and operations
management.
The award recognizes Rockwell Automation APBC’s commitment to the training
and development of its manufacturing, scheduling and inventory planning
professionals. Through APICS education and certification initiatives, they
improved supply chain operations, processes and optimization and elevated the
strategic capabilities of their organization.
“We are always pleased to see organizations position their supply chain teams
for success,” said APICS Chief Executive Officer, Abe Eshkenazi, CSCP, CPA,
CAE. “Rockwell Automation APBC recognizes the connection between supply
chain excellence and engaged, strategically focused professionals. We are proud
to recognize their achievements and be their partner in success.”
At the event, Ernest Nicolas, Regional Director, Asia Pacific Manufacturing and
Pit Wee Yeoh, Plant Manager, Singapore Operations, accepted the award on
behalf of their organization. APICS 2014 Shanghai is presented by APICS and
APICS Foundation.
Rockwell Automation, Inc. is the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial
automation and information. Singapore is home to the Rockwell Automation Asia
Pacific Business Center (APBC) which was established in November 2005 as a
key component to Rockwell Automation’s strategic expansion with machine
builders in Asia Pacific, a market vital to the company’s growth. The APBC,
which houses Singapore Operations, has over 600 employees.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 37,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
About APICS Foundation
The APICS Foundation advances supply chain and operations management and
innovation through research, publications, education and talent development.
Organizations and academic programs gain access to the information they need
to contribute to the success of supply chains and meet enterprise goals through
the foundation’s exceptional network and resources. For more information,
visit apicsfoundation.org.
Consider a Career in Manufacturing as an
MBA
By Delece Smith-Barrow
July 3, 2014
There's been a shift in the country's manufacturing industry, and MBAs may
benefit from this change.
Business school students who graduated in 2014 were more successful at
receiving early job offers in manufacturing, as well as health care, than those
going into more traditional industries such as finance or consulting, according a
June report from the Graduate Management Admission Council.
"There is a trend to bring some manufacturing jobs back to the United States,"
says Lawrence Matteson, an executive professor of business administration at
the Simon Graduate School of Business at University of Rochester. And industry
insiders agree with him.
It's not as cost-efficient as it once was to produce goods in countries such as
China, and the U.S.' energy and technology advances have encouraged
companies to bring their manufacturing operations to the States, according to a
June 2013 article from Inside Supply Chain Management Magazine.
This trend opens the door to more jobs for MBAs interested in managing how
products are built and how quickly customers can get them -- an area of business
that's similar to supply chain management. The career opportunities in
manufacturing are numerous, experts say, and a business school background
can help with the transition from MBA student to employee.
MBA graduates can become a purchasing manager, logistics manager or master
production scheduler, says Nallan Suresh, a professor and chairman of the
operations management and strategy department in the School of Management
at the University at Buffalo--SUNY.
They can also become a sourcing manager like Harshit Purwar, a 2012 MBA
graduate from the University at Buffalo. In this role, "you are responsible for the
procurement cycle in your company," he says. Purwar chooses vendors, works
on contracts and handles other related duties for manufacturing a product.
Although he had some experience in manufacturing before business school, his
MBA program certainly enhanced his skills for the industry, he says. Participating
in a leadership development program, which covered decision-making and
people management, among other topics, as well as taking courses in strategy
and data modeling, were especially helpful, Purwar says.
A class in negotiations can also be important for students planning to enter this
field, says G. Logan Jordan, associate dean for administration at the Krannert
School of Management at Purdue University--West Lafayette. At Purdue, about
35 percent of the full-time MBA students in each class choose the manufacturing
and technology management track, he says.
A course in negotiations, Jordan says, can help students learn how to get the
best deal for their organization and maintain the relationship with a supplier.
In some cases, students with a more technical understanding of products -- such
as those who once studied or worked in engineering -- can make a smoother
transition into a manufacturing careers, experts say.
"They kind of understand the guts of it," Logan says. Someone with technical
knowledge may better grasp how a factory is run, he says.
MBAs who go into manufacturing typically start with a salary that's modest
compared with what they could make in something like finance, experts say.
Starting salaries can range between $65,000 and $70,000, says Suresh from
University at Buffalo--SUNY, but the salaries "rise up very quickly." Salaries are
more likely to jump when MBAs also have manufacturing-related certifications,
such as those awarded through APICS, a professional organization for those
working in supply chain and operations management. The University at Buffalo's
MBA program prepares students to get certified, Suresh says.
Besides the promise of compensation, those familiar with the manufacturing field
believe the current industry dynamics can lead to a satisfying career for MBAs.
"It's a great industry," Purwar says. "Manufacturing is the core of an economy."
Searching for a business school? Get our complete rankings of Best Business
Schools.
Delece Smith-Barrow is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering graduate
schools. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at
[email protected].
Consider a Career in Manufacturing as an
MBA
As more production operations come to the U.S., MBAs have new
opportunities to work in manufacturing.
By Delece Smith-Barrow
July 3, 2014
There's been a shift in the country's manufacturing industry, and MBAs may
benefit from this change.
Business school students who graduated in 2014 were more successful at
receiving early job offers in manufacturing , as well as health care , than those
going into more traditional industries such as finance or consulting, according
to a June report from the Graduate Management Admission Council.
"There is a trend to bring some manufacturing jobs back to the United States,"
says Lawrence Matteson, an executive professor of business administration at
the Simon Graduate School of Business at University of Rochester. And industry
insiders agree with him.
It's not as cost-efficient as it once was to produce goods in countries such as
China, and the U.S.' energy and technology advances have encouraged
companies to bring their manufacturing operations to the States, according to a
June 2013 article from Inside Supply Chain Management Magazine.
This trend opens the door to more jobs for MBAs interested in managing how
products are built and how quickly customers can get them – an area of business
that's similar to supply chain management . The career opportunities in
manufacturing are numerous, experts say, and a business school background
can help with the transition from MBA student to employee.
MBA graduates can become a purchasing manager, logistics manager or master
production scheduler, says Nallan Suresh, a professor and chairman of the
operations management and strategy department in the School of Management
at the University at Buffalo—SUNY.
They can also become a sourcing manager like Harshit Purwar, a 2012 MBA
graduate from the University at Buffalo. In this role, "you are responsible for the
procurement cycle in your company," he says. Purwar chooses vendors, works
on contracts and handles other related duties for manufacturing a product.
Although he had some experience in manufacturing before business school, his
MBA program certainly enhanced his skills for the industry, he says. Participating
in a leadership development program, which covered decision-making and
people management, among other topics, as well as taking courses in strategy
and data modeling, were especially helpful, Purwar says.
A class in negotiations can also be important for students planning to enter this
field, says G. Logan Jordan, associate dean for administration at the Krannert
School of Management at Purdue University—West Lafayette. At Purdue, about
35 percent of the full-time MBA students in each class choose the manufacturing
and technology management track, he says.
A course in negotiations, Jordan says, can help students learn how to get the
best deal for their organization and maintain the relationship with a supplier.
In some cases, students with a more technical understanding of products – such
as those who once studied or worked in engineering – can make a smoother
transition into a manufacturing careers, experts say.
"They kind of understand the guts of it," Logan says. Someone with technical
knowledge may better grasp how a factory is run, he says.
MBAs who go into manufacturing typically start with a salary that's modest
compared with what they could make in something like finance, experts say.
Starting salaries can range between $65,000 and $70,000, says Suresh from
University at Buffalo—SUNY, but the salaries "rise up very quickly." Salaries are
more likely to jump when MBAs also have manufacturing-related certifications,
such as those awarded through APICS, a professional organization for those
working in supply chain and operations management. The University at Buffalo's
MBA program prepares students to get certified, Suresh says.
Besides the promise of compensation, those familiar with the manufacturing field
believe the current industry dynamics can lead to a satisfying career for MBAs.
"It's a great industry," Purwar says. "Manufacturing is the core of an economy."
Searching for a business school? Get our complete rankings of Best Business
Schools.
Earn Your S&OP and Supply Chain Risk
Management Education Certificates at
Upcoming APICS Foundation Events
July 7, 2014
The APICS 2014 conference and topical seminars support APICS
Foundation certificate programs and drive career growth for supply
chain and operations management professionals
Through exclusive education certificate programs and an extensive agenda of
industry conferences, APICS Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advances
supply chain and operations management innovation through research,
publications, education and talent development, provides professionals with
critical skills in sales and operations planning (S&OP) and supply chain risk
management, two programs fundamental to a company’s ability to optimize their
supply chains.
“The continued advancement of supply chain professionals is a priority for APICS
Foundation, and we’ve found that individuals who earn one of our education
certificates in S&OP or risk management are positioned to return immediate
value to their company,” said Sharon Rice, Executive Director, APICS
Foundation. “By providing a certificate program that includes both online
education and in-person events, APICS Foundation offers individuals the
opportunity to add to their professional toolbox and advance their careers.”
APICS is preparing for its flagship APICS 2014 conference, taking place October
19-21 in New Orleans, LA. The premier event for supply chain and operations
management professionals, APICS 2014 offers education, best practices and
case studies to help attendees lead their organizations and reach their
professional goals.
APICS 2014 features Learning Paths, divided into eight focus areas specifically
designed to meet key organizational needs – Collaborations and S&OP,
Operational Efficiency Basics, Operational Efficiency Advanced, Professional
Development, Risk and Resiliency, Supply Chain Business Analytics, Supply
Chain Innovation and Supply Chain Professional Leadership.
Individuals working to obtain their APICS Risk Management Education
Certification or APICS S&OP Education Certificate can claim credit hours by
attending key sessions at the APICS 2014 conference and local seminars.
• Risk Management Education Certificate – 12-hour education program that
prepares certificate holders to successfully develop a global risk mitigation
strategy. Credit can be earned by attending key risk sessions at APICS
2014
• S&OP Education Certificate – 12-hour education program that prepares
certificate holders to elevate the sales and operations planning process.
Credit can be earned by attending select S&OP sessions at APICS 2014
Register for APICS 2014 by July 31 to receive up to $400 savings. For more
information about APICS education certificates visit apics.org/risk and
apics.org/sop. To learn more about attending one of the upcoming APICS
events, visit apics.org/events.
About APICS Foundation
APICS Foundation, the research arm of APICS, advances supply chain and
operations management innovation through research, educational programs and
workforce development. Business leaders, academia and global enterprises gain
valuable insights, information and actionable data through the foundation’s
unrivaled supply chain network and resources.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate end-to-end supply chain excellence, innovation and
resilience. APICS Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and
APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry
standard. With over 39,000 members and more than 250 international partners,
APICS is transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach
global customers.
“APICS SCC Invites 12 Student Teams to
International Competition at Annual
Conference”
September, 11 2014
APICS Supply Chain Council (APICS SCC) is proud to bring the 12 winning
teams from around the world to APICS 2014 to compete in the International
Student Team Competition. Six international teams will join their United States
based counterparts in the exclusive competition that is also one of the largest
ever held by APICS and the APICS Supply Chain Council. Teams from
University of Nebraska Lincoln, Thunderbird Global School of Management,
University of Connecticut, University of Wisconsin, University of Akron, California
State University, University of Puerto Rico Bayamon, HEC Montreal, Hochschule
München, Germany, American University in Cairo, Egypt, Sun Yat Sen
University, China, and Universidad del Pacifico, Peru will present their cases to a
panel of judges. First, second and third place winners will be announced with
corresponding scholarships.
“Supply chain management is one of the fastest growing career fields in the
world today. This growth is due to the complex, and completely essential, nature
of the global supply chain,” said Sharon Rice, APICS SCC executive director.
“Global supply chains need to be supported by professionals with global
perspectives – bringing together teams from around the world introduces the
potential of this field for students as well as cultivating an international
perspective to address the issues facing the industry today.”
APICS 2014 provides a multitude of opportunities for students and scholars to
learn from industry experts, network with working professionals and gain valuable
career insights. For employers and future supply chain and operations managers,
APICS 2014 also hosts a career fair, which provides hiring managers with the
opportunity to meet and interview student attendees.
Registration is open for APICS 2014 which will be help October 19-21. For the
complete conference agenda and schedule, as well as additional registration
information, please visitapicsconference.org.
About APICS Supply Chain Council
APICS SCC is a foundation that advances supply chain and operations
management and innovation through research, education, and publications.
APICS SCC maintains the Supply Chain Operations Reference model (SCOR®),
the supply chain management community’s most widely accepted framework for
evaluating and comparing supply chain activities and performance. For more
information, visit apicssupplychaincouncil.org.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
APICS SCC Invites 12 Student Teams to
International Competition at Annual
Conference
Winning Teams from around the Globe Head to New Orleans for a
Chance at Scholarships and Industry Recognition
September 11, 2014
APICS Supply Chain Council (APICS SCC) is proud to bring the 12 winning
teams from around the world to APICS 2014 to compete in the International
Student Team Competition. Six international teams will join their United States
based counterparts in the exclusive competition that is also one of the largest
ever held by APICS and the APICS Supply Chain Council. Teams from
University of Nebraska Lincoln, Thunderbird Global School of Management,
University of Connecticut, University of Wisconsin, University of Akron, California
State University, University of Puerto Rico Bayamon, HEC Montreal, Hochschule
München, Germany, American University in Cairo, Egypt, Sun Yat Sen
University, China, and Universidad del Pacifico, Peru will present their cases to a
panel of judges. First, second and third place winners will be announced with
corresponding scholarships.
“Supply chain management is one of the fastest growing career fields in the
world today. This growth is due to the complex, and completely essential, nature
of the global supply chain,” said Sharon Rice, APICS SCC executive director.
“Global supply chains need to be supported by professionals with global
perspectives – bringing together teams from around the world introduces the
potential of this field for students as well as cultivating an international
perspective to address the issues facing the industry today.”
APICS 2014 provides a multitude of opportunities for students and scholars to
learn from industry experts, network with working professionals and gain valuable
career insights. For employers and future supply chain and operations managers,
APICS 2014 also hosts a career fair, which provides hiring managers with the
opportunity to meet and interview student attendees.
Registration is open for APICS 2014 which will be help October 19-21. For the
complete conference agenda and schedule, as well as additional registration
information, please visit apicsconference.org.
About APICS Supply Chain Council
APICS SCC is a foundation that advances supply chain and operations
management and innovation through research, education, and publications.
APICS SCC maintains the Supply Chain Operations Reference model (SCOR®),
the supply chain management community’s most widely accepted framework for
evaluating and comparing supply chain activities and performance. For more
information, visit apicssupplychaincouncil.org.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
“APICS SCC Invites 12 Student Teams to
International Cometition at Annual
Conference”
September, 11 2014
APICS Supply Chain Council (APICS SCC) is proud to bring the 12 winning
teams from around the world to APICS 2014 to compete in the International
Student Team Competition. Six international teams will join their United States
based counterparts in the exclusive competition that is also one of the largest
ever held by APICS and the APICS Supply Chain Council. Teams from
University of Nebraska Lincoln, Thunderbird Global School of Management,
University of Connecticut, University of Wisconsin, University of Akron, California
State University, University of Puerto Rico Bayamon, HEC Montreal, Hochschule
München, Germany, American University in Cairo, Egypt, Sun Yat Sen University,
China, and Universidad del Pacifico, Peru will present their cases to a panel of
judges. First, second and third place winners will be announced with
corresponding scholarships.
“Supply chain management is one of the fastest growing career fields in the
world today. This growth is due to the complex, and completely essential, nature
of the global supply chain,” said Sharon Rice, APICS SCC executive director.
“Global supply chains need to be supported by professionals with global
perspectives – bringing together teams from around the world introduces the
potential of this field for students as well as cultivating an international
perspective to address the issues facing the industry today.”
APICS 2014 provides a multitude of opportunities for students and scholars to
learn from industry experts, network with working professionals and gain valuable
career insights. For employers and future supply chain and operations managers,
APICS 2014 also hosts a career fair, which provides hiring managers with the
opportunity to meet and interview student attendees.
Registration is open for APICS 2014 which will be help October 19-21. For the
complete conference agenda and schedule, as well as additional registration
information, please visitapicsconference.org.
About APICS Supply Chain Council
APICS SCC is a foundation that advances supply chain and operations
management and innovation through research, education, and publications.
APICS SCC maintains the Supply Chain Operations Reference model (SCOR®),
the supply chain management community’s most widely accepted framework for
evaluating and comparing supply chain activities and performance. For more
information, visit apicssupplychaincouncil.org.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
APICS Welcomes Peter Bolstorff as
Executive Director of APICS Supply Chain
Council
October 15, 2014
APICS, the leading association for supply chain and operations management, is
pleased to welcome Peter Bolstorff as the new executive director of APICS
Supply Chain Council (APICS SCC), the foundation arm of APICS. In this role,
Bolstorff will oversee supply chain research, frameworks, improvement
methodologies, training, benchmarking tools, and conferences that help
companies make sustainable improvements in supply chain performance. He
and his team will also spearhead supply chain workforce development strategies
including a number of programs that benefit students, faculty and academic
institutions.
Bolstorff, the respected author of Supply Chain Excellence: A Handbook for
Dramatic Improvement Using the SCOR Model, brings over 20 years of
experience in supply chain and operations management to the position. Prior to
joining APICS SCC, Bolstorff was the founding principal of SCE Limited, a
consulting firm focused on providing supply chain program management and
SCOR-based education to supply chain executives and their global teams.
Bolstorff also held supply chain and operations management leadership roles at
Pragmatek Consulting Group, Imation and 3M.
“We are delighted to have Peter at the helm of APICS SCC,” said APICS Chief
Executive Officer, Abe Eshkenazi, CSCP, CPA, CAE. “Peter’s previous tenure as
a Supply Chain Council board member, SCOR instructor, and supply chain
subject matter expert uniquely qualify him to lead the newly merged APICS SCC
foundation into 2015 and beyond.”
“My lifelong love of learning and education, as well as my experience with SCOR,
made APICS SCC a logical, and extremely exciting next step in my career,” said
Bolstorff. “The foundation’s focus on education, both of those already entrenched
in their careers and those just starting out, resonates deeply with me and I am
thrilled to be a part of APICS and APICS SCC.”
Bolstorff holds a BA from St. Olaf College and an MA from the University of
Minnesota. Bolstorff officially joined APICS SCC on October 1, 2014.
About APICS Supply Chain Council
APICS SCC advances supply chain and operations management and innovation
through research, publications, education and talent development. APICS SCC
maintains the Supply Chain Reference model (SCOR®), the supply chain
management community’s most widely accepted framework for evaluation and
comparing supply chain activities and performance. For more information, visit
apics.org/apicsscc.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
Supply Chain and Operations Management
Professionals Gather for APICS 2014
Conference
October 17, 2014
Supply Chain and Operations Management Professionals Gather for APICS
2014 Conference
APICS 2014, the premier event for supply chain and operations management
professionals, will run October 19-21, 2014 in New Orleans, LA. Supply chain
and operations management professionals are expected to achieve maximum
productivity, meet consumer demand, and remain agile amid instability and
unpredictability. The APICS annual conference offers relevant education, best
practices and thought leadership to help attendees lead their organizations and
reach their goals.
Keynote (General Session) Presenters
Mike Walsh, CEO, Tomorrow and Author, Futuretainment
Mike Walsh is globally renowned as an expert on future trends, innovation,
business growth and organizational transformation. He takes an anthropological
approach to the future, focusing on emerging technologies and disruptive shifts in
human behavior and then translating these into pragmatic plans for better
business productivity.
Peter Thum, Founder, Ethos Water and Cofounder and CEO, Fonderie 47
As the founder and former president of Ethos Water, Peter Thum transformed his
desire to get clean water to families in third-world countries into a successful
social venture that changed an industry, generated millions of dollars, and
improved the lives of thousands. Currently, Thum is CEO and cofounder of
Fonderie 47, an organization that manufactures jewelry from assault rifles
sourced in war zones.
APICS 2014 World Café
As organizational structures advance and evolve, new and often challenging
talent requirements arise. Join the discussion at APICS 2014 World Café to
share strategies for finding, engaging, and maintaining top talent across cultures
and countries.
Can’t make it to APICS 2014? Supply Chain on BOB.tv will livestream the World
Café session from 8:00 – 9:30 am CT on Tuesday, October 21, 2014.
Visit www.supplychain.bob.tv for the live stream and additional educational
content from the new online home for supply chain professionals.
Sessions of Interest
S&OP Success—Why and How to Engage Top Management
October 19, 8:00 – 9:15 am, Great Hall B
Robert Stahl, President | RA Stahl Company
Thomas Wallace, President | TF Wallace & Associates
Optimum Performance—Racing Toward the Perfect Order
October 19, 1:00 – 2:15 pm, Session Room 208
John McPhee, Director of North America Supply Chain | Nike
The Right Kind of Analytics
October 19, 2:30 – 3:45 pm, Session Room 217
Noha Tohamy, Vice President of Supply Chain Research | Gartner
ERP Transformation at Caterpillar
October 20, 4:00 – 5:15 pm, Session Room 217
Brent Ruth, CPIM, CSCP, Mach 1 Deployment Supply Chain Team Lead |
Caterpillar
For More Information
More information on APICS 2014 can be found at www.apics.org/conference.
For more information on APICS, visit www.apics.org or find us on Twitter,
Facebook, and LinkedIn.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers.
APICS Honors BASF and GE Oil & Gas for
Performance Excellence in Supply Chain
and Operations Management
October 20, 2014
BASF and GE Oil & Gas were honored today at the APICS 2014 conference in
New Orleans, LA, with APICS Corporate Awards of Excellence in recognition of
their commitment to continuing education and innovation in the field of supply
chain and operations management.
BASF received the 2014 APICS Award of Excellence in Education for its
commitment to worker education and training. By paying for employee
membership, seminars, meetings, classes, and exams, BASF is emphasizing the
importance of continued education and certification. Since the 1980’s, BASF has
recognized APICS as the source for operations and supply chain knowledge.
BASF has invested over $1 million in APICS education and sponsored more than
100 in-house APICS classes -- with 1,500 students participating in 25 countries.
In addition, approximately 400 BASF employees are APICS members and more
than 100 have earned APICS certification.
The 2014 APICS Award of Excellence in Innovation honors GE Oil & Gas for its
multi-year supply chain improvement and innovation project that included
establishing a materials management organization based on APICS principles,
making significant changes in their organizational structure, and shifting from
‘product supplier’ to ‘solutions-oriented’ partner. GE Oil & Gas realigned its
Turbomachinery Solutions business to establish new organization dynamics – in
effect, putting APICS theory into practice – which has led to impressive gains and
positions them well for future success.
“By investing in ongoing education, training and certification programs, both
BASF and GE Oil & Gas clearly demonstrated the importance of talent
development to advance supply chain performance,” said APICS Chief Executive
Officer, Abe Eshkenazi, CSCP, CPA, CAE. “We are extremely proud to be their
partner in success and look forward to their continued achievement in supply
chain management and operations.”
The Corporate Awards of Excellence winners were announced at the APICS
2014 annual conference in New Orleans, LA. Past winners include Ingersoll
Rand, Cox Communications, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, Unilever,
Pfizer, and DuPont.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
APICS SCC Announces Sun Yat Sen
University of China Global Student Contest
Winner
October 21, 2014
NEW ORLEANS
APICS Supply Chain Council (APICS SCC) is proud to name Sun Yat Sen
University (from China) the overall winner of the APICS Fresh Connection Global
Student Contest. A total of 12 student-led teams from around the world were
selected to attend APICS 2014 and participate in the annual scholarship case
competition.
Competing teams from University of Nebraska Lincoln; Thunderbird Global
School of Management; University of Connecticut; University of Wisconsin;
University of Akron; California State University in San Bernadino; University of
Puerto Rico Bayamon; HEC Montreal; Hochschule München, Germany;
American University in Cairo, Egypt; Sun Yat Sen University, China; and
Universidad del Pacifico, Peru presented to a panel of judges, earning points for
each different scenario challenge they were given. The Fresh Connection Global
Student contest challenged students to improve ROI for a fictional fruit juice
company - average simulation results saw a 24 percent ROI increase.
"This competition not only gives students the opportunity to understand and
problem solve real-world supply chain issues, it offers them a unique look at the
global complexity of supply chain management today and encourages tackling
issues with an international perspective," said Peter Bolstorff, APICS SCC
executive director. "It was a pleasure to meet these students and watch the
present over the last two days - I am extremely excited to watch what these
students do as they enter the workforce. I encourage students majoring in supply
chain to get involved with APICS Supply Chain Council."
HEC Montreal and California State University teams were named second and
third place winners, respectively. Each winning team was awarded a scholarship
to aid in their continued studies.
About APICS Supply Chain Council
APICS SCC is a foundation that advances supply chain and operations
management and innovation through research, education, and publications.
APICS SCC maintains the Supply Chain Operations Reference model (SCOR®),
the supply chain management community's most widely accepted framework for
evaluating and comparing supply chain activities and performance. For more
information, visit apicssupplychaincouncil.org.
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS
ZZZLinkBegZZZLinkedIn (News - Alert)ZZZLinkEndZZZ group at
apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on ZZZLinkBegZZZTwitter (News Alert)ZZZLinkEndZZZ at twitter.com/APICS.
This Week in Logistics News
(October 18 – 24)
October 24th, 2014
by Chris Cunnane
Retailers are gearing up for the upcoming holiday season. While most stores are
currently decked out in Halloween gear, come November 1, that will all change.
Cue the Christmas trees, lights, and music, because the holiday season is fast
approaching. I can’t say that I’m looking forward to it. But the retailers sure seem
ready. Macy’s recently announced that they will open stores at 6 pm on
Thanksgiving, two full hours earlier than last year. And stores will stay open until
8 pm on Black Friday. That is 26 full hours of Black Friday shopping. This week’s
news is dominated by more holiday logistics, so enjoy!
• Amazon plans to add 80,000 temps for the holiday season
• Target eyes holiday turnaround on free shipping
• FedEx, UPS make plans for better holiday season
• Container ships still backed up at LA-LB
• APICS Honors BASF and GE Oil & Gas
•
Amazon is planning to increase its seasonal workforce by 14% this coming
holiday season. That equates to 80,000 workers. The employees will have
temporary jobs at Amazon’s more than 50 U.S. warehouses. The company will
also place some seasonal hires at its newly created “sortation” centers, where
Amazon collects parcels from the fulfillment centers to sort them by ZIP codes for
delivery to local post offices. The seasonal hiring spree comes a week after the
National Retail Federation forecast $617 billion in holiday spending this year, a
4.1 percent jump from last year. Major rivals including Wal-Mart and Target are
also planning to up their seasonal workforce.
Target has a three-pronged approach to improving its holiday season: free
shipping, more advertising, and 35,000 new items. Currently, Target offers free
shipping for customers who use its branded payment cards. As of today, that
offer has been extended to all purchases through Dec. 20. With Amazon and
other competitors offering free shipping for price threshold purchases, it is not
surprising that Target is adding free shipping as well. The big question is whether
the free shipping on holiday items can drive enough volume to offset the logistics
costs.
To say that last year’s holiday season was a disappointment from a logistics
standpoint is an understatement. Last year, a combination of last minute
shopping and bad weather led to an estimated 2 million packages arriving late for
Christmas. This year, FedEx and UPS are planning ahead to make sure this
doesn’t happen again. FedEx plans to hire 50,000 seasonal workers, up from
40,000 last year. United Parcel Service Inc. says it will add up to 95,000 people,
up from 85,000. Last year, both companies wound up scrambling to hire more
seasonal employees than they had planned, which increased costs and cut into
profits. FedEx also expects to invest $1.2 billion in its ground-shipping network in
its current fiscal year, with most of that going to increase capacity and
automation. The company said that the improvements have sped up ground
delivery by a day or more in more than two-thirds of the U.S. UPS has also
invested to boost shipping capacity during the holidays, said the company’s chief
commercial officer, Alan Gershenhorn. He said that UPS had improved it
forecasting and package tracking.
Vessels are still backed up off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as
gridlock at the Southern California ports continues. Container ship traffic and
volume at the LA-Long Beach port complex has been relatively high, contributing
to the terminals’ congestion. Other reasons for the gridlock include the increasing
sizes of ships in the trans-Pacific trade lane, which require longer times as berth,
as well as a shortage of chassis and drayage drivers, and more recently,
slowdowns by members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
BASF and GE Oil & Gas were honored today at the APICS 2014 conference in
New Orleans, LA, with APICS Corporate Awards of Excellence in recognition of
their commitment to continuing education and innovation in the field of supply
chain and operations management. BASF received the 2014 APICS Award of
Excellence in Education for its commitment to worker education and training. By
paying for employee membership, seminars, meetings, classes, and exams,
BASF is emphasizing the importance of continued education and certification.
GE Oil & Gas was honored for its multi-year supply chain improvement and
innovation project that included establishing a materials management
organization based on APICS principles, making significant changes in their
organizational structure, and shifting from ‘product supplier’ to ‘solutions-oriented’
partner.
Live Webcast: Removing Barriers to
Inventory Optimization
Logility and Deloitte Reveal How the Use of Powerful Business
Process and Technology Enablers Help to Achieve and Sustain
Improved Inventory Performance
October 30, 2014
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Logility, Inc., a leading supplier of collaborative
solutions to optimize the supply chain, and Deloitte will outline a proven threestep approach that helps companies achieve inventory optimization success. The
live event, “Removing Barriers to Inventory Optimization,” is hosted by APICS
and will begin on Thursday, November 6 at 11:00 a.m. ET.
Managing inventories is a delicate balancing act of service goals and cost.
Raising customer service levels can lead to holding excessive amounts of
inventory. On the other hand, reducing working capital can result in slashing the
wrong inventory and damaging important customer relationships with poor
service. In this webcast attendees will learn how perceived barriers are quickly
overcome through a three-step approach; utilizing multi-echelon inventory
optimization (MEIO) to reduce working capital while improving service.
Fast Facts:
• What: “Removing Barriers to Inventory Optimization” Webcast
• When: Thursday, November 6, 2014 at 11 a.m. ET
• Who: Vinder Sodhi, Deloitte and Chris Russell, Logility
• Where: Register at http://bit.ly/ZZvsTc
Related Information
Logility’s companion white paper, “Removing Barriers to Inventory Optimization”,
discusses a simple, three-step approach that helps remove barriers to inventory
optimization success and shows how leading supply chain organizations use
powerful business process and technology enablers to achieve and sustain
improved inventory performance. Download your free copy of this white paper at
http://bit.ly/1000ytM.
About Logility
With more than 1,250 customers worldwide, Logility is a leading provider of
collaborative, best-of-breed supply chain solutions that help small, medium, large
and Fortune 1000 companies realize substantial bottom-line results in record
time. Logility Voyager Solutions is a complete supply chain management solution
that features a performance monitoring architecture and provides supply chain
visibility; demand, inventory and replenishment planning; Sales and Operations
Planning (S&OP); supply and inventory optimization; manufacturing planning and
scheduling; transportation planning and management; and warehouse
management. Logility customers include Abercrombie & Fitch, Big Lots, Fender
Musical Instruments, Parker Hannifin, Verizon Wireless, and VF Corporation.
Logility is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:
AMSWA). For more information about Logility, call 800-762-5207 USA or visit
http://www.logility.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to
substantial risks and uncertainties. There are a number of factors that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by statements
made herein. These factors include, but are not limited to, continuing U.S. and
global economic uncertainty, the timing and degree of business recovery,
unpredictability and the irregular pattern of future revenues, dependence on
particular market segments or customers, competitive pressures, delays, product
liability and warranty claims and other risks associated with new product
development, undetected software errors, market acceptance of Logility’s
products, technological complexity, the challenges and risks associated with
integration of acquired product lines, companies and services, as well as a
number of other risk factors that could affect the Company’s future performance.
For further information about risks the Company and American Software could
experience as well as other information, please refer to American Software, Inc’s.
current Form 10-K and other reports and documents subsequently filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information, contact: Vincent C.
Klinges, Chief Financial Officer, American Software, Inc., (404) 264-5477 or fax:
(404) 237-8868.
Your supply chain is costing you money –
Reason #10 Failure to adequately train your
supply chain planning staff
December 12th, 2014
By John Westerveld
Over the years, working for and with numerous manufacturing companies, I’ve
seen many supply chain practices that cost companies money. Over the next
several weeks, I’ll outline these issues and discuss some ideas around how to
avoid these practices. You can find the previous posts here:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Reason #1: Offshoring without getting the full picture
Reason #2 Poorly executed or non-existent sales and operations planning
Reason #3 Not having end-to-end supply chain visibility
Reason #4 Making key decisions by modelling the supply chain in Excel
Reason #5 Not having a supply chain risk management process
Reason #6 Not effectively managing inventory
Reason #7 Making decisions based on bad data (supply chain data
accuracy)
Reason #8 Keeping supply chain information in silos
Reason #9 Relentless pursuit of one supply chain metric at the expense of
other metrics
Reason #10: Failure to adequately train your supply chain planning staff
When you think about it, your supply chain planning team is responsible for
making decisions that can impact millions of dollars. A bad decision can result in
missed orders, significant inventory, or scrapped materials.
Yet, when you look at the background of many supply chain planning workers,
you’ll find a huge variation in education and experience. From people with a
basic education that worked their way up from the shop floor, to people with
engineering degrees that fell into supply chain planning, to business majors who
have never been to the factory floor, to recent graduates with a supply chain
planning background, but don’t have real-life experience on how manufacturing
and supply chains work.
Having worked with a cross section of these people, I’ve seen the very best and
the very worst. The very best include people that not only understand supply
chain from end-to-end, but can also come up with creative solutions beyond what
the typical supply chain education can prepare you for.
The worse have me wondering why they decided on a career in supply chain at
all. These are the planners that don’t know and don’t care how supply chain
works. They do their jobs moving inventory from here to there, opening orders
that the system says should be opened, cancelling orders that the system says
should be cancelled, yet never questioning why or whether it makes sense.
Why is this a problem? Let’s look at a quick example. Have you ever seen a
situation where some result from a system– whether a bill from the phone
company, a stock report or MRP recommended actions have been messed
up? It might be a programmatic error but more likely it is caused by bad
data. So imagine that you are a supply planner and the MRP report is telling you
to increase orders 10x for an expensive component. Do you do it? The
computer told you to, right? If you are one of those planners that just blindly
execute what the system says to do, then you probably would order it. However,
better supply chain planners might question that recommendation. They use
their knowledge of how planning systems work to peg up to find the source of the
change and determine that someone changed the wrong record causing the
change and confirm with the planner that the change was intended. By doing
this, they could potentially save the company millions of dollars in excess
inventory.
There will always be people that just want to do things the way they always
have. Don’t want training and aren’t interested in learning. However, there are
also those people who have a real drive to learn and would like to understand
supply chain better. These are the folks you want to do everything in your power
to give them the education they need.
While traditional supply chain training isn’t the only way to get really good at
supply chain (I’ve met some planners that instinctively “got” supply chain – and
knew their way around the system better than most) it certainly helps to have a
good foundational knowledge of supply chain concepts. One very good source
of supply chain training is APICs (American Production and Inventory Control
Society). They have multiple resources as well as two certification programs;
CPIM (Certified in Production Inventory Management) and CSCP (Certified
Supply Chain Professional). CPIM is broken out in to 5 modules that each have
an optional instructor led review course. At the end of each module, the student
is encouraged to write the exam. Once all 5 exams have been passed, you
achieve your CPIM certification. CSCP consists of three workshops followed by
an exam for certification. Many companies have paid for their employees to
achieve their certification and some have even brought instructors into the
workplace to do the certification training there. In reality, providing training in this
way is a win-win for the company and the employee. The company gains by
having better educated planners, the employee gains by having a certification
that is recognized my many companies around the world.
Supply chain is a very complex world. Yet, it’s one place where practitioners can
have a huge effect on the business yet have minimal education…and I really
think that’s kind of cool! But your supply chain team could be much more
effective if given the right tools and some basic supply chain education.
“ 2014 Results from APICS Indicate Positive
Projections for Supply Chain Professionals
in 2015”
December, 29 2014
APICS, the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management professionals, gives insight into professional development based
off their membership of more than 41,000 supply chain professionals.
In the last five years APICS has grown by 23 percent, in 2014 the association
expanded by more than 7,800 members. The growth from 2014 can be attributed
to APICS’s continued expansion, a positive business environment and continued
investment in employees’ professional development by corporations.
Other findings for 2014 show that APICS certified more than 4000 supply chain
professionals. There are now 102,819 individuals who have earned the APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management designation and 17,687 who
have earned the APICS CSCP designation. APICS certifications are respected
by employers and are tied to professional success and higher salaries*.
“We want to give our members every opportunity to improve and excel in their
professions,” said Abe Eshkenazi, CSCP, CAE, CPA, APICS Chief Executive
Officer. “With resources, certifications, and education programs, we are
collaborating with the industry to better the future of supply chain.”
Creating a better future for supply chain starts with education, and in 2014
APICS certification was offered in more than 84 countries with tens of thousands
participating in APICS education and certification programs around the globe.
The growth in supply chain certifications as well as memberships indicates that
supply chain professionals and their employers will continue to employ APICS
professional development, education, and certification to advance supply chain
excellence.
*source: 2013 APICS Operations Management Outlook Report
2014 Results from APICS Indicate Positive
Projections for Supply Chain Professionals
in 2015
Statistics provide insights on how supply chain professionals are
planning to advance careers in 2015
December 29, 2014
APICS, the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management professionals, gives insight into professional development based
off their membership of more than 41,000 supply chain professionals.
In the last five years APICS has grown by 23 percent, in 2014 the association
expanded by more than 7,800 members. The growth from 2014 can be attributed
to APICS’s continued expansion, a positive business environment and continued
investment in employees’ professional development by corporations.
Other findings for 2014 show that APICS certified more than 4000 supply chain
professionals. There are now 102,819 individuals who have earned the APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management designation and 17,687 who
have earned the APICS CSCP designation. APICS certifications are respected
by employers and are tied to professional success and higher salaries.*
“We want to give our members every opportunity to improve and excel in their
professions,” said Abe Eshkenazi, CSCP, CAE, CPA, APICS Chief Executive
Officer. “With resources, certifications, and education programs, we are
collaborating with the industry to better the future of supply chain.”
Creating a better future for supply chain starts with education, and in 2014
APICS certification was offered in more than 84 countries with tens of thousands
participating in APICS education and certification programs around the globe.
The growth in supply chain certifications as well as memberships indicates that
supply chain professionals and their employers will continue to employ APICS
professional development, education, and certification to advance supply chain
excellence.
*source: 2013 APICS Operations Management Outlook Report
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
2014 Results from APICS Indicate Positive
Projections for Supply Chain Professionals
in 2015
December 29, 2014
APICS, the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management professionals, gives insight into professional development based
off their membership of more than 41,000 supply chain professionals.
In the last five years APICS has grown by 23 percent, in 2014 the association
expanded by more than 7,800 members. The growth from 2014 can be attributed
to APICS’s continued expansion, a positive business environment and continued
investment in employees’ professional development by corporations.
Other findings for 2014 show that APICS certified more than 4000 supply chain
professionals. There are now 102,819 individuals who have earned the APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management designation and 17,687 who
have earned the APICS CSCP designation. APICS certifications are respected
by employers and are tied to professional success and higher salaries.*
“We want to give our members every opportunity to improve and excel in their
professions,” said Abe Eshkenazi, CSCP, CAE, CPA, APICS Chief Executive
Officer. “With resources, certifications, and education programs, we are
collaborating with the industry to better the future of supply chain.”
Creating a better future for supply chain starts with education, and in 2014
APICS certification was offered in more than 84 countries with tens of thousands
participating in APICS education and certification programs around the globe.
The growth in supply chain certifications as well as memberships indicates that
supply chain professionals and their employers will continue to employ APICS
professional development, education, and certification to advance supply chain
excellence.
*source: 2013 APICS Operations Management Outlook Report
About APICS
APICS is the leading professional association for supply chain and operations
management and the premier provider of research, education and certification
programs that elevate supply chain excellence, innovation and resilience. APICS
Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and APICS Certified
Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) designations set the industry standard. With
over 40,000 members and more than 250 international partners, APICS is
transforming the way people do business, drive growth and reach global
customers. For more information, visit apics.org, join the APICS LinkedIn group
at apics.org/linkedin, and follow APICS on Twitter at twitter.com/APICS.
OTHER MENTIONS:
JANUARY
Los Angeles Business Journal, Manufacturing and Distribution Employers
Increasingly Rely on External Professional Training and Development Programs
to Bridge Skills Gap According to Survey Conducted by LMA Consulting Group
Inc. and APICS-Inland Empire
Jan. 8 – This press release from Empire chapter of APICS was picked up a total
of 22 times.
Western Michigan University, Student APICS chapter earns platinum status
Jan. 13 – APICS recognized the Western Michigan University student chapter by
awarding it platinum status.
FEBRUARY
Yahoo! Finance, Cynthia B. Burton is recognized by Continental Who's Who as
a Pinnacle Professional
Feb. 7 - Cynthia is a member of APICS and the Huntington's disease Society of
America. This release was picked up a total of 169 times.
Indiana State University, Business students participate in mock competition
Feb. 11 - The Scott College of Business hosted a mock business case study
competition in conjunction with APICS.
Virtual Strategy Magazine, Ultra Consultants Hosts “New Rules of ERP”
Webinar
Feb. 13 – The Ultra Consultants team averages over 20 years manufacturing and
process experience with professional certifications from APICS. This release was
picked up a total of 12 times.
MARCH
JOC.com, Penske Logistics Mexico Names New Sales Leader
Mar. 5 - Sanchez was nearing completion of his APICS Certification. This release
was picked up a total of 3 times.
Northwest Harold, MCC to offer APICS certification prep courses
Mar. 13 - McHenry County was offering APICS Certified Production and
Inventory Management certification preparation courses.
APRIL
Electronics Purchasing Strategies, Brandman Offers Supply Chain Courses
Apr.1 - Brandman University announced its partnership with APICS Orange
County
Free Press Release, Karen Alber was Appointed as Chief Information Officer at
MillerCoors
Apr. 6 - Karen Alber served as the International Conference Chair for APICS.
Materials Handling & Logistics, I’m Dreaming of an Overstocked Talent Pool
Apr. 8 – Tom Andel comments on logistics talent developments by mentioning
the partnership between Brandman University and APICS Orange County.
MAY
Supply Chain Management Review, How They Did it: Red Wing Shoes’
Journey to S&OP
May 1 – Stephanie Grothe – APICS CPIM and CSCP
PR Web, Supply Chain Management, Training & Education Expert Slated to
Present at the 2014 ISM International Supply Management Conference
May 2 – Press Release – Mentions certified member.
Business Wire, QAD Opens Explore 2014 Customer Conference in New
Orleans
May 5 – Many sessions provide APICS continuing education credits. This release
was picked a total of 21 times.
Seacoast Online, Examining links in supply chain
May 6 – Dave Turbide – Dave Turbide is president of the Granite State chapter
of APICS.
1888 Press Release, Rockwell Automation Awarded Silver in the 2014 Asia
Pacific Stevie Awards
May 8 – Press Release – “APBC also won this year's APICS Corporate Award of
Excellence”
Modern Materials Handling, Supply chain management: Meet Zawadi Dismuke
May 11 – Bob Trebilcock – “One of this year’s Richter Scholars, Dismuke is one
young student who is excited about supply chain management.” This story was
picked up a total of 4 times.
Thomas Net News, Cirtronics Received Company of the Year Award by APICS
May 21 – This release was picked up a total of 4 times.
Info World, Follow the money: The hottest skills and certs in tech
May 22 – Bill Snyder
JUNE
Yahoo! Finance, DHL Supply Chain Announces New Managing Director for
Malaysia
June 20 – Prakash holds a certificate in Supply Chain from APICS. This release
was picked up a total of 6 times.
Kearny Hub, Lush given promotion at Baldwin Filters
June 22 – Lush recently earned APICS certification in production and inventory
management.
Washington Business Journal, FDAnews Announces New Workshop -Innovative Process Validation Strategies for Medical Devices: Proving Your
Processes and Documentation to the FDA, Aug. 26-27, 2014, Bethesda, MD
June 30 - Dan O'Leary is certified by APICS in Resource Management.
JULY
San Francisco Business Times, Delivery, Pricing and Sales Support Top List of
Three Ways Customer Expectations Changed for Manufacturers and Distributors
According to Research
July 15 – Lisa Anderson, MBA, CSCP mentioned as speaker at APICS
International Conference. This release was picked up a total of 15 times.
PR Web, National Association of Professional Women Announces Jayne R.
Magnant, Director of Finance and Administration at Rhino Foods, a 2014
Professional Woman of the Year
July 29 – Jayne R. Magnant is an APICS member. This release was picked up a
total of 6 times.
Virtualization Journal, Architecting Next-Gen Connected Supply Chains
July 30 - Peter Vanderminden is the Industry Manager, Manufacturing & Supply
Chain at Microsoft Corporation and an APICS member. This release was picked
up a total of 11 times.
AUGUST
Automation.com, Get Smart When it Comes to Part Numbering
Aug. 25 - Dennis Gilhooley, Jr., Ultra Consultants is APICS certified
Seacoast Online, Benefits of a supply chain partnership
Aug, 26 - Dave Turbide is APICS certified
Virtualization Journal, Disruptive Macro Trends and Industrial IoT
Aug. 28 - Peter Vanderminden is the Industry Manager, Manufacturing & Supply
Chain at Microsoft Corporation and an APICS member. This release was picked
up a total of 17 times.
Yahoo! Finance, American Software Reports Preliminary First Quarter of Fiscal
Year 2015 Results
Aug. 28 – Caribou Coffee and Logility led an educational APICS webcast. This
release was picked up a total of 29 times.
SEPTEMBER
Supply Chain Management Review,
http://www.scmr.com/article/how_they_did_it_multi_enterprise_collaboration_at_i
ntel
Sept. 1 – John Dawson, CPIM, CSPM
Virtualization Journal, @ThingsExpo | Architecting Next-Gen Connected
Supply Chains
Sept. 10 – Peter Vanderminden is the Industry Manager, Manufacturing &
Supply Chain at Microsoft Corporation and APICS certified. This release was
picked up a total of 8 times.
OCTOBER
Yahoo! Finance, Logility to Highlight Supply Chain Excellence at APICS 2014
Conference and Expo
Oct. 16 – This release was picked up a total of 8 times.
Yahoo! Finance, Verify Exhibits at APICS Conference 2014 in New Orleans,
Louisiana
Oct. 20 – This release was picked up a total of 7 times.
NOVEMBER
Daily Record,
http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/money/business/2014/11/20/carbon-expressapics-making-morris-county-businessnews/70013270/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=
Nov. 20 – West Jersey Chapter of APICS.
DECEMBER
LMA Consulting Group, http://www.lma-consultinggroup.com/blog/essentialskills-supply-chain-superhero
Dec. 23 – Lisa Anderson spoke at the APICS 2014 International Conference.
Logistics Viewpoints, http://logisticsviewpoints.com/2014/12/09/when-didsupply-chain-solutions-become-mature/
Dec. 9 – Tom Kozenski is APICS certified.