Path to Success “ How APICS made a difference”

 Early in my career, I thought I knew everything there was to know about plant operations.  I was a plant manager for a small manufacturing company, and thought my experience prepared me for other similar and higher level positions.  After ten years, I started to realize that in order to advance my career I needed to differentiate myself to potential employers just to be granted an interview.  Once I was granted an interview, I thought I could use my experience and body of knowledge to be seriously considered for the position.  I found I was not as well prepared as I thought to meet the criteria for advanced positions.  I knew I needed to re-define my career aspirations and create a path of progression that would take me to the next level.

 I found that without a college degree I was unable to get an interview with many major employers.  This relegated me to a career path that would be with small companies with little advancement opportunity and at less than desirable compensation.   I decided that I needed a dual path to change my direction.  First, was to finish college; second, was to gain specialized knowledge within the manufacturing industry. My thought was that achievement of both would provide opportunity, and direction and growth in my career path.  Interestingly, I found that my APICS certification actually supplied both the opportunity and growth without the degree.

I received an opportunity to work in a local manufacturing company as a planner, where I first encountered the concept of MRP.  Within two years, I became a master planner and realized that I needed to increase my knowledge base and became an APICS member for its specialized focus on manufacturing operations.  My plan was to earn my CPIM Certification within 10 months and I purchased every book that was considered to be suggested reading for this certification.  I scheduled exams every two months and ultimately received my certification. What I found with the subject knowledge that I had gained was that I was prepared to immediately apply new techniques and process understanding in my daily regime.  This ultimately lead to changes I instituted that improved the profitability of our company, resulted  in less excess inventory, improved customer service and resulted in very flexible and dynamic production planning operations.  Once the production planning process was stabilized, I integrated the sales and operational planning functions, which helped develop the long-term strategic planning process.  The success of our supply chain initiatives resulted in the company’s acquisition by a Fortune 200 company as a means for them to replicate and assimilate our centers of excellence within their entire organization.

My efforts were rewarded and I was promoted to corporate supply chain manager.  This position required additional skill sets that I needed to refine and I once again turned to APICS for the specialized knowledge I required.  As a manufacturing professional, my concept of what vendors wanted was to give them what they wanted, when they wanted it, at the cheapest price.  I realized from my specialized APICS training that my new role was to create a partnership and collaboration within the total supply chain and facilitate effective communication all along the way. Needless to say, I was pleased to hear that APICS was embracing an SCSP certification and prepared myself for this by once again purchasing all the reference material and signing up for the first set of exams.  I successfully passed the exam and was part of the first group certified as Certified Supply Chain Professionals.

My first task was to identify an ERP solution that would best suit the direction of the organization and to develop a supply base that would support our new domestic and global initiatives. We were successful with the ERP implementation and developed a solid supply chain infrastructure for the company.

Conclusion

 My APICS certification and training supplied me with the credibility and confidence to pursue opportunities with major companies and utilize my specialized training to reinforce my potential to add value to most any organization. I have control over the opportunities to pursue, how to prepare and present myself, and select the right opportunity.  My compensation has dramatically risen since I received my first certification and my employer considers me as a valuable asset to the organization.

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