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Supply Chain Certifications

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Supply chain certifications

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What professional certifications are there in supply chain management? – Here are two types of certifications issued by the American Professional Association: Certified Purchasing Management (C.P.M.) and Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM).

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Strictly speaking, neither certification covers the entire scope of supply chain management. Because the supply chain consists of three main aspects: purchasing/supply management, production management and logistics management (Logistics), it covers the entire process of sourcing, processing, transporting and sending materials.

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The aim is to integrate as many links as possible throughout the chain, thereby increasing the overall efficiency of the supply chain. In real work, few people can cover these three aspects. Everyone’s responsibilities are more or less concentrated in a certain piece. For example, the author’s position is supply chain business manager, mainly responsible for supplier management, and therefore focus on procurement and supply management. Some of the author’s colleagues specialize in logistics management, focusing on warehouse, transportation management, in order to most effectively and economically move materials from A to B.

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As can be seen from the name, C.P.M. focuses on procurement management, while CPIM focuses on production and inventory management. C.P.M. has a 32-year history and was originally awarded by the National Association of Purchasing Managers, NAPM. Around 2001, the association changed its name to the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) to adapt to the new changes in the procurement profession: the scope of responsibility for procurement management has expanded, and its influence in the company has grown. Accordingly, the Institute for Supply Management introduced the Certified Professional in Supply Management certification (CPSM) and Certified Professional in Supplier Diversity (CPSD) to replace C.P.M.

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CPSM certification covers price, quality, delivery, technology, supplier selection, supplier negotiation, international trade, corporate management, and human resources management. In this sense, CPSM is a high-level certification designed to develop supply/procurement managers. It also requires a certain number of years of relevant work experience, such as five years of procurement experience or undergraduate degree plus three years of procurement experience. Detailed certification requirements can be found on the Institute for Supply Management website. By 2004, more than 42,000 people worldwide had the certification. In the U.S., the average annual income of a CPSM. certifier in purchasing executives is $88,600, nearly 18 percent higher than the $75,300 for non-certifiers, according to 2005 statistics from Purchasing magazine.

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THE CPIM was originally awarded by the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR PRODUCTION AND INVENTORY CONTROL, APICS. Around 2003, the association changed its name to APICS – The Association for Operations Management (APICS, Operations Management Association) to complete the transition from production management to operations management, similar to the renaming of the American Association of Purchasing Managers. The CPIM certification began in 1973 and is owned by approximately 75,000 people worldwide.

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In 2005, APICS decided to launch CSCP, Certified Supply Chain Professional Certification. This certification will coexist with CPIM. “In content terms, CPIM focuses on the company’s production planning, control, and implementation, i.e. how to turn the sales plan into a production master plan (MPS), then step by step to the Materials Requirement Plan (MRP), to the plant’s production floor, production line progress planning, production implementation and control, covering all of the content.”

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In general, CPIM certification is a kind of basic knowledge of production and inventory management. It does not require certifiers to have relevant work experience, and U.S. universities recognize the credits of certification programs that can be used to meet the requirements for undergraduate degrees in the relevant majors. Strictly speaking, CPIM focuses on technical management rather than personnel management, its training objectives, it is more focused on production management and technical personnel.

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It’s also clear from its name: it uses Management, not Manager. According to sources, the overall salary of CPIM is lower than C.P.M., perhaps because C.P.M. certification requires a certain number of years of work experience, the starting point of personnel quality is higher than CPIM. So the next question is, is that certification more worth taking? It depends on what a person wants to do. C.P.M. is the first choice in the case of procurement and supply management, and CPIM is more valuable in the case of production, inventory, and material management. In fact, there are many intersections between the two certifications.

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In many businesses, especially in manufacturing, CPSM and CPIM can often be universal. For example, many job advertisements on the Supply Management Association website require candidates to have one of two certifications. Note: In many cases, it is not necessary to have (must have), but rather to have (desirable). This also shows that these certifications are not required to enter the relevant profession, to become a good practitioner. For example, the United States in the procurement, supply management, production management and other occupations as many as a few million people, and these certifications are only rare.

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Advantage of these certifications

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As with any professional certification, these two certifications only provide the overall knowledge of the relevant occupation. For career start-ups, these certifications can be used as a door-knocking tool to enter a relevant career, and for those with some experience, they can help them take it to the next level.

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It is mostly observed that a company’s relevant practitioners, not necessarily have the basic knowledge of the profession, skills. Systematic professional certification helps to improve the overall professional quality of staff. This is particularly important for the overall transformation and image improvement of the whole sector. The result will be an improvement in the quality of the entire department.

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