APICS The Association for Operations Management, is a not-for-profit international education organization, offering certification programs, training tools and networking opportunities to increase workplace performance. It was founded in 1957 as the American Production and Inventory Control Society, and currently has more than 36,000 individual and corporate members in more than 10,000 companies worldwide. In April 2008, the organization relocated to Chicago, Illinois.
APICS defines operations management as "the field of study that focuses on the effective planning, scheduling, use and control of a manufacturing or service organization through the study of concepts from design engineering, industrial engineering, management information systems, quality management, production management, inventory management, accounting, and other functions as they affect the organization."
APICS offers several professional designations: APICS CPIM (Certified in Production and Inventory Management), APICS CSCP (Certified Supply Chain Professional) and APICS CFPIM (Certified Fellow in Production and Inventory Management).
The APICS CIRM (Certified in Integrated Resource Management) program was discontinued in 2008. APICS continues to recognize the designation.
Also in 2008, APICS published the APICS Operations Management Body of Knowledge (OMBOK) Framework. The APICS OMBOK Framework defines the scope of the profession and provides a dynamic resource for operations management professionals. Other publications APICS produces for the operations and supply chain management profession are APICS magazine, the Production and Inventory Management Journal, and the APICS Dictionary.
APICS, along with a variety of other operations and supply chain management organizations, provides professional development opportunities that help professionals and their organizations successfully compete in the global economy. Organizations with which APICS is currently aligned include:
- The Supply-Chain Council
- The American Society of Transportation & Logistics
- The Association for Manufacturing Excellence
- The American Management Association
- The Institute of Operations Management
Famous quotes containing the words association, operations and/or management:
“With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men.”
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938)
“You can’t have operations without screams. Pain and the knife—they’re inseparable.”
—Jean Scott Rogers. Robert Day. Mr. Blount (Frank Pettingell)
“Why not draft executive and management brains to prepare and produce the equipment the $21-a-month draftee must use and forget this dollar-a-year tommyrot? Would we send an army into the field under a dollar-a-year General who had to be home Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays?”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)