THE HORIZON
Welcome to the APICS Houston Chapter, an organization that provides educational services
and events for the Supply Chain and Operations Community in Houston and its surrounding
areas.
Currently one of the leading chapters in the nation, the Chapter has the following accomplish-
ments:
800+ members, one of the largest of the 270 chapters in the nation
Actively sponsors and supports student chapters such as the Sam State Houston
University
Leading industry executives and professionals holding board positions in The Chapter and
District
Nationally recognized instructors and speakers
Platinum Level Chapter for 10+ years, complying with the highest standards of APICS
Supply Chain Professional Newsletter
“Our goal is to maximize
benefits to organizations,
employees, and individuals
within our reach using the
APICS Body of Knowledge
and other relevant bodies
of knowledge.
- APICS Houston Chapter
1
In This Issue
President’s Message
Professional
Development Meeting
Upcoming CPIM /
CSCP / CLTD Classes
Rick Gillis
February 2017
Joint "PDM" Professional Development Meet-
ing with ASQ Houston
"Your work does not speak for itself.
You do. "
with
Rick Gillis
Thursday, February 16th, 2017
5:00 - 8:30 p.m.
2
As we reflect back on
2016, it has been a time of
great challenges and reward-
ing experiences. I’d like to
start by thanking our instruc-
tors and volunteers for their
continued support of the
Houston Chapter vision and
mission. We have a strong
Houston Chapter because of
the individual talents and knowledge that each and every
volunteer and instructor brings to the table. APICS Houston
volunteers are passionate professionals who take great
pride in their ability to serve our stakeholders.
Our APICS Houston Chapter continues to be a key factor to
APICS successfully achieving its mission. I’m delighted to
inform you that our organization has achieved the APICS
Chapter Benchmarking and Reporting (C-BAR) Platinum
Award level for the 2016-2017 year. APICS created the
CBAR program to recognize APICS Chapters that go beyond
the minimum required standards to provide exemplary ser-
vice to their members and customers. The Platinum Award
level demonstrates our Chapter’s dedication to providing
exemplary member services and professional development
opportunities to APICS members and customers. The suc-
cess of our Chapter translates to better programs and val-
ue to our members, stakeholders, and community in gen-
eral. Congratulations to the APICS Houston Chapter and its
members for this outstanding achievement.
Houston Economy Update
As you are aware, our Houston metropolitan area con-
tinues to suffer from a slowdown in the energy industry.
Based on the latest Texas Workforce Commission unadjust-
ed data, the unemployment rate for the last 12 months is
5.14% for the counties of Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend,
Galveston, Harris, Montgomery, and Waller with 15,473
jobs added in November. We should keep in mind that the
Houston Metropolitan area typically adds an average of
10,000 jobs in the months of November and December.
Our Chapter is committed to our members and will contin-
ue improving the support we provide to our unemployed
members, including improvements to our Job Bank, Men-
toring Circles series, recruiting efforts during our Profes-
sional Development Meeting, among others.
In an effort to further support our community, our APICS
Houston Chapter has created a “Scholarship and Discount”
program to support unemployed (seeking work), veterans,
military and disabled members. Take advantage of this
great opportunity and further improve your career by
achieving an APICS Certification. Space and time is limited.
For more information, please contact Kris Vorm
at [email protected]. Once again, I’d like to
remind our members that APICS offers a membership ex-
tension free of charge if you are unemployed. Please con-
tact us to obtain more information.
Education and events
Our key highlight for the first quarter of 2017 will be the
start of our Certified in Logistics, Transportation and Distri-
bution (CLTD) classes. With Houston’s strategic location,
the Port of Houston, The Houston Airport System, and the
upcoming Houston SpacePort, our metropolitan area plays
a key role in the distribution and logistics industry for a
number of domestic and international markets and compa-
nies. Because of Houston’s strategic position, we believe
the new CLTD certification is well positioned to help compa-
nies improve their bottom line by providing individuals with
the ability to understand, evaluate, and improve logistic,
transportation and distribution activities within an organiza-tion’s global operations. Please visit our website to learn
more about CLTD. Our Houston Chapter is also preparing
sessions to answer questions about this new certification. I
also would like to congratulate our newly CLTD certified instructors!
· Certified Production and Inventory Management
(CPIM) in a Year
· CPIM Strategic Management of Resources (SMR)
· CPIM Basics of Supply Chain Management (BSCM)
· CPIM Detailed Scheduling and Planning (DSP)
· Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP)
· Our newly developed Distribution Management and
Inventory Control Essentials Workshops
· The Anheuser-Busch Brewery Plant Tour
As a way to support our members to be better prepared in their careers, we have continued our mentoring circles
with the following themes: Team Dynamics and Developing
your Leadership Style. If you are interested in becoming a
mentor for future events please contact us. I’d like to en-
courage you to take advantage of this opportunity which is
available only for members.
On behalf of your APICS Houston Chapter Board of Direc-
tors, I would like to wish you a successful 2017.
Submitted respectfully,
Mauricio A. Hernández, MBA, CPIM, CSCP
APICS Houston Chapter, President, 2016-2017
President’s Message
3
Corporate Supply Chain Visibility Supply Chain visibility is to a company is critically strategic to the success of companies aimed at reducing cost and opera-
tional efficiencies. Supply Chain visibility becomes increasingly more complex if you have a multi-tiered network of partners and
global relationships. The responsiveness and execution of your Supply Chain requires a close synchronization between your glob-
al supply and demand without it your business could be in trouble.
Supply Chain visibility is defined as the awareness of and control over specific information related to orders and physical ship-
ments, including transport and logistics activities and the statuses of events and milestones that occur prior to and in-transit.
For example, before a company can successfully reduce inventory, implement procurement procedures, build network maps,
work on continuous improvement activities, you must have visibility into them.
How do you obtain Supply Chain visibility with senior management?
Visibility is defined by companies and managers in different ways thus they either assume it exists or lack the understanding
on how to promote it. First and foremost obtaining an understanding of the current state of visibility within the company is cru-
cial. From experience, going straight to the source of where visibility shows up, i.e., the shop floor, shipping and receiving, pro-
curement / purchasing departments and conducting a simple questions and answers conversation. Many times you will find the
Supply Chain culture has not been instilled into the DNA of the organization.
You must help your coworkers understand how important each group that lie within a supply chain organization is and to contin-
ue to deliver that message. Having Supply Chain visibility is also key (when bringing others on board) help to achieve the busi-
ness plan.
Having little to no Supply Chain visibility
It’s understandable that companies need to continuously practice Supply Chain education but by the CPO spending unneces-
sary time having to bring visibility to the organization, can lead to increased cost. When senior management has not done their
part by delivering the Supply Chain message to the organization, it makes it quite difficult for a CPO to move forward with imple-
menting successful programs because he is always fighting an uphill battle with others either not having heard of Supply Chain
or needing to be extensively educated.
It is understandable that businesses many times focus on growing core initiatives and many do not have the IT network or
bandwidth to support growing, complex Supply Chain. So gathering and understanding this data is important, validating and com-
municating it in a way that gives others leverage, visibility remains a challenge for all companies.
Chris Agner
Director of Employment Outreach
4
Joint Professional Development Meeting with
Thursday, February 16th, 2017
United Way of Greater Houston 50 Waugh Drive
Houston, Texas 77007
“Your work does not speak for itself. You do.
Embrace the difference between boasting & communicating your value.”
Keynote Speaker Rick Gillis, Careers Expert
The author of 5 books on careers & employment, Rick has been seen and heard on radio and TV across the US, Canada, the Caribbean and Australia; he has been noted and quoted by The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Inc., Black Enterprise, Univision, Forbes, CIO, NPR, PBS, the Huffington Post & Business Insider to name just a
few. Rick has spoken live from coast to coast to coast: East, West & Gulf!
Rick is a US Air Force veteran, a member of the Forbes Coaches Council and holds a Bachelor of Science Man-
agement degree from Park University.
Meeting Agenda 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM Check-In 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM Pre-dinner Tutorial Presentation (TBD) 6:30 PM – 7:00 PM Dinner 7:00 PM - 7:15 PM Announcements
7:15 PM - 8:30 PM Post-Dinner Main Presentation
Event Cost By February 15
Houston Chapter Members $25.00 Student Chapter Members $15.00
Non-Members $25.00
Notice:
* By accept my registration, people accept to be photographed or videotaped
* Credit card refund requests are to be submitted a minimum of 3 days prior to the event being held
* Late registrations for the event will incur an additional $10 fee
* Changes of speaker or topic are possible
Contact Us
APICS Houston Chapter
11152 Westheimer Road,
#872 Houston, TX 77042
The APICS Houston
Chapter has an online
presence through social
networks. Please join us!
Follow us on LinkedIn
and Facebook
“Houston Chapter Group”
www.APICS-Houston.org
February 2017 PDM
“Your work does not speak for itself. You do. Embrace the difference between boasting &
communicating your value”
with
Rick Gillis,
Careers Expert
Thursday, February 16th, 2017
5:30 - 8:00 p.m.
Return Addresss :
11152 Westheimer Road, #872 Houston,
TX 77042
PLACE STAMP HERE
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