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

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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.

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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 vpeducation@apics-houston.org. 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@apics-houston.org

President’s Message

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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

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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

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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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