Chapter 19 Achieves GOLD Status!

The Western Massachusetts Chapter has received the highest level of recognition available from APICS Society for excellence in chapter management during the 2007 and 2008 program year.

One of the key initiatives of the new APICS strategy is to enhance and develop the Association’s ability to serve our members and other end users better by consistently delivering a high quality customer experience.

There are two complementary programs administered by APICS Corporate headquarters to motivate chapters to improve member services and encourage them to monitor their progress against established standards: CMS and C-BAR.

Chapter Minimum Standards (CMS)
The primary purpose of the CMS program is to enhance the growth, development, and value-added activities of APICS chapters by evaluating each chapter against a set of criteria that is felt to have a direct and positive impact on chapter performance.

The Chapter Development Committee (CDC) was given the charter to develop criteria for CMS and establish evaluations against those criteria for each and every chapter. This evaluation is to identify those areas upon which a chapter needs to achieve a level of performance to be minimally viable to meet market expectations on APICS Body of Knowledge (BOK) delivery and effectively participate in the delivery network.

Because CMS is a set of basic standards, evaluation is on a single level of Pass or Fail. This program helps to identify chapters that require help and other special attention from Corporate and District level staff, to deliver the kind of services APICS members expect and deserve.

Chapter Benchmarking and Reporting (C-BAR)
The C-BAR program is more comprehensive in its scope, going well beyond the basics required in the Minimum Standards. This program provides chapters with a benchmarking tool by establishing points on a sliding scale for measuring a chapter’s achievement against predetermined standards in programs, education, communications, financial management and other areas of member services.

There are three regular levels of achievement: Bronze, Silver, and Gold; and a fourth (Platinum) for recognizing chapters that consistently achieve Gold for five years or more.

The C-BAR program has a variety of purposes, among them:

• Provide each chapter with a comprehensive set of activities recommended for a successful chapter.

• Provide an objective process to recognize chapters that meet or exceed the accomplishment of recommended activities.

• Provide districts, DMC, and association feedback on chapter strengths and weaknesses for the development and implementation of future programs and training needed to assist chapters to better support their customers.

Benefits
By participating in C-BAR, chapters can expect the following benefits:

• To establish and define standards of performance
• To easily identify opportunities for growth
• To promote challenges
• To provide an administrative tool
• To demonstrate benefits of continuous improvement
• To help provide meaningful metrics and measurements
• To recognize and share achievements, accomplishments and innovations
• To share best practices

Recognition
C-BAR recognition levels are based on the accomplishments of the individual chapters. Chapters must first meet the Minimum Standards for chapter maintenance before they are eligible to work toward the following recognition levels:

Bronze: Chapters that meet the Minimum Standards for chapter maintenance and adequate performance in additional areas. To qualify for the Bronze award, a chapter must earn between 150-234 points.

Silver: Chapters that demonstrate an ability to execute successful initiatives within additional areas beyond the Minimum Standards. For the Silver level, a chapter must earn between 235-314 points.

Gold: For Chapters that perform several items listed at a level well beyond the Minimum Standards. To qualify for Gold, chapters must earn between 315-435 points.

Platinum: Chapters that achieve Gold status for five years consecutively are recognized at the Platinum level. If a chapter does not submit or does not achieve the Gold level in any year, it must again earn Gold five years consecutively to regain the Platinum level.

OMBOK – The OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

Recently, APICS Society announced the release of the OMBOK Framework and made it available to all members free of charge through the Corporate website. While you may not personally find an immediate use for this document, rest assured it is an important advancement for your field and an important ingredient in maintaining the leadership and relevance of APICS as an organization.

When first published in the 1960s, the APICS Dictionary established APICS as the authority on, and arbiter of, what defined the scope of the Body of Knowledge for Production and Inventory Management. Later editions were expanded to cover Supply Chain Management. Now, with the publication of the OMBOK, APICS is staking a claim to be the standard setter for the entire field of Operation Management.

APICS is already receiving recognition for the OMBOK. To understand more, you can get a very good explanation in the following article, recently published in Modern Materials Handling magazine:
http://www.mmh.com/article/CA6616778.html