April 1996 € Volume 6 € Number 4
Education Notebook
Building Bridges And Foundations With APICS
By Dallas J. Lee, CPIM
Materials management is materials management, right? Maybe -- the basics
of receiving, storing, issuing and accounting for material stay much the
same. However, changes occur in applications and terminology, especially
between the military and commercial sectors. Learning new terminology is
similar to learning a new language. It is necessary to use new pathways
in the brain and somehow build a bridge between past experience and new
learning. APICS helped me do just that.
In May 1986, I went to work at Martin Marietta Aerospace after retiring
from the U.S. Marine Corps. My military career as a supply chief prepared
me well for entering the civilian world of material managements, except
for terminology. I found myself in a different world of acronyms. After
22 years of learning things like "reorder objective/reorder point"
(RORP), I discovered that what I really was trying to say was "min-max."
Stumbling over acronyms and trying to find the other word to explain a situation
led to misunderstandings and, often, delays. Fortunately, Martin Marietta
was a leader in the local APICS chapter. After attending one meeting, I
was hooked. It was immediately clear that pursuing certification with APICS
would be the fastest way to bridge my military experience to my civilian
career. By 1988, I had completed my certification and felt much more comfortable
in my new role.
In addition to bringing into focus terminology differences, my APICS training
increased my awareness of alternative methods of materials management, which
often proved to be thought-provoking and cost-effective.
During this period, defense contractors were faced with a new challenge:
Materials Management and Accounting Systems (MMAS) standards (the Ten Key
Elements) published by the Department of Defense.
Armed with a bachelor's degree in accounting and Certified in Production
and Inventory Management (CPIM) by APICS, I was ready for the challenge.
By the end of 1989, my team had designed and implemented an inventory control
system that exceeded the MMAS standards.
As time passed, I moved from inventory management into production control.
Then, I faced a new challenge with a new company-Sandia National Laboratories
-- where I was tasked with managing the materials management department
at a new production site that had no systems or history of production. It
was a challenge I would not have been able to meet without my APICS training.
Here's why.
Sandia National Laboratories, a Lockheed-Martin facility, enjoys a reputation
for research and development (R&D) that many aspire to and few achieve.
In 1993, the Department of Energy assigned Sandia the new task of production.
It became apparent that R&D was not prepared. Schedules, controls, routings,
documentation, inventory management and materials requirements planning
(MRP) were new requirements met with varying degrees of acceptance and resistance.
It soon became apparent that a re-education process was necessary.
That source of education was APICS. Even before purchasing an MRP II system,
Sandia hired APICS-trained CPIMs to make the system selection. APICS education
was used to train future users of the MRP II system and lesson plans were
developed with APICS standards in mind. The terminology of all operating
procedures is based on the APICS Dictionary. Center policies support APICS-taught
approaches, and from the vice president down, APICS terminology has been
and will continue to be the language of choice.
By building on what Sandia believes to be a solid foundation in production
education, the company and its employees, believe that success is guaranteed.
Within the materials management department, I include APICS training as
a performance goal for all of my people. We couldn't do the job without
this training.
Certification in Integrated Resource Management (CIRM) is my future challenge,
as well as that of other individuals within our production center. As our
new organization is being formed, the importance of having individuals understand
the criticality of integration cannot be overstated, especially in an environment
where autonomy has thrived and been rewarded for more than 40 years.
Sandia now offers both CPIM and CIRM certification courses as part of its
continuing education curriculum.
Dallas J. Lee, CPIM, is currently managing the materials management department
for Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M.
This work was supported by the United States Department of Energy under
Contract DE-ACQ4-94AL85000.
Copyright © 2020 by the American Production and Inventory
Control Society Inc. All rights reserved.
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