Lots of good things are happening these days.  Okay so maybe the Packers losing to the Giants wasn’t a good thing but Miss Wisconsin becoming Miss America was.   We are always trying to be the best at something or the champion of something.   Seems like we are always competing with someone or someone is competing with us.  Same holds true of our time.   Are you winning the battles and beating the competition?   Are you spending your time wisely?   Your APICS membership and the Milwaukee Chapter have ways to help you set yourself apart from your competition.

  If you are a business owner or manager you may be responsible for hiring quality, qualified people.  Why not hire an APICS Certified professional.  They have been tested to become certified and have to continue to learn and stay current on operations management principles to stay certified.   APICS certified professionals can provide confidence that the candidates you choose are qualified.

  If you work in operations management why not strive to get your certification.  APICS offers two certifications that represent your qualifications.  CPIM – Certified in Production Inventory Management shows that you have the skills to manage the operations within your company.  CSCP – Certified Supply Chain Professional shows that you have the skills to manage operations within your company and incorporate the supplier and customer ends of operations management.  APICS Milwaukee Chapter offers classes with some of the best instructors in the business.  They will help prepare you for certification testing just like they did for 5 of their students that recently passed the CSCP exam.

   If you are a student focused on working in operations management join one of our student chapters at UW-Milwaukee, UW-Whitewater or Carroll University.  Student membership gives you a chance to network with your peers and even compete in a practice case competition with other students at the national level.  Our Milwaukee Chapter has a brand new student internship program.  This gives students a chance to work in operations management and gives companies a chance to find talent and potentially a permanent, qualified employee.

   Regardless of your role or position you can attend the Milwaukee Chapter monthly PDMs – Professional Development Meetings.  These meetings are a good way to network with your peers in operations management and learn what others have done to make their companies be successful.  Just like we did in January when we heard from Sandy Anderson the president of St Clare Hospital in Baraboo and what they did to come back from the house that got washed away and all the fallout that followed.  Or what we expect to see when we tour the Pettit Center in February and Miller Park in March.

   Our goal is to provide Milwaukee Chapter Members the best experience possible.  We want to make PDMs a social event where those who attend come away with something they can use at work when the situation presents itself.  You can help us with this effort by filling out and returning our all members survey when it arrives in your inbox.  Please be candid with your responses and help us make our chapter the best it can be.   See you at a PDM.

 Kurt A Horner, CPIM

   My name is Bridget Lazlo and I am a Past President of the Milwaukee Chapter and currently a Director at Large.  I have been on your board for 8 years and the purpose of this article is to give you some insight as to why I stay on the board and what I get out of it.

   Here is a short list of why I stay on and what you could expect volunteering for your chapter:

1. Board meetings are held once a month over dinner – the dinner is paid for by the board.

2. Points are earned toward certification for holding a board or committee position.

3. Board members try and attend as many of the Professional Development Meetings as possible.  This has 3 different benefits; you earn certification points, the board pays for the meeting, and you learn something every time you go.

4. There are region meetings held twice a year.  These meetings are great for learning new things and networking with other chapter board members.  The chapter pays for any travel expenses, hotel, meals and miles.

   National Conference – as an officer of the board you are eligible to attend the National Conference and have the fee to attend covered.  This is a huge benefit in many aspects.  The fee alone is quite a benefit to have covered plus you earn the most certification points available for one event and lastly you attend some amazing learning sessions that will help you to grow professionally.

   If these tangible benefits aren’t enough I love the exposure to all the different people I meet in this position.  The opportunity to network is incredible.  I get to meet many of the members, people from other associations we deal with, and the over 3,000 people at the national conference that are also looking for the opportunity to network.

   Volunteering is personally satisfying to me when a member comes up and says they really like an event or idea we came up with that is the icing on the cake.

   I encourage you to look into volunteering.  It can help you grow personally and professionally – it has me.

Internship Program

      The Milwaukee Chapter of APICS is looking for local companies to sponsor our Summer Internship Program.  We would like to have 8 to 10 sponsored internships set up by early April in time for our Mock Interview Day.

    Please Contact Scott Wold at StudentRelations@apicsmilw.org or check out our Web Page APICS Milwaukee Chapter  for more information.

Student Case Competition

   As the students return to campus for the spring semester; our student chapters are looking forward to the APICS Great Lakes District Case Competition February 24^th and 25^th in Downers Grove, Illinois.  We are expecting 4 teams from our APICS Milwaukee Student Chapters.  UW-Whitewater will field two teams, Carroll University one team and UW-Milwaukee one team.  There will approximately 25 team from Universities and Colleges from the Mid-West. This will be an exciting and education experience for all of the participating students.

CPIM

Master Planning of Resources -2/18, 2/25/2012 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Detailed Scheduling and Planning -3/17, 3/24/2012 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Execution and Control of Operations - 4/14, 4/21/2012 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Strategic Management of Resources - 5/12, 5/19/2012 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

CSCP (Certified Supply Chain Professional)

3/14, 3/21, 3/28, 4/4, 4/11, 4/18, 4/25, 5/2, 5/9, 5/16, 5/23, 5/30, 6/6/2012 - 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Fundamentals of Production and Inventory Control

2/29, 3/7, 3/14, 3/21, 3/28/2012 - 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

For additional information, email questions to Education@apicsmilw.org

Sign up for CSCP and Fundamentals  at www.wctc.edu/cbps_workshops

Review by Janie Kueble

   The PDM presentation was the story of St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo, Wisconsin.  Under the expert leadership of their current President Sandy Anderson, St. Clare Hospital Health and Services has created a unique patient relationship, which has lead them to receive ratings as one of the best care Hospitals in the Wisconsin region.

   During the 2008-2009 fiscal year, St. Clare was facing a 2.5M budget cut.  With that in mind Sandy and her staff at St. Clare had to come up with a cost reduction plan to make it through those rough times.  Sandy's recommendation was to create an environment revolving around lean concepts as well as totally focusing on the patients experience with them.

   One of the steps they used during the process was to define the importance of culture leadership and creative thinking to improve processes within the organization.  Lean Six Sigma was used to find the root cause of their problems; and applying some of these concepts helped make this plan work.

   St. Clare started small; looking at how to eliminate work space, and how to create a more efficiency work area, not only for the staff but, most importantly for their patients.  Giving their patients a full commitment became St. Clare’s main goal.  This required the involvement of the entire organization.

   Implementing responsibility, authority and accountability is what made this plan work. Focusing on the morale and getting the employees to think strategically lean is what made St. Clare a customer organizational success story.

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