Welcome

National

APICS started in 1957 with 75 orginal members and today includes more than 50,000 individual and corporate members in 10,000 companies worldwide. APICS has grown into a recognized global leader and premier provider of operations management education and information for individuals and organizations.

Local

The Blue Ridge Chapter received it's charter October 20, 1982 and currently has over 50 members.

President's Message
Fall 2008

Happy Fall Blue Ridge Members!
Each year, as a chapter, we are required to participate in a program known as C-BAR which is a measurement scorecard for APICS. As a result of the effort put forth by your Board and its members, our chapter was awarded Silver status by APICS for the 2007/2008 season. This recognition demonstrates that the Blue Ridge chapter continues to strive to provide the best learning and educational experience we can for our members and community. Without your feedback and support we could not accomplish many of the actions we strive to complete each year. So a big THANK YOU to all those members that made this possible this past year!

In recent months we announced that APICS has released a new Lean Enterprise workshop series, and the chapter was able to launch this series this fall, with the help of Specialty Blades, now known as Cadence.  Employees from Cadence and Virginia Panel completed the Lean Enterprise series in September at the Cadence facility in Staunton. Blue Ridge was one of the first APICS chapters to offer the Lean Enterprise Series anywhere in the world!

This month APICS is launching another new and exciting series: The new APICS Global Sourcing Workshop Series, whichis tailored for participants to understand the key issues and complexities of sourcing activities in the international environment. The Blue Ridge Chapter is gearing up to offer this new series at the start of 2009, so look out for it!

In these trying economic times, it is more important than ever for organizations and individuals to invest in continuing education.  The Blue Ridge chapter is firmly committed to providing the local community with opportunities to improve and remain competitive. A survey will be sent out shortly to determine your needs for 2009 and a new and aggressive schedule of courses and workshops is in the works for the coming year.

The chapter cannot execute without the dedicated work of a special group of volunteers that make up the Blue Ridge Board of Directors.  We have a number of openings and we are issuing a plea for your assistance.  Many positions require just a few short hours of time per month, and Board Members can earn free certification review classes!  Please feel free to call or email me for more information.

See you at the Hollister Plant Tour on November 13th!

Maryanne Ross, CFPIM, CIRM, CSCP