To achieve the professional designation of ASCM APICS Planning and Inventory Management from the ASCM, candidates must clear the CPIM Exam with the minimum cut-off score. For those who wish to pass the ASCM APICS Certified Planning and Inventory Management certification exam with good percentage, please take a look at the following reference document detailing what should be included in ASCM APICS CPIM Exam preparation.
The ASCM CPIM Exam Summary, Body of Knowledge (BOK), Sample Question Bank and Practice Exam provide the basis for the real APICS Certified in Planning and Inventory Management (CPIM) exam. We have designed these resources to help you get ready to take ASCM APICS Planning and Inventory Management (CPIM) exam. If you have made the decision to become a certified professional, we suggest you take authorized training and prepare with our online premium ASCM APICS Certified Planning and Inventory Management Practice Exam to achieve the best result.
ASCM CPIM Exam Summary:
| Exam Name | ASCM APICS Planning and Inventory Management |
| Exam Code | CPIM |
| Exam Fee | USD $1,215 |
| Exam Duration | 210 Minutes |
| Number of Questions | 150 |
| Passing Score | 300 / 350 |
| Format | Multiple Choice Questions |
| Schedule Exam | Pearson VUE |
| Sample Questions | ASCM APICS CPIM Exam Sample Questions and Answers |
| Practice Exam | APICS Certified in Planning and Inventory Management (CPIM) Practice Test |
ASCM APICS Certified Planning and Inventory Management Syllabus Topics:
| Topic | Details |
Align the Supply Chain to Support the Business Strategy - 15% |
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Understand the business environment and develop corporate strategy
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- Know and analyze the business environment
- Develop and implement corporate and business unit strategies to align resources and create lasting competitive advantage
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Develop, align, and implement functional and operational strategies
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- Determine operations strategy to utilize core competencies and available resources, manage cost, and support company policies, as well as support regulatory and intellectual property guidelines
- Determine technology choices (examples include: levels of automation, cloud, and agile) to improve efficiency, costs, and organizational capabilities
- Perform make-buy analysis to assess costs, capacity availability, quality, and other considerations
- Establish chase, level, hybrid, and subcontracting production strategies
- Establish lead and lag capacity strategies
- Support marketing strategies (Four Ps – product, price, promotion, and place)
- Determine the push-pull boundary and the manufacturing environment to align with strategy (examples include: make-to-stock (MTS), assemble-toorder (ATO) / configure-to-order (CTO), make-to-order (MTO), engineer-toorder (ETO), and remanufacturing)
- Align the facilities strategy with manufacturing/service strategies
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Design processes and layouts to align with strategic goals
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- Examine the trade-offs of process choices within the product-process matrix (examples include: project, fixed-position, job shop, batch, mass customization, assembly line, repetitive, intermittent, discrete, and continuous flow)
- Examine trade-offs within the service decision (examples include: degree of contact, opportunity for sales, and production efficiency)
- Determine layout to support product and service design decisions (examples include: fixed position, process/functional layout, cellular/product focus, and assembly line)
- Align process choices and layouts with product/service life cycles
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Define and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate performance in relation to the organization’s strategic goals
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- Use appropriate financial metrics (examples include: cash-to-cash cycle time, cash conversion cycle, and cash flow)
- Use appropriate operational metrics (examples include: customer service
levels, order fill rate, and stockout percentage)
- Apply KPI tools (examples include: KPI trees, maturity assessment, SCOR metrics, and balanced scorecard)
- Review sales and operations planning (S&OP) process effectiveness
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Identify and manage supply chain risks (examples include: supply disruption, financial, environmental, physical, political, cyber, intellectual property, and branding)
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- Use supply chain mapping and event monitoring for risk identification within regulatory requirements to support different levels of risk tolerance
- Assess the probabilities, timing, and impact of potential supply chain failures
- Perform risk management activities (examples include: risk prevention, mitigation, recovery, pooling, and resiliency)
- Use appropriate risk management tools and guidance (examples include: failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) and ISO risk management standards)
- Comply with security (examples include: physical and cyber) requirements/regulations
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| Manage capital equipment and facilities |
- Review capital budgeting goals and performance
- Implement total productive maintenance (TPM)
- Comply with health, safety, and environment requirements/regulations
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Define and support sustainability goals
(environmental, financial, social)
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- Identify impact and implement mitigation plans to support triple bottom line (TBL) and sustainability goals
- Identify, report, and verify sustainability metrics
- Review sustainability guidelines (examples include: Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), ISO sustainability standards, and United Nations (UN) Global Compact)
- Use safety and environmental standards to control and protect the organization and environment
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Conduct Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) to Support Strategy - 9% |
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Understand the role of the S&OP process in the organization
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- Review the role of S&OP in the planning and control hierarchy
- Understand the impact of different business environments on the S&OP process - Evaluate the involvement of various levels of management and their roles in the S&OP process - Identify the planning horizon and the appropriate aggregation level - Implement the steps of the S&OP process - Review the various inputs and outputs of each of the S&OP steps |
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Review aggregate demand plan
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- Review product portfolio, new product introduction (NPI), life cycle stages, and competitive priorities
- Review demand from all sources (examples include: market, customer base, forecast, open customer orders, service requirements, safety/buffer stock, and internal requirements)
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| Review aggregate supply plan |
- Review key supply capabilities
- Incorporate product life cycle considerations into the supply plan (examples include: new product introductions (NPI) and obsolescence)
- Develop and validate a production plan to support the firm’s strategic choices
- Evaluate the resource plan to support the aggregate supply plan
- Review strategic buffers
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Reconcile portfolio, demand, supply, and financial plans
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- Review different methods for balancing supply and demand
- Evaluate trade-offs related to different volume/mix combinations
- Evaluate alternative supply and demand plans and associated risks
- Assess the financial implications of the plan
- Review trade-offs between customer service levels, inventory, and backlog levels
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Plan and Manage Demand - 9% |
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Determine customer needs and specifications
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- Segment customers based on their needs, business unit strategies, and required capabilities
- Engage in customer relationship management (CRM) based on segmentation - Set customer service policies, safety stock levels, and performance targets - Determine appropriate use of point-ofsale (POS) data and collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment (CPFR) - Maintain effective customer communications using appropriate tools - Determine and monitor order delivery performance metrics |
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Understand marketing and product management considerations
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- Influence demand to better align with supply
- Manage product configuration, product changes, and product life cycles
- Evaluate and manage the impact of marketing promotions on demand including potential product/service cannibalization
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| Review sources of demand |
- Review demand channels (examples include: retail, wholesale, distributor, e-commerce, business-to-business (B2B), and business-to-consumer (B2C))
- Determine independent demand (examples include: forecast, customer orders, service or warranty, samples, testing, distribution or warehouse requirements, inter-company or interplant orders, rework, and donations) - Determine dependent demand |
| Generate demand forecast |
- Understand demand forecasting concepts
- Review the relationship between the purpose of the forecast and required timeliness and accuracy of the data - Review management considerations and trade-offs related to forecast method selection - Select a time horizon, time buckets, and a level of aggregation for forecasting purposes - Apply qualitative techniques to create forecasts (examples include: historical analogy, panel consensus, executive opinions, Delphi method, sales force polling, and consumer surveys) - Apply quantitative techniques to create forecasts
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| Monitor forecast performance and respond to demand variation or changes |
- Evaluate forecast performance using appropriate forecast error metrics (examples include: bias, cumulative forecast error (CFE), mean forecast error (MFE), mean percent error (MPE), mean absolute deviation (MAD), mean absolute percent error (MAPE), demand filters, and tracking signals)
- Collaborate with customers and suppliers to improve forecast accuracy
- Mitigate the bullwhip effect
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Plan and Manage Supply - 16% |
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| Create the master schedule |
- Understand the role of master scheduling in the planning and control hierarchy
- Evaluate the impact of different business environments and strategies on the master scheduling process - Identify sources of independent demand to be considered in the master scheduling process - Create the master production schedule (MPS)
- Apply planning bills to perform twolevel or multilevel master scheduling
- Use and maintain the master schedule
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Perform rough-cut capacity planning
(RCCP)
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- Review bill of resources to determine capacity requirements and the impact of the RCCP on supply
- Identify and manage critical work centers to support the MPS - Develop work center efficiency and utilization goals and monitor performance - Incorporate maintenance schedules in capacity planning |
| Manage the material requirements plan |
- Check relevant material requirements plan input and data sources
- Utilize bills of material (BOMs) to calculate multilevel time-phased requirements and create long-range and short-range material plans that support company needs and supplier constraints
- Use the MRP time-phased record to calculate and display gross requirements, scheduled receipts, projected available balances, net requirements, planned order receipts, planned order releases, and firm planned orders (FPO) - Make decisions to facilitate material planning, establish priorities, review exceptions, resolve conflicts through pegging relationships, support other decisions and productivity measures based on the type of environment and product life cycles, and implement bottom-up replanning as needed - Monitor system feedback mechanisms, such as action messages, to enable the appropriate adjustments necessary to balance supply and demand - Manage closed-loop integration with master planning, final assembly, and configuration processes to monitor material availability with demand quantities, timing, and priorities |
| Create final assembly schedule (FAS) |
- Identify sources of demand to be considered in the FAS
- Create the FAS to support the demand plan
- Use and maintain the FAS
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Create and manage supplier relationships
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- Identify capable suppliers and undertake appropriate certifications
- Review supplier selection alternatives (examples include: sole, single, and multisourcing; domestic and foreign providers; and special services) - Develop various supplier relationships (examples include: partnership, strategic alliance, joint venture, contract manufacturing, subcontracting, and transactional) - Perform supplier relationship management (SRM) - Include relevant supply chain links (examples include: retail, distribution, and transportation companies) - Engage in environmentally responsible purchasing - Apply procurement planning, new product introduction (NPI), and engineering change control to improve supply performance - Measure supplier performance using appropriate methods (examples include: balanced scorecard, pricebased metrics, time-based metrics, cost-based metrics, and quality-based metrics) |
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Purchase/procure goods and services
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- Apply methods of procuring and requesting materials and services (examples include: contracts, kanbans, blanket orders, supplier scheduling, electronic data interchange (EDI), continuous replenishment, purchase orders, consignment, pricing agreements, vendor-managed inventory (VMI), outsourcing, and e-commerce)
- Select appropriate delivery methods (examples include: modes of transportation, third- or fourth-party logistics (3PL or 4PL), cross-docking, point-of-use delivery, and direct shipment) - Use supplier participation in decisionmaking (examples include: product design, quality requirements, related technology, sustainable business practices, and accounting processes) - Define goals and benefits of the various supplier relationships (examples include: improvements in technology, inventory levels, customer service, quality, lead times, visibility, cost, impacts on the environment, damage and loss prevention, continuous improvement, access to new markets, and time to market) - Apply a supplier rating system to encompass quantitative measures (examples include: cost, on-time delivery, product quality, and environmental impact) and qualitative measures (examples include: social performance, workforce diversity, human rights, labor, and anticorruption) - Understand effective communication techniques, cultural differences, commercial versus government interests, and information technology (IT) - Use data necessary for collaboration (examples include: risk assessments, technical and quality specifications, engineering changes, supply chain inventories, and future demand) |
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Monitor and manage product costs
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- Determine the different types of product costs (examples include: direct, indirect, overhead, fixed, variable, and landed costs, as well as total cost of ownership (TCO))
- Apply appropriate costing methods that determine the cost of producing a product (examples include: absorption, variable, job, and activitybased costing (ABC)) to compare actual to planned, budgeted, or standard costs - Review variances in cost through inventory valuation and an analysis of obsolescence, scrap/yield, rework, repairs, returns, and defective output - Measure costs related to quality (examples include: prevention, appraisal, internal failure, and external failure costs) |
| Manage changes and supply disruptions |
- Re-plan order priorities to respond to supply and demand changes
- Revise lead time, lot size, safety stock quantity, kanban quantity, cycle times, and other parameters to reflect product life cycles, current conditions, and company strategy - Utilize what-if analysis and simulation to evaluate potential changes to the existing material plan - Monitor the status of buffers |
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Conduct product life cycle management (PLM)
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- Develop new product introduction (NPI) schedule
- Develop an end-of-life plan
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Plan and Manage Inventory - 19% |
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| Inventory planning |
- Determine target inventory levels to support service and financial goals
- Understand the types and classifications of inventory
- Determine item segmentation (examples include: ABC classification, perishability, hazardous materials, special handling, supply risk, and customer risk)
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| Inventory management |
- Determine appropriate push or pull item replenishment method (examples include: material requirements planning (MRP), reorder point (ROP), periodic review, visual review system, min-max system, two-bin inventory system, and kanban systems)
- Based on order policy, determine lot size and order quantities, considering cost and service trade-offs, by using appropriate dynamic techniques (examples include: least total cost, least unit cost, lot-for-lot (L4L), and period order quantity) or fixed techniques (examples include: economic order quantity (EOQ) and fixed order quantity) - Determine safety stock or days of supply needs based on inventory costs and customer service level objectives - Manage maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) inventories based on various inputs (examples include: mean time between failure (MTBF), mean time to repair (MTTR), mean time for failure (MTFF), forecasts, and sales history) - Manage inventory requiring special handling to comply with regulations, environmental standards, and protocols of materials handling, personal protective equipment (PPE), and safety |
| Monitor and manage inventory costs |
- Review and manage the elements of total carrying costs, total ordering costs, total stockout costs, and their trade-offs
- Review inventory valuation methods (examples include: first in, first out (FIFO); last in, first out (LIFO); average cost system; and transfer pricing) - Review projected or standard cost versus actual cost - Measure and review inventory metrics (examples include: inventory turns and days of supply) |
| Inventory control |
- Manage inventory locations and quantities considering the trade-offs of different storage methods, flow and material handling options, and transaction management (examples include: stock location systems, automated storage/retrieval systems
(AS/RS), vendor-managed inventory (VMI), and consignment)
- Monitor inventory accuracy to support business objectives (examples include: audit programs, physical inventory, cycle counting, and spot inventory checks) - Address and reduce inventory inaccuracy and loss
- Utilize appropriate inventory traceability throughout the supply chain from point of origin to final destination
- Track in-transit inventor
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| Manage returns and product disposition |
- Develop, manage, and review the disposition process to support sustainability, quality, and supply goals
- Develop and manage reverse logistics processes around the waste hierarchy, considering company acceptance guidelines, regulatory requirements, recall guidelines, and customer expectations
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Plan, Manage, and Execute Detailed Schedules - 16% |
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| Plan detailed schedules |
- Determine production or flow rate
- Create work sequences to improve efficiency, resolve supply and demand imbalances, and consider time fence policies and the manufacturing calendar
- Manage bottlenecks utilizing theory of constraints (TOC) techniques (examples include: improve flow, couple and decouple operations as needed, and elevate the bottleneck as appropriate)
- Plan non-standard demand
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Create production and service schedules
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- Evaluate theoretical, demonstrated, available, and rated capacity
- Recognize industry specific demand and capacity characteristics to manage loads - Create the load on capacity using appropriate operations scheduling techniques (examples include: infinite and finite capacity planning, constraint-based finite scheduling, and load balancing) - Apply appropriate simulation and modeling techniques to assess viability of various options or opportunities - Manage various methods of balancing capacity and load (examples include: rescheduling, splitting orders, modifying order quantities, outsourcing, workforce development, and changing capacity through workforce changes) - Determine and maintain safety capacity and capacity cushions as appropriate for the business environment - Load operations and adjust capacity to accommodate process variability and planned downtime |
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Implement and manage detailed schedules
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- Release manufacturing and service orders and issue materials as scheduled - Measure actual capacity performance to the plan - Manage material routing
- Manage the size of queues
- Manage exceptions to maintain valid plans; evaluate variances to standard performance; and determine performance process stability, process capability, and theoretical and demonstrated capacity |
| Schedule incoming materials |
- Generate supplier authorization to ship on blanket purchase orders
- Authorize vendor-managed inventory (VMI) with key suppliers |
Plan and Manage Distribution - 5% |
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| Plan distribution |
- Determine network configuration trade-offs (examples include: total costs, inventory investment, customer service, lead time, and inbound and outbound transportation costs)
- Develop the distribution plan
- Review distribution plans and master schedules to support the sales and operations planning (S&OP) decisions
- Review inventory levels and locations required within the distribution network to support supply and demand plans - Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) of the distribution network (examples include: level of service, ontime schedule performance, lead time, inventory turns, safety stock levels, stockouts, and customer satisfaction) |
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Manage customer orders
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- Monitor inventory availability and lead time in support of sales, marketing, and customer service level goals
- Monitor open customer orders (backlog) to meet on-time delivery goals - Expedite past due customer orders (backorders) considering resource availability, and cost and service tradeoffs |
| Manage reverse logistics |
- Review reverse logistics needs as part of the distribution network design
- Consider the use of alternate providers to meet reverse logistics needs (examples include: third-party logistics providers (3PL) and bricksand-mortar locations for returns) - Develop policies around the waste product hierarchy |
Manage Quality, Continuous Improvement, and Technology - 11% |
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| Manage quality |
- Consider the impact of processes and their outputs on internal and external customers, and on corporate sustainability goals - Review costs related to quality - Review processes and outputs utilizing appropriate quality tools (examples include: basic seven tools of quality (B7) and seven new tools of quality (N7)) to identify process problems and their root causes - Undertake internal and external benchmarking for process improvement |
| Manage continuous improvement |
- Utilize lean concepts and undertake process improvements (examples include: kaizen events, reduction of waste and non-value-added activities, throughput improvement, process flexibility, inventory reduction, and one-piece flow) - Utilize lean tools (examples include: pull systems, scrum, kanban, takt time, standardized work, leveling workload, total productive maintenance (TPM), single-minute exchange of die (SMED), quick changeover) - Improve relationships with customers and suppliers (examples include: voice of the customer (VOC), supplier audit and certification, and supplier feedback) - Conduct value stream mapping to better understand processes - Utilize A3 problem solving to manage process improvement projects - Improve workflow and work area design (examples include: five Ss (5s), automation, visual management, andon, and layouts) - Undertake structured problem-solving processes (examples include: plan-docheck-act (PDCA) and six sigma) - Monitor process performance and reduce variation using statistical process control (SPC) methods to manage common, assignable, and special cause variation (examples include: P charts, X-bar charts, R charts, and capability indices) |
| Manage technology |
- Develop technology systems requirements or specifications to support company goals
- Support technology implementation
- Maintain technology systems
- Adopt emerging technologies as appropriate for competitive advantage (examples include: artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, augmented reality, robotic process automation (RPA), and machine learning) |
Both ASCM and veterans who’ve earned multiple certifications maintain that the best preparation for a ASCM CPIM professional certification exam is practical experience, hands-on training and practice exam. This is the most effective way to gain in-depth understanding of ASCM APICS CPIM concepts. When you understand techniques, it helps you retain ASCM APICS Certified Planning and Inventory Management knowledge and recall that when needed.