Southwest Michigan Chapter History

APICS History

APICS was founded as the American Production and Inventory Control Society. APICS has since expanded its focus to include a full range of programs and materials on individual and organizational education, standards of excellence, and integrated resource management.

APICS - The Association for Operations Management is a not-for-profit international educational organization respected throughout the world for its education and professional certification programs. With more than 42,000 members in 15,000 companies worldwide, APICS is dedicated to using education to "help business run better". Since its inception in 1957, APICS members have been at the forefront of manufacturing management innovations such as MRP, ERP, SCM, CRM, APS and e-business applications.

Our Chapter History

Established in 1962 as the Kalamazoo Valley Chapter of APICS, the chapter provided a forum for manufacturing professionals to learn from one another and overcome the industrial challenges.

Currently the chapter serves several hundred professionals across the nine counties in Southwestern Michigan by providing monthly professional development meetings, educational courses, plant tours, employment resources, problem solving, and professional networking. The local chapter also has an Affiliate Student Chapter with Western Michigan University and collaborates with Glen Oaks Community College and Southwestern Michigan College to deliver APICS education.

Mission and Vision

APICS is the global leader and premier provider of information and services in production and inventory management and related areas to enable members, enterprises, and individuals to add value to their business performance. We follow, adhere to and support APICS International's Mission Statement.

In addition, Our Vision at SWMI is to offer an integrated approach to education, certification and professional networking. We do this by collaborating with other local professional organizations on chapter meeting and events so that our membership can benefit from improved services.

Components of these Vision elements are:

  • Community involvement and Volunteerism
  • Support for local colleges, universities and other institutions of higher education
  • Support for vendors and companies offering learning and development opportunities
  • A develop people initiative
Platinum AwardPlatinum AwardPlatinum AwardPlatinum Award

The Platinum Award is maintained through demonstrated excellence in Chapter Management.