Ing. Jiří Sychra, CSCP
Logistics Manager
Rychnov nad Kneznou, Czechia
Why did I decide to study for the APICS CSCP certification?
I came across APICS certification thanks to my employer. The European headquarters decided that all employees in the Supply Chain department could go through the CSCP certification. This offer also applied to me. I knew that supply chain was a field in which I wanted to develop further. At the time, I was 2 years out of college and this certification seemed like a great opportunity to extend my education in the field of industry.
How did I prepare for the exam?
My studies consisted of attending classes provided by Supply Chain Education and their certified lecturer Mr. Rob van Stratum from the Netherlands. Together we spent 8 lessons, which had a total of 32 hours. Rob’s approach was great mainly due to his passion for the industry. It was evident that he has a lot of work experience in the industry. Thanks to this he was able to complement the course appropriately with examples from practice.
The second phase of the study was exam preparation using textbooks and e-learning. With the combination of both, I eventually passed with a score of 313. The whole certification took me about half a year.
What was the biggest benefit of the APICS CSCP certification?
I consider the biggest benefit of the certification to be the language skills I gained. All the training is in English and APICS uses the correct terms experienced in practice. This made me confident that I was always using the correct vocabulary when communicating with my colleagues across the world.
The second benefit was creating an overall picture of the supply chain. I was able to clarify and organize the steps across the entire chain – from the initial phase of identifying demand for a product, through manufacturing and delivering the product to the customer.
Have you implemented your newly acquired knowledge of the supply chain in your practice?
Yes. As I mentioned in the previous answer, I have mainly implemented new knowledge in communication. Another point that I subsequently improved was inventory management. CSCP showed me new perspectives on how to look at inventory and how to allocate it. Also worth mentioning is the SCOR program that APICS developed. I would like to implement it in practice one day as a new way of looking at KPIs.
What other benefits has the APICS CSCP certification brought you?
Thanks to APICS, CSCP and Supply Chain Education I have expanded my circle of friends who are engaged in the same practice. It is mainly a community of APICS members where people share news and views on supply chain with each other.
