Returning engineer at a steel service center — are APICS/ASCM certs (CPIM/CSCP/CTSC) worth it, or is there a better path for AI-driven planning?
Hi all — I'm Luiz, 33. I graduated in Production Engineering in 2015, then switched to medicine, and I'm now coming back to help run my father's company. A lot has changed and I'm rusty, so I'd really value this community's input.
The company is a mid-sized steel service center (slitting, cut-to-length, roll forming, tube mill, roofing). Quick picture of where it stands today:
- No structured demand forecasting — planning is essentially push/by feel.
- No formal inventory policy — min/max not really used; lots of working capital tied up, low inventory turns.
- MES (shop-floor) just went live — first real OEE numbers are rough (~33%), most downtime not even classified yet.
- No APS / finite scheduling, no real S&OP loop.
What I've been doing hands-on to learn by doing: built ML demand forecasting (gradient boosting, rolling-origin backtests), a cost-based inventory policy, and used the MES data to find that the real bottleneck isn't planning at all — it's shop-floor execution/OEE, not the algorithms.
Now I want to get seriously up to date, with a focus on technology and AI in planning/production. I'm looking at ASCM/APICS: CPIM, CSCP, CTSC, plus the Supply Chain Planning and Technology certificates. They're expensive, so:
- For someone with an engineering base aiming at tech + analytics, is CPIM the right start, or is CSCP/CTSC better?
- Are these certs still the standard, or are there stronger modern paths (analytics/AI-focused) you'd recommend instead?
- Anything you wish you'd learned before spending the money?
Thanks — happy to share more detail in the comments.