• Program Description
• Benefits
• Program Agenda
• Facilitators
• Testimonials
• In-House Hosting Opportunities

Course Fees

Course fees include:

• All course materials
• Many useful case studies to help you get your program started or refine your existing processes.
• Interactive sessions and discussion periods to learn from colleagues and other practitioners.
• The VICS Capability Assessment process as well as several alternative approaches.
• CPFR Certification Examination which includes a Certificate signed by the President & CEO of VICS upon successful completion.

Course Overview

The VICS CPFR Certification program is an intensive 2-day more focused approach of "Essences", "Principles", and "Practices".

• Essences focus on topics such as Change Management.
• Principles includes SCM fundamentals and a deep-dive into the CPFR Process model.
• Practices involve the Case Studies that show a practical approach to doing CPFR on your own. Our 2-day program also offers a perspective on the linkage of Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) and CPFR.

Testimonials

"The training provided me with practical tools and solutions to obtain accurate planning forecasts to assist Schneider in delivering against day-to-day customer transportation needs".Tina Norman, Manager - Retail Customer Service, Schneider National, Inc.

"The CPFR® Certification training was a tremendous opportunity to spend several days with very seasoned training professional, industry parishioners and CPFR program leaders from various industries. Program quickly sets the stage with assessment survey of where you are, and where leading practice collaboration is and needs to be headed. Throughout the two plus days, the instructors created the environment of where leading practice companies can improve. This was based on various anecdotal descriptions, and case studies and discussions on various industry best and leading practices. I highly encourage companies to ensure program leaders in the collaborative arena add this training to their key learning's requirements for those individuals that will and are transforming relationships to demand sensing environments that requires more and more data used for exception based execution and key collaboration on events that drive improved business results." Keith Buker, Senior Manager, Customer Supply Chain, Johnson & Johnson Inc.

VICS CPFR Certification Graduates

CPFR® Certification Program Description

The Emergence Of Collaborative Planning, Forecasting And Replenishment (CPFR^®)

Demand & Supply Management - is broken into sales forecasting, which projects consumer demand at the point of sale, and order planning/forecasting, which determines future product ordering and delivery requirements based upon the sales forecast, inventory position, transit lead times and other necessary factors.

Execution - consists of order generation, which transitions forecast to firm demand, and order fulfillment, the process of producing, shipping, delivering and stocking product for customer purchase.

Analysis – includes exceptions management, the active monitoring of planning and operations for out-of-bound conditions, and performance assessment, the calculation of key metrics to evaluate the achievement of key business goals, uncover trends or develop alternative strategies.

VICS CPFR® Education

VICS, creators of CPFR®, is proud to offer education and certification on CPFR® that will help you understand the basics of CPFR® as well as provide the tools to identify and create opportunities to collaborate and implement.

Course Objectives – Certification Program

The VICS CPFR® Certification program administered by VICS has been designed to provide formal protocols for standards in CPFR® education. It provides a series of educational workshop sections, delivered in a fully interactive environment for collaboration and learning. The certification course is primarily designed for the retailers, and vendor community suppliers, with a focus on category analysts, category managers, sales, marketing, and supply chain professionals.

The course content is prepared and presented around core principles and content followed six segments that will allow participants to maximize the learning experience in a case-driven environment of best practices. Certification will be earned upon successful completion of course material and passing a formal examination administered by VICS.

CPFR® CERTIFICATION PROGRAM OUTLINE

Each CPFR® section will include a formal outline of the core principles, interactive class exercises that focus on applying the knowledge shared in the session, and a feedback period where teams present back to the group. This proven adult learning technique helps the participant retain the practical elements of the training, and facilitates networking and shared learning through constructive interaction.

Section I – Change Management:

The first and foremost barrier to the implementation of collaborative business practices is resistance to change. This barrier exists within departments, divisions, companies, trading partners and practically every business entity. Therefore it is important to recognize these barriers and how to go about transformation, i.e. getting an organization to change. Everyone has the responsibility to act as a change agent within their company and this section will provide well-developed and tested suggestions that will lead to success.

Section II – Supply Chain Management and CPFR Principles:

This section of the program focuses on the foundational elements of the supply chain and which serves as a backdrop for how CPFR is most successfully integrated. The CPFR® Process Model is explained in detail along with the importance of the assessment process. Before companies can collaborate with trading partners either up stream or down stream, it is critically important to be able to collaborate internally. In order to do so, a company must have an understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. To that end, the VICS self-assessment and trading partner assessment will be presented and techniques offered as to how to effectively use these tried and tested tools. The original 9 step CPFR© model and the more recently developed four step concentric CPFR® process model will be discussed, speaking to the attributes and applications of each. This section includes fundamentals that are essential to understanding collaboration.

Section III - CPFR Case Studies

The theoretical elements covered in Day 1 are put to practical application in Day 2 with a series of "deep-dive" case studies which illustrate how the principles are applied in real-scenarios. Learn from such successful implementers as West Marine, Lowe's, Stanley / Black and Decker, and Whirlpool.

Section IV – Linking CPFR and S&OP

The 2-day program concludes with a perspective on the linkage of Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) and CPFR. This material focuses on the leading research of the VICS CPFR Committee which has recently issued a Whitepaper on the synergistic benefits that result from integrating the two processes.

CPFR® Certification Program Agenda

The overall objective of the VICS CPFR® Core Certification Program is to provide a strong grounding in the foundational elements of Collaboration and CPFR. VICS plays a pivotal role in the certification process as the global knowledge expert on CPFR. This program has been developed to address current industry needs with respect to collaboration and will result in a sustainable and significant competitive advantage for all participants.