Great Bay Community College will help companies exert more control over their supply chains with new courses offered through the Business & Training Center at the Rochester campus, beginning in September.

The college will partner with the Association for Supply Chain Management Northern New England to offer the Certified Production and Inventory Management exam preparation program. The CPIM certification demonstrates proficiency in supply chain fundamentals and inventory management.

Great Bay will offer CPIM-1, a seven-week course, from September 22nd to November 3rd. Participants will learn an overview of supply chain management, including the fundamentals of demand and inventory, plan supply, and continuous improvement and quality-control techniques. Coursework will cover the manufacture of goods, their procurement, distribution, and sale from the perspectives of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and customers.

CPIM-2 will follow in mid-January and offer a more strategic overview of supply chains, with a focus on sales and operations planning, inventory, and distribution.

Paul Moriarty, who has more than 25 years of experience in supply chain operations, will teach the courses. He is an independent consultant and contractor with clients in New England and Canada and is a certified Association for Supply Chain Management instructor with a range of industry and higher education experience. In addition to his adjunct position at Great Bay, he is an adjunct faculty member at Northern Essex Community College.

“Having a long interest in supply chain functionality, I bring in-depth experience, ranging from seeing customer wants, needs, and demands through engineering and operation, to delivery of goods and services,” he said. “I relish in the ‘ah-ha’ moment when I am explaining a concept, and it is understood by those I am teaching.”

The coursework is targeted at people entering and working in production and inventory management, operations, supply chain management, procurement, materials management, purchasing, and planning.

Supply chain interruptions, caused by a myriad of factors, contribute to inflation and economic instability, Moriarty said. Companies that are in control of their supply chains and able to manage them effectively have a competitive edge. “Supply chain issues are having a profound impact in New England,” he said. “And a big issue is having a trained, flexible, workforce that can adapt to changing technologies and processes.”

For more information and to register, visit our website at https://www.greatbay.edu/business-community/schedule/.