To keep your APICS certification valid, you must earn and submit 75 professional development maintenance points every five years (100 points for APICS Fellows).
Maintenance can be fulfilled with many of the educational activities you’re already doing to expand your supply chain knowledge and stay up to date on the latest supply chain trends. To learn more about the rules and policies relevant to maintaining your APICS certification, please read the APICS Certification Maintenance Handbook. For more information about how to complete the maintenance application once you are ready to submit your maintenance, review the Maintenance Application Tutorial.
APICS Certification Maintenance Handbook
Maintenance Application Tutorial
Submit your maintenance points now through the Maintenance Application.
Beginning January 31, 2022, the suspension period to maintain your certification will be reduced to a 90-day suspension period, based upon your current certification maintenance due date. Please note, there will be no change to the five-year certification cycle. However, if maintenance requirements are not met after five years, certificants will be placed in suspended status and will have 90-days to submit their maintenance application. After 90-days, the certification will expire and candidates must retake the exam(s) to be placed in good standing.
If you do not maintain your certification and it enters suspension or expires, you no longer hold the designation and cannot claim recognition for the certification on your resume, LinkedIn profile or anywhere else. Find the specific requirements for your certification program below. Fellows-level certifications have heightened requirements.
You must track your maintenance activities and point accumulation until you have earned enough points to submit your maintenance for each APICS certification that you hold. Submitting your maintenance application is easy. You can access the maintenance application as early as 30 days after the start of your maintenance cycle. However, you may need to provide supporting documentation if your application is randomly selected for audit. To help us uphold the highest standards of quality and excellence, we perform random audits of certification maintenance applications. Our Maintenance Audit Guidelines will help you understand audit documentation requirements.
You must accumulate the total number of points needed to maintain your certification before submitting the maintenance application. To submit your maintenance application:
Candidates can receive maintenance points by attending or presenting at educational industry events, contributing articles to supply chain publications, proving involvement in organizations related to industry-specific topics, and more.
Download our Relevant Maintenance Topics PDF for a comprehensive list of approved maintenance subject matter topics.
ASCM members earn six maintenance points a year – that’s 30 of your required 75 points just for being a member. Not a member?
Attend the annual ASCM conference – ASCM CONNECT– to earn up to 24 maintenance points. This three-day event takes a deep dive into best-in-class supply chain insights and solutions. Learn from inspiring industry leaders and connect with peers through new and innovative networking opportunities.
We’ve made it easy for you to earn points for viewing qualified webinars. Choose from the two playlists below to select from a variety of webinars that qualify for one point per hour viewed toward your certification maintenance.
Writing an article for SCM Now magazine or the ASCM Insights blog entitles you to 5 certification maintenance points.
The following activities are ineligible for earning professional development points to maintain your APICS certification:
The online certification verification tool provides prospective employers and other stakeholders with a simple, easy way to verify the status of any completed APICS certification or endorsement.
If you are verifying your own credentials, you can view a detailed report through My Account.
If you have any additional questions regarding the maintenance program, please contact Customer Relations at 1.800.444.2742 or 1.773.867.1777 or email support@ascm.org.
