CPIM Exam Content Outline 2026: Version 9.0 Splits Supply in Two
ASCM replaced the CPIM exam on 1 June 2026. Supply is now two areas worth 23% between them, inventory fell to 14%, and version 8.0 study material no longer matches the test.
- 150 (130 scored)Questions
- 3h 30mTime
- 9Sections
- YesWeights published
- 300/350Pass mark
- $1,265-$1,755Fee
Table of Contents
The whole paper in one bar
The CPIM Exam Content Manual version 9.0, effective 1 June 2026 is the exam guide ASCM publishes for APICS Certified in Planning and Inventory Management (CPIM), restated so you can see the shape of the paper before you read a word of the detail. The bar below is the entire syllabus: 9 sections, in the order the certifying body lists them.
- §1 Align the Supply Chain to Support the Business Strategy — 12%
- §2 Conduct Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) to Support Strategy — 10%
- §3 Plan and Manage Demand — 12%
- §4 Plan and Manage Internal Supply Sources — 12%
- §5 Plan and Manage External Supply Sources — 11%
- §6 Plan and Manage Inventory — 14%
- §7 Plan, Manage, and Execute Detailed Schedules — 12%
- §8 Plan and Manage Distribution — 8%
- §9 Manage Quality, Continuous Improvement, and Technology — 9%
Those percentages are ASCM’s own, not an estimate. That matters more than it sounds: most pages ranking for this query quote weightings the certifying body never published.
The syllabus, section by section
Each block below is one section of the official outline. The bullets are the sub-objectives ASCM publishes underneath it — the actual scope statement, not a summary of it.
Align the Supply Chain to Support the Business Strategy
- Mission, order winners and qualifiers, competitive priorities
- Competitive analysis: five forces, SWOT, benchmarking, value chain
- Push-pull boundary: MTS, ATO, CTO, MTO, ETO and postponement
- Operations strategy, technology choices and make-buy analysis
- Product-process matrix, service design and facility layouts
- Financial and operational KPIs, SCOR metrics, balanced scorecard
- Supply chain risk: mapping, business continuity planning, FMEA, security
- Sustainability: triple bottom line, GRI, ISO standards, UN Global Compact
Conduct Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) to Support Strategy
- Role of S&OP in the planning and control hierarchy
- Roles, planning horizon, product families and aggregation level
- S&OP steps with their inputs and outputs
- Aggregate demand plan: portfolio, NPI, life cycle and all demand sources
- Aggregate supply plan: capacity, resource plan, bottlenecks, strategic buffers
- Reconciling volume and mix, with financial impact on COGS, PPV and margin
- Balancing supply and demand: adjust supply or shape demand
Plan and Manage Demand
- Customer segmentation, CRM, POS data and CPFR
- Promotions, cannibalisation and product life cycle management
- QFD, voice of the customer, engineering changes and revision control
- Demand channels; independent versus dependent demand
- Qualitative forecasting: Delphi, panel consensus, sales force polling
- Time series decomposition, moving averages, exponential smoothing, regression, ML and AI
- Forecast error: bias, CFE, MAD, MAPE, MSE, tracking signals
- Bullwhip effect and collaborative forecast improvement
Plan and Manage Internal Supply Sources
- Master scheduling in the planning hierarchy; NPI and end-of-life plans
- Building the MPS: BOM level, ATP and CTP, lead, lag, chase and level strategies
- Planning bills, two-level master scheduling and time fences
- Rough-cut capacity planning with bills of resources
- MRP inputs: item master data, MPS output, BOMs, lot size, scrap factors
- MRP record: gross and net requirements, PAB, planned order releases, firm planned orders
- Final assembly schedule and customer order promising
- Product costs: costing methods, cost of quality, variances
- Reprioritising within time fences, what-if analytics and business continuity
Plan and Manage External Supply Sources
- Sourcing options: sole, single, multisource; nearshore, reshore, friendshore
- Supplier relationship types and supplier certifications
- Supplier performance: scorecards with cost, time, quality and ESG metrics
- Contract terms, inventory liability and information sharing
- Procurement methods: blanket orders, consignment, VMI, outsourcing
- Release methods (pull, supplier scheduling, EDI) and logistics options (3PL, 4PL, FTL, LTL, cross-docking)
- Supplier disruptions: reprioritisation, parameter changes, external buffers
Plan and Manage Inventory
- Target inventory levels; centralised versus decentralised strategy
- Inventory types and classifications; ABC and other segmentation
- Replenishment: MRP, DRP, reorder point, periodic review, min-max, kanban
- Lot sizing (L4L, FOQ, EOQ, POQ), safety stock and days of supply
- MRO inventory using MTBF, MTTR and MTTF
- Carrying, ordering and stockout costs; FIFO, LIFO, average cost; inventory turns
- Accuracy and traceability: cycle counting, shrinkage, lot control, recalls
- Returns, the waste hierarchy and circular economy
Plan, Manage, and Execute Detailed Schedules
- Lead time elements, load, efficiency, utilisation, takt time, input/output control
- Push sequencing: dispatch lists, lot splitting, overlapped schedules, sequencing rules
- Pull scheduling: mixed-model, rate-based, line balancing
- Bottleneck management with lean and theory of constraints
- Theoretical, demonstrated and rated capacity; infinite and finite loading
- Capacity cushions, simulation and labour scheduling
- Order release, process and transfer batches, alternate routings
- Queues, exceptions, backflush and closing work orders
Plan and Manage Distribution
- Network configuration trade-offs: cost, inventory, service, transport
- Location-specific forecasts and SKU replenishment parameters
- Distribution requirements planning (DRP) time-phased logic
- Linking distribution plans to the master schedule and S&OP
- Distribution KPIs: service level, turns, stockouts, on-time performance
- Customer orders: availability, backlog and backorders
Manage Quality, Continuous Improvement, and Technology
- Basic seven and seven new quality tools; root cause identification
- Benchmarking, regulatory requirements and customer quality feedback
- Lean concepts and tools: kaizen, kanban, SMED, TPM, value stream mapping, A3
- Work area design: 5S, visual management, andon
- Structured problem solving: PDCA and DMAIC
- SPC: common and special cause variation; p, X-bar, R and c charts
- Systems requirements, implementation and master data integrity
- Emerging technology: AI, IoT, 3D printing, RPA
The exam has 150 questions but only 130 are scored; the other 20 are pretest items, mixed in and not flagged. Each item is four-option multiple choice or a calculation, and a wrong answer costs nothing. It is closed-book: an on-screen calculator is provided, and a simple non-programmable one is allowed at Pearson VUE centres. The ECM, not the learning system, defines what is tested - ASCM states that no exam questions are derived from the learning system, and every question is linked to an ECM outline entry. Online (OnVUE) candidates get no breaks at all.
What the weightings really mean
A percentage in an exam guide is a promise about how many questions get drawn from a section, not about how hard those questions are. On a paper of roughly 130 items, Plan and Manage Inventory at 14% is worth about 18 questions and Plan and Manage Distribution at 8% is worth about 10. No single section decides the result on its own here - the largest is 14% of the paper - so the result is decided by how few sections you leave weak, not by how well you master one.
The trap is treating that arithmetic as permission to skip. Weightings are the floor of what a section costs you, because the low-weight sections on almost every blueprint are the ones that supply context for questions filed under a different heading. You lose those marks in the heavy section and never find out why.
Reading the verbs in the objectives
The verb at the front of each sub-objective is the part candidates skim and examiners take literally. It sets the depth you are tested at, and it is the difference between recognising a term and being asked to choose between two answers that both look right.
| Verb | What a question at that depth looks like |
|---|---|
| Understand / Identify | Definitions and distinctions in ASCM Supply Chain Dictionary terms - for example, which inventory classification (anticipation, hedge, decoupling) fits a scenario. Know the synonyms: the ECM itself flags S&OP versus production planning and MPS versus master schedule. |
| Calculate / Utilize | Numbers from a small table: an MRP time-phased record (net requirements, projected available balance, planned order releases), available-to-promise, EOQ, safety stock, or a forecast error metric such as MAD or a tracking signal. |
| Evaluate / Reconcile | S&OP and strategy questions. You are given two or three plans and pick the one that best balances service, inventory and backlog, or the right lever - overtime, outsourcing, demand shaping - for a stated constraint. |
| Manage / Monitor | Execution under change: action messages, reprioritising orders inside time fences, adjusting lot size or safety stock after a disruption. The right answer is the planner's next step, not a redesign of the system. |
The ECM says some questions test recall, but most ask you to apply the body of knowledge to a scenario and choose the best solution. When Part 1 and Part 2 merged in 2023, ASCM pitched the combined exam at the depth of the old Part 2, so definition-only study under-prepares you.
Study it in this order, not the syllabus order
Exam guides are written to describe what a candidate must know, not to teach it. The published order is almost never the order that builds knowledge fastest. This is the sequence that front-loads the material everything else depends on.
| Order | Why here |
|---|---|
| 1. Plan and Manage Demand | 12%. Forecasting methods and forecast error metrics are the inputs to everything downstream, and the error calculations are quick marks once learned. |
| 2. Plan and Manage Inventory | 14%, the heaviest area. Lot sizing, safety stock and inventory classifications are the vocabulary that MRP, DRP and S&OP questions reuse. |
| 3. Plan and Manage Internal Supply Sources | 12%. Master scheduling, ATP, rough-cut capacity and the MRP record - the calculation core of CPIM, and it needs demand and lot-sizing logic first. |
| 4. Plan, Manage, and Execute Detailed Schedules | 12%. Capacity, loading, sequencing and queue control carry the MRP plan down to the shop floor; study it while the MRP logic is fresh. |
| 5. Conduct Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) to Support Strategy | 10%. Reconciliation questions weigh demand against supply at aggregate level, so they are easier once you know both sides in detail. |
| 6. Align the Supply Chain to Support the Business Strategy | 12%. Push-pull boundary, process choice, KPIs, risk and sustainability. Its trade-off questions make more sense after the operational areas. |
| 7. Plan and Manage External Supply Sources | 11%, new as a separate area in 9.0. Supplier selection, SRM, procurement methods and disruptions - largely the external mirror of internal supply. |
| 8. Plan and Manage Distribution | 8%. DRP reuses MRP's time-phased logic, so this is fast once area 3 is solid. |
| 9. Manage Quality, Continuous Improvement, and Technology | 9%. Lean tools, SPC charts and emerging technology - familiar ground for many candidates and safe to leave last. |
This follows the flow of planning data rather than the ECM numbering: forecasts and inventory policy feed the master schedule, which feeds detailed schedules and distribution. Inventory, Internal Supply and Detailed Schedules are 38% between them and hold most of the calculation-heavy outline entries.
What changed, and how to spot the next change
CPIM 9.0 replaced version 8.0 on 1 June 2026. ASCM published the new ECM on 4 November 2025, sold the new learning system from 3 February 2026 and stopped testing 8.0 on 31 May 2026, with no overlap. Supply is now two areas - Internal (12%) and External (11%), 23% combined against 16% for the old single supply area. Inventory fell from 19% to 14%, Detailed Schedules from 16% to 12% and Strategy from 15% to 12%; Demand rose from 9% to 12% and Distribution from 5% to 8%. The 2024 job task analysis also widened coverage of technology and sustainability. The format is unchanged: 150 questions, 3.5 hours, pass at 300. The exam costs $1,265 with ASCM's certification upgrade or $1,755 without; a retake is $400 or $500 after a 14-day wait. Certification lasts five years and needs 75 maintenance points to renew.
Two habits keep you from studying a retired outline. First, open the official exam guide and look for its revision date before you buy anything — courses and question banks lag a syllabus change by months, and the cheapest ones never catch up. Second, re-check it the week you book. A revision announced after you started studying is still a revision you sit.
Turn the syllabus into questions
Reading an outline tells you the shape of the paper. Answering questions tells you which sections you would actually lose marks on. Start free, then $5.99 unlocks the full CPIM bank.
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What are the CPIM content areas and their weightings?
Nine, per Exam Content Manual version 9.0: Align the Supply Chain to Support the Business Strategy 12%, Conduct S&OP to Support Strategy 10%, Plan and Manage Demand 12%, Plan and Manage Internal Supply Sources 12%, Plan and Manage External Supply Sources 11%, Plan and Manage Inventory 14%, Plan, Manage, and Execute Detailed Schedules 12%, Plan and Manage Distribution 8%, and Manage Quality, Continuous Improvement, and Technology 9%.
What is the passing score for CPIM?
300 on a scaled range of 200 to 350. Only 130 of the 150 questions count, and the raw score needed to reach 300 changes from form to form because ASCM equates forms for difficulty, so no fixed number of correct answers guarantees a pass. Wrong answers are not penalised, so answer every item. A score of 320 or more also earns points toward the CPIM-F fellow designation.
Is CPIM still two exams, Part 1 and Part 2?
No. Part 1 and Part 2 (version 7.0) were combined into one exam with version 8.0 on 1 June 2023, and version 9.0 replaced that on 1 June 2026. Some older ASCM pages still describe two parts; ignore them. ASCM lists no degree or experience requirement to sit CPIM, but the ECM assumes you already know basic planning and inventory methods before you start.
How much does CPIM cost in total?
The exam alone is $1,755, or $1,265 if you hold an annual ASCM membership with the certification upgrade, which ASCM adds at checkout for $199. The bundle - learning system, exam and a free second-chance retake - is $3,175 or $2,275, and its authorization to test lasts 12 months. Otherwise a retake costs $500, or $400 with the upgrade. Rescheduling costs $45, and local taxes may apply.
Sources
Every section title, sub-objective and number on this page comes from the certifying body:
- https://www.ascm.org/globalassets/ascm_website_assets/docs/ecm/ecm-CPIM9.pdf
- https://www.ascm.org/globalassets/ascm_website_assets/docs/credentials/cpim-9.0-faqs-final.pdf
- https://www.ascm.org/learning-development/certifications-credentials/cpim/
- https://www.ascm.org/learning-development/certifications-credentials/exam-details/
- https://www.ascm.org/learning-development/certifications-credentials/faqs/
- https://www.ascm.org/globalassets/ascm_website_assets/docs/apics-exam-handbook.pdf
Checked October 7, 2026. Exam guides are revised without notice — confirm against ASCM before you build a study plan around this page.