CPIM Certification: The Exam, Cost And Who It Is For

What The CPIM Certification Is

The CPIM, Certified in Planning and Inventory Management, is the ASCM credential for the people who plan what an operation makes, buys and holds. It covers planning and inventory inside the operation: supply chain strategy, sales and operations planning, demand, internal and external supply, inventory, detailed schedules, distribution, and quality and continuous improvement. Where the CSCP spans the whole chain from supplier to customer, CPIM stays inside the operation and goes deep on the plan.

ASCM names the people it is for by task: ERP users and IT staff, planners at any level of the planning hierarchy, sales and operations planning teams, and anyone doing master production scheduling, material requirements planning, capacity planning or manufacturing inventory control.

What The CPIM Exam Covers: Nine Modules

ASCM organizes the CPIM body of knowledge into nine modules, all tested on the one exam:

1. Supply Chains and Strategy
2. Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP)
3. Demand
4. Internal Supply
5. External Supply and Key Support Functions
6. Inventory
7. Detailed Schedules
8. Distribution
9. Quality, Business Investments and Continuous Improvement

The order runs from strategy down to the shop floor: the plan for the business, then the sales and operations plan that balances demand against supply, then the schedules, inventory and distribution that carry it out. Three of the modules name demand, inventory or distribution, the ground CPIM shares with a planner’s daily work.

How The CPIM Exam Works

One exam of 150 questions (130 scored, 20 unscored pretest) in 3.5 hours, scored from 200 to 350, with 300 or more passing. It is taken at a Pearson VUE center or online. The content runs across nine modules.

ASCM membership is optional, though members pay less. You buy an authorization to test, which expires six months after purchase (12 months when bought in a bundle), and ASCM recommends about 100 hours of study per exam. A candidate who fails must wait 14 full days before retaking the same exam.

Who Can Take The CPIM Exam

None. ASCM sets no education or experience requirement; anyone can buy an authorization to test. That is ASCM’s own rule, set out in its exam handbook, so a student or a career changer can sit CPIM before holding a planning job. ISM’s CPSM works the other way: it is awarded only after professional experience.

What The CPIM Certification Costs

ASCM lists the CPIM exam at $1,265 for members with its certification upgrade and $1,755 for everyone else. The membership with the upgrade is $199 a year, so a nonmember who joins first pays $1,464 in all, $291 less than the nonmember price. The fee covers the exam only; ASCM sells its study system separately and in bundles.

Keeping A CPIM Current

Stays valid while you earn 75 professional development points every five years. Holders aged 62 or older can convert a current certification to a lifetime designation, which ends the five-year maintenance cycle.

Jobs That Cite The CPIM

This site’s career guides name CPIM for four jobs. BLS reports pay by occupation, and some of these jobs are counted inside a wider one, so each figure names the occupation it describes:

• Supply Chain Manager: $107,230, the median for transportation, storage and distribution managers (May 2025)
• Supply Chain Analyst: $82,320, the median for logisticians (May 2025)
• Industrial Production Manager: $126,060, the median for industrial production managers (May 2025)
• Production Planner: $59,650, the median for production, planning, and expediting clerks (May 2025)

The medians describe the occupation, not what a CPIM adds to it. BLS doesn’t report pay by credential, and this site doesn’t quote a premium without a named survey behind it.

CPIM Or CSCP

Both are ASCM exams in the same format, at the same kind of test center, kept current the same way. The difference is scope: CPIM has nine modules on planning and inventory inside an operation, and CSCP has eight across the whole supply chain, sourcing and logistics included. CSCP costs more: $1,450 for members against $1,265. The CSCP guide compares the two in full.

A CPIM Or A Supply Chain Degree

The two answer different questions. A CPIM certifies one body of knowledge, planning and inventory, in one exam; a degree spans a business school curriculum and takes years. ASCM requires no degree for CPIM, and passing it doesn’t stand in for one. If you are weighing a degree, the master’s ranking lists programs with tuition read from each program’s page, and the program finder filters them by cost and format.

FAQ

Keep Reading

Supply Chain Certifications Compared

CSCP, CPIM, CLTD and CPSM side by side.

CSCP Certification

ASCM’s end-to-end credential, and how it differs from CPIM.

How To Become A Production Planner

The planning job CPIM is built around.

Master’s In Supply Chain Management, Ranked

Programs read from each school’s own page.

Sources

1. 1 ASCM, CPIM (Certified in Planning and Inventory Management) Read 2026-09-26.
2. 2 ASCM, CSCP (Certified Supply Chain Professional) Read 2026-09-26.
3. 3 ASCM, certification exam details and process Read 2026-09-23.
4. 4 ASCM, certification and credential FAQs Read 2026-09-23.
5. 5 ASCM, APICS Exam Handbook and Testing Policies Read 2026-09-23.
6. 6 BLS OEWS, May 2025: Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers (SOC 11-3071) Read 2026-09-23.
7. 7 BLS OEWS, May 2025: Logisticians (SOC 13-1081) Read 2026-09-23.
8. 8 BLS OEWS, May 2025: Industrial Production Managers (SOC 11-3051) Read 2026-09-23.
9. 9 BLS OEWS, May 2025: Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks (SOC 43-5061) Read 2026-09-23.