APICS, an organization of supply chain and operations management professionals, announced earlier this week that it has completed its merger with American Society of Transportation and Logistics (AST&L), extending APICS’s expertise in transportation and logistics.

“Integrating AST&L into APICS allows us to fortify our supply chain education and certification offering with deeper content in the areas of transportation and logistics,” said APICS CEO Abe Eshkenazi. “APICS continues to bolster our offerings to address two of the most important topics in the global economy today, developing supply chain talent and elevating supply chain performance.”

The merger between APICS and AST&L will provide support to the end-to-end supply chain body of knowledge that fuels APICS’s global supply chain research, education and certification programs. APICS will integrate AST&L with its existing operations.

“I’m so pleased to see this merger finalized,” said George Yarusavage, chairman of the AST&L board of directors. “AST&L has a unique focus on an integral piece of the global supply chain puzzle. Joining APICS gives us the opportunity to extend that knowledge to a broader audience and will benefit our combined members, customers and partners.”

“APICS is committed to offering end-to-end supply chain education and certification to provide members, customers and the supply chain industry as a whole with the most up to date, relevant body of knowledge possible,” added Alan G. Dunn, CPIM, chair of the APICS board of directors. “Transportation, logistics and the delivery process are an extremely important part of that body of knowledge.”