CPIM Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield CPIM facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. In demand management, 'available-to-promise' (ATP) is used to: → Commit to customer delivery dates based on uncommitted inventory and production
2. An advantageous competitive trait is one that: → A company must exhibit to gain new sales
3. Which planning horizon is most commonly associated with the Master Production Schedule (MPS)? → Weeks to months
4. Which document authorizes a supplier to deliver materials within a specified time window under a long-term agreement? → Release order
5. In a fixed-order-quantity (Q) system, what triggers a replenishment order? → Inventory falling to a predetermined reorder point
6. Input/output control in PAC is used to: → Manage work center queue lengths by comparing planned versus actual input and output rates
7. What does 'flexible manufacturing system' (FMS) enable that traditional dedicated lines cannot? → Rapid changeover between different products with minimal manual intervention
8. In supply chain management, 'postponement' refers to: → Deferring product differentiation to as late as possible in the process
9. A company wants to reduce its order-to-delivery lead time without changing its production process. Which strategy would MOST effectively achieve this? → Switching from MTO to assemble-to-order (ATO)
10. In distribution requirements planning (DRP), what triggers a replenishment order from the central warehouse to a field distribution center? → When projected on-hand inventory falls below the reorder point or safety stock
11. What is 'queue time' in a manufacturing routing? → Time a job waits in front of a work center before processing begins
12. In quality management, 'statistical process control' (SPC) uses control charts to: → Distinguish between common-cause and special-cause variation in a process
13. In the context of supply chain sustainability, the 'triple bottom line' refers to measuring performance across: → Economic, environmental, and social dimensions
14. Which shop floor scheduling priority rule selects the job with the earliest due date first? → Earliest due date (EDD)
15. Which concept allows MRP to plan components across multiple product levels simultaneously? → Explosion (BOM explosion)
16. Which of the following financial statements would include the cost of goods sold for an organization? → Income statement
17. What is a 'tracking signal' used for in forecast monitoring? → To detect when forecast errors are accumulating in one direction, signaling bias
18. What is the primary goal of vendor-managed inventory (VMI)? → Allow the supplier to monitor and replenish the buyer's stock autonomously
19. Which MRP input file contains the product structure showing components needed for each parent item? → Bill of Materials (BOM)
20. Which supply chain strategy is BEST suited for a product with highly unpredictable demand and short life cycles? → Agile supply chain
21. What is 'net requirements' in MRP? → Gross requirements minus on-hand inventory and scheduled receipts
22. In ABC analysis, which category typically represents approximately 20% of SKUs but 80% of total inventory value? → A items
23. In distribution requirements planning (DRP), what triggers a planned replenishment order at a field warehouse? → Projected inventory falling below the reorder point at that location
24. What is 'priority planning' in detailed scheduling? → Determining the sequence in which jobs should be processed at a work center
25. Which lean tool maps the flow of materials and information from supplier to customer to identify waste? → Value stream mapping
26. Which lean tool is used to visually represent the flow of materials and information in a production process to identify waste? → Value stream mapping
27. What does 'utilization' measure in capacity management? → The percentage of scheduled time that a work center is actually working
28. Which cost trade-off does the total cost curve in EOQ analysis balance? → Ordering costs vs. carrying costs
29. The EOQ formula minimizes the total of which two types of costs? → Ordering costs and carrying costs
30. A product has a raw material cost of $50, direct labor of $20, and overhead of $30. What is its total standard cost? → $100