Laguna Hills, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 01/31/2007 --Preston Blevins, vice-president with BatchMaster (www.batchmaster.com) will present “International Supply Chain: Working Effectively With Cultural Differences” on Thursday, February 8th at 6pm as part of the APICS San Fernando Valley meeting. APICS, the Association for Operations Management has regular business development meetings. To register for the event go to: arrangements@apics-sfv.org.

According to Blevins who holds several APICS certifications including CFPIM, FBPICS, CIRM, CSCP, noted “If you work in a Multi-national organization or deal with suppliers from around the world, then this talk is for you. The multi-national enterprise and multi-national supply-chains have become an important force in the world economy. Differences in cultural views of problem solving, acceptance of complexity and the importance of time, present significant challenges to the complex collaborations needed in these arrangements. There is a way to understand your international partners.”

The meeting will also focus on issues closer to home; Southern California is a culturally diverse community with challenges that must be addressed to build a cohesive "world-class" enterprise. This presentation brings companies into alignment with all of the cultural "richness" in both the local and international economies and helps to succeed as a resource management and supply-chain professional.

Preston specializes in the implementation of good business practices for enterprise resource management, lean thinking, supply-chain management and e-collaboration. Preston's "hands-on", practitioner manufacturing industry experience spans twelve years. Positions held during that time include all positions associated with materials, manufacturing and plant management in a variety of manufacturing environments. Following his manufacturing industry career, Preston has spent the last twenty-five years in the consulting and the manufacturing software industry. Preston has had extensive international experience. He lived on multi-year extended assignments in the UK, Sweden and Belgium. Preston also has had project oversight in Asia-Pacific and he currently collaborates with co-workers in India.

About BatchMaster

BatchMaster Software, Inc. has provided advanced ERP solutions for over two decades with more than one thousand five hundred installations worldwide. BatchMaster’s customers can be found in every formula or recipe-based business, including food, beverage, cosmetic, personal care, paint, coating, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and specialty chemical industries. Flexible, easy to learn and use, and scalable to grow with a process manufacturing business, BatchMaster is the definitive solution for the challenges facing small to midsize process manufacturers. BatchMaster has more than a hundred technical staff numbers of highly-qualified software professionals.