Steelwedge Software

Steelwedge Software

The Titanic and S&OP: Are We Condemned to Repeat History?

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 06:17 AM PDT

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana, 1905 This coming Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic and a recent New York Times Op-Ed piece from Roger Cohen articulates how the ship’s captain Edward Smith and his elite passengers peacefully cruised the Atlantic in total luxury—completely oblivious to their coming fate. It turned out that the upper class passengers of the Titantic were not only unaware of their immediate destiny but also completely in the dark about the dawning of a new era – a period of profound darkness that spanned the Bolshevik revolution, WWI, the Great Depression and WWII. In Cohen’s piece, he compares that era to today and asks if history is repeating itself once again. Were we happily floating through the post-Cold War "Peace Dividend", a never-ending housing boom and the enormous growth in luxury goods before 9/11 suddenly struck? And then the Iraq and Afghan wars. And then the Financial Crisis. And what next? Maybe global climate change? Perhaps peace and prosperity? So what does this have to do with sales and operations planning (S&OP)? Just replace the word "ship" with "supply chain" in the following quote: "I cannot imagine any condition which would cause this ship to founder.… Read the rest

Posted by computer at 9:05 AM  

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