[Editor’s Pick] Supply Chain Planning: What Would Don Draper Do?

Note: Today’s post is part of our “Editor’s Pick” series where we highlight posts published by our sponsors that provide practical knowledge and advice on timely and important supply chain and logistics topics. In this November 2021 post from SAP’s blog, Xuan-Yen To highlights how Supply Chain Planning has changed and improved over the years.

While watching the hit TV series “Mad Men,” set in the 1960s about a fictional advertising agency, I was amazed at how much the advertising industry, and business in general, has changed. And thanks to the container ship crisis, I wondered what supply chain planning was like in that time period? Before the days of S&OP processes, and when MRP was in its infancy, what would the Don Draper equivalent of a supply chain planner do?

I imagine a wall with a giant scheduling board with blocks that can be moved around to represent manufacturing and delivery schedules. The constant ring of telephones, paper copies of customer orders, delivery schedules and purchase orders everywhere.

All, of course, in a thick fog of cigarette smoke.

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