What’s new in supply chain planning?
by  Arjen Heeres - Chief Operating Officer, Quintiq

About 100 years ago, Frederick Taylor created history by separating planning from production. He was the first person to create a planning office with well-defined roles. Supply chain planning had finally been organized.

If Taylor organized supply chain planning, it took his colleague, Henry Gantt, to recognize the importance of organizing the way information was presented to planners. After that flurry of innovation, nothing much changed for decades. Then, somewhere in the 90s, companies and universities began exploring how to apply complex mathematical algorithms to maximize production capacity. The new era of supply chain optimization had arrived.

So what is new about supply chain planning?

The easy answer, of course, is optimization. The interesting answer is that the legacies of Taylor and Gantt live on today in the way supply chain planning solutions are implemented. It’s still important to define the right roles. It’s still crucial to ensure visibility. And finally, there’s a new focus on transforming bottom lines through planning & optimization.

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