Purple Prose

One of the mission-critical roles of 21st-century supply chain managment is that part of S&OP that balances, reconciles, and/or overcomes mis-matches between supply capability/capacity and marketplace demand requirements. One of the greatest of such mis-matches outside of our profession has pancreatic cancer at its core.

Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest of the major cancers in the US; relatively uncommon numerically, it is the fourth-leading cause of cancer deaths. The five-year survival rate is 6% (or less), which has not improved in over forty years. In short, the amount of education and research going into the problem is trivial, and completely unrelated to the severity of the need. In short, shameful.

Currently, we don't talk much about ten-year survival rates, or cures, or victory. The challenge will intensify, with today's 44,000 annual diagnoses expected to significantly increase, possibly on pace with rampant growth in the number of diabetics.

The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network has designated November as Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, and has succeeded in getting proclamations so declaring issued by state, county, and city governments all over the country. In addition, we have mounted a campaign, that is getting real traction, to get US Senators and Representatives to co-sponsor or support upcomung legislation to fund an appropriate level of planning and funding at the Federal level to escalate the war on this disease.

This coming Sunday will see PurpleLight observances all across this nation to commemorate those who have fallen to pancreatic cancer, and to celebrate the few who have survived. We believe that we are on the road to finding a better balance of capability, capacity, and need in this great struggle. And, with your support, we expect to have future messages of hope to replace today's dreadful statistics.