I’m probably not the only one who has fond memories of sneaking downstairs to the family TV on Saturday mornings, precariously balancing a big bowl of cereal, to watch Schoolhouse Rock! between episodes of all my favorite cartoons. But it’s not just that. I really love all the music, the stories, and what I learned. In fact, I’ve seen the off-Broadway musical interpretation more than once.
What do I find so appealing? I don’t think it’s any one thing; it’s all of it. The music is unbelievably catchy. The cartoon characters are memorable and fun. And the things I learned through those episodes I remember to this day: the basics of U.S. history, multiplication, science, and all about grammar — adjectives, verbs, nouns, pronouns, prepositions, predicates, and interjections! I still know every word to the song about unpacking adjectives, sentence structure, and one of my personal favorites, “Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla.”
I think one of the most widely held favorites is “I’m Just a Bill,” about how bills become laws. It also happened to be the song my brothers and I used to torture my dad, Bill. We’d sing it each time he answered the telephone. Spoiler alert: he did not find it a funny as we did.
Why all this nostalgia?
I’m excited to announce we’ve just launched a new video, “The Journey of TP,” inspired by Schoolhouse Rock! A young girl meets a single roll of toilet paper on the grocery shelf, who explains how supply chains work. Starting from the forest to production to packaging to warehouses to hitting the road to your favorite stores, we quickly learn about supply and demand and how intelligent supply chains help minimize disruptions.
Why’d we do this? We know that last year each of you understood what it felt like to be searching store after store for essential goods, with many of us scrambling for those precious squares of toilet paper. This video is a great way to understand the big picture of what Blue Yonder’s solutions do to help optimize supply chains. With end-to-end visibility and control, we help make sure products get where they need to be to fill demand. That way, there won’t be any empty shelves left to sing about.
I recommend watching and sharing it with the kids in your life — it’s great fun. And who knows? They may grow up inspired to become supply chain professionals. And then maybe it will be part of a Supply Chains Rock! musical.
