I WAS RECENTLY TALKING WITH MY FRIEND JOE TILLMAN OF
TSquared Logistics. Joe had given a presentation where he mentioned that
many of today’s most commonly used technologies actually required years
to find practical applications. Joe helped me assemble a few examples.
For instance, autonomous cars and trucks have been envisioned for
decades. Way back in 1925, a radio-controlled car successfully navigated
heavy traffic down Broadway and Fifth Avenue in New York City. A June
1995 article in Popular Science detailed a joint venture between the military
and a robotics company to develop self-driving convoy trucks. Yet we are
just now seeing these concepts becoming reality.
Radio-frequency identification systems were first
patented in 1973. Although the military was an early
adopter, it took some 30 years before the technology
became cost-effective for commercial applications.
The patent for bar codes was issued in 1952, but
it was not until the creation of the universal product
code (UPC) that the technology caught on. On June
26, 1974, a pack of Juicy Fruit gum became the first
product ever scanned, when a clerk slid it over a bar-code reader at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
Bluetooth relies on spread spectrum and frequen-cy-hopping technology famously developed during
World War II by amateur inventor and Hollywood
actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil.
Their original 1942 patent was for technology designed
to prevent the jamming of radio signals controlling torpedoes. It was never
applied that way, but the technology has since made its way into many of
the mobile products that underpin the modern supply chain.
Most people assume that blockchain technology is a recent innovation.
But that’s not actually the case. Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta
came up with the idea back in 1991 as a tamperproof way to timestamp
documents.
The desire for machines that mimic human motions and perform tasks
has been around for centuries. Leonardo da Vinci sketched mechanical men in 1495. In the 1730s, French inventor Jacques de Vaucanson
exhibited several life-sized automatons, including a mechanical duck that
appeared to eat from his hand.
As this short list shows, it’s not unusual for technologies to require years
to find their way. Often, good ideas just need the right timing or a favorable return on investment. Many concepts have to wait for advancements
in other technologies, such as computing power, to help move them along.
Who knows, the next technology to revolutionize our supply chains may
have already been invented and is just waiting for someone to come along
with the right way to apply it.
bigpicture
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