EVERY DECADE IN THE PAST 100 YEARS HAS LEFT ITS MARK ON HIStory and society. They have also left us with innovations that shaped how supply chains operate today.
The 1910s gave us “the war to end all wars” but also introduced assembly lines
in factories and the first industrial truck, the forerunner of today’s lift truck.
The 1920s were roaring and brought with them air deliveries, radio and
wireless communications, and standardization of roads and highways in
America to make transporting freight easier.
The 1930s saw the launch of airmail across the Atlantic, the birth of frozen
foods and refrigerated transport, and the introduction of Scotch Tape for use
in packaging operations.
In the 1940s, World War II delivered innovations tied to the war effort,
including one that redefined military logistics: the pallet. It also ushered in the
transistors used in electronics today.
The 1950s brought standardized shipping containers
and the introduction of the Interstate Highway System,
integrated circuits, and dot-matrix printers. Bar codes
were also invented during this decade.
The Vietnam War and social unrest were the touchstones of the 1960s. Container use expanded with the
adoption of international ISO standards that allowed
more consistent handling of containers, while the containers themselves moved to the rails to create an intermodal transport system.
The 1970s brought us Watergate and disco, as well as
the desktop computers that revolutionized information
sharing. The universal product code (UPC) started to
appear on boxes, making inventory tracking easier.
The 1980s were notable for trickle-down economics, but the decade also witnessed the rise of automatic identification technologies and home computing.
Railroads began double-stacking containers on trains so they could haul more
freight per trip.
The Cold War ended in the 1990s. It was also the decade when the internet
and email took off. Early radio-frequency identification (RFID) deployments
and expanded use of electronic data interchange (EDI) helped facilitate the
flow of information along with goods through the supply chain.
The 2000s featured the Great Recession and the growth of globalization.
Asian manufacturing expanded as did demand for freight service to bring
goods to the North American market. Online retail was born, along with smart
devices, GPS, file sharing, and social networks.
And lastly, the decade of the 2010s expanded on existing technologies and
added self-driving vehicles, the Internet of Things (Io T), and more.
Where will the 2020s take us in supply chain? Robotics, hyperloop transport,
autonomous deliveries, and ever-connected Io T devices are just a few innovative technologies that may become commonplace in the supply chains of the
new decade. Welcome to the 2020s. It will be fun to watch.
BIGPICTURE
Editorial Director
David Maloney
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