BY STEVE GEARY, EDITOR AT LARGE
DEFENSE LOGISTICS
WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT INNOVATIVE ORGA-
nizations, what comes to mind? Amazon? Facebook?
Apple?
If you’re a logistician, the military—yes, the people
who brought us the $435 claw hammer, the $640 toilet
seat, and $7,600 coffeemakers—should be on your
short list. Throughout history, the defense establishment has led the way in developing and implementing
crucial tools and practices that have eventually seen
widespread adoption by the business world.
The Department of Defense (DOD) has been a
relentless early adopter of new logistics technologies
and strategies. But in many cases, it has been more
than just an early adopter; it has played a major role
in the innovations’ fundamental research and development. What follows are just a few examples:
b Intermodal freight and containerization.
Containerization and intermodal transportation are
deeply embedded in the way the world moves goods
today. The commercial breakthrough for containers
happened in the mid-1950s, brought about by visionary trucking executive Malcom McLean. After building and selling a successful motor carrier operation,
McLean Trucking, he purchased the steamship line
U.S. Lines and led the way in developing the containerships shippers now take for granted.
McLean deserves enormous credit for that. But
in fact, the concept of containerized transportation
originated with the U.S. Army. In the latter years of
World War II, the Army used something it called
“transporters”—standardized boxes that were really mini-containers—to speed up the loading and
unloading of cargo ships ferrying goods between the
U.S. and Europe.
When the Korean conflict erupted, the military
started using the “transporters” for sensitive military
equipment heading to the Pacific Rim as well. In
1952, the Army adopted the term “CONEX,” short
for “container express,” to refer to the transporters. Late that same year, the first major shipment of
CONEXes, containing engineering supplies and spare
parts, moved by rail from Georgia to the Port of San
Francisco and then by ship to Yokohama, Japan, and
on to Korea.
So, Malcom McLean ran with the idea and created
an industry, but containerization and intermodal
started with the military, not McLean.
b Roll on/roll off cargo ships. Intermodal carriage and
specialreport
You may not think of the military as a wellspring of logistics innovation. But the Defense
Department has a long history of developing
(and implementing) cutting-edge tools. Here
are just a few examples.
Trickle-down
logistics
