ONE MANIFESTATION OF LIVING LONG IS THAT ONE HAS
seen, if not everything, at least many things. A manifestation of
being on the younger side is that many things are being seen for the
first time, and with no other point of reference may, among many
options, be categorized as:
; Denounced in horror, as the work of Satan
; Embraced with gusto, as the next big thing
; Ignored, as mere chatter
; Heralded as game-changers, as kinks are worked out and weaknesses are shored up
; Overshadowed by the simultaneous arrival of other solutions in
search of problems.
MARCHING TO THE HEAD OF THE PARADE
Promoting the apparently new concept draws in armies of fervent
supporters. The trade press is always on the lookout for compelling
and provocative content. Academics do not want to seem to be
run over by the bandwagon. Earnest and brilliant
practitioners extol the virtues and vision of whatever’s next and trumpet the promise and potential
of the latest and greatest.
Consultants, of course, cannot afford to suffer
body blows to their images if they don’t appear to
be both wise and current. And industry observers
and commentators also are compelled to display
relevance, along with brilliant mating plumage.
Research is conducted, surveys are carried out,
results and conclusions are published. But take
a moment when the next PR tsunami wipes out
rational discourse. Is the concept really new?
(Aha!) Or simply more effective or efficient (e.g., lower-cost, fast-er-speed mobile wireless access)? (Duh!)
WHAT’S OLD IS NEW AGAIN
News flash! As we’ve frequently reported, Sears was doing business-to-consumer (B2C) order fulfillment from a megadistribution
center over a century ago. (As was Aaron Montgomery Ward.) The
only differences of significance from today? U.S. mail as input vs.
e-mail or mobile entry. Physical delivery by a third party unknown
today (Railway Express) vs. FedEx, UPS, or, believe it or not, the
U.S. Postal Service.
Shared transportation, with either competitive or complementary independent companies, has been significantly enabled by new
information technology capabilities and a renewed emphasis on
cooperation and collaboration in new-century business models. Of
course, 40 years ago, we called this Aha! practice “pooling.” Duh!
BY ART VAN BODEGRAVEN AND
KENNETH B. ACKERMAN basictraining
Is it Aha! Or Duh! Or D’oh?
In the day, we lacked the power and scope of
planning and execution software. There was no
warehouse management software, for example.
But we still kept meticulous inventory records (on
cards), planned pick waves as best we could by
thinking through needs and priorities, and slotted
products, sometimes based on affinity, sometimes
on source, sometimes on throughput objectives,
and sometimes on customer demand priorities.
To be honest, it was not easy, and it was extremely
difficult to replicate day after day. But it wasn’t
that we didn’t do these things in an age in which
fire was a new and precious resource, and we created art by tracing ’round our hands on cave walls.
We have, it seems, evolved through a series
of developments in which the rising generation
cries “Aha!” and the old codgers sit at the fire and
mutter “Duh!” Occasionally,
someone in either camp will see
the light and make the connections. That’s when the Homer
Simpson “D’oh!” kicks in.
WHEN AHAs COLLIDE
In the early days of radio-frequency identification (RFID),
which some think we’re still in,
the literature was full to overflowing, even littered, with pretentious writing positioning its
authors to be recognized as prescient. Those
enamored of other hot concepts focused on the
weaknesses of the emerging technology—
challenges in wet environments, conquering metallic
obstacles, etc. They said, in essence, “Readable
technology in or on a package of chewing gum?
Not in my lifetime—or yours! Cost will stop this
dead in its tracks.”
Guess what, again? In their lifetimes, the mois-
ture and materiel kinks have been largely worked
out. Chip costs have plummeted. RFID is no lon-
ger limited to high-cost/value applications, such
as automobiles, E-ZPass tolls, mink coats, and
lift tickets at pricey Alpine retreats. The future is
now, and something even brighter is probably just
around the corner.
