What Shipping Can Learn from The Mechanical Turk
In 1770, the first automated chess player was created.
People played and lost against the Mechanical Turk in demonstrations across Europe and America.
The first of its kind, the Turk was a technological leap forward that paved the way for AI-driven chess we see today.
There was only one catch — it wasn’t automated at all.
From within the machine, a chess master controlled the pieces on the board. What appeared to be automated, was in fact manual behind the scenes.
This same concept applies to the innovation journey. Manual solutions often precede fully automated solutions.
Prior to building out full scale digital solutions, it makes sense to test demand with lo-fi versions. IBM, for example, tested its speech to text technology with a person behind the scenes, live-typing verbal inputs which would display on the screen, before building out the full tech.
But manual operation should be temporary.
Once demand is established it’s time to take the important but difficult leap toward true transformation.
In shipping, we’ve made progress on our journey to digital transformation.
Front-end digital platforms offering online self-service solutions have all begun to see widespread adoption. But behind the scenes, the man in the Mechanical Turk is working overtime.
While manual handling is a necessary step, we now need to move to developing an integrated, automated system to process and handle information.
In short, the transformation…
The Need For Full Digital Transformation
“When digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.”
– George Westerman, Principal Research Scientist, MIT Sloan Initiative on Digital Economy
A key goal of our digital transformation should be to have the right data, at the right time, to make the best decisions; to provide better visibility and tracking of shipments, greater predictability for customers, and open up opportunities for continuous innovation.
As data capture increases (through IoT sensors for example), it becomes even more important to have the right systems in place to reap the full benefits. Manual handling will struggle to deal with the increasing volume of data. So it makes sense to transition toward a full digital transformation sooner rather than later; to direct and shape it, rather than be shaped by it.
But this transformation is difficult and requires substantial operational shifts.
Interdependency Challenge
Shipping, like a great relay race, is heavily interdependent in how we move goods from A to B.
Where in some industries digital transformation can be viewed through the lens of a single company, in shipping, we have to consider the bigger picture.
Carriers, ports, freight forwarders, customs, etc — all play a role in the journey end to end. Widespread collaboration and operational transformation is difficult, but a necessary component for us to move toward true transformation.
The good news is that it is possible.
Aviation has achieved a high degree of integration, which we can learn from in creating a system that works for container shipping.
In a comment on an earlier post of mine, Franklin Martin nicely sums up what might be possible:
“The IATA system (worldwide) is a standard and required system to assist and protect aircraft — take-off + landing + travel. The Container Shipping digital progress should emphasize the absolute need to align with all connections into one digital unit available to all Container Shipping companies + ports + land operations (including road + rail transport of TEUs).”
Of course, widespread transformation isn’t easy, but it is possible, and I could even say necessary.
In an increasingly digital world, we need to do the work to implement the digital infrastructure to support it, because manual handling will only get us so far.
I’m curious what you think.
Is digitalisation enough, or do we need operational transformation too?
What are the biggest roadblocks and how might we overcome them?
