Page 4 - Next Generation 2015 - Digtial Issue

Next Generation Introduction
INTRODUCTION
4 | Lloyd’s List Next Generation 2015 | www.lloydslist.com
UP THE
REVOLUTION
The ‘next generation’ of our industry will not be
formed by any great technology leap — it will
be forged by the success or failure of smart
individuals working together to find better,
more efficient ways of managing a global
logistics chain, writes Richard Meade
FIFTY years ago, disruptive It was about smart investment,
technology was a 20 ft metal box that vision and a compelling enough reason
globalised trade. to look beyond yesterday’s success
and embrace the radical possibility of
By 2065, there is every possibility restructuring, everything.
that 3D printers will be considered
equally revolutionary, as global The “next generation” of our
manufacturing reorganises itself industry will not be formed by any
around the economics of proximity great leap forward in technology. It
rather than standardisation. will be forged by the success or failure
of smart individuals working together
But the technology is not to find better, more efficient ways of
revolutionary. Far from it. managing a global logistics chain
potentially required to carry four
The container revolution had tonnes of cargo annually for each of the
little to do with ‘the box’ itself. Sure, expected 9.6bn people on this planet
it was about new ships and terminals, within the next 50 years.
but that only stemmed from the
more important new company Today, for all the terabytes of
organisations needed to overcome lightning-fast computing power readily
the inherent inefficiencies of manual available in the modern shipowner’s
handling.