What Can Supply-Chain Learn From The History of Newspapers?

Back in the 70’s a friend of mine tried to convince me that one of our neighbors had the latest edition of the Wall Street Journal because a helicopter would deliver it from NY to Columbus, OH. It sounded silly then and just plain ridiculous now. How did our neighbor get the day’s edition that day? What I find more interesting is how the newspaper industry provides clues to the evolution of supply-chains for other products. 

Sought-after publications were once hard to get if you lived far enough away.  What was even more difficult was getting one on the day they were hot off the press. Introduction of newer press technology could cheaply produce tens of thousands of papers quickly, but audiences of that size were hard to capture locally. 

Knowing that many towns had printing presses, publishers started buying printing capacity of hometown newspapers. They now send everything the local printers need, electronically, to print the publication the same way in every city. Today, delivery of remotely produced goods is still an issue to some degree. Especially if the product doesn’t function as needed or the color, size or shape isn’t what was expected.  Returns aren’t as difficult but still a hassle if you want to immediately use the merchandise. 

The good news is emerging technologies in manufacturing now allow us to make many things in our own homes. We can 3D print not only plastics but some metals as well. There are also looms that can fit in your basement to make shirts, sweaters, etc. And, let’s not leave out 3D scanning. If you break or want more of something, you can scan it and reproduce it.

Cost for these machines to produce the quality of products we have become accustomed to is still too high for many households, but manufacturing is becoming much more localized. There may one day be neighborhood service centers for household items and clothing. Companies like @Brightfarms can help provide food year-round without taking up additional real-estate.

Using Lean, companies can dedicate equipment to produce a family of products in very small batches. This doesn’t work for every type of product… yet. What are you doing to make smaller batches of customized products only when the customer requests it? It seems to be the way of our future supply-chains.