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you're spot on - the industry reached a high degree of standardization on the atoms side of things, but has failed to reach the same standardization on the bits side. It took roughly 20 years (give or take) from the first appearance of the shipping container to it reaching broad adoption. I think the DCSA is essentially proposing the digital version of the shipping container and hopefully they get it done faster than 20 years! Granted, what they are proposing already exists in pockets of the industry - their API standards aren't revolutionary, they are the result of years of other parties work. But even then, that's just standardization in one segment of supply chain (international ocean freight). I don't know the first thing about how other segments of the supply chain are or are not trying to standardize themselves. It's a war of inches!
Perfect analogies for the imperfect reality that is, and has been, SCV for the past 3 decades. Bravo!
Hey Cy,
I am curious what - if any - lessons there are to be learned from the standardization of the shipping container?
Just took a look at DCSA and it looks like that is the foundation or inspiration for what they are working on.
Thanks for sharing,
Taylor
you're spot on - the industry reached a high degree of standardization on the atoms side of things, but has failed to reach the same standardization on the bits side. It took roughly 20 years (give or take) from the first appearance of the shipping container to it reaching broad adoption. I think the DCSA is essentially proposing the digital version of the shipping container and hopefully they get it done faster than 20 years! Granted, what they are proposing already exists in pockets of the industry - their API standards aren't revolutionary, they are the result of years of other parties work. But even then, that's just standardization in one segment of supply chain (international ocean freight). I don't know the first thing about how other segments of the supply chain are or are not trying to standardize themselves. It's a war of inches!