I find it curious that many of the global warming true believers seem to have little problem with ordering DVD’s from NetFlix. It seems that much of what we take as “the way things are” is done without a thought given to it. How did we arrive here?
Back in the 80’s Harvard trained MBA’s were lauded for noticing that manufacturing success of many of the Japanese companies relied on the principle of JIT: “just in time.” Rather than have stockpiles of parts awaiting orders, these companies would gather orders and then have the parts made — and shipped to them — just in time for construction. JIT became a cause celebre in the business world. Companies ranging from NetFlix to Walmart owe their success to this concept; which esentially boils down to mere synchronicity.
The problem is that these proponents of gains in manufacturing efficiency never once considered the side effects. In this case, if you’re a global warming true believer, we now ship as needed because we can which wastes more fuel than was ever used prior to the JIT “revelation.” You see, before the revelation/revolution, companies stockpiled parts and used an asynchronous concept. It was OK if it took 2 weeks to get the next set of parts by rail because there were always plenty on hand.
Now, I’m not a true believer, but I’m also not one to waste fuel or energy. I don’t want to pay an extra dollar for a widget to offset fuel costs imposed by the MBAs working for the manufacturers. I don’t want to have to pay $5 for gas if I don’t need to.
I think overall that the JIT stuff illustrates a belief I have that not understanding technology (or misunderstanding as the case may be) or even failing to take it into account causes far more overall pain than it’s worth. If I were King I’d probably mandate that all MBA’s get degrees in energy technology if for no other reason than to have some understanding of the energy budgets of that which they submit as preferential solutions to the business problems they are supposed to solve.
