IDEA LOGISTICS: Evoking Corporate Intellectual Assets
Executive Summary
Transportation is singularly responsible for moving everything on
this planet…, and beyond!
Transportation’s resources have been focused on moving people and
goods. In this role and throughout time, its faculties, resources,
and attributes have continuously driven the world’s economies and
moved people all around the globe. During the intervening years of
growth, transportation’s capabilities and processes have repeatedly
increased and developed, but remained focused primarily on the
movement of people and goods. Today, transportation is successfully
meeting the challenges of the global economy and its capabilities
and resources are still being principally directed at moving people
and goods.
To successfully compete in today’s global and knowledge economies,
corporate intellectual resources must be cultivated, mined, and
harvested. However, cross cultivation of both like and disparate
disciplines, knowledge bases and skill sets, focused in
interdepartmental relationships and interdisciplinary resources
will produce new and better ideas whose results will create new
paradigms and cross new frontiers. A process that can effectively
and efficiently stimulate, manage, and control those resources must
be founded on a discipline that touches every part of every company
and is capable of managing complex relationships.
Performing as the supply chain engine, transportation is materially
responsible for driving commerce, industry, and society. As the
driving component of logistics, the discipline that manages the flow
of raw material through the finishing process, transportation is
inherently involved in supply chain performance. Transportation and
logistics have an extensive history and a proven ability to move and
manage complex relationships simultaneously. Managing the
complexities of the supply chain and moving its products and people
throughout the world have created a very powerful union between
logistics and transportation.
The combined resources of transportation and logistics are well
suited for managing the flow of ideas and moving them throughout the
corporate landscape.
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“Idea Logistics(sm)”
"is the discipline that manages the flow of ideas through
concept development, implementation, and deployment".
Created and developed by TransportGistics, Inc. (TGI) senior
level Convergence Practice Group, idea logistics has been
implemented and successfully deployed in a wide range of TGI’s
consulting engagements. Focused on harvesting corporate
intellectual assets, TransportGistics consulting services, products,
and automated transportation management solutions in conjunction
with idea logistics continues to strengthen the performance
and viability of its customers.
This white paper will discuss “idea logistics” and its role
in identifying and harvesting the corporate intellectual assets
through the knowledge transfer process.
Idea Logistics Description
To move or transport goods and people, there are various modes of
transportation that are employed. The traditional modes are
air, motor, water, rail, and express. Ideas also require
transportation and their transport mode is “communications”.
While every company has a unique operating style and management
philosophy, the global view of transportation and logistics
demonstrates that these disciplines are properly equipped and very
capable of harvesting and moving an idea through the various
business disciplines and departments in manner similar to goods moving within a company and
through its supply chain.
Continuing with the parallel view, the
major phases of the
freight lifecycle are: pre-shipment,
in-transit, and post shipment. The delivery of well performing
ideas that meet the corporate objectives and strategies must travel
through the following phases: review, acceptance / rejections,
implementation and deployment. The "idea lifecycle"
would include a detailed blueprint of all of the touch points within
the flow.
For ideas to be effective, all
organizations require a disciplined method and process to manage the
flow of their ideas.
Background
The rich histories of transportation dates back to the earliest life
form and since then its applications have continued to evolve
throughout nature and society.
Man’s earliest use of transportation may have manifested itself in
his need to move something out of the way or perhaps to block a path
or to carry food home. Transportation is perhaps one of mans'
oldest sustaining features and is clearly responsible for the growth
and development of society, commerce and industry. Its influence is
felt at all levels in every society. Nations with rising
expectations strive to emulate the transportation conveyances,
functions, and systems that already exist in more “advanced”
cultures. Economically successful nations rely on transportation as
a means to impel their industry and commerce. They continually
endeavor to improve those transportation systems that they recognize
as being responsible for driving their success. Successful military
campaigns have been underwritten by well performing transportation
systems and vehicles. Transportation is acknowledged as the primary
logistics driver in winning military applications.
To “advance,” man has always attempted to emulate nature and
examples of this pervade throughout every society. Whether
imitating a bird flying and then observing various natural
activities to improve the physical forms of transportation,
man has always looked to nature. Transportation in nature has
continuously evolved into highly sophisticated systems that are
responsible for carrying out exceedingly complex tasks. Examples
can be found in the spider and its web; or the bee or the bird
carrying out pollination or locating a seed distant from its
parent. Likewise, such observation simultaneously identifies the
various transportation segments, that is, beginning points,
interchanges, and destinations together with the associated
relationships of consignor, carrier, and consignee.
Relationships are dependent upon effective communications and
communication relies upon transportation as the vehicle to move
signals, voice, and data.
Launching Ideas
The primary element of the intellectual asset is an idea. To
harvest the intellectual corporate assets, businesses require a
process to change an idea into a concept and then move it through the
idea lifecycle. Companies are comprised of multiple
departments and disciplines. Individual departments and
disciplines have been reasonably successful in driving their
respective ideas through their particular silos. Without belaboring the benefits of
breaking down corporate silos, suffice it to say that evoking the
knowledge from the combination of interdisciplinary resources and
interdepartmental relationships will achieve the benefits derived
from cross cultivated intellectual assets and therefore the
resulting ideas will be far more capable than those that may suffer
from incestuous or independent thought.
Today, the ever changing global economy presents new challenges and
market opportunities. To meet these challenges and opportunities,
and avoid the pitfalls of implementing or rejecting an idea before a
clear corporate need or objective is defined; a structured approach
that can effectively and efficiently shepherd an idea through its
entire lifecycle is required.
An idea, like freight needs to be properly routed so that it can
arrive at its destination in a timely fashion and in the best
possible condition. The flow of ideas through an organization
reasonably parallels the movement of freight as more fully described
in
today’s freight paradigm. The freight lifecycle maps the
movement of freight through all of its activity beginning with its
identity and concluding with its consumption. Likewise, ideas that
respect corporate values and meet the strategic objectives should
move amongst the various corporate departments and across multiple
disciplines. With characteristics similar to the freight lifecycle,
the idea lifecycle would, among its many responsibilities be
responsible for mapping its respective activity.
Transportation Practices and Idea Logistics
Ideas are expressed for many reasons; one of the primary reasons may
be “need”. Understanding the need can be the beginning of the idea
development process and the initial concept would be explored and
related to the environment. If deemed appropriate, “The “Idea
Logistics Team” would then:
Develop a high level idea
assessment and appraisal—similar to an operations assessment and
appraisal.
Targeting the disciplines and
departments that would best support the idea is another
important step in the process. Transportation is a highly
effective vehicle for identifying the disciplines and
interdepartmental relationships. A successful method of
approach for identification can be found in TransportGistics’
white paper, “Collaboration”.
In that white paper, we demonstrate the importance of
transportation documents such as the Bill of Lading.
Transportation documents carry data and that data can be tracked
to those departments that initiated and appended the Bill of
Lading. Likewise, the data will reveal the interdepartmental
and interdisciplinary relationships.
Next, the Idea Logistics Team would
socialize the idea amongst the relevant departments and
disciplines in order to make sure that the idea can meet the
corporate objectives and strategies as well as determining if it
is capable of embracing other appropriate corporate mandates.
It is through this process that the “idea lifecycle”
would be defined, documented, and mapped. The various “touch
points” would also have been identified at that time.
Organizing the touch points into a
logical and orderly scheme will allow the routing principles of
transportation to be applied for idea routing through and
amongst the departments and disciplines.
Invoking the tracing, and tracking
attributes of transportation will create the process for
timeline management and performance monitoring.
The lifecycle process would be
managed by “Idea logistics”; logistics would administer the flow
of the idea through concept development, implementation, and
deployment.
All of the above activities would be managed by the logistics
management principles, practices and processes. They would be
applied and function in the same manner as in supply chain
management.
Because every company has a unique operating style and its own
philosophy the above steps can only serve as examples. However,
adapting the traditional logistics concepts, practices, and
processes utilized in managing the supply chain together with the
transportation practices, principles and functions will serve as
a basis upon which an idea logistics program can be developed.
Conclusion
Transportation is a base element of life. In nature it is
responsible for propagation and sustenance; its influence on society
and industry are monumental. In commerce, industry, and society its
long history and proven capabilities have been devoted almost
exclusively to the movement of goods and people. Since its
inception, transportation has continually met its primary
obligations; its principles and fundamentals have evolved primarily
in connection with transportation’s traditional role. Performing as
the logistics engine, it still continues to grow within its original
state. Remaining in the background, transportation silently carries
out its obligations and for that reason transportation’s resources,
capabilities, faculties, and practices may not have been called upon
to provide its benefits to other areas of importance.
Transportation is an extremely rich and robust discipline, when
combined with logistics the pair makes a formidable resource whose
capabilities can be focused on a wide range of situations. While
this white paper has offered transportation and logistics as a
method, process, and resource to manage and control the flow of
ideas through an organization, its resources and capabilities can
offer commerce, industry, and society limitless process improvement.
About
TransportGistics, Inc.
TransportGistics is a global,
multi-product and services company that provides market leading,
simple, incremental solutions for transportation management and
logistics functions within the supply chain.
TransportGistics commitment to
education is portrayed through its advancement of professional
logistics and transportation programs. Its
white paper site presents important and timely transportation
and logistics subjects each month, and is regularly visited by more
than 125,000 clients and readers representing companies in the private and public sectors, universities
and governments, worldwide.
TransportGistics is a founding
partner at the
Center of Excellence in Wireless Internet and Information Technology
at the
State
University of New York-Stony Brook.
Continuation
Please
consider this white paper as a continuum in this subject area,
succeeding white papers will address common issues and address them
with common solutions. We encourage our readers to direct any
specific questions or comments to
papers@transportgistics.com.
Disclaimer
The
information presented herein represents the opinion of the author, but
not necessarily the opinion of TransportGistics, Inc. This white
paper is not presented as a legal position or as a recommendation.
“Idea Logistics", "Freight Lifecycle Management”, “Convergence”
and “Today’s Freight Paradigm” are sales marks of
TransportGistics, Inc.
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copyright by TransportGistics, Inc. All rights are reserved. The
authors of the articles retain the copyright to their articles. No
material may be reproduced electronically or in print without the
express written permission from the individual authors and/or
TransportGistics, Inc. (papers@transportgistics.com)