Machine To Machine Communication and the Mystics of Logistics

Following on from yesterday's thoughts on the v$15 mobile, there is an interesting article in The Economist this week on Machine to Machine (M2M) communications.

This is an area we've worked in - on and off - for years, from early pre-RFID systems and on. What is getting very interesting now is what has been getting interesting for Human 2 Human comms as well, namely the rapid reduction in costs of device, transport and infrastructure allied with a rapid rise in bandwidth and penetration.

Enter ubiquitous m2m comms....

This of course has been talked about for a long while, with tiny communicating sensors in every device, no matter how insignificant (I recall playing with smart clothing in BT labs 7 or so years ago)

However, what strikes me about this, and the the Economist article didn't really capture, is the impact on overall logistics and distribution systems. Not simple RFID systems, but on entire supply chains.

We did a piece of work about 2 years back on the potential of a new logistics and distribution software package that used some very serious maths to optimise the logistics - because you can - with all that incoming data.

To quote Brian Eno......

But if you study the logistics
And heuristics of the mystics
You will find that their minds rarely move in a line

...or in this case the mystics and heuristics of logistics....and indeed, they were using Geometric programming and various modern mathematical techniques - again, because they can with the cost of cycles these days.

But Eno went on to note that....

So its much more realistic
To abandon such ballistics
And resign to be trapped on a leaf in a vine.

At the time this was also semi true because integrating RFID, Internet, etc in international logistics nets was suboptimal and expensive...but even in these few years things have moved on apace, so I suspect these sort of apps are much closer now...and of course very Green, given (in theory) the wasted air-miles (miles spent transporting air in trucks) that can be saved....