ABSTRACT
The Control-related innovation opportunities described previously are not unique. In the nineteenth century, the rapid growth of railroads created opportunities for telegraph technology. Because every town had its own timekeeping methods, there emerged a need for clock synchronization between different train stations, so that timetables worked across the entire railway network. Also, steam engines and railroads at the time were prone to breakdowns. Despite attempts by railroad companies to maintain coherent train schedules, nobody could gure out where the train was when multiple accidents disrupted the normal course of events. Since neither railroad personnel nor passengers had any information about the disruptions, waiting for a train to arrive according to a preset schedule was a frustrating experience. As an illustration, here’s an excerpt from an 1853 letter to the editor of the New York Times describing a common railroad problem and a possible solution:
Protability of railroad companies critically depended on access to accurate information about train movements and delays. As a result, telegraphrelated improvements followed closely the growth of the railroad business. Similar to the previous DHL example, growth in the Distribution led to the development of a Control-enabling information technology. To improve system efciency by coordinating interaction between different elements, the Control subsystem needs information about them, for example, tracking Packaged Payloads prior to their arrival to the Tool.
