Everything in its place?
Grocery stores are well-ordered, according to the people stocking the shelves, but is that good news for all? If items on shelves are always in predictable places, at predictable heights, then they will always be out of reach by some and invisible to others. What if this also extends to which warehouse in which state?
Organized Chaos: Behind The Scenes of Amazon’s Inventory Management System (logiwa.com)
A neatly sorted group of items is useful when the location of each item is stored with the item. That is, if your box of cereal is in aisle 5 on the top shelf, that information may not be stored in a usable way anywhere but in aisle 5 on that top shelf, wherever your box of cereal is actually located. If you ask where your cereal is from an employee of the store, they may direct you to aisle 5, and they may know approximately where your cereal is actually located because they’ve seen it, or placed it there, but does each box of cereal have a specifically-known location on that shelf? Probably not, but this is now possible. This is how Amazon works (read the article above).
Now, with a location-aware inventory management system, items could be placed on shelves at random, or even better, distributed so that items typically retrieved together are near each other, in groups of items in different places. Then, if you or any shopper has a shopping list on your pocket mobile super computer, a custom route through the store to retrieve items on your list can be constructed for you to follow, to obtain all of the items you’re looking for on shelves or in other storage elements that are accessible to you.
You can view schedules the same way… determining the best meeting or appointment time can seem like chaos, especially when the number of schedules to coordinate increases beyond two… if you trust your tech to guide you, a functional schedule, and changes to that schedule, can appear before you without a second thought!
Unfortunately, sometimes, embracing chaos too tightly can lead to hundreds of thousands of people ignoring sensible thinking in these pandemic times, but not everybody will embrace the messages our tech give us, for better or worse…
This Episode
Embrace the Chaos via Anchor.fm
Recorded 4 July 2021, Published 5 July 2021
Hosts: Nancy Hugo, Dan Hugo
Hugo Floss podcast via Anchor.fm
Episode Artwork
Photo by Oleg Magni from Pexels
Links
Would you like to know more about Dan and his pursuit of a ketogenic diet? Actually, if you adopt a particular diet as a matter of daily living, it is deviations from that new normal that is “going on a diet,” though sometimes the temporary diet change includes the “junk foods” which are not all at a part of the day-to-day.
Dan Hugo on Medium (read the Danny DeKeto articles, there are a few of them)
Dan’s Twitter Thread on Nevada Covid (started 17 May when mitigation meaures were lifting)
Random Schedule Dates in Excel (this is not necessarily a great way to schedule meetings, but technology and connectivity do enable alternative methods…)
This Week in Virology Weekly Clinical Update:
Support the Show!
We thank you as always for listening to the Hugo Floss podcast! If you haven't already, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast, and to the Show Notes and Weekend Newsletters! The Show Notes Newsletter contains a link to the weekly episode and some details, links, and other companion information to go along with it, delivered to your inbox!
Hugo Floss podcast via Anchor.fm
Hugo Floss podcast Show Notes Newsletter via Substack (you are here)
Hugo Floss Weekend Newsletter via Revue
If you would like to be a guest for an episode or three, contact one or both of us via email and we can pull up a chair!
Email Nancy (nancy@hugofloss.co) | Email Dan (dan@hugofloss.co)
You can of course support the show by sharing the podcast feed or newsletter links above with friends, family, colleagues, and anyone else who might enjoy spending an hour or so listening in. You are also welcome to check out our Buy Me a Coffee profiles, especially if you want to contribute to Nancy's entry into the world of good coffee with nicely-ground beans.