Managing orders in a fast moving environment can lead to some unusual (and sometimes strange) conditions. And when conditions are extremely time sensitive even the position of a worker’s hands can make the difference between delivering the order and missing. And that’s the issue Amazon seems to be tackling with its latest patent.

Technology can be a tremendous help in getting our products to market and there are plenty of technologies finding their way into both the supply chain and the products traveling along the paths to market. The initiatives and purposes these technologies address are all initially aimed at solving problems but like all well-intended technologies some are bound to be subverted and cause unintended consequences. Here are a few current technologies that should be watched with an eye toward caution.

The first consumer available Amazon Go store opened and every grocery cashier is looking at their paycheck. Well that’s probably an overstatement and in fact Amazon has been testing its Go concept on its own employees since December of 2016 and in development and internal testing for about five years, so the concept is far from new. And while the general news is all about consumers being able to walk out the door without saying hi to a cashier the real story is all about inventory and supply.