True. But optimization and improvisation was being thought about for the past century; how much lost opportunity from not doing this in the '50's and '60's?

This is pretty much the official reason why Toyota and the rest of its Japanese brethren took over car manufacturing. The opportunity wasn't lost, American companies ignored it, japanese companies didnt and so after a decade of application they drank our milkshake. It is literally the history of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering.