Fragile auto supply chains

Following last year’s Japanese earthquake and tsunami, there were many articles on how these disasters exposed the fragile nature of modern supply chains. (We have one or two – ok at least three – posts on this as well.) Now there are similar stories appearing about a somewhat less dramatic event that is none the less causing headaches for automakers. An [...]

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How UPS hedges against bad weather

It’s coming down to the wire for UPS and other delivery services as they rush to get presents to where they need to go before the holiday. Getting them there on time is not just about providing good service; it’s also about revenue. The Wall Street Journal reports that UPS takes a hit for late [...]

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How will buyers know where suppliers buy from?

As Fortune points out, between Thai flooding and Japanese earthquakes, it’s been a tough year to run supply chains (The global supply chain: So very fragile, Dec 12). What became clear from these events is that many big firms were surprised to learn what they didn’t know. Sure major manufacturers knew who they bought from [...]

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Protecting customers from supply chain disruptions

Toyota supplier Aisin Seiki famously suffered a fire in 1997. (How famous? The fire has its own Wikipedia entry.) The fire threatened to shut down multiple assembly plants but Toyota’s supply base rallied to the cause. Some suppliers quickly learned to make parts they had never processed before and what could have been a catastrophe for [...]

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How the Japanese earthquake is shaking up an auto supplier

A few weeks ago we had a post on how Toyota is revamping its supply chain in anticipation of the next natural disaster. Now the Wall Street Journal has a story on how an auto supplier is trying to recover from March’s earthquake (Quake Still Rattles Suppliers, Sep 29). Take, for example, the tussle over a [...]

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Toyota gets ready for the next earthquake

Virtually every automaker took a significant hit when an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan back in March. (We have several posts on this.) What surprised many people — even to some in the auto industry — was that even non-Japanese firms suffered. Several firms did not find out until too late that a supplier to [...]

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Responding to a supply chain crisis

Much has been written about the impact of the recent Japanese earthquake on the supply chains of various industries. (We have several posts on the topic.) A recent New York Times article has a different spin on the topic (Piecing Together a Supply Chain, May 12). It essentially asks how did a major manufacturer organize [...]

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Layers of supply chain risk

Things are just not getting better fast enough in Japan for the country’s automakers — particularly Toyota. Akio Toyoda, the company’s CEO, held a press conference last week saying that it will likely take until the end of the year for Toyota to be back to full strength. As the New York Times notes, Toyota [...]

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More on supply chains and earthquakes

Given that the earthquake and tsunami and subsequent nuclear issues disrupting global supply chains happened in Japan, someone would inevitably tie supply difficulties to Japanese management practices like just-in-time production. Now, I would agree with readers who would argue that it is wrong to characterize lean operations etc as Japanese when such approach have become [...]

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Supply chains and the Japanese earthquake

The human toll of the Japanese earthquake clearly is the main story right now. There is also a supply chain story which while not as pressing right now is likely to be playing out over the coming weeks and probably months. Japan is a global supplier to many industries — particularly for semiconductors. Marketplace had [...]

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