May 19, 2011
News
US and European companies have generally suffered only minor and short-lived disruption as a result of the March 11 earthquake in Japan, executives and analysts have said, showing the resilience of global supply chains. The catastrophe led to severe problems for many Japanese companies such as carmaker Toyota but for companies in the US and Europe, however, the effects have generally been minimal.
Moreover, logistics and management experts say the trend towards complex global supply chains will not be stopped by the disaster, just as it was not ended by previous incidents such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks. One reason why fears ran high was that the complexity of modern manufacturing networks means companies typically have little insight into their supply chains, according to Yossi Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics.Read the full article here.
Financial Times