Wednesday, May 11, 2011

What Happens When The Supply Chain Links Are Broken?

As many quality professionals know, the ASQ is a prime resource for news about Risk Management, Six Sigma and other quality-focused programs.

In an article published on March 29, the ASQ Weekly sat down with supply chain management experts to discuss the potential far reaching consequences of the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami disaster on the worldwide economy. Four different highly credentialed and experienced quality professionals contributed on a variety of topics such as the predicting the major economic ramifications, how contingency planning and JIT could have played a part, how tools such as FMEA and RASIC charts could help and considering the big picture.

One of the key industries that will be hardest hit by the catastrophe will be American automakers. The experts note that many quality and lean standards practices were overlooked – in favor of short-sighted gains. The contributors speculate this will put the industry at further risk as it struggles to deal with the shortages it will face.

In the conclusion of the article, it’s noted that it would do great honor to those affected by this unforeseeable catastrophe to look at the effects closely and learn from them.

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