Special Report: Disasters show flaws in just-in-time production

This report does an excellent job of identifying the inter-relatedness of suppliers, sub-suppliers, etc. As written, there will be no long term effect as within six months risk will again be discounted. I don’t know that JIT was shown to have a flaw, as the title suggests, but rather that “single” source is the flaw. To the corporate risk assessment of economic and political stability needs to now be added geological.

Everyone has been in the just-in-time delivery tank for decades. They have seen savings from production to finance. Nevertheless, risk management has been pounding the tables with what-if scenarios that finally came true. Not having backup and contingency suppliers in varied geographic locales is insane. Our company is two and three deep with suppliers and stocks inventory. Shocking waste, we hear from lean gurus. Well, we are up and running while others are waiting for their deliveries. Good luck with that!

Have known for years that, “just in time economics” is a bad idea because any disruption to the supply chain leads to loss of efficiency, reduced productivity and a loss of profits.The argument about storing materials on site is a no brainer.
When do you think that companies will store materials at the manufacturing site that will allow them to continue maximum output for a longer period of time than the figures currently suggested by, “just in time economics”?