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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 9409913" data-attributes="member: 177">It is hardly surprising - robust systems are more costly than fragile ones, incur costs in maintenance, and take forethought and planning to build.&nbsp; And, even when we are shown a need, many don't respond.For example, let us consider supply chains - back in 2011, an earthquake led to a tsunami in Japan, which led to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster.&nbsp; We tend to forget that it also devastated the part of the silicon chip industry that car manufacturers depended on. At the time, in the name of financial efficiency, car makers used &quot;just in time&quot; supply, where you time delivery of parts to when you need those parts, and you don't keep inventory of spares on hand, because it costs way more than you think to store inventory at industrial scale, this saves money..But, as you might guess, it fails when the supply stream is disrupted.&nbsp; For a while after that tsunami, new car assembly ground to a halt.One car maker (Toyota) saw this disruption, and changed their policies - they started keeping greater inventory of computer chips, but the rest of the industry didn't.&nbsp; So, when supply chain disruption in computer parts hit again with the pandemic, you may remember that, again, new car supply ground to a trickle.Except for Toyota.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 9409913, member: 177"] It is hardly surprising - robust systems are more costly than fragile ones, incur costs in maintenance, and take forethought and planning to build. And, even when we are shown a need, many don't respond. For example, let us consider supply chains - back in 2011, an earthquake led to a tsunami in Japan, which led to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. We tend to forget that it [I]also[/I] devastated the part of the silicon chip industry that car manufacturers depended on. At the time, in the name of financial efficiency, car makers used "just in time" supply, where you time delivery of parts to when you need those parts, and you don't keep inventory of spares on hand, because it costs way more than you think to store inventory at industrial scale, this saves money.. But, as you might guess, it fails when the supply stream is disrupted. For a while after that tsunami, new car assembly ground to a halt. One car maker (Toyota) saw this disruption, and changed their policies - they started keeping greater inventory of computer chips, but the rest of the industry didn't. So, when supply chain disruption in computer parts hit again with the pandemic, you may remember that, again, new car supply ground to a trickle. Except for Toyota. [/QUOTE]

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