Tom is right about supply chains becoming more fragile. The Iceland volcano has been causing major havoc in Europe on supply chains. All kinds of stuff has been shipped by air for so long that there is no backup. Apparently, many places in the UK have been unable to get fresh vegetables for some time. One of my UK friends was having trouble getting certain specialized medicines. http://www.supplychainquarterly.com/columns/scq20100419_supply_chain_vs._vol... http://www.thestate.com/2010/04/20/1251405/volcano-disrupts-bmw-supply-chain... No sushi, no Fedex/UPS, no flowers, no fresh vegetables. http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100421/wl_time/08599198330800 Fruit and vegetables including lettuce, grapes, spring onions and asparagus may be missing from many supermarket shelves next week and firms specialising in flying in produce from overseas are also warning of higher prices. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/apr/19/iceland-volca... Kenya has been especially hard hit by the economic effects of the volcano, because they can't export fresh flowers & veggies. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/kenya/7612869... At 05:26 AM 5/11/2010, Tom Knight wrote: We are actively removing the mechanisms for dealing with buffering and
shocks in modern systems. Supply chain optimization reduces inventories.