January 27, 2006

  

Supply Chain Digest Identifies Worst Ever Supply Chain Disasters

Supply Chain Digest, the industry’s leading on-line publication and information website, today released its report on the top supply chain disasters of all time

Dayton, OH – Supply Chain Digest, the supply chain and logistics industry’s leading on-line publication and information website, today released its report on the top supply chain disasters of all time.

The report comes at a time when an increasing number of corporations are citing supply chain progress – and challenges – in explaining corporate financial performance.

The new report, available at SCDigest’s web site (www.scdigest.com), lists the top 11 supply chain snafus since the term “supply chain” came into common use about 20 years ago. The examples cited in the report range from Foxmeyer, at the time the nation’s second largest drug wholesaler, which ultimately went bankrupt over a failed order management and warehouse automation project, to GM’s disastrous effort in the 1980s to deploy massive numbers of robots in its factories. Many of the examples are well known, while others, such as glove maker Aris Isotoner’s decision in the mid-1990s to close its own factory in the Philippines to use contract manufacturers elsewhere in Asia – with terrible results – were less well publicized at the time.

"While supply chain has become a critical lever of company market and financial success, it’s also interesting and important to understand the examples of when things went wrong,” said SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore. “Many of the disasters we found involved technology-related projects that were either poor strategies to begin with, or more often, simply poorly executed.”

The list was compiled after significant research, and focused on supply chain problems that had a serious, and often long lasting, impact on a company’s profits, customer relationships, brand equity or stock valuation. Every one of the disasters in the list inflicted serious damage in several of those areas.

SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore is available for interviews to discuss the report and specific examples in more detail.

 
About Supply Chain Digest

Supply Chain Digest™ is the industry’s premier interactive knowledge source, providing timely, relevant, in-context information. Reaching tens of thousands of supply chain and logistics decision-makers each week, our flagship publication – Supply Chain Digest and web site (www.scdigest.com) deliver news, opinions and information to help end users improve supply chain processes and find technology solutions.

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Contact Information
Connie Venema
cvenema@scdigest.com