The idea of disruptive technologies has been around since Schumpeter.  What surprises me is the companion idea of disruptive practices, which is the flip side of disruptive technologies.  They go hand in hand.

Let’s look at the cornerstone of lean supply management: just in time (JIT) purchasing.  The basic idea of JIT is that there should be no incoming, in process, or final inventories.  Inventory is product that is just laying around.  This is not lean.  Lean is a good/great management practice.  Therefore, inventory is bad.

But, we live in the age of VUCA, volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.  What happens if there is a tsunami, earthquake, or another event that disrupts the supply chain?  No buffer inventories results in the plant or company unable to supply customers.  Loss of customers results in a material and reportable risks, which result in loss of brand equity, reputation, and market capitalization.  Not good.

Take a look our slide deck: Just in Case – NOT – Just in Time.

Bio:

Greg Hutchins PE and CERM (503.233.101 & GregH@QualityPlusEngineering.com)  is the founder of:

CERMAcademy.com
800Compete.com
QualityPlusEngineering.com
WorkingIt.com

He is the evangelist behind Future of Quality: Risk®.  He is currently working on the Future of Work and machine learning projects.

He is a frequent speaker and expert on Supply Chain Risk Management and cyber security.  His current books available on all platform are shown below: