This week marks the second anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake, which caused considerable damage even before it triggered a tsunami that wreaked even more havoc in eastern Japan.
It was the most powerful quake to rock Japan and killed roughly 16,000 people. Its impact on the electronics supply chain, from materials used for high-speed printed circuit board design to semiconductors to glass, was immediate and far-reaching.
Since then, we've drawn some lessons:
- Risks Persist One Year After Japan Tsunami
- What We Learned From Japan Earthquake
- How to Mitigate Supply Chain Disasters
Here's a graphical look at the fallout, two years later, courtesy of NHK News Web via Visua.ly:
@Brian, thanks for the post. I am surprised to know that more than 50% of them feel that reconstruction progress is not quick. Any particular reason for this slow progress ? Is the government taking all the necessary steps to rebuild the infrastructure ?
looking at the magnitude of the earthquake and the way whole economy was shaken, I think may be taking time to restucture, show progress and at the same time maintain regular businees.
Seems like the perceived progress is very slow and my heart goes out to those poor souls in Japan. I hope the government continues to learn from this and make the future brighter for all Japanese people.
The impact on some industries has been devastating, it appears. I am still not able to reach my laser assembly supplier, so my next production run of product is delayed. And I really don't want to qualify another source if it can be avoided, since the qualification takes both time and money.
Agreed, Flyingscot. However, the Tsunami could not have been prevented. I think the society as a whole should try to be more prepared for these events, not just the government. This applies to everywhere in the world.
I had an interesting talk with Danny Stevens, who oversees transportation for Avnet. I asked him whether there was anything on the horizon that could improve supply chain performance during unpredictable natural disasters.
He said basically there isn't, except communications. If you communicate to you customers and lay out the situation before they call you, it goes a long way toward mantaining and bolstering the relationship they have with you.