Worst Supply Chain Disasters

I recently came across this article written by Dan Gilmore Editor-in-Chief of Supply Chain Digest, I thought it was well worth a mention as it brought many monumental mishaps to my attention, many I have never knew exsited. This brief excerpt listing some of the major disasters Dan discussed from his article;

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Foxmeyer’s 1996 Distribution Disaster: New order management and warehouse automation systems lead to inability to ship product and failure to achieve expected savings; bankruptcy and sale of the company follow GM’s Robot Mania: CEO Robert Smith spends $40 billion in the 1980s on robots that mostly don’t work, while Toyota focuses on “lean” and cleans up.

The WebVan Story: $25 million automated warehouses just make no sense given the market; company goes from billions in market gap to gone in just months in 2001

adidas 1996 Warehouse Meltdown: Not well known story, adidas can’t get a first and then second warehouse system and also its DC automation to work. Inability to ship leads to market share losses that persist for a long time.

Denver Airport Baggage Handling System: New airport opens late in 1995 due to failure of highly automated, hugely expensive system, which never really works and is completely shuttered

Toys R Us.com Christmas 1999: On-line retail division can’t make Christmas delivery commitments to thousands; infamous “We’re sorry” emails on Dec. 23; eventually, Amazon takes over fulfillment

Hershey’s Halloween Nightmare 1999: New order management and shipping systems don’t start right, as Hershey can’t fulfill critical Halloween orders; $150 million in revenue lost as stock drops 30%

Gilmore. D, First Thoughts 26 January 2006, Worst Supply Chain Disasters [online] scdigest.com, Available from: SOURCE [Accessed 3 November 2009]