acturers will select the cheaper option to boost their bottom line.
"We'll see a surge now in companies talking about diversification," he said. "But as this fades into memory decision makers will not take disruptive events into account to the extent that they should."
"In six months they'll discount the risk all over again."
"THE RIGHT THING TO DO"
If there is any debate on whether the Japan quake will force a rethink on suppliers, there is apparently none about just-in-time production. No one interviewed for this article expected any change.
GM's Tremblay has been with the company since just before her 18th birthday in 1977. Back then, inventories were much bigger, bringing "lots of extra cost and lots of extra confusion."
"Years ago you had a lot of stock lying around," she said. "The big change is that there's not all that inventory lying around anymore. It's far better not to have all that inventory.
"But the opposite is true when you have supply chain disruptions," she added. "That's the tradeoff."
"On balance, it's still the right thing to do." (Additional reporting by Ben Klayman, Deepa Seetharaman and Bernie Woodall in Detroit; Helen Massy Beresford in Paris; Bill Rigby in Seattle; and Suzanne Cosgrove in Chicago; Editing by Jim Impoco and Claudia Parsons)