I’ve spent the best part of the last month and a half contemplating my life – taking care of my kids, listening to music, getting involved in two book projects – generally lazing about being utterly unproductive. And by accident, ignoring this blog and my publishing responsibilities.
So has this spend management hiatus been beneficial. Well to be honest, just like in the case of any interuption – two months down the line I’m back where I left off. A little behind my peers, playing catch up.
Recently The Economist (January 9th-15th issue) hid a rather interesting story on how Boing is planning to avoid these types of issues in the future. As many of you surely know Boing has had it’s share of supply chain issues that has delayed the 787 Dreamliner on numerous occations – the most famed being the Machinist union 57-day walk-out that cost Boing more than $2 billion dollars plus loss of business as some potential clients switched their orders to Europe’s Airbus.
So in late 2009, Boing responded by announcing that it will replicate the supply chain for all Dreamliner parts made in Washington so that their new South Carolina plant can operate independently. To avoid further interuptions in their much delayed production schedule Boing has sourced a second supplier for every part.
Now this tactic may be as far away a step from single sourcing and “winner takes all” negotiation tactics as one can ever imagine, but in the drag race for the sky between Boing and Airbus it actually makes sense.
Now if only I had though of this two months ago – getting a replacement me to handle my job as I went wandering. Then maybe I would be getting up to speed faster than I am at the moment.
