Companies that adopted the lean-inventory approach largely omitted tenets of the system that called for having extensive backup plans in case of an event that interrupted plant operations or caused a sudden demand surge. Companies now are seeking to shore up their supply chains with new suppliers and adding risk management to their agendas, But near-term gains have been slow to reach grocery shelves. Producers of paper towels have no plans to build new manufacturing capacity, for example, in part because the central piece of the machinery needed to make the product takes years to assemble. |
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