4全球供应链遭遇严峻挑战.docVIP

Stress Test for the Global Supply Chain 全球供应链遭遇严峻挑战 A disruption in silicon wafer production can then stall makers of memory chips and, ultimately, consumer products.  硅晶片生产的中断会使内存芯片的生产停顿，并最终会影响到消费产品。 By STEVE LOHR 作者：STEVE LOHR Published: March 19, 2011 出版日期：2011/3/19 TONY PROPHET, a senior vice president for operations at Hewlett-Packard, was awakened at 3:30 a.m. in California and was told that an earthquake and tsunami had struck Japan. Soon after, Mr. Prophet had set up a virtual “situation room,” so managers in Japan, Taiwan and America could instantly share information. TONY PROPHET，是惠普负责生产运营的的高级副总裁，有一天，他在大早上三点半在加利福尼亚被叫醒，被告知一场地震和海啸袭击了日本。没过一会，?Prophet先生就创建了一个虚拟的“情报室”，使得日本、台湾和美国的经理们能够共享资讯。 Mr. Prophet oversees all hardware purchasing for H.P.’s $65-billion-a-year global supply chain, which feeds its huge manufacturing engine. The company’s factories churn out two personal computers a second, two printers a second and one data-center computer every 15 seconds. Prophet先生负责着惠普高达650亿美元每年的全球硬件采购，这样才能喂饱这个巨大的制造引擎。惠普的工厂每秒钟能制造出两台个人电脑、两台打印机，每15秒钟就能造好一台数据中心。 While other H.P. staff members checked on the company’s workers in Japan — none of whom were injured in the disaster — Mr. Prophet and his team scrambled to define the impact on the company抯 suppliers in Japan and, if necessary, to draft backup plans. 揑t抯 too early to tell, and we抮e not going to pretend to predict the outcome,?Mr. Prophet said in an interview on Thursday. 揑t抯 like being in an emergency room, doing triage.?当惠普的其他员工在检查他们在日本的同事——他们之中没有一个在这场灾难中受伤——时，Prophet先生和他的团队紧急核算了灾难对他们的日本供应商的影响，如果有必要的话，他们还需要起草出后备方案。“现在说还为时过早，我们也不会装作能够预计结果，”Prophet先生在周四的一个访谈中说。“这就像在急诊室一样，我们正在做分流。” The emergency-room image speaks volumes. Modern global supply chains, experts say, mirror complex biological systems like the human body in many ways. They can be remarkably resilient and self-healing, yet at times quite vulnerable to some specific, seemingly small weakness ?as if a tiny tear in a crucial artery were to cause someon