Quake Exposes Fragility Of 'supply Chain' In Auto Industry

When the magnitude-7.1 aftershock struck Thursday night, Yoshio Saito, president of autoparts maker Iwaki Diecast Co., dashed from his house to the head office's factory in Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture. The main thought on his mind? Here we go again. A day earlier, his company finally restored full power to the factory, which had been knocked offline in the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake. After the magnitude-9.0 quake and tsunami, which swept away one of Iwaki's four factories in Yamamoto, Saito made a frantic effort to continue supplying parts to clients and maintaining the fragile supply structure that is so crucial in auto manufacturing. Iwaki

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