Yesterday, SKYPE, the company which provides a not quite indispensable Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) service, offered updated software. For those, like your correspondent, who downloaded and installed the new version, the result was yet another lesson on the dangers of being dependent on technology: SKYPE's servers promptly developed some unspeakable malady and the service went down for hours.
The loss of the ability to make telephone calls for no, or little, additional cost beyond the price of a reasonably fast (at least by American standards) Internet connection is inconvenient rather than critical. Businesses, however, that depend on air transport - just an older form of technology - have suffered two major disruptions this year: the eruption in the spring of the [Unpronounceable Name] volcano in Iceland and the present cold and snowy weather in Northern Europe.
Just in Time (JIT) supply chain management is one of the modern mantras of business and, indeed, when all goes well is responsible for significant contributions to reduced manufacturing costs. The problem is that things don't always go well which leads to disruptions that are both time consuming and expensive.
Perhaps business (and all of the rest of us who depend on technology) should adopt a more modest attitude. Murphy's Law states that 'whatever can go wrong, will go wrong'. Since Murphy's Law always applies - and there are those who believe that Murphy was an optimist - JIC (Just in Case) stockpiles of goods and materials can serve to reduce the costs when Mother Nature decides to assert herself.
We should always remember that, at the end of the game, the score is likely to be:
Mother Nature 5 Technology 2
Your correspondent would be remiss if he did not note the irony of the fact that he is writing this blog on the 12th floor of a high rise apartment building where he relies totally on electricity for elevator service. The good news is that the building does have a generator to provide emergency lighting and elevator service (but not much more). Your correspondent is confident that management has stocked up on diesel fuel.
Just in Case.
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A drive axle supplier to Toyota once told me of an incident where one of their trucks was trapped by a traffic accident on a highway bringing several hours worth of production parts to the Toyota plant, leading to the shutdown of the assembly line. Instead of a reprimand, they received a laudatory letter from Toyota to the effect that they had obviously taken the lean manufacturing philosophy to heart since they were obviously not hording away a buffer of parts for just such a contingency. Evidently Toyota would accept occasional shutdowns for the sake of overall efficiency.
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