The Need for Organisational Resilience Chapter-6

the centre-of-gravity. Where it mattered – Panzergruppe Kleist – supplies were made

available, in abundance. Logistical challenges such as the number of roads in the staging

area of the Ardennes were prioritised and, if necessary, improvisation replaced a

bureaucratic logistical planning system. The jerrycan may have done its bit. Mobile forces

who were cut off from continuous logistics for whatever reason, were able to ‘carry’ safety

stocks of fuel with them.

In business, a trend towards JIT has received extensive attention, and certainly provided

organisation with efficiency gains that would not otherwise be possible. Considering all the

supply chain disruption in modern times, for example due to climate change, a reverse trend

to safety stocks is observable and customers satisfaction is increasingly defined by

dependable and reliable delivery of services and goods, so that bottlenecks such in the case

of Boeing’s production of the 787 Dreamliner do not turn into major delays, in a world where a

competitive advantage is defined by JIT.

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