© Akira Lai / Raincity blue design

Japan's mounting crisis is causing supply chain process disruptions at several electronics manufactures. For example, Japanese Mobile phone company Sony Ericsson said earlier today that the damage from the earthquake would present problems for the company's manufacturing operations.

The full impact will take time to gauge, but the anticipate disruptions to the supply chain and are in the process of figuring out alternative supply sources and determining new locations for certain manufacturing operations. Other companies that have also reported manufacturing issues include Toshiba, which will close an LCD assembly line outside Tokyo. The company has been dealing with the effects of power outages and structural damage and need time to repair the equipment that was damaged in the earthquake. Hitachi is also closing a factory near Tokyo for a month, and Sony will close at least five factories in the country.

© bade_md

Supply chain management failure can range from daily headaches to loss of business. The fact is that most businesses do not do enough to anticipate project failure, and they plan only for success. This gives them little visibility and less control over potential risks within the project until it's too late.

There is a better way to plan for and prevent failure. It begins with a blueprint of strategic project assurance at critical milestones in the implementation process and establishes clear expectations among all parties involved. The reason that projects today fail are the same as they were ten years ago, even though the technology has changed a lot. These include lack of top management commitment, unrealistic expectations, poor requirements definition, improper packaging selection, gaps between software and business requirements, and underestimating time and cost.

© infomatique

Companies are expected to continue to ramp hiring in the areas of supply chain management and operations management, according to The Association for Operations management and the Cameron School of Business (APICS) at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. In a recent survey, 64% of companies said they expect to add staff in these areas within the next 12 months.

The most likely areas of specialization within supply chain management that will see the highest demand are execution and control of operations, purchasing/customer relationship management, quality, resources planning and supply chain management, according to the SupplyChainBrain report. Layoffs are also expected to be cut in half over the next year, making for the highest level of net job growth in the sector since the recession began. It is notable that companies mentioned "soft skills" as highly desirable in supply chain professionals in addition to technical expertise.