1 What are the key lessons from this case for dealing effectively with disruptions to the supply chain? In March, 2000, a thunderstorm struck the Philips semiconductor plant at Albuquerque in New Mexico, which made silicon chips for products like cellphones.

Damage at first seemed minor, and fire fighters soon left the premises. At first, Philips told major customers like Nokia and Ericsson that the delay to production would only be one week. But damage to some of the clean areas in the plant – created by smoke and water – was actually going to take months to remedy. Clean rooms in semiconductor plants must be spotless, and particles of more than 0.5m are filtered out.