Recently, on Tuesday May 29th, 2012, a deadly 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit northern Italy, causing chaos in the region. This had a large affect on the production of some of the worlds most amazing automobiles manufactured in the small town of Sant’Agata Bolognese where the earthquakes epicenter was located. It also affected the other towns of Maranello and Modena where Ferrari and Maserati are located. This natural disaster brought production to a complete halt, causing widespread demand issues. This faces great concern with Both Lamborghini Spa and Ferrari Spa because this year they introduced two of there new flagship models which are completely sold out for the first years production.
Lamborghini’s Introduction of there new flagship model the Aventador, is the first all new model in over ten years, and has been completely sold out. The demand on them is so high that the automobiles are going from anywhere from $30,000-$100,000 over sticker price just to get an allocation. Lamborghini’s previous model run of there LP640 Murcielago super car they produced 4099 cars over a ten year span. This new model poses much larger demand, with Lamborghini ramped up production of 3.5 cars a day or 900 cars per year, a much higher number than its predecessor.
Lamborghini’s Aventador
However, this poses some very important questions. What does a world renown company do when a natural disaster strikes delaying and bringing production to a halt. This has multiple implications on all of its suppliers and outsourced manufactured goods. They are already facing demand issues keeping up with the consumers buying power of these vechicles. Do they rush production to keep up with orders and potentially sacrafice quality. Do they outsource more parts from there main facility to speed up the production? Or are they facing bottleneck issues with the cars being completely handmade.
What are your thought and opinions that Lamborghini Spa and Ferrari Spa can do to combat there demand/manufacturing issues to produce there vehicles at a more efficient pace. And what could a corporation do to avoid natural disaster issues with manufacturing and outsourcing of parts.
http://www.insideline.com/ferrari/ferrari-lamborghini-suspend-production-after-earthquake.html
First of all, I don’t think that they are running into any sort of bottleneck issues just because they are hand making each car. Part of the reason that the car is able to have the price tag is does is the fact that the way it is made is different- with more attention to quality and precision than other car brands. The problem with natural disasters is that no one really knows when they are coming and the systems/technologies currently in place are not adequate enough to prevent the destruction after a natural disaster. The only way I foresee a corporation avoiding this is by researching all locations that they are going to be moving to. They want to make sure how prone the location is to disasters and weigh the costs versus the benefits. In the end this article brings an interesting topic and questions aspects of manufacturing that don’t always come up.