Nintendo Wii Shortage Turning Into a Glut for the Holidays?
Nintendo promised to supply 50 percent more Wiis this season. But as huge cuts in consumer spending point toward a Christmas to forget, could the unthinkable happen: Too many Wii consoles? Experts weigh in on how Nintendo and others will cope with the unpredictability of the 2008 shopping season.
He says that speed and flexibility are keys to supply chain success in chaotic economic climates such as this one. "How much visibility do I have when demand starts to taper?" he says. "If you don't have systems in place and the economy crashes, you're stuck because you made decisions a year ago and you're out of luck."
Those manufacturers with agile and smart supply chains, as O'Marah calls them, use their IT systems to provide visibility into a difficult period such as Christmas. "You have the ability to ask questions that are sensible businessperson questions: How much capacity do we have in our plants? What [production levels] have we committed to? If we switch from delivering to the Northeast to the Southwest, would that help?" O'Marah says. "So a smart supply chain is one where conditions change, say the economy gets scary: Can I ask the right questions of my manufacturing universe, my plants, my suppliers' plants, and get answers that are tuned to my perception of reality. I don't want to overreact or underreact."
Even with the best IT systems, however, this is still complicated, sometimes unpredictable work, say analysts.
Which Nintendo's Fils-Aime would probably agree with: "Will there be enough [Wiis] to meet demand?" he said in October. "Ask me in January."
