A supply chain mishap threatened to spark a United States public-health disaster of gigantic proportions. Contamination at an overseas supplier held up 48 million flu shots — half of the nation's expected supply — and speculation briefly ran rampant. Would the flu season be as bad as last year's? How many people would get sick? How many would die? Would this alter the outcome of the presidential election?
March, 2000: A lightning bolt struck a power line in New Mexico…The strike caused a fire in a production room at a Philips Electronics semiconductor manufacturing plant. … It stranded eight trays of valuable silicon wafers in a furnace… [the] sprinklers … caused water damage, … and contaminated millions of silicon chips. The factory initially figured it would lose a week of production, but in fact it lost months.
Ericsson's losses totaled $400 million… it has also withdrawn completely from the mobile phone handset production business