By Chris Coppersmith - President & CEO, Target Logistic ServicesThose in the logistics industry realize the need for security. They also worry, however, about the often half-baked ideas of heavy-handed lawmakers whose closest contact with freight is sitting as passengers above an aircraft’s cargo hold. These lawmakers literally are taking the law into their own hands by determining what security measures are necessary and what the added costs will be. As envisioned by Congress and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the costs won’t be cheap. The Congressional Research Service, a respected, non-profit organization dedicated to analyzing government expenditures, estimates the added cost of security measures to be almost $4 billion over the next decade in direct costs to the shipping public. What it does not estimate is more important. The increase in transit time may not be measured in actual dollars but its consequences are enormous. Time, or to be more precise, the minimal amount of time required in moving goods by air remains the most important determinant in justifying air freight. It has been the handmaiden of Just-In-Time, the technique that allows inventory to be cut to the bone, thus speeding up the entire supply chain. For ocean shipping, management has been emphasizing reduced transit time for its new, fast container ships. Perhaps it is time to take a fresh, hard look at Just-In-Time (J-I-T) if, as likely, new and onerous security restrictions are forced onto ocean and airfreight transportation. J-I-T has become the preferred method of delivery for thousands of global manufacturers—from auto producers to toy makers. Does J-I-T remain the most viable method of distribution, however, in today’s economic, social and political climate? I do not believe so. I also believe the question neither is academic nor arcane. Billions of dollars are at stake. In the 1980s, when Japanese carmakers introduced the concept of Just-In-Time to reduce inventory to bare minimums, the world was a much safer and saner place. Introducing the minimal inventory philosophy, the Japanese showed the world how to increase efficiency in production while saving money in inventory costs at the same time. J-I-T quickly became the standard logistics system throughout the industrialized world. Who needed stacks of inventory sitting on warehouse shelves? Who even needed warehouses? As so often happens in our free enterprise society, we went from one extreme to another—from perhaps too much inventory to miniscule amounts. Today, circumstances have changed not incrementally but basically. We no longer live in a sane and peaceful world. International terrorism, declared and undeclared wars, insurgencies and nuclear threats from rogue nations are the rule rather than the exception. Even nature seems to be conspiring against us. Major hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes and tsunamis are striking our defenseless planet to a remarkable degree. Natural disasters can affect production by significant amounts. After a particularly strong earthquake in Japan recently, Toyota, whose supply factories were close to the epicenter, had to reduce and even suspend the company’s assembly lines for extended periods of time. Toyota management, who were among the original proponents of J-I-T, stated it would no longer be as dependent on this method of delivery as it had in the past. I believe there is a better way for companies with global manufacturing and distribution operations to meet successfully the challenges of an unstable world. I think of it as a fresh breeze blowing through our global economy. That fresh breeze is Just-In-Case. Just-In-Case or J-I-C is a balanced reaction to last minute delivery of parts and supplies on one hand and bloated inventories on the other. It offers manufacturers breathing room. They can sleep nights knowing their production lines will not shut down due to natural or man-made disasters. From Target Logistics’ perspective, it shifts some of the responsibility from the