A harmless bogus threat on Detroit's Ambassador Bridge? Hardly

By Paul Egan and Tresa Baldas

The cost of closing the Ambassador Bridge for five hours on Monday following a bomb threat was not immediately available, but other bomb threats and security hoaxes have cost in the tens of thousands of dollars to respond to, if not more, depending on the time and personnel needed. Many factories rely on just-in-time inventories and need reliable supplies of parts to keep operations running smoothly. Auto factories "only have a half a day of inventory or even less, maybe four hours of inventory. They're constantly being supplied," said John Taylor, chairman of Wayne State University's marketing and supply-chain management department. "If the bridge goes down and it's not up in four or five hours, it could shut that assembly plant down. They're probably able to make that production up ... but it's very well-oiled machine, and you don't want disruptions.”
 

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