A380 delays, Airbus's problem is not its dispersed manufacturing set-up per se.

ECONOMIST: Airbus

At the same time, most firms' manufacturing processes are becoming increasingly dispersed and global.

ECONOMIST: Chain reaction

Before the uprising, the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre (CERS) was believed to run at least four chemical agent manufacturing plants - at Dumayr, Khan Abou, Shamat and Furklus - and operate additional storage sites dispersed across the country in some 50 different towns and cities.

BBC: Syria's chemical weapons stockpile