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In the past five months, we have seen all sorts of expert giving their opinion on one aspect of the iPhone or another. But one type of expert we haven’t heard about is a “supply chain” expert. Simon Croom is a Ph.D. and an executive director of the Supply Chain Management Institute at the University of San Diego.

In an e-mail to ZDnet, the Ph.D. wrote about the difficulties Apple may face at the iPhone launch.

“Launching any product, especially one so hyped, means that the main task is ensuring sufficient supplies are available across the US market on launch. Undoubtedly there will be shortages, service issues and challenges for call centers set upto support users. Depending on reliability of the product, there may also be a rapid ramp up in returns and warranty claims. Using a global supply chain will likely cause more of a problem 4 – 8 weeks into the ‘first season’ of the launch.

Pressure will also be felt for AT&T in terms of sales support – in particular trade ins, impact on the sales of other phones and customer’s expectations from a ‘revolutionary’ new product.

The bottom line is that the launch of the iPhone is a high risk supply chain challenge.”

It makes sense. Doesn’t it? I guess we can compare this as a traffic jam at peek hour. No matter how big are the highways, traffic jams are inevitable. The only question that remains though is what is best way to get home faster than the others?