When Edscha, a German manufacturer of sun roofs, door hinges and other car parts, filed for insolvency last month, it presented BMW with a crisis. The luxury carmaker was about to introduce its new Z4 convertible - and Edscha supplied its roof. "We had no choice to go to another supplier, as that would have taken six months and we don't have that. We had to help Edscha and try and stabilise it," BMW says.

Today, Edscha is still trading, thanks to the support offered by its leading clients. Nevertheless, BMW remains so worried about disruption to its supply chain that it has increased staff numbers in its risk monitoring department looking only at components-makers.