supply chain

noun

plural supply chains

: the chain of processes, businesses, etc. by which a commodity is produced and distributed : the companies, materials, and systems involved in manufacturing and delivering goods

The pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of the global supply chain—that's the usually invisible pathway of manufacturing, transportation and logistics that gets goods from where they are manufactured, mined or grown to where they are going. At the end of the chain is another company or a consumer who has paid for the finished product.

—Peter S. Goodman

Everyday life in the United States is acutely dependent on the perpetual motion of the supply chain, in which food and medicine and furniture and clothing all compete for many of the same logistical resources. … [W]hen a finite supply of packaging can't keep up with demand, when there aren't enough longshoremen or truck drivers or postal workers, when a container ship gets wedged sideways in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes—the effects ripple outward for weeks or months, emptying shelves and raising prices in ways that can seem random. All of a sudden, you can't buy kettlebells or canned seltzer.

—Amanda Mull

Examples of supply chain in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And too-restrictive regulations could disrupt the critical supply chain that provides the nation’s milk, Lehenbauer said. —Lisa M. Krieger, The Mercury News, 26 Apr. 2024

Investments in artificial intelligence have changed how Cargill forecasts movements within the company’s supply chain, including timing when a shipment across the ocean will reach ports. —John Kell, Fortune, 24 Apr. 2024

Milk from cows known to be sick with symptoms of the virus is not entering the supply chain, Prater said. —Alexander Tin, CBS News, 24 Apr. 2024

This will require new norms and institutions that integrate emerging and middle-income economies into resilient and diversified global supply chains, innovation networks, clean manufacturing ecosystems, and information and data governance regimes. —Elizabeth Economy, Foreign Affairs, 23 Apr. 2024

Sales boomed in the early months of the pandemic, as slaughterhouse shutdowns disrupted conventional meat supply chains and shoppers started trying out meatless burgers, sausages, and seafood instead. —Matt Reynolds, WIRED, 22 Apr. 2024

Improving supply chains and consumer resistance will limit price increases for cars and other goods. —Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Apr. 2024

But places like Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines are also trying to carve an important niche in the semiconductor supply chain. —Lionel Lim, Fortune Asia, 18 Apr. 2024

In addition to the most recent production slowdowns precipitated by issues with Boeing aircraft, supply chain slowdowns have contributed to a backlog of orders. —Marnie Hunter, CNN, 15 Apr. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1948, in the meaning defined above