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

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In this episode, Kasra Ferdows, an operations management professor at Georgetown University, explains how open digital platforms facilitate innovation and problem solving by making the entire supply chain more transparent to suppliers. —

Harvard Business Review, 19 Feb. 2025 These outbreaks take time to resolve and for the impact to filter through all parts of the supply chain. —

Matt Robison, Newsweek, 19 Feb. 2025 This almost full-day event brought together about 100 guests from across the supply chain, including spinners, weavers, knitters, garment manufacturers, brands and more. —

Carved In Blue, Sourcing Journal, 19 Feb. 2025 Wong, who previously delivered Singapore’s budgets as finance minister, said that the measures follow the rise in global inflation following the Russia-Ukraine war and disruptions in energy, food and supply chains. —

Lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 18 Feb. 2025 See all Example Sentences for supply chain