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

In some ways, this is reminiscent of the supply chain problems brought on by the pandemic, where second- and third-order effects proved damaging and inflationary. —Michael Lynch, Forbes, 24 Jan. 2025

And in a time where third-party logistics companies and carriers report over $400,000 of financial impact from cargo theft and fraud annually, AI systems can help simplify the process of identifying issues in complex supply chains. —Meghan Hall, Sourcing Journal, 24 Jan. 2025

AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter noted that businesses have been forced to shut down, sometimes for days, and supply chain and shipping logistics have been severely disrupted. —Brandon Girod, USA TODAY, 23 Jan. 2025

And Korea Zinc carries a great deal of geopolitical significance, as one of the few major suppliers of metals critical to global supply chains without ties to China. —Daisuke Wakabayashi, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1948, in the meaning defined above