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

Furthermore, Arcuri’s supply chain checks on LTAs across the industry indicate that up to 30% of double data rate memory volumes could soon be locked in at pricing only slightly below current levels. —Tipranks.com Staff, CNBC, 31 May 2026

The companies that establish sourcing relationships now, directly with African farmers and founders, will own the supply chain that everyone else will be scrambling for in a decade. —Lisa Curtis, Forbes.com, 31 May 2026

Increasingly, analysts in China view the next phase of great-power competition not as a battle over tariffs, but as competition around advanced manufacturing ecosystems, industrial standards, technological integration and supply chain coordination. —Li Jun, Footwear News, 31 May 2026

More than just a graphite mine Graphite One is, in part, trying to tackle this issue by linking domestic mining, transportation, processing, and battery material manufacturing into a single supply chain. —Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 31 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1948, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for supply chain

• aeroplane
• appertain
• ascertain
• capitaine
• cassegrain
• cellophane
• chatelaine
• counterpane
• entertain
• halothane
• hurricane
• hyperplane