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

Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo already mentioned those same display sizes for the foldable iPhone in March, meaning there are now multiple sources backing those sizes, so long as TrendForce is not simply copying what Kuo said. —Ewan Spence, Forbes.com, 25 July 2025

However, Lagarde again stressed that the ECB is monitoring a flip-side scenario in which fragmented supply chains constrain the domestic economy and push up prices worldwide. —Jenni Reid, CNBC, 24 July 2025

The European leaders used the meetings to voice their concerns over a host of thorny issues, from the gaping trade imbalance between the two economies to China’s ongoing support for Russia in the Ukraine war, and – more recently – Beijing’s chokehold on the rare earths supply chain. —Nectar Gan, CNN Money, 24 July 2025

That’s in part because of the people behind the scenes who spend a lot of time thinking about such things — people like Adrian Wengert, the supply chain vice president for St. Luke’s. —Rose Evans, Idaho Statesman, 24 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1948, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for supply chain

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