The Supply Chain Is Everywhere

The term ‘supply chain’ is just a name that we give to a nexus of logistics, inputs, processes, transportation, packaging, distribution, marketing, customer relations, vendor relations, and human capital, which together support the supply and demand of every physical, digital, intellectual, or artistic artefact on the planet and in space. The supply chain is everywhere. One way to understand the complexity and pervasiveness of supply chain dynamics is to consider yourself as a one-person supply chain, as suggested by MIT scholar Yossi Sheffi in his 2005 book The Resilient Enterprise. Sheffi’s thought experiment goes something like this…