While you might come across differently worded definitions of a supply chain, they all boil down to the same thing; a network of facilities/companies, usually starting with manufacturers/suppliers of raw materials and ending with delivery of finished products to customers. In our case a typical supply chain would be:

1. Suppliers/manufacturers of raw materials e.g. plastics for buttons, fibres for spinning yarns, metal for fasteners etc.

1a. Delivery of raw materials to intermediate product manufacturers.

2. Manufacture of intermediate products such as; cloth, yarns, buttons, fasteners etc...

2a. Delivery of intermediate products to (garment) manufacturers.

3. Manufacture of finished products; skirts, trousers, blouses, hats etc.

4. Distribution Centres (logistics)

5. Retailers/Customers

The raw material suppliers are considered to be “downstream” whilst moving along the chain towards the retailers/customers is referred to as going “upstream”.

Supply Chain Management:

The key objective to managing an efficient supply chain is to ensure that:

The correct quantities of the right products are delivered to the right place at the right time at minimal cost.

Other Resources/Further Reading:

Supply Chain Brain
Logistics Manager.com  

Support Organisations:

MAS (the DTI Manufacturing Advisory Service)  
Business Link  

Share this Article: