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Preferred term

supply chains  

Definition

  • The Association for Operations Management (APICS) defines the term supply chain as the “processes from the initial raw materials to the ultimate consumption of the finished product linking across supplier-user companies” as well as “functions within and outside the company that enable the value chain to make products and provide services to the customer.” More specifically, supply chain refers to suppliers, manufacturing facilities, distribution centers, warehouses, customers, raw materials, work-in-progress inventory, finished goods, and all related resources involved in meeting customer and organizational requirements. The term supply chain invokes images of products or materials moving from suppliers to manufacturers to distributors to retailers to customers along a “chain.” Related information and resources flow in both directions of the supply chain. [Source: Encyclopedia of Crisis Management; Supply Chain]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/supply_chains

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