Analyze the supply chain of your favorite electronic gadget and compare this with the supply chain of your favorite pair of jeans.
How do the supply chains differ?
What are the potential reasons for this?
For our favorite electronic gadget, IPhone, there are many more suppliers than there are for jeans mostly due to the fact that there are several different components that are supplied related to the IPhone, as opposed to jeans that have a much more streamlined and direct (one distribution channel) supply chain.
For the IPhone, the operating system and the actual device itself our two separate items that are supplied to the eventual customer. Apple receives an order from the App store regarding the operating system, and Apple supplies the operating system directly to the store. The customer then buys the operating system from the App store. With the actual device, Apple either can outsource or insource its manufacturing process. The actual device goes through a separate distribution channel than the operating system before it reaches the App store and the eventual customer.
For blue jeans, the supply chain is much more direct.
It begins by the cotton farmer receiving an order from the manufacturer who then makes-to-stock the blue jeans.
It is then ordered by the retail store and then goes to the eventual customer.
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