Supply Chain Diagram Consists of Supply Chain Events, Destination Events, Shipping Events

Most of us take for granted what we wear and what we eat. Little do we realize that for those shoes you’re wearing, the BMW car you are driving, the coffee you drank this morning, and that shirt comfortably resting on your body, or that pizza you just ordered, made a long and arduous journey to end up where it is.

In a typical supply chain diagram, we might have three distinct events before it reaches the customer:

• Supply Chain Events
• Shipping Events
• Destination Events

And each of the events are related to each other and, indeed, either proceeds or precedes the other.

Supply Chain Events

These events typically trigger the beginning of a supply chain and can consist of the following (in sequence):

1. Issuance of a Purchase Order (PO)
2. Order Confirmation and provide Available to Ship (ATS)
3. Sample Order Proof
4. Sample Proof Approval
5. Testing
6. Arrival of Raw Materials and Components
7. Production Planning (sometimes Sales and Operations Planning or S&OP)
8. Beginning of Production
9. Production Inspection and Product Inspection
10. Final Inspections (Quality Audits)
11. Packaging
12. Shipment Sample

Shipping Events

13. Shipment Bookings
14. Shipment Approval
15. Distribution Center and Port Split
16. Cargo Receipt or Bill of Lading
17. Scanpack
18. Palletization (stack product on pallets)
19. Design and Execute on Container Load Plan
20. Export Customs Clearance
21. Full Container Load – Load Product in Containers (FCL Load)
22. Delivery of Containers to Terminal
23. Export Customs Inspections
24. Vessel Departs Port with Container of Products
25. Carrier Completes Documentation
26. Export Documentation
27. Transhipment (Travel by on Vessel by Sea)

Destination Events

28. Schedule DC Delivery
29. Provide Advanced Ship Notification (ASN)
30. Pre-Arrival Import Clearance
31. Vessel Arrives at Port with Containers
32. Import Customes Inspections
33. Container Release by Customs
34. Load Container onto Trucks
35. Trucks with Containers of Product travel by land or rail to Distribution Center (DC)
36. Truck arrives at Fulfillment Center (FC)
37. Distribution Center receives merchandise
38. Fulfillment Center documents receipts and stows product inside warehouse
39. Container dehire and manage empty container and repurpose

Does that supply chain look complicated to you? Yeah, me too. But, as things currently stand, that’s an average supply chain network for soft goods, electronics, and pretty much most things that is manufactured overseas and delivered to a port other than the manufacturing country.

So, the next time you put on that jacket, play a game on your iPod, iPhone, or iPad or Kindle, think about where it came from and the long journey it made so you can enjoy it.