Every stage of a supply chain is essential for a different industry, including raw material extraction and manufacturing. The supply chain enables a company to understand others that are involved in each of the stages, and thereby provides some insights on the attractiveness or competitiveness in industries the company might want to enter in the future.
The generic supply chain begins with the sourcing and extraction of raw materials. The materials are taken by a logistics provider to a supplier, which acts as a wholesaler. The materials are taken to a manufacturer, or probably to various manufacturers that refine and process them into a finished product.
Then it goes to a distributor that wholesales the finished product, which is next delivered to retailer. The retailer sells the product in a store to consumers. Once the consumer buys it, this completes the cycle, but it’s the demand that then goes back and drives the production of more raw materials, and cycle continues.