The term "supply chain" is not going away. But it is widely recognized as insufficient -- even subtly misleading. Chains consist of links. Where and when links are strong, a chain can pull supply to demand or customers to sellers.
Multiple overlapping chains pulling in various directions should be a recipe for deadly tangles (or tight controls). But the exploitation of multiple overlapping supply and demand relationships is crucial to the efficiency and effectiveness of contemporary supply chains.
An ecosystem is commonly defined as a group of interconnected elements, formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment. The health (or not) of an ecosystem is a function of the interactions of uncoordinated and mostly uncontrollable behaviors that are, nonetheless, mutually dependent.
Logistics was -- often still is -- about keeping the chains tight and oiled. Supply Chain Management is about awareness and influence within webs of relationship.
[More on the graphic shown above at Dion Hinchcliffe's blog]
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