The supply chain.
It has been accepted a long-time ago: supply chain is a risk. Or better: a RISK in capital letters.
Over-production, seconds, pricing, lead times, delays, environmental and human rights abuses … risk denominators dominate our thinking when it comes to the supply chain.
The fact that even today, the supply chain is still largely as intransparent as it has purposely been designed to be … says a lot. With few exceptions, most organisations – of just about any type – struggle to understand what is behind that process of the ‘making of’.
‘The supply chain’ remains hence largely a black box, with some occasional patches in different shades of grey where a little bit of knowledge exists – thanks to the rather considerable efforts of those trying to manage exactly that chain.
Mostly, and I won’t tell much news to the reader, the management of the chain focuses entirely on Tier 1 (the makers of the final product), with the ‘system taking care of the rest’. Or more correctly: with the rest of the chain being taken care of by whatever process is needed to get that final product made, somehow or other. With luck we may find an indicator or other in a database of the existence of makers of Tier 2 in a database …
It is rather rare that there exists full-depth insight into the provenance and ‘making of’ a product. After all, such an approach would mean building on relationships, on mutual benefits, on getting to know and trust each other, on eye level partnerships. And on a lot of (not too cheap) elbow grease.
It builds on – dare I say it? – the human component in the ‘supply chain’.
Language matters
The reader may have noticed, that in the above I have very carefully left out the human factor that is so easily overlooked when using the word ‘supply chain’.
Supply chain.
A word that sounds impersonal. Very akin to a factory being a cogwheel in a much larger clockwork. And while the definition of the term does list ‘people’, the focus is very clearly on the idea of it all being a neat system of seamless interactions:
‘Supply Chain’ definition:
Source: Wikipedia
A system of
organizations, people, activities, information, and resources
involved in supplying
a product or service
to a consumer
The term puts people along side information, resources, activities – in other words: as a mere additional ingredient to the system. The term as we know and use it is not suggestive enough to recognise that indeed there exist human beings: making a living, with real names, real lives, real needs, real dreams and who are real hands in ‘the makers’ of those goods. There is not normally acknowledgement of their contribution – small or large.
There is a loud silence when it comes to attributing relevance those individuals. Even though they are key to make any company into what is has become, any goods into what they are. At no point it is acknowledged that these individuals have contributed valuable time and effort to the lifestyle of (predominantly, but by far no only) Western consumers.
Vocabulary matters. And not just with terms like ‘supply chain’.
Just think ‘shipping’, ‘distribution centre’, ‘health care system’, ‘educational institutions’ – it is no different.
In some cases, and in an initial effort to intuitively acknowledge that something or someone is doing something of value, the supply chain may also be called the ‘value chain’. It is a step into the right direction. But is still ignores, indeed purpose excludes, any notion of humanity, or the existence of a human living being, in the wording:
‘Value Chain’ definition:
Source: Wikipedia
A set of activities that
a firm operating in a specific industry
performs in order to deliver
a valuable product (i.e., good and/or service)
for the market.
The focus is on value – specifically the increase in commercial value of the goods that are ‘being made’. And therefore, the potential for higher profits. The focus in the value chain therefore is on the gains that can be made from the products or services that are ‘spit out’ by the chain in the process of its functioning.
Language matters.
Terminology expresses what we see and perceive in a concept, a thing, a person.
Language and its nuances express value and importance – hence value judgement – and put it in words.
The lack of an explicit call out to human beings – but also the environment, or fauna and flaura – in the definition of ‘supply chain’ or ‘value chain’ above is significant.
It pretends that ‘stuff’ just either gets made all by itself – by a system, a process.
And that’s exactly where the crux lies:
Language colours how we recognise what is of relevance.
y not including human beings, the environment, fauna and flaura, in our intuitive understanding of of what a supply chain (or any other of those systemic concepts are called) is, and what plays a role for it to function successfully, we open the door to abuse: abysmal labour conditions, or environmental destruction to just name two.
Language matters.
Being mindful of what vocabulary we use, and under what circumstances does make a difference.
Choosing our words carefully, defining them if needed as we go along to ensure our conversation partners are on the same page, is important on worth our time.
Changing language can change lives.
In choosing our words, we have the choice for this to be for the better.
Further reading:
Language and Diversity Bias:
- Bias In Job Descriptions: Your First Step to Creating a More Diverse Workforce
- 5 Must-Do’s for Writing Inclusive Job Descriptions
Tools to address diversity Bias:
- Textio: Textio is a bias checker that runs on an augmented writing platform. They help companies use less biased language in their writing. Job description can be uploaded and receive a score together with suggestions on how to improve your writing.
- Gender Decoder: Gender Decoder is a free word decoder tool to check if gendered-language is used on a job descriptions. Gender Decoder will search through job descriptions and identify both feminine and masculine words used.
Language and non-native speakers:
