The network of suppliers that deliver products from raw materials to end customers through either an engineered or transactional flow of information, goods, and money. ASCM Supply Chain Dictionary-Eighteenth edition—2024

-Lean: A philosophy that emphasizes the minimization of the amount of all the resources (including time) used in the various activities of the enterprise. It involves identifying and eliminating non-value-adding activities in design, production, supply chain management, and customer management. Lean employ teams of multiskilled workers at all levels of the organization and use highly flexible, increasingly automated machines to produce volumes of products in potentially enormous variety. Lean contains a set of principles and practices to reduce costs through the relentless removal of waste and through the simplification of all manufacturing and support all processes. -Six Sigma: A methodology that furnishes tools for the improvement of business processes. The intent is to decrease process variation and improve product quality. -Lean six sigma: A methodology that combines the improvement concepts of lean and six sigma. It uses the seven wastes of lean and the define, measure, analyze, improve, control (DMAIC) process from six sigma and awards recognition of competence through judo-style belts.