Typically, businesses looking to build a resilient supply chain, will ensure to have multiple suppliers for each component of their product offering. Those suppliers will then have their own array of suppliers. As the stack is expanded, a healthy and diverse supply chain for a single company will look like a deep and/or wide pyramid depending on the complexity of the product.
Today though, for many important industries, the raw materials at the bottom of the supply chain may come from just one, or a few mining operations, typically in China.
What appears to be a resilient pyramid-like supply chain to businesses at the top of the chain is actually more like a diamond. The whole stack depends on a single or condensed supplier creating a massive vulnerability vector from the entire industry.
Connections
Rare Earth Elements Are Not Rare
Rare Earth Mines Can Take Decades To Reach Production
Rare Earth Supply Concentration Creates Huge Fragility
Reference
� The Elements of Power