The product may depend on a part of the chain that the customer never sees. A specific piece of equipment, material or professional service may have few substitutes available, so an outage at one supplier affects the entire business.
Such dependence should be recognized before a disruption. What part can't we easily replace? How long would a new supply take? Do we have the knowledge and documentation needed to adapt the procedure?
Not every other supplier is a real alternative if they depend on the same source. It is important to understand the chain and then assess reserves, agreements and the possibility of a change. A low purchase price does not give the full picture of business risk.
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