Introduction
The steps that are involved in getting a product from the producer to the consumer and all of the companies that come into contact with the product make up the product’s supply chain. This paper will map out the supply chain for bottled water. While bottled water is not proven to be significantly healthier or better than tap water, it is the world’s fasted growing beverage with 50 billion water bottles used in the United States alone. The cost of bottled water is up to 1,000 times higher than that of tap water, yet on average a third of all servings of water consumed by Americans is bottled. (Ellsbury, 2015)
Sourcing
The water used by bottling companies is generally sourced from spring water wells as well as public water supplies. The Food and Drug Administration FDA regulates the terms that the bottled water industry can use to describe the source of the water and prescribes that bottled water is intended for human consumption, neither flavoring nor carbonation is added, and that it is packaged in food-grade, sanitary containers. (Layton, 2006)
Manufacturing
In most instances the water that is pumped or drawn undergoes a treatment process which could include
Distillation,
Filtration,
Reverse Osmosis,
Ozonation,
UV-light treatment.
The next step in the manufacturing process is bottling which involves plastic bottles, plastic caps and the label. Some manufacturers such as Nestle produce the bottles in their plants which reduces the need for transportation of empty bottles. ("Our Operations (Value Chain)," 2015) Packaging of the bottles generally involved cardboard and plastic shrink wrap. The plastic bottles used in most cases are made out Polythylene Terephthalate (PET) which is produced from petroleum hydrocarbons, then polymerized and finally molded using pressurized air and heat.
The manufacturer is also responsible for the advertising of the...