Definition
The tendency of small changes in consumer demand to become wildly amplified as orders travel up the supply chain, because each link adds its own buffer when forecasting. A 5% sales dip at retail can become a 40% order cut at the factory. Long lead times make it worse — which is why South African importers buying from Asia on 30 to 45 day ocean transits are especially exposed — and the cure is sharing real demand data instead of just orders.