Manifest: Supply Chain Platform

MANIFEST: Supply Chain Platform

A toolkit for visualizing, analyzing, and documenting supply chains, production lines, and trade networks.

Apple Factory History

This Manifest documents Apple Computer's manufacturing history, recording Apple's factory locations and major office facilities, as well as those of related companies like NeXT Computer and Foxconn. For each location it presents a timeline of major events, images, and primary source quotes.

Amazon Infrastructure (2024)

Manifest of Amazon infrastructure and facilities, including: fulfillment centers, sortation centers, delivery centers / delivery stations, inbound and outbound cross dock centers, and Amazon Fresh, Amazon Pantry, and Wholefoods locations.

Western Electric Telephone (1927)

This is a reconstruction of the supply chain for the Western Electric produced telephones of the late 1920s. The information for this historic Manifest is drawn from archival Western Electric/AT&T materials--expecially the 1927 document, _From the Far Corners of the Earth_ and Western Electric's _Material Series_ advertisements. It also incorporates records of some supplier companies. While this appears to be an example of a Component/Constitution Manifest, unlike the vast number of subassemblies for a telephone today the supply chain of the telephone was heavily centralized at Western Electric's Hawthorne Works. Nor was it sold commercially (telephones were leased to subscribers). And so it is equally reasonable to consider it as a kind of Upstream/Downstream Manifest. This Manifest incorporates quotes from historic sources and imagery into its presentation.

Adidas Supply Chain (2012)

This is an Upstream/Downstream Manifest that provides an overview of the global locations for Adidas in 2012, illustrating manufacturing sources and a small number of retail sites.

Algae Biofuel Producers (2010)

This Commodity/Production Distribution Manifest shows known algae-based biofuels producers circa 2010. While still an emerging industry, algae are renewable resources for biofuels that can be grown on non‐arable lands, using saltwater or brackish water. A significant advantage of using algae for biofuels is that it need not displace farmland used for growing food sources. The US Department of Energy reports that algae have the potential to yield at least 30 times more energy than land-based crops currently used to produce biofuels

Amazon Fulfillment Centers (2016)

This is a Facilities/Infrastructure Manifest of current and planned Amazon fulfillment centers circa 2016, created as part of a short project on [studies in sortation](https://supplystudies.com/2016/02/07/studies-in-sortation/). Amazon’s fulfillment centers are specialized not only by their geography or contents, but by their mechanism of distribution. From books and dvds to tablets and televisions, some sort the small, some sort the large. Within each it matters what can be moved by men and women, what is suitable for machines, what is Prime and what is Fresh. The company began piloting its sortation centers as early as 2014, opening locations in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix, New Jersey, and California. It has evolved significantly in the time since.

Apple Suppliers (2013-2019)

This is a Supplier Manifest that details Apple suppliers for the years 2013-2019, as documented by their annual supplier responsibility progress reports. Please not that Apple’s reports only include the top percentage (major suppliers). They do not indicate what role a particular supplier plays in their operations, nor do they differentiate by product (and indeed, one supplier may contribute to multiple product lines). This manifest attempts to combine supplier records at the level of major manufacturing facilities or office locations. But while one might assume that supplier information is accurately reported, that would be a poor assumption. Typos or mistranslations in supplier names and locations, incorrect or incompatible address formatting, and similar textual failings make combining the details of successive supplier reports difficult. While—through a combination of automatic data cleanup and manual error-correction—a reasonable effort has been made to produce an accurate record, this infromation should be taken only an approximation of the geographies, countries, and cultures enrolled in a Apple's global operations.

Apple Suppliers (2013)

This is a Supplier Manifest derived from [Apple's 2013 supplier list](https://thetyee.ca/News/2014/03/27/Apple_Supplier_List_.pdf), inspired by the [interactive map](https://web.archive.org/web/20150508173210/http://www.tealeafnation.com/2013/02/who-supplies-apple-its-not-just-china-an-interactive-map/) developed by Tea Leaf Nation and ChinaFile. Like many Supplier Manifests this information is neither complete, nor is it differentiated by product. Still, it helps provide a snapshot of the geographies, countries, and cultures enrolled in a company's operations.

Automotive Repair Firms - California

A Manifest of Automotive Repair Firms in the state of California.

Bridgestone Truck Tires (2013)

This is an Upstream/Downstream Manifest that provides an overview of the global production locations of Bridgestone truck tires in 2012/2013, illustrating some of the geographies of the different stages and processes involved.

CatSniffer Board (NEH 2024)

CatSniffer is an original multiprotocol and multiband board for sniffing, communicating, and attacking IoT (Internet of Things) devices using the latest radio IoT protocols. It is a highly portable USB stick that integrates TI CC1352, Semtech SX1262, and an RP2040 for V3 or a Microchip SAMD21E17 for V2

Champion Petfoods (2013)

This Upstream/Downstream Manifest created as a [commodity biography](https://web.archive.org/web/20201011155737/https://sites.google.com/site/mydogsdinnersourcemap/home) by Carley L. (and their dog, Rusty) in 2013 follows the ingredients for Champion petfood to the Champion Petfoods factory in Morinville, Alberta, where the end product is then exported to 50 countries globally. It shows the Canadian farms and factories where ingredients come from (upstream) as well as the countries which import Champion Petfoods’ products for regional distribution and retail (downstream). While the company ships to hundreds of cities throughout several countries, the map shows only one representative entry for each (using the address listed for the distributor/country on the company's website).

CHIPS Funding for US Semiconductor Research and Manufacture

Manifest examining facilities funded (proposed, pledged, etc.) under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, an initiative to boost domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States.

Ethical Fashion Initiative Partners

Map of the Ethical Fashion Initiative Partners. Map information provided by Ethical Fashion Initiative. "The Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI) is a flagship programme of the International Trade Centre, a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. EFI reduces global poverty by linking micro-producers and artisans to the international supply chain of fashion, facilitating dignified work at a fair wage. EFI supports local creativity, female employment and empowerment and gender equality. EFI collaborates with creative social enterprises such as GIE CABES in Burkina Faso and Mali, Artisan.Fashion in Kenya, D.O.T in Haiti, Kangaroo in Ethiopia… EFI partner brands include Vivienne Westwood, EDUN, MIMCO, Stella Mc Cartney, Brother Vellies, United Arrows among others."

Fairphone Supply Chain

Supply chains for the Fairphone, comparing the Fairphone 2, 3, and 4. Data provided by Fairphone. "To gain a deeper understanding of the complex, often opaque consumer electronics supply chain, we’re mapping all the different materials, suppliers and manufacturing locations involved in creating our phone. In addition to our first-tier assembly manufacturer, we have now mapped all second-tier component suppliers, and are progressively researching third and fourth-tier suppliers. Besides increasing transparency, we’re using this information to engage with individual suppliers, establish relationships and pioneer innovative solutions in our impact areas…" Fairphone Supply Chain Engagement Report 2024

GAP Inc. Supply Chain (2011)

This is an Upstream/Downstream Manifest that shows the manufacturing sites for textiles and other products sold at GAP stores, along with countries in which the company has retail operations.

Global Media Industries Visual Effects (NEH 2024)

The work of creating digital visual effects in film and entertainment is a laborious post-production process that is highly taylorized and outsourced all over the world. This map is an attempt to map the global pipelines of VFX in Europe, Americas and Asia.

Global Mine Map (2024)

This is a Commodity/Production Distribution Manifest showing minerals and mine locations throughout the world.

Global Ports (2015)

This is a Facilities/Infrastructure Manifest showing global ports and corresponding port volume between 2011 and 2015.

H&M Retail Locations (2020)

This is an Downstream Manifest that shows retail sites for the clothing retailer H&M throughout the United States.

Hard Disk Drive Supply Chain (2011)

This is an Category/Sector Manifest that provides information on the supply chain for hard disk drives (HDDs), with their moving, spinning mechanisms that have been supplanted in many use-cases by the mainly electrical operation of solid-state drives (SSDs). This information is compiled from a variety of sources and, while it focuses on Western Digital to some extent, also presents a general overview of the state of hard disk drive production in Thailand around the time of the 2011 floods.

Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds

Map examining the production of Hershey's chocolate at its manufacturing facilities in Hershey, Pa. and their connection to farms in the U.S., Africa, Mexico, and Peru. Map information provided by the Hershey Company.

Home Depot Distribution Centers in the US

List of Home Depot Distribution Centers in the US.

Nissan Supply Chain (2014)

This is an Upstream/Downstream Manifest that provides an overview of the global locations for Nissan Motor Corporation in 2013, illustrating Nissan suppliers, manufacturing plants, and dealers. Some basic connection information is included, and the information has been categorized to allow sorting.

North America Intermodal Facilities (2020)

This is a Facilities/Infrastructure Manifest showing intermodal facilities in North America.

Notorious Uranium References (NEH 2024)

By its nature, 'a MacGuffin' is negligible: its sole purpose is to provide motivation to the protagonists. To Truffaut, Hitchcock continued that as far as he was concerned, the uranium was trivial. As Hitchcock told Truffaut: "if it had not been a wartime story, we could have hinged our plot on the theft of diamonds, the gimmick was unimportant." Critics agreed: throughout the Anglophone world, only one review of "Notorious" even mentioned uranium...except in the jurisdiction with the world's largest uranium reserves. While the Australian Broadcasting Act (no. 33 of 1942) and similar protected the Allies against unguarded talk, including information pertaining to strategic materials, critics reviewing "Notorious" for small-town newspapers in Australia noticed uranium as frequently as they noticed Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant. Under specific circumstances, the "MacGuffin" became notable.

Scanning Labor in the Internet Archive (NEH 2024)

Scanning Labor in the Internet Archive is a data enabled spatial-labor history of the book scanning workers who create the world's largest free digital library, Internet Archive. This manifest document visualizes the production of 9 million IA book/text metadata records from 2004 to 2023. The analysis reveals that around 2011 Internet Archive shifted most of its book scanning operations from in-house scanning centers at academic libraries in the global north to shipping vast quantities of books overseas for digitization at business process outsourcing firms in the global South.

Sustainable Fashion Influencer (NEH 2024)

Map of sites enrolled by sustainable fashion influencer, Aditi Mayer, a South Asian American based in LA but works mostly in South Asia.

Telephone Infrastructure Materials (1920s-1930s)

This is a map of telephone infrastructure materials (timber, etc.) during the 1920s and 1930s.

The Manifest of Manifest

This is the supply chain for Manifest itself, representing both the physical hardware, the digital resources, and the conceptual geographies that go into the Manifest Project. Manifest is, according to our [about](http://manifest.supplystudies.com/about/) page: "an investigative toolkit intended for researchers, journalists, students, and scholars interested in visualizing, analyzing, and documenting supply chains, production lines, and trade networks."

Timberland Earthkeepers Boots

Map examining the production of Timberland Earthkeepers Boots. Map information provided by Timberland. "Get to know the boot that changed the way Timberland thinks about its products - our flagship Earthkeepers® men's boots. Everyone thought we were crazy when we set out to create our most eco-conscious boot in 2007. It seemed impossible at the time to make a boot that left a lighter footprint on the Earth we walk on. But that’s exactly what we did. This one boot transformed the way we think about how we make our products, and inspired us to walk the talk beyond just one boot by building sustainability into all of our products."

Tobacco Leaf Supply Chain (NEH 2024)

Unmanufactured tobacco leaf exports from Malawi, Africa, with a focus on the top five countries that receive leaf exports from Malawi. Different segments of the tobacco leaf supply chain are featured in this project.

Typical Laptop Computer (2007)

This is a Manifest based on Dylan Tweney's 2007 PC Magazine article ["What's Inside Your Laptop?"](https://dylan.tweney.com/2007/03/13/whats-inside-your-laptop/) It isn't a comprehensive examination of a specific laptop (though it references Dell's Latitude D600—a 1.8-GHz Pentium M 745, with 512MB of RAM, 802.11g wireless, a DVD burner, and an 80GB hard drive), rather it is an example of a Component/Constitution Manifest. These are documents which compile the list of materials, sites, or people who constitute either a particular part or product, or the general requirements of a product category.

Uranium Distribution (2011)

This is a Commodity/Production Distribution Manifest showing uranium and uranium compound distribution through the port of Hamburg in 2011, based on data compiled in response to inquiries from _Die Linke_ (the Left Party) and released by the Hamburg Parliament as [Document 20/2843] (https://www.buergerschaft-hh.de/parldok/dokument/35310/wie_viele_atomtransporte_gehen_tatsaechlich_durch_hamburg_nachfragen_zur_drs_20_1354_und_anderen.pdf). Each entry indicates the sending and receiving entity, as well as the reported weight in kilograms, allowing viewers to quickly visualize the relative scale of uranium distribution.

Viet Nam's Secondhand Clothing (SHC) Trade

Beginning in the early 1980s, used clothing entered Viet Nam in the form of international humanitarian assistance, post-war relief goods distributed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). But what began as western charity almost immediately became an important commodity in Viet Nam’s various informal markets.

Vinyl Pressing Plants (2021)

This is a Facilities/Infrastructure Manifest of vinyl pressing sites drawn from [published listings](https://vinyl-pressing-plants.com/). In addition to detailing the locations of these sites across different regions, each entry includes quantitative information about the production capabilities of a given site—the average lead time for production, the miniminum quantity required for an order, and the miminum and maximum gram weights of the vinyl platters the press is capable of producing. This demonstrates Manifest's capabilities for scaling its visualizations by quantitative variables. Scaling by minimum quantity, for example, allows a viewer to quickly identify plants that are more suitable for smaller productions.

Upload Manifest Document

Enter a URL for a public Google Sheet based on our Template or for a Manifest Document format json file.

If you have a Manifest Document created with the Manifest Editor (usually a json file), you can upload it.

Manifest

This is the supply chain for Manifest itself, representing both the physical hardware, the digital resources, and the conceptual geographies that go into the Manifest Project. Manifest is, according to our about page: "an investigative toolkit intended for researchers, journalists, students, and scholars interested in visualizing, analyzing, and documenting supply chains, production lines, and trade networks."

1

Manifest

New York, NY

#manifest
Welcome to Manifest! This is an evolving map of the supply chain for Manifest itself. We already loaded another Manifest document for you to look at, but you can check out others like:
- A look at the history of Apple's Manufacturing.
- A Manifest of the telephone from 1927.
- A list of Amazon's Infrastructure in 2024.
- The supply chain for a hard disk drive.
- Or a typical laptop computer's supply chain.
Manifest is a toolkit intended for researchers, journalists, students, and scholars interested in visualizing, analyzing, and documenting supply chains and trade networks.
Notes
2

Manifest on Supplystudies

9 Wing Drive, Cedar Knolls, NJ

#manifest#datacenter#webhost

While as an open source project Manifest can be hosted by anyone, anywhere, a public installation of Manifest is provided at manifest.supplystudies.com. That's probably what you are looking at right now.
Notes
1. https://manifest.supplystudies.com
3

Manifest Code

The Cloud, United States

#manifest#datacenter#code

The codebase for a web application like Manifest is comprised of a bunch of javascript, html, and css. This code is stored on various devices, both (temporarily) on local development machines and (permanently) on Github. While it is difficult to determine where a cloud-based storage system like Github stores these files, given that they might be kept across multiple different machines and a range of geographies, most sources suggest these are primarily US-based locations.
Notes
1. https://github.com/hock/Manifest
4

Manifest Team

New York, NY

#manifest#people

Conceptually centered in New York, Manifest is built by a team of scholars and students across a number of institutions and geographies. You can learn more about us on our about page.
Notes
1. http://manifest.supplystudies.com/about/
5

NNJ2 / US-East

9 Wing Drive, Cedar Knolls, NJ

#datacenter#webhost

Manifest is primarily served from the NNJ2 data center (badged as US-East by Linode/Akamai). This is a "state-of-the-art New Jersey colocation data center facility features high density colocation capabilities, redundant power and cooling, comprehensive security features and flexible network infrastructure, and supports a broad spectrum of Cloud, Colocation and Managed Services. With flexible power configurations and superior support services, Cologix’s Cedar Knolls, New Jersey colocation data center helps customers safeguard critical data while utilizing enterprise-level IT solutions."
Notes
1. https://www.datacenters.com/cologix-nnj2-new-jersey
2. https://cologix.com/data-centers/new-jersey/nnj2/
6

Akamai

145 Broadway, Cambridge, MA

#webhost

Manifest's is now hosted by Akamai as a result of their aquisition of Linode. "Akamai Technologies, Inc. the world's most trusted solution to power and protect digital experiences, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Linode, one of the easiest-to-use and most trusted infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform providers (February 15, 2022)."
Notes
1. https://www.akamai.com/
2. https://www.akamai.com/newsroom/press-release/akamai-to-acquire-linode
7

Linode

72nd & Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA

#webhost

Linode was an American cloud hosting provider that focused on providing Linux-based virtual machines, cloud infrastructure, and managed services. It is now part of Akamai.
Notes
8

Nginx

795 Folsom St 6th Floor, San Francisco

#webserver#software

Nginx is a webserver package originally developed by Igor Sysoev in 2002. It was acquired by F5, a cloud application services company, in 2019. Manifest is served from a Nginx webserver running on Linux.
Notes
1. https://nginx.org
9

Leaflet

Kyiv, Ukraine

#software#maps

Leaflet is an open-source JavaScript library for creating interactive maps. Originally created by Vladimir Agafonkin, it is now actively developed by a community of contributors. Manifest uses Leaflet for its geospatial visualizations, with some additional functionality provided by MapLibre GL JS.
Notes
1. https://leafletjs.com
10

D3

San Francisco, CA

#software

D3 is a JavaScript library for data visualization originally created in 2011 by Mike Bostock, Jeffrey Heer, and Vadim Ogievetsky. Manifest uses D3 for its non-geospatial visualizations.
Notes
1. https://d3js.org
11

Node.js

548 Market St. PMB 57274. San Francisco, CA

#software

Node.js is an open-source JavaScript runtime environment, now supported by the OpenJS Foundation. Manifest uses node to provide a number of backend services.
Notes
1. https://nodejs.org/en/
12

Github

88 Colin P Kelly Jr St San Francisco, CA

#datacenter#code

Manifest uses Github to store its code, despite this, Github is a problematic service in a numnber of ways, not the least of which is its contractual agreement with ICE.
Notes
1. https://github.com
13

Maptiler

Höfnerstrasse 98, 6314 Unterägeri, Switzerland

#datacenter#maps#software

Manifest uses Maptiler's content delivery network to provide map tiles for its geographic visualizations. The majority of these tiles are based on OpenStreetMap data. Maptiler is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, with the development team "situated in the Czech Republic, mainly in Brno."
Notes
1. https://www.maptiler.com/
2. https://www.maptiler.com/contacts/
14

OpenStreetMap

St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS, United Kingdom

#maps#software

OpenStreetMap is "an initiative to create and provide free geographic data, such as street maps, to anyone." It is supported by the The OpenStreetMap Foundation.
Notes
15

Development Hardware

Foxconn Headquarters No.2, 2nd Donghuan Road, Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, China

#hardware

Development for Manifest is done on a variety of popular computers and mobile devices, mainly from Apple (Macbook Pros, etc.). This hardware has its own complex supply chain, and Manifest is possible only as a result of the worldwide connections those chains bring into being.
Notes
16

Fordham University

Fordham University, Martino Hall, 45 Columbus Ave, New York, NY

#institutionssupport

Manifest is primarily developed as a research project at Fordham's Department of Communication and Media Studies, with additional funding provided by the Fordham Office of Research and the NEH.
Notes
1. https://www.fordham.edu/info/20768/communication_and_media_studies
2. https://www.fordham.edu/academics/office_of_research/
17

University of Colorado Boulder

Boulder, CO

#institutions#support#people

Some of the Manifest Project Team is based at University of Colorado Boulder, funded in part by our NEH grant.
Notes
1. https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/about
18

National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities

400 7th Street, SW, Washington, DC

#institutions#support

Manifest is supported by a grant from the NEH's Office of Digital Humanities. "The Office of Digital Humanities (ODH) offers grant programs that fund project teams experimenting with digital technologies to develop new methodologies for humanities research, teaching and learning, public engagement, and scholarly communications."
Notes
1. https://www.neh.gov/divisions/odh
19

New York University

239 Greene Street, Floor 8. New York, NY

#institutions#support

Manifest's initial development was supported by New York University's Department of Media, Culture, and Communication.
Notes
1. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/departments/media-culture-and-communication
20

MIT Center for Civic Media

75 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA

#institutions#support

Manifest has its conceptual origins in work done at the MIT Center for Civic Media.
Notes
1. https://civic.mit.edu
21

Abelohost

Beatrixstraat 30, Doesburg, Gelderland 6981GN

#retired#webhost

Abelohost was the first web hosting provider for Manifest (and supplystudies.com more generally). It is a Dutch host with an emphasis on privacy.
Notes
1. https://abelohost.com
22

Serverius B.V.

Serverius B.V. Ketelskamp 10 7942 KG Meppel -, Netherlands

#retired#datacenter#webhost

Serverius was one of the two data center providers used by Abelohost when Manifest was hosted there. According to the site, it is "a carrier-neutral Netherlands datacenter. It is located just a few miles away from Amsterdam in the heart of the Netherlands. The company is unique for its high quality services and its array of available networks. It is located in a perfectly stable environment, which makes it possible to build private networks and co-locate private hardware. The datacenter consists of the newest and most reliable technology: its high capacity co-location is protected with air conditioning, Tier 3 emergency power, efficient climate control services and modern fire extinguishers." This is the primary site.
Notes
1. https://serverius.net
2. https://www.datacentermap.com/company/serverius-bv2.html