Geographical maps vs structural maps

When is comes to supply-chain-mapping, everyone has the visualization of supply chains on geographical maps in mind.

 

Is this sufficient?
Let's assume a use case with a complex supplier network: You want to display all supply chains that are affected by an incident in a specific country.
Please keep in mind: We are displaying supply chains - not only first tier suppliers!
This is the result on a geographic map. All supply chains that are connected to suppliers in Spain:

This view is too mixed up!

Take a look at the structural supply-chain-map for the same use case:
(Suppliers from Spain are marked with a red star)

Since you are not forced to display the locations on a geographical map, you have a lot more options how to arrange the map.For example you can arrange the supply chain by product.

According to our experience, both (geographical maps and structural maps) are needed for an effective display of supply-chain-maps. But the more complex the network is the more you might need a structural supply-chain -map.