I know it’s got something to do with demand and supply chain, but can’t seem to get it.
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It is how small changes in demand signals at one end of the supply chain (say at a phone assembly factory) becomes amplified as the signal percolates through the supply chain (through chips etc etc). For example: demand change of 5% at the top end results 50-60% demand changes lower in the supply chain. The wrong idea of the supply chain is to think of it as an inflexible rope where pulling on one end results in the same amount of pull at the other end. Rather this figurative “rope” is better seen as an elastic band where changes at one end propagate as waves of increasing magnitude. The reasons for this are many, ranging from economic lot sizing, order lead time, buffer inventories, transport time, ordering policies and lag time. (Presumably you have some background in Operations Research, Supply Chain, Manufacturing Planning Systems etc or much of this answer might not be informative). In signal or control theory, this effect is reminiscent of resonance and underdamping.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullwhip_effect#:~:text=The%20bullwhip%20effect%20is%20a,further%20up%20the%20supply%20chain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullwhip_effect#:~:text=The%20bullwhip%20effect%20is%20a,further%20up%20the%20supply%20chain).
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