Caravan procurement would have consisted of pastoralists traveling to the Chivay source, acquiring obsidian that they believed to have exchange value, perhaps processing the nodules to some extent, and then transporting the material to consumers or to other traders in areas far from Colca. As temporality is a significant part of caravan organization, regular and dense procurement activities are expected when a caravan undertakes a detour from the principal travel route. Some preparation or maintenance of the trail from the principal travel route to the obsidian source is expected if the animals are heavily laden. The amount of processing and initial reduction in the source area probably reflected the number of days that a caravan would have been willing stop, and conversely the transport of whole nodules is conceivable with the assistance of cargo animals such that some extra grams of weight were less of a limiting factor. As mentioned, cortex is often very thin on Chivay obsidian, therefore it would not be surprising if some percentage of the material transported away from the source area included unreduced, whole nodules.

Ethnoarchaeological studies report that caravan drivers look for camps that include high quality pasture, water, and corrals if possible. When these features occur close to an extraction site, a relatively dense obsidian processing area may be found nearby because herders can nourish their livestock while simultaneously working stone. Because of the temporality of caravan activity, procurement was probably intensive, though episodic, through time. When caravans or animals were present, processing would occur and then the material would be conveyed away and the quarry area would see little use until the next episode of intense production. Evidence of production may be variable, however, because caravans could also transport whole nodules without very much difficulty.

Many of the artifact types that were produced from obsidian transported by caravans can deduced based on archaeological evidence acquired from consumption contexts dating to the Terminal Archaic and later. The principal artifact form made from obsidian during the time that camelid caravans conceivably operated (subsequent to the Late Archaic), is the small triangular projectile point diagnostic to the Terminal Archaic and later. This is not to say that other tool forms were not being made, as other non-diagnostic biface forms could also date to the Terminal Archaic or later, however the vast majority of bifacially-flaked obsidian artifacts are projectile points. Furthermore, cores were likely transported away from the obsidian source because simple flakes serve as valuable cutting tools. Therefore, the majority of obsidian production would have prioritized the production of cores and flakes that serve as blanks for triangular point production. If advanced reduction occurred in the quarry area it is likely that small, triangular point forms were the objective.

Reduction strategies that target the production of small triangular points were probably relatively flexible because these point forms are not especially long or delicate, and therefore it would have been possible to produce the appropriate blanks from a variety of core forms. None-the-less, the overall variability in formal tools forms produced from obsidian is exceptionally low because series 5 points look quite similar. Therefore in terms of intensified production from the Terminal Archaic and onward, relatively consistent reduction strategies in the procurement workshop zone may be encountered.

Because these caravans were independent, one might expect slightly greater variability than in the other models of obsidian distribution because various individual households were participating in this procurement, and methodological variation by region might be reflected in the reduction methods. Finally, independent caravans may behave in other, relatively variable ways such as in architecture, in divergent ceramic styles, and in the types of obsidian pieces that were being exported.