Gartner has announced that its 16th edition of the Supply Chain Top 25 contains an impressive group of leaders with new lessons to share, including a diverse set of six new entrants.
According to Mike Griswold, vice president analyst with the Gartner Supply Chain practice, this has been a remarkable year for supply chain innovation.
“With substantial amounts of the economy closed due the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders need an agile strategy that allows the supply chain organization to sense and respond to changes in the business context as they happen. Our ranking highlights companies that possess these strategies and other differentiating capabilities.”
Cisco Systems scored the top spot in the ranking, followed by Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, Schneider Electric and Nestlé.
Six new companies joined this year’s list: Lenovo, AbbVie, British American Tobacco, Reckitt Benckiser, Biogen and Kimberly Clark.
“Cisco’s revenue growth, strength in environment, social and corporate governance (ESG) and recognition of leadership in community opinion polls drove the move up from the fifth position in 2019 to the top spot today,” said Griswold. “Its ESG focus includes the circular economy, with the goal of having 100% of new Cisco products incorporate circular design principles by the financial year 2025.”
To recognize sustained supply chain excellence, Gartner introduced the “Masters” category in 2015.
To be considered Masters, companies must have attained top-five composite scores for at least seven out of the last 10 years. All of last years’ Masters - Amazon, Apple, P&G, McDonald’s, and Unilever - qualified for the category this year. “The Masters continue to demonstrate advanced lessons for the supply chain community,” Griswold added. “The Supply Chain Top 25 offer a platform for insights, learning, debate and contributions to the rising influence of supply chain practices on the global economy.”
In an exclusive interview with SCMR, Griswold also noted that the change to ROPA highlights operating model decisions made by organizations came as a surprise.
“Some industries have the option to be vertically integrated (thus own assets) while others can use their ecosystem as the asset base,” he said. “I think this is illustrated by the top performance when you compare the previous ROA (25.5%) and ROPA (226%)”
He also observed that ESG (CSR) continues to be a priority. The avg ESG for the T25 companies and masters rose from 6.88 in 2019 to 7.5 in 2020.
“This is very impressive and demonstrates the ability of organizations to pivot during the disruption. Companies were able to shift production to Covid-19 fighting with output of masks, sanitizers, and ventilators.”
Rank | Company | Peer Opinion1 | GartnerOpinion1 | Three- | Inventory Turns3 | Three- | ESG Component Score5 | Composite Score6 |
1 | 470 | 574 | 300.7% | 12.5 | 2.9% | 10.00 | 6.25 | |
2 | 1113 | 532 | 68.8% | 4.7 | 1.0% | 10.00 | 5.37 | |
3 | 885 | 454 | 77.6% | 3.0 | 3.6% | 8.00 | 4.65 | |
4 | 567 | 453 | 63.0% | 5.4 | 4.2% | 10.00 | 4.48 | |
5 | 1084 | 350 | 40.0% | 4.8 | 1.2% | 10.00 | 4.44 | |
6 | 857 | 385 | 47.9% | 8.2 | 2.7% | 10.00 | 4.42 | |
7 | 991 | 316 | 106.7% | 23.9 | 54.0% | 0.00 | 4.39 | |
8 | 583 | 488 | 37.4% | 3.5 | 5.8% | 8.00 | 4.12 | |
9 | 737 | 351 | 34.7% | 4.6 | 6.8% | 10.00 | 4.11 | |
10 | 677 | 252 | 71.1% | 2.8 | 7.4% | 10.00 | 4.01 | |
11 | 1333 | 324 | 13.2% | 8.5 | 2.4% | 7.00 | 4.00 | |
12 | 296 | 389 | 51.1% | 8.5 | 5.5% | 10.00 | 3.87 | |
13 | 1195 | 207 | 75.4% | 4.4 | 0.0% | 6.00 | 3.74 | |
14 | 403 | 280 | 41.4% | 0.9 | 6.2% | 10.00 | 3.49 | |
15 | 397 | 307 | 16.9% | 11.2 | 7.0% | 10.00 | 3.44 | |
16 | 768 | 265 | 47.2% | 4.0 | 6.7% | 6.00 | 3.35 | |
17 | 128 | 30 | 262.4% | 4.1 | 7.6% | 5.00 | 3.20 | |
18 | 575 | 182 | 24.8% | 3.9 | 4.2% | 10.00 | 3.17 | |
19 | 799 | 202 | 52.6% | 13.0 | 7.7% | 4.00 | 2.99 |