Top 25 Global Supply Chain List Released

Gartner's annual supply chain rankings were recently released. The list only includes companies with more than $12 billion in annual sales, and only selects the manufacturing, retail and distribution industries. Let's take a look at what the leaders of supply chain management have done recently.

25. Germany's BMW (BMW)

BMW is the only automaker in this year's list and the automaker with the highest Dow Jones Sustainability Index. BMW has created 3D digital twins of its factories for plant conditioning and performance calculations; in addition, digital production technologies such as data analysis, smart logistics and 3D printing are heavily used.

24. Adidas (Adidas)

One of three new companies this year. Using 3D printing technology to mass-produce sneaker midsoles will be the largest mass-produced 3D-printed product in the world once it is fully put into production.

23. Home Depot (Home Depot)

Home Depot is back on the list after three years. Omnichannel is an important element of its business, and according to the Wall Street Journal, 45 percent of the company's online orders are picked up from brick-and-mortar stores. The company will spend $1.2 billion over the next five years on supply chain innovation. The retailer also plans to increase the number of its offline facilities by 170, giving it the ability to get products to 90% of Americans within 24 hours.

22. Coca-Cola

21. Kimberly-Clark

20. Walmart

Walmart's supply chain team Extend food delivery service to more than 800 stores, thus reaching 40% of American households. The company has made great efforts to improve supply chain efficiency, even helping its employees pay for tuition for a degree in supply chain management or a business-related degree.

19. BASF

Chemical giant BASF (BASF) is conducting a pilot project at one of the company's factories to use Augmented Reality to visualize real-time performance to improve efficiency and security. At the same time, they are developing a digital supply chain ecosystem that allows their supply chain partners to collaborate and integrate their planning and execution capabilities.

18. Johnson & Johnson

The supply chain of health care products giant Johnson & Johnson focuses on three key areas: product innovation highway; supporting omni-channel demand, regional changes and routes to local markets; developing precisely segmented end-to-end value chains. The company also plans to halve the time-to-market for traditional processes in the future.

17. Samsung Electronics

After becoming the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer, Samsung is trying to use blockchain technology to reduce its global shipping costs by 20%.

16. Diageo

British beverage company Diageo, which owns well-known brands such as Baileys, Guinness and Johnnie Walker, has supply chain management initiatives including: planning and transport control towers; systems Streamlining supply chain standard processes; shelf availability systems; blockchain and delivery-focused inventory tracking programs; and applying digital collaboration tools.

15. L'Oréal

The cosmetics giant is increasingly focusing on its direct-to-consumer (DTC) business. To speed time to market, the company has developed automated packaging and 3D printing technology to meet packaging and labelling requirements in near real-time. L'Oréal is also using machine vision and real-time dashboards to improve manufacturing processes and cognitive planning to enhance supply chain processes.

14. HP Inc.

In addition to 3D printing technology, supply chain transformation is the highest investment area within the company, including enterprise overall planning, ERP and strengthening global Visibility of order-to-cash (OTC) control towers. HP also applies analytics, machine learning, image recognition and chatbots.

13. Novo Nordisk

The visibility of Novo Nordisk, which was listed for the first time this year, has been detailed to the "pallet level", and cold chain products can be found in Temperature tracking throughout the entire supply chain.

12. Schneider Electric

Schneider Electric's supply chain program focuses on new product introductions and customer lead times. The company's goals also include facilitating collaborative sales, inventory and operations planning, as well as strengthening connections with customers and suppliers. Schneider Electric also widely uses digital tools for supply chain planning, procurement analysis, smart factories and digital customer logistics.

11. 3M

Industrial product manufacturer 3M's supply chain management has three near-term priorities: applying analytics, applying SPC and machine learning to supply chain processes; creating supply chains of its digital twin; and enhancing its corporate integrated planning process. In addition to this, the company is applying robotics, IoT, artificial intelligence in its factories, and is planning a major ERP upgrade to standardize its supply chain services.

10. Starbucks (Starbucks)

Starbucks is investing in blockchain technology to improve product tracking throughout the coffee supply chain.

9.H&M

Swedish fast fashion retailer H&M is investing in technologies including data analytics, cloud computing, RFID and 3D printing to optimize all aspects of its supply chain.

8. Pepsi

Pepsi is leveraging its direct-store-delivery system to detect demand and make agile supply chain responses. For example, PepsiCo has developed a mobile app that can alert retail stores when they are about to run out of stock, as well as send alerts to frontline sales. PepsiCo is also applying IoT technology to gain insights into consumer purchasing patterns and machine learning to improve the accuracy of daily forecasts.

7. Nestlé

Nestlé is reorganizing its supply chain and the entire enterprise, ditching less-healthy snack brands and transforming into a health and nutrition-related business.

6. Nike

Nike's e-commerce sales increased 30% last year, and the company also plans to reduce order fulfillment lead times from 60 days to 10 days. The logistics network needs to be redesigned to support the company's transition from brick-and-mortar sales to direct sales. In addition to investing in automation technology and outsourcing some facilities nearshoring, Nike is also using mobile apps to improve its demand detection and demand conditioning capabilities.

5. Intel

Semiconductor chip giant Intel is providing mass customization of products for more and more diverse customers. Intel's supply chain today shares multiple roles: component suppliers, system integrators, and end-solution OEMs. Intel sees its supply chain as an important part of its strategy to enter new markets and has applied technologies such as automated planning, predictive analytics, cognitive computing and end-to-end visibility.

4. Colgate-Palmolive

Colgate-Palmolive aims to make its packaging 100% recyclable and use it in its plastic packaging by 2025 25% recycled materials; it also hopes to halve the waste generated in manufacturing from 2010 levels by 2020, a target that is now close to being achieved. The company also recently implemented an end-to-end supply chain planning process through a digital control tower and invested in predictive analytics and AI technology to improve capacity and quality.

3. Cisco Systems

As the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence become the new favorites of the networking market, Cisco Systems (Cisco Systems) has shifted its strategy from selling technology to selling business benefits. Cisco is working on a holistic transformation of end-to-end processes, including planning, sourcing, manufacturing, and delivery throughout the supply chain.

2. Inditex

One of the most well-known brands of Spanish retail group Inditex is Zara. The latest Reuters report pointed out that Inditex is working hard to explore emerging technologies to maintain its edge in fashion. For example, the company is using warehouse robots, location intelligence, virtual assistants and predictive analytics to improve its online and offline sales capabilities.

1. Unilever

Dutch consumer goods manufacturer Unilever has been ranked No. 1 on Gartner's supply chain list for three consecutive years. Currently, Unilever has more than 400 brands around the world, most of which have been promoted around the world after being acquired. The company is using robotic process automation technology to improve its order-to-cash process. The company has also invested heavily in digitizing its supply chain.

The list of peerless experts in the supply chain

In order to make room for new brands, some companies that "occupy" this list all year round were selected, and a "peerless expert" was established. List in recognition of their persistent focus on supply chain management. To be able to make the list must be a company that has made the top five seven times in 10 years. It is worth mentioning that Lenovo, the only Chinese company on the list for five consecutive years, fell out of the list this time.

McDonald's

The secret to McDonald's supply chain success lies in the "cooperation of strategic suppliers, service providers and thousands of companies and franchisees". With confidence in its own supply chain, the company plans to offer fresh, rather than frozen, beef in burgers at 14,000 stores across the U.S., offering consumers healthier dining options.

Amazon

Gartner analysts praised Amazon's ability to continue to reinvent itself from its main business of online book retailing to other areas: the acquisition of the grocery chain Whole Foods. ) this physical asset, manages the cloud computing business (Amazon Web Services) and builds its own Hollywood studio.

Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble is a leader in manufacturing, a valued partner to its retail customers, and is actively applying technology to facilitate supply chains improve. Gartner claims that P&G has the world's most advanced digital supply chain and is currently investing in robotics, augmented reality and artificial intelligence.

Apple Inc.

Apple Inc. has long been at the top of Gartner's supply chain list. On the sustainability front, the company announced that all of the facilities it owns now run on clean energy, and all iPhone assembly plants are certified to produce no waste that needs to be landfilled.