Supply Chain Prowess On Display at AMR

AMR Research last week published its annual list of the 25 manufacturers and retailers with the strongest supply chain organizations. Considering the fact that many System i shops deal directly or are otherwise affected by these supply chain readers–not to mention that a fair number of the companies on the list are known System i shops themselves–it may be worth your while to check out the list and see who the best in the field are.

AMR Research uses a strict but simple methodology to ascertain the 25 best supply chain organizations in the world for 2006. The analyst group looks at financial information, including the companies’ return on assets, their inventory turnover, and their revenue growth over the last 12 months. It then adds its own AMR Research Opinion factor and a rating determined by a Peer Opinion Panel to come up with the final rankings.

Here’s the list for 2006:

1. Nokia
2. Apple
3. Procter & Gamble
4. IBM
5. Toyota Motor
6. Wal-Mart Stores
7. Anheuser-Busch
8. Tesco
9. Best Buy
10. Samsung Electronics
11. Cisco Systems
12. Motorola
13. The Coca-Cola Company
14. Johnson & Johnson
15. PepsiCo
16. Johnson Controls
17. Texas Instruments
18. Nike
19. Lowe’s
20. GlaxoSmithKline
21. Hewlett-Packard
22. Lockheed Martin
23. Publix Super Markets
24. Paccar
25. AstraZeneca

What’s immediately noticeable is the absence of Dell, the direct-sales leader that owned the number one spot for the last two years that AMR conducted its list. In fact, Dell fell so hard that it didn’t even make the Top 25.

Among IT providers, IBM displayed steady supply chain leadership (it has been ranked number three or four the last three years), but what’s really surprising is the surge in supply chain leadership demonstrated by Apple, which came out of nowhere to land at number two. Hewlett-Packard also made its first appearance on the list at the number 21 spot. Cisco Systems moved up from the 18th spot in 2005 (the last time AMR did the list–it skipped a year apparently) to number 11 in 2007. Intel, number 11 in 2005, disappeared from the list in 2007.

“The importance of this leadership is hard to overstate,” said Kevin O’Marah, senior vice president of research at AMR Research. “Companies in this year’s Supply Chain Top 25 are able to respond quickly and efficiently to opportunities arising from market or customer demand. It is not simply a matter of cutting costs.”

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