Top 25 supply chain companies 2012

Since 2005 the analyst firm Gartner reveals the best supply chain companies in the world based on quantitative and qualitative criteria. As always usually happens when ranking lists are released, there is much criticism and fronted opinions regarding the achievements of those companies that hit the top positions of the list.

Many people might not be entirely in agreement with the results, that´s the reason why I will try to explain below the criteria Gartner uses to draw up this list.

On the objective side, Gartner uses three pieces of financial data:

-          Return on Assets (ROA): Net income/total assets

-          Inventory turns: Cost of goods sold/inventory

-          Revenue growth: Change in revenue from previous year

The total weighting for the each financial area are 25%, 15%, and 10% respectively, or the 50% of the total score. From the qualitative side, 25% of the total score is based on the opinion of Gartner’s analysts, and another 25% is based on supply chain professionals’ judge.

Not surprisingly this year, as happened the year before too, Apple leads the ranking. Runner up is Amazon and then McDonalds, Dell and finally completing the top 5, we find Procter & Gamble.

It might seem shocking not to see among Gartner’s´ ranking, worldwide recognized companies of the size of IBM or Microsoft, but this can be explained by the criteria used to create this list which only considers companies that operate predominantly physical supply chains.

For further information and to see the complete list I recommend checking out the following link: http://www.gartner.com/id=2021615#t-N66287 which will redirect you to the Gartner original document where most of the information you have just read was taken from. You will also find several grafts and charts that will complement this information.