Tech giants rank high on Gartner global supply chain list

Leading firms can deliver innovation across their channel, suggests analyst

Gartner's list of the top 25 companies in the global supply chain in 2013 includes no fewer than nine major tech vendors.

Apple is at the top of the list, pipping fast-food manufacturer McDonald's at the post, and e-tail giant Amazon, which took third spot ahead of Unilever.

Intel sits in fifth place, and Cisco in seventh. Samsung Electronics is eighth in the list – ahead of Coca-Cola, and Dell 11th.

Broadbased manufacturer 3M is 19th, Lenovo 20th, with Qualcomm in position 24 as the final IT firm on Gartner's supply chain list for this year.

Gartner made its list by combining financial metrics such as revenue growth, return on assets and inventory with views from peers and Gartner supply chain analysts.

Christian Titze, research director at Gartner, said: "Supply chain executives can use Gartner's analysis of these leaders to develop and implement more integrated, collaborative and demand-driven supply chain strategies."

Top-ranked vendor supply chains are chosen because of their ability to bring a wide range of best practice to the supply chain community, he said.

This ranges from advanced collaboration practices with upstream and downstream partners to innovations in demand sensing and shaping capabilities and integrated business planning that brings sales and operations planning to the next level, Titze said.