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Top Spot for Apple on Supply Chain Top 25 Signifies "Epic Shift " — AMR
Move seen to leveraging supply chain in support of pure content industries; research firm's report identifies companies exhibiting superior supply chain capabilities and performance
Scottsdale, AZ — June 2, 2008 — Six tech companies, two consumer packaged goods giants, a Japanese automaker and the world's top retail behemoth all made the top ten on AMR Research's latest Supply Chain Top 25 list, the firm's annual ranking highlighting companies that display superior supply chain performance, capabilities and leadership.
Iconic computer (and iPod) maker Apple topped the list this year, followed by Finnish cell phone company Nokia and one-time list-topper Dell. CPG giant Procter & Gamble and IBM followed to round out the top five.
The research firm had high praise for Apple, writing, "Apple's scores are outstanding across the board, a result of its brilliant mix of design, software interfaces and consumable goods that are purely digital." The company's stores, AMR adds, "churn cash with virtually no physical inventory on site."
AMR had noted in last year's report that many companies (the analysts cited Disney, Microsoft and Nike) are coming to rely on supply chain "to realize the value of pure content industries, like feature films, computer games and sports."
Apple's lead position in the Top 25 this year reinforces that proposition and underscores that transformation of supply chain into a leading value-creator for the enterprise based on innovation, the analysts write this year. The company's preeminence marks "an epic shift away from the 20th-century production efficiency mentality to a new era of value based on ideas, design and content," according to the analysts.
"With companies such as Apple, Disney, and Nike securing their ranks on the Supply Chain Top 25 this year, a new manufacturing model emerges," said Kevin O'Marah, chief strategist at AMR. "The old model, relying exclusively on products or services, is increasingly being replaced by a content economy that builds and delivers value with ideas."
AMR's analysis uses basic public data as a foundation — return on assets, inventory turns and growth — and incorporates expert and peer assessments of the future supply chain potential of each company.
According to AMR, its Supply Chain Top 25 consistently outperforms the market. Last year, the average total return of the companies ranked in the 2007 Supply Chain Top was 17.89 percent, compared with returns of 6.43 percent for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and 3.53 percent for the S&P 500.
Dell, which previously had topped the list, returned to the Top 25 after a one-year hiatus due its 2006 financials restatement. "Although peer and AMR Research opinions of Dell are lower than its final ranking, very high inventory turns (41.9) and solid ROA (10.7 percent) have pulled the
one-time champion of these rankings right back into contention."
The complete Supply Chain Top 25 list for 2008 is:
1. Apple
2. Nokia
3. Dell
4. Procter & Gamble
5. IBM
6. Wal-Mart Stores
7. Toyota Motor
8. Cisco Systems
9. Samsung Electronics
10. Anheuser-Busch
11. PepsiCo
12. Tesco
13. The Coca-Cola Company
14. Best Buy
15. Nike
16. SonyEricsson
17. Walt Disney
18. Hewlett-Packard
19. Johnson & Johnson
20. Schlumberger
21. Texas Instruments
22. Lockheed Martin
23. Johnson Controls
24. Royal Ahold
25. Publix Super Markets
AMR unveiled this year's Top 25 list at its well-attended and content-rich annual supply chain conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., which draws a gaggle of high-level supply chain executives to the desert every year for three days of power speakers (this year's headliner was Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico) and high-level vision, along with nuts-and-bolts strategy sessions.
Iconic computer (and iPod) maker Apple topped the list this year, followed by Finnish cell phone company Nokia and one-time list-topper Dell. CPG giant Procter & Gamble and IBM followed to round out the top five.
The research firm had high praise for Apple, writing, "Apple's scores are outstanding across the board, a result of its brilliant mix of design, software interfaces and consumable goods that are purely digital." The company's stores, AMR adds, "churn cash with virtually no physical inventory on site."
AMR had noted in last year's report that many companies (the analysts cited Disney, Microsoft and Nike) are coming to rely on supply chain "to realize the value of pure content industries, like feature films, computer games and sports."
Apple's lead position in the Top 25 this year reinforces that proposition and underscores that transformation of supply chain into a leading value-creator for the enterprise based on innovation, the analysts write this year. The company's preeminence marks "an epic shift away from the 20th-century production efficiency mentality to a new era of value based on ideas, design and content," according to the analysts.
"With companies such as Apple, Disney, and Nike securing their ranks on the Supply Chain Top 25 this year, a new manufacturing model emerges," said Kevin O'Marah, chief strategist at AMR. "The old model, relying exclusively on products or services, is increasingly being replaced by a content economy that builds and delivers value with ideas."
AMR's analysis uses basic public data as a foundation — return on assets, inventory turns and growth — and incorporates expert and peer assessments of the future supply chain potential of each company.
According to AMR, its Supply Chain Top 25 consistently outperforms the market. Last year, the average total return of the companies ranked in the 2007 Supply Chain Top was 17.89 percent, compared with returns of 6.43 percent for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and 3.53 percent for the S&P 500.
Dell, which previously had topped the list, returned to the Top 25 after a one-year hiatus due its 2006 financials restatement. "Although peer and AMR Research opinions of Dell are lower than its final ranking, very high inventory turns (41.9) and solid ROA (10.7 percent) have pulled the
one-time champion of these rankings right back into contention."
The complete Supply Chain Top 25 list for 2008 is:
1. Apple
2. Nokia
3. Dell
4. Procter & Gamble
5. IBM
6. Wal-Mart Stores
7. Toyota Motor
8. Cisco Systems
9. Samsung Electronics
10. Anheuser-Busch
11. PepsiCo
12. Tesco
13. The Coca-Cola Company
14. Best Buy
15. Nike
16. SonyEricsson
17. Walt Disney
18. Hewlett-Packard
19. Johnson & Johnson
20. Schlumberger
21. Texas Instruments
22. Lockheed Martin
23. Johnson Controls
24. Royal Ahold
25. Publix Super Markets
AMR unveiled this year's Top 25 list at its well-attended and content-rich annual supply chain conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., which draws a gaggle of high-level supply chain executives to the desert every year for three days of power speakers (this year's headliner was Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico) and high-level vision, along with nuts-and-bolts strategy sessions.
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