Top Tech Firms Score Big in AMR Supply Chain Rankings

Published: June 4, 2007

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

We at IT Jungle often write about the vendors of supply chain management software, the way that SCM has been integrated into ERP systems over the past decade, and how SCM has been a major driver of IT sales--servers, storage, software, services, and networking gear--in the past decade. But it is a rare moment when you can try to ascertain how well the suppliers of a technology are at using the technologies themselves. But AMR Research has put together a new Top 25 list, ranking the supply chains of manufacturers, giving us some insight.

Tech companies are not prominent on the Top 25 supply chain list, which makes sense because, despite out focus on the high tech industry, tech companies are really only a slice of the overall economy. According to AMR's rankings, which include a composite score based on peer review, AMR's own opinion, return on asset (ROA) metrics, inventory turns, and revenue growth, cell phone maker Nokia has the best supply chain in the world, and Apple Computer is not far behind. Proctor & Gamble, which owns the space underneath our sinks with its products, was ranked number three on the list, and IBM, which has chopped billions of dollars out of its costs by massively restructuring its supply chains over the past decade, ranked fourth. The implication is that IBM does indeed know something about managing a supply chain. IBM's main competitor in the IT business these days, Hewlett-Packard, also made the cut, but the company only ranked at number 21 on the list. HP does not do as many inventory turns as IBM, and its ranking among its peers and AMR researchers is not as high as IBM's, either.

"The importance of this leadership is hard to overstate," said Kevin O'Marah, senior vice president of research at AMR Research, who put together the list. "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."

The most interesting bit about this Top 25 supply chain list has nothing to do with technology. It has to do with potential investment opportunities. According to AMR, the vendors in the Top 25 list have, as a whole, outperformed the Dow Jones Industry Average, the S&P 500, and the broader Nasdaq market. If you want to see the list to put together your retirement portfolio, click here.

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