Global Supply Chain Top 25 Unveiled by Gartner

Now in its 20th year, Gartner has unveiled the prestigious Global Supply Chain Top 25, honouring top-performing supply chain organisations and revealing key performance trends.

Schneider Electric secures the top position, surpassing technology giant Cisco Systems. The top five also includes Colgate-Palmolive, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson.

New entry NVIDIA has made an impressive climb into the Top 25, securing seventh position thanks to its robust financial performance.

"The supply chain organisations in this year’s Top 25 were notable for better protecting growth rates in a challenging operating environment, while at the same time delivering more sustainable operations," comments Simon Bailey, VP Analyst with the Gartner Supply Chain practice.

“The best supply chains now have ESG criteria firmly embedded in their operations, while delivering higher-than-average growth rates, better returns on physical assets (ROPA) and stronger margins.”

Schneider Electric retains top spot

The Global Supply Chain Top 25 from Gartner is ranked based on two primary elements: business performance and community opinion.

Business performance is assessed through public financial and ESG data, offering insights into companies' performance over the last three years. On the other hand, the community opinion component provides perspectives from peers and Gartner experts on companies' future potential, reflecting their leadership within the supply chain community.

Together, these components make up a composite score.

Gartner initially selects companies from a blend of the Fortune Global 500 and Forbes Global 2000. Companies with annual revenues below US$15bn and those lacking physical supply chains are excluded from consideration.

Commends Schneider Electric, Bailey adds: "Schneider Electric again performed strongly across every component of the methodology, including securing the highest number of Gartner expert votes.

“The company is reaping the benefits of a three-year transformation initiative that has strengthened customer and supplier relationships, while improving the resilience of their operations.” 

Introduced in 2015, Gartner also upholds a tradition of acknowledging consistent supply chain excellence through the prestigious ‘Masters’ category. To qualify for this distinction, companies must have maintained top-five composite scores for at least seven of the preceding 10 years.

In 2024, Amazon, Apple, P&G, and Unilever all preserve their Masters status.

Trends steering the Top 25’s success

Highlighting the pivotal trends influencing the performance of both the Top 25 and Masters companies, Gartner identifies three key areas:

Talent Attraction and Engagement
Chief Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs) understand the necessity of reshaping skills, roles, relationships and organisational structures to bolster performance. However, employee engagement within the supply chain continues to lag behind other sectors.

In contrast, Gartner observes that the top leaders in the Top 25 consistently allocate resources towards people-centric strategies aimed at enhancing workforce engagement. This includes leveraging AI to streamline and automate processes, thereby reducing friction, as well as investing in knowledge management and learning and development (L&D) systems.

“Efforts to improve people strategies will only be effective if the companies are meeting basic employee needs, such as respect, recognition, autonomy and flexibility,” says Bailey.

“The Top 25 leaders are accelerating cultural transformation and innovation through redefining the employee experience, utilising connected worker and human-centric work design with a continued focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives.”

Advancements driven by AI

Supply chain organisations are actively exploring the potential of Gen AI, particularly in customer service, planning and manufacturing. However, many struggle to identify clear-cut use cases.

Gartner asserts that the most advanced supply chains have established robust foundations in data and digital capabilities. They assess both traditional AI methods and Gen AI to develop practical applications that maximise the benefits of AI-driven progress.

Importantly, Gartner highlights that the success of AI strategies in the supply chain hinges heavily on the ability to attract and engage talent.

AI is poised to significantly impact talent management. Thus, CSCOs must prepare their workforce by anticipating future skill demands and workforce needs based on the enterprise's application of AI technology.

The consulting firm also suggests that AI can serve as a catalyst for creating antifragile supply chains, which thrive amidst ongoing uncertainty.

Resilient Supply Chains

In various industries, top-tier supply chain organisations grapple with a multifaceted, volatile and unpredictable landscape.

According to Gartner, the remedy lies in CSCOs and their teams embracing uncertainty, deriving lessons from it and progressing towards a resilient supply chain.

Achieving a resilient supply chain demands several transformative shifts that impact decision-making processes, technology adoption, network design and numerous other strategic elements.

“The antifragile state helps a complex global supply chain understand how it can achieve – and better achieve – its enterprise objectives, despite disruption and uncertainty,” reads Gartner’s report.

“Antifragility illuminates the key linkages between risks, disruptions and performance. This enables more uncertainty-informed decisions about resource use and investments.”

The complete Top 25

1. Schneider Electric
2. Cisco Systems
3. Colgate-Palmolive
4. Microsoft
5. Johnson & Johnson
6. Diageo
7. NVIDIA
8. The Coca-Cola Company
9. Walmart
10. Lenovo
11. L’Oréal
12. AstraZeneca
13. PepsiCo
14. Nike
15. Intel
16. Siemens
17. Nestlé
18. Inditex
19. Dell Technologies
20. Pfizer
21. HP
22. Danone
23. BMW
24. Heineken
25. JD.com

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