Gartner, Inc. has announced the results from its 20th annual Global Supply Chain Top 25, which recognizes leading supply chain organizations and identifies the underlying trends that drove their performance.

"The supply chain organizations 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," said 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 retained the top position in the list this year, followed in second place by Cisco Systems. Colgate-Palmolive, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson completed the top five positions. New to this year’s list was NVIDIA, which surged into the Top 25 on the back of strong financial performance to land in the seventh position (see Figure 1).

"Schneider Electric again performed strongly across every component of the methodology including securing the highest number of Gartner expert votes,” Bailey said. “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.” 

Gartner continues to recognize sustained supply chain excellence via the “Masters” category, introduced in 2015. To be considered Masters, companies must have attained top-five composite scores for at least seven out of the last 10 years. Amazon, Apple, P&G and Unilever all retained their Masters category status this year.

Figure 1. The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for 2024

_{Composite score: (Peer score x 25%) + (Gartner expert score x 25%) + (ROPA score x 5%) + (ROPA change score x 10%) + (Revenue growth score x 10%) + (Inventory turns score x 5%) + (ESG points x 20%)}

_{Note: The positions were updated on June 27, 2024, to correct for a rankings error impacting some companies.}

_{Source: Gartner (May 2024)}

In 2024, the Top 25 and Masters companies embraced three trends:

Attracting and Engaging Talent

Chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) know that redefining the skills, roles, relationships and structures within their organization are critical to driving high performance and engagement. Yet supply chain employee engagement, and likelihood of recommending their organization as a great place to work, continue to underperform other parts of the business.

In contrast, the Top 25 leaders are more consistently funding people-centric strategies to drive higher engagement from their workforce. They are using AI to redesign and automate processes to reduce work friction, and investing in knowledge management, as well as learning and development 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,” said Bailey. “The Top 25 leaders are accelerating cultural transformation and innovation through redefining the employee experience, utilizing connected worker and human-centric work design with a continued focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.”

AI-Driven Advances

Supply chain organizations are actively assessing generative AI (GenAI) potential, especially in customer service, planning and manufacturing, but many are struggling to find clear use cases. The most advanced supply chains have been built on solid foundations in data and digital capabilities. They evaluate both traditional (non-generative) AI techniques and GenAI to build practical use cases that benefit most from AI-driven advances.

The success of supply chain AI strategies will depend heavily on the success of attracting and engaging talent. AI will have a dramatic impact on talent, and CSCOs must prepare their workforce by considering future demand for both skills and people based on how the enterprise will apply the technology. AI can also be an enabler of antifragile supply chains, which stand to benefit from ongoing uncertainty.

Antifragile Supply Chains

Across industries, leading supply chain organizations have faced a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. This requires CSCOs and their teams to embrace uncertainty, learn from it and evolve toward an antifragile supply chain. To move a supply chain into the antifragile state requires multiple shifts that influence how decision-making processes, technology, network design and many other elements of strategy are conceived and used.

The antifragile state helps a complex global supply chain understand how it can achieve, and better achieve, its enterprise objectives despite disruption and uncertainty. Antifragility illuminates the key linkages between risks, disruptions and performance. This enables more uncertainty-informed decisions about resource use and investments.

More information is available in this report. 

* Note: The positions were updated on June 27, 2024, to correct for a rankings error impacting some companies

Participants at Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo in Barcelona can attend the session “Signature Series: Celebrating 20 Years of Supply Chain Excellence through the Top 25.”

About the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25
The Supply Chain Top 25 ranking comprises two main components: business performance and community opinion. Business performance in the form of public financial and ESG (environmental, social, governance) data provides a view into how companies have performed in the past three years, while the community opinion component gives a peer and Gartner expert view to companies’ future potential and reflects leadership in the supply chain community. These two components are combined into a total composite score.

Gartner derives a list of companies from a combination of the Fortune Global 500 and the Forbes Global 2000. In an effort to maintain the list of companies evaluated at a manageable level, a general annual revenue threshold of $15 billion has been applied and companies without physical supply chains are excluded.

About Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo
Gartner experts will discuss key issues facing the industry during Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo, taking place June 10-12 in Barcelona. The conference delivers the must-have insights, strategies and frameworks for CSCOs and supply chain leaders to drive impact within their organizations. Supply chain leaders are gathering to participate in interactive and collaborative sessions, share experiences, and access the latest research to mitigate risks and strategize for long-term success.

About the Gartner Supply Chain Practice
The Gartner Supply Chain Practice provides actionable, objective insights for supply chain leaders and their teams, so they can respond to disruption and innovate for the future through leading-edge supply chain management practices. Additional information is available at https://www.gartner.com/en/supply-chain. Follow news and updates from the Gartner Supply Chain Practice on LinkedIn and X using #GartnerSC. Visit the Supply Chain Newsroom for more information and insights.