Skip to content
Search AI Powered
Human content, AI powered search.

Latest Stories

Forward Thinking

Who operates the best supply chains?

The votes are in, and Apple Inc. has won the top spot in this year's AMR Research report on the world's best supply chain operations.

Supply Chain Quarterly Staff
By Supply Chain Quarterly StaffJun 16, 2008
Supply Chain Quarterly Staff
See Full Bio

The votes are in, and Apple Inc. has won the top spot in this year's AMR Research report on the world's best supply chain operations.

The California consumer electronics company, best known for its iPods and Mac computers, ranked number one on AMR Research's 2008 list of the top 25 supply chains. Telecommunications giant Nokia, last year's winner, dropped a notch to second place.

In May, the Boston-based research firm released its annual report, which ranks manufacturers and retailers based on superior supply chain capabilities and performance. This is the fourth year that AMR has conducted its survey, in which supply chain managers cast ballots online for the companies with the best supply chains.

AMR says that the goal of its survey is to show that supply chain excellence contributes to economic value creation. In fact, the research firm has found considerable evidence that supply chain leadership correlates to stock performance. It notes that the companies on its Top 25 list outperformed the averages for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Standard & Poor's 500, and the NASDAQ.

AMR Research's top 10 supply chains

1. Apple
2. Nokia
3. Dell
4. Procter & Gamble
5. IBM
6. Wal-Mart Stores
7. Toyota Motor Company
8. Cisco Systems
9. Samsung Electronics
10. Anheuser-Busch

[Source: AMR Research, May 2008, www.amrresearch.com/supplychaintop25]

Article
quarter 2 2008
Article
quarter 2 2008

Recent

office workers using GenAI
Technology

Companies feel growing pressure to invest in GenAI

forklifts working in a warehouse
Move

Averitt tracks three hurdles for international trade in 2025

chart of robot adoption in factories
Article

Global robot density in factories has doubled in 7 years

person using AI at a laptop
Procure

Gartner: GenAI set to impact procurement processes

More Stories

A photo of brown paper packages tied up with shiny red ribbons.

SMEs hopeful ahead of holiday peak

Businesses are cautiously optimistic as peak holiday shipping season draws near, with many anticipating year-over-year sales increases as they continue to battle challenging supply chain conditions.

That’s according to the DHL 2024 Peak Season Shipping Survey, released today by express shipping service provider DHL Express U.S. The company surveyed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to gauge their holiday business outlook compared to last year and found that a mix of optimism and “strategic caution” prevail ahead of this year’s peak.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

SCQ21_SOL_inventory600x400.jpg
Article

From standing still to sprinting full-out

SCQ22_SOL_inventory.jpg
Article

Riding the bullwhip

On the same page
Article

On the same page

Mobile robots, drones move beyond the hype
Featured

Mobile robots, drones move beyond the hype

An image of planes circling a globe with lit up nodes. The globe is encircled by stacks of containers and buildings.
Move

Navigating global turbulence

screen shot of AI chat box

Accenture and Microsoft launch business AI unit

In a move to meet rising demand for AI transformation, Accenture and Microsoft are launching a copilot business transformation practice to help organizations reinvent their business functions with both generative and agentic AI and with Copilot technologies.


The practice consists of 5,000 professionals from Accenture and from Avanade—the consulting firm’s joint venture with Microsoft. They will be supported by Microsoft product specialists who will work closely with the Accenture Center for Advanced AI. Together, that group will collaborate on AI and Copilot agent templates, extensions, plugins, and connectors to help organizations leverage their data and gen AI to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and drive growth, they said on Thursday.

Keep ReadingShow less
holiday shopping mall

Consumer sales kept ticking in October, NRF says

Retail sales grew solidly over the past two months, demonstrating households’ capacity to spend and the strength of the economy, according to a National Retail Federation (NRF) analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

Census data showed that overall retail sales in October were up 0.4% seasonally adjusted month over month and up 2.8% unadjusted year over year. That compared with increases of 0.8% month over month and 2% year over year in September.

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of sectors leasing warehouse space

3PLs claim growing share of large industrial leases, CBRE says

Third-party logistics (3PL) providers’ share of large real estate leases across the U.S. rose significantly through the third quarter of 2024 compared to the same time last year, as more retailers and wholesalers have been outsourcing their warehouse and distribution operations to 3PLs, according to a report from real estate firm CBRE.

Specifically, 3PLs’ share of bulk industrial leasing activity—covering leases of 100,000 square feet or more—rose to 34.1% through Q3 of this year from 30.6% through Q3 last year. By raw numbers, 3PLs have accounted for 498 bulk leases so far this year, up by 9% from the 457 at this time last year.

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of global supply chain capacity

Suppliers report spare capacity for fourth straight month

Factory demand weakened across global economies in October, resulting in one of the highest levels of spare capacity at suppliers in over a year, according to a report from the New Jersey-based procurement and supply chain solutions provider GEP.

That result came from the company’s “GEP Global Supply Chain Volatility Index,” an indicator tracking demand conditions, shortages, transportation costs, inventories, and backlogs based on a monthly survey of 27,000 businesses. The October index number was -0.39, which was up only slightly from its level of -0.43 in September.

Keep ReadingShow less
Copyright ©2024.