These Are the Best Supply Chains of 2023

What do the top supply chains do differently? The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 dives deep into the best of the best, and gives insight into the strategies and initiatives that differentiate and separate these leaders from the pack. This year, we found that today’s differentiated supply chains deliver on their organization’s purpose by:

• Driving growth amid heightened risks

• Shifting from one-to-many networks to many-to-many ecosystems

• Connecting solutions and people

Download now: Actionable Advice and Lessons Learned from The Top 25 Supply Chains

Since 2015, we’ve acknowledged “Masters” — companies that secure top 5 composite scores for at least seven out of the past 10 years — of sustained supply chain excellence. Amazon, Apple, Procter & Gamble and Unilever continue to be examples of innovation, resilience and agility for the supply chain community.

Beyond peer and Gartner opinion, the rankings are based on scores on key attributes such as ESG, three-year weight return on physical assets (ROPA), and revenue growth and inventory turns.

Note: “Ranks” for tied composite scores are determined using next decimal point comparison.

In its third year of its STRIVE (Sustainable, Trusted, Resilient, Intelligent, Velocity and Efficiency) program, Schneider Electric recognizes that the days of driving siloed change within the confines of the organization are gone. They embody what collective progress looks like with “The Zero Carbon Project,” which has provided training, resources, guidance and implementation support to their suppliers. By the end of 2022, participants collectively achieved a 10% reduction in carbon emissions, which has proven critical to accelerating progress in Schneider Electric’s own supply chain carbon footprint.

Listen now: How High-Performing Supply Chains Stand Out

Cisco, like most high-tech companies, experienced challenges as a result of the semiconductor shortage. However, unlike some of their competitors, Cisco reacted with a concerted effort to capture learnings and put in place additional capabilities to close operational gaps. Their disruption playbooks that anticipate different scenarios have, in this volatile environment, paid dividends.

Colgate-Palmolive is recognized for its leadership and innovation in promoting environmental sustainability and community well-being. They took steps to use end-to-end supply chain segmentation to build agility with modular designs and new technologies. And here’s something cool: Colgate-Palmolive’s supply chain could someday expand from global to galactic, as they have partnered with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to explore consumer products and well-being solutions for astronauts.

Healthcare leader Johnson & Johnson (J&J) continues their streak — they have occupied one of the top 5 spots on our list for four consecutive years. J&J is differentiated among life science supply chains by their ability to evolve products and solutions to their customers across a diversified portfolio of pharmaceuticals, medtech and consumer products. By scaling their digital control tower end-to-end, they’ve also honed their ability to make real-time decisions based on real-time data.

PepsiCo has several collaborations aimed at using regenerative agriculture principles to drive more secure and sustainable food supply. The company is bubbling with commercial innovation as PepsiCo (with their data science practice, Pepviz) developed a suite of tools to support retail partners. A digital technology leader, PepsiCo employs digital twins, AI and real-time data in manufacturing to anticipate issues and reduce production downtime.

Download now: Learn How the Other Top 20 Top Supply Chains Became Industry Leaders

Click on the image below for a graphic and savable representation of the Supply Chain Top 25

Mike Griswold is a Research VP on Gartner’s Consumer Value Chain team, focusing on the retail supply chain. He is responsible for assisting supply leaders in understanding and implementing demand-driven supply chain principles that improve the performance of their supply chain.