Top 25 Supply Chains of 2022

Gartner's Top 25 Supply Chains of 2022

Cisco outsources its sourcing and manufacturing to a global network of hundreds of suppliers and partners. They place firm requirements on sustainability and circulatory systems which help them drive impactful change and improvement for their clients.

Some of their unique practices involve their suppliers adhering to code of conduct of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) of which Cisco is a founding member of this standard.
Cisco also extends its mission to designing, packaging and building its products in zero waste factories and running a world class returns program. Their focus on a circulatory environment for its suppliers is a key factor in what gave them the number one spot on this year's list. 

Schnieder is a French company that provides software hardware and services for energy management focused on electricity as energy. Schneider Electric is a fortune 500 company that is parent to other brands such as Square D, Pelco, APC and More.

Since 2020 Schneider Electric’s supply chain division has focused on 3 key factors to support their sustainability initiatives, which are 

1. Zero-carbon to reduce CO2 footprint, reducing emissions and helping organizations meet their sustainability targets. 

2. Circularity in both design and end-of-life processes to minimize resources.

3. Conserving biodiversity through the optimization of energy usage to maximize and hit sustainability commitments. 

Schnieder electric believes that "organizations that are digitizing their supply chains are outgrowing their competitors" and have themselves made a lot of headway with their new "Smart-Factory" initiative which involves digitizing their processes, connecting their equipment, extending automation and most recently deploying artificial intelligence to manage the amount of data that is being collected under these new practices. 

Colgate is an American consumer products company that has multinational production and distribution. Their internal brands have ranges that include, household, oral care, veterinary, healthcare and personal care products.

In this internal article Colgate has highlighted a move towards “Machine Learning” and predictive maintenance of their factory equipment to foresee any issues that may lead to disruption in their productions harnessed through AI. This opposed to scheduled maintenance checks has helped colgate palmolive to continuously improve their supply chains and operations.

Colgate-Palmolive focuses on Consistency and Growth within their supply chain practices with a reported 60% of their leadership’s efforts based specifically around driving the expansion of this household brand experience to the maximum number of consumers.

Another area that set Colgate-Palmolive's apart is their standardization of manufacturing with 85% of this process being standardized and only the last 15% being customisable. This enables them to improve manufacturing effectively and reveal SKU’s that highlight the top 20% of their products (which bring in 80% of their revenue) and predict the demand on their supply chains for these high grossing products.

Apart from your household personal care products, Johnson and Johnson were also one of the biggest companies involved in the vaccination roll out for the Covid-19. During this time certain products like Tylenol would double in demand so J&J took measures such as running their production plants 24/7 to keep up with the surge. This was leveraged by reducing production of more complicated formulas to make sure demand was met for the everyday medications that people needed most.

Another cool implementation J&J made was using Google Glasses to remotely enable their most qualified engineers and scientists to work with full visibility via an on-site employee. Pre pandemic it wouldn’t be unusual to fly engineers across the world but given the pandemic restrictions and urgency Johnson and Johnson used tech to streamline and keep the supply chain flowing.  

J&J’s Senior Director of Global Supply Chain Advanced Planning Neil Ackerman described their thought process about supply chain in a recent business article, where he stated “We have some big, strategic ideas about supply chain. We want to fast track our innovation. We want to be an agile solution provider for customers. We want to have an end-to-end value, and we want to inspire our employees and people." 

Including its flagship beverage, PepsiCo has trademarked of Almost 300 consumable brands including 7-up, Gatorade, Starbucks store beverages, Tropicana, Naked Smoothies, Doritos, Quaker Oats and more.

PepsiCo has some unique headlines that secured it’s place in the number 5 spot of the best global supply chains of 2022

This all begins with coordinated forecasting which is the visibility for the need of raw materials across PepsiCo’s entire supply chain management system, these forecasts are then processed by their 600 distribution sites each responsible for a certain zone of North America and Europe, that ship desired amounts to retail customers worldwide in accordance with the demand anticipated. For a supply chain management system to work correctly, all members of the process must have access to current and accurate information about product availability and pricing. 

PepsiCo also has inclusive diversity goals and strategic partnerships in it’s supply chain that focus on sourcing goods from black and hispanic owned businesses, spending more than $450 million dollars with minority owned supply businesses in 2021 as part of their racial equality journey, and $1.6 billion total for that year with those considered diverse suppliers. Good going PepsiCo! 

In 2022 sustainability has been the focus of PepsiCo. Their venturing arm PepsiCo Labs has identified and invested in no less than 6 start up companies to improve their sustainability, growth and efficiency initiatives in 2022. 

Examples of their work include; waste recycling tracking systems both physical and digital, an AI-based failure detection system for production factories and even a new bio-based thermoplastic converted entirely from household waste. All be told PepsiCo Labs is quoted to have scaled 30 startups across over 200 countries to upgrade its supply chain, with a big focus on reducing waste, recycling and automation. It’s with these innovations that PepsiCo was able to earn its spot as the 5th best global supply chain in 2022.

Supply Chain Quarterly hailed Pfizer’s roll out of the Vaccine in 9 months as no less than a medical miracle. As of 2020 Pfizer scaled their supply chain in accordance with vaccine advancement research to ship over 1.5 billion does to date. This is one of the reasons that landed Pfizer as the 6th Best global supply chain of 2022.

Big Pharma is big business and Pfizer is a major player in the industry with a market cap of over $255 Billion us dollars and employing 79,000 people as of 2021. Pfizer currently has 39 manufacturing sites and 11 distribution/logistics centres spanning 6 continents, and invests more than a billion dollars each year into their development.

Their Freiburg site in southwest Germany manufactures about 4.5 billion capsules and tablets in more than 200+ formulations alone and ships medicines to more than 150 countries worldwide.
Another underrated aspect of Pfizer's supply chain is their packaging facilities. With the Freiburg site also being considered a packaging centre of excellence specializing in bottles and blisters for medicines. This site produced over 241 million packages in 2019 alone.

Pfizer's manufacturing sites leverage the latest automation tech to deliver its production. Such as OEB 1-5 controls to make sure its highly potent drug manufacturing is regulated and potentially hazardous compounds are handled with the utmost care. 

Every aspect of their facility is designed with flexibility and agility in mind to meet its customers demands. Whether it’s launching a new product with speed or scaling both product and packaging needs effectively, making sure deadlines are met and patients receive their medicines as quickly as possible.

Pfizer owns some of the most digitally capable medical manufacturing sites in the world. Constantly researching new innovations and embracing industry 4.0 standards and digital automation within their supply chain. 

Pfizer are also pioneers in the concept of lean manufacturing, having taken this approach for decades which is the ideology of maximizing production whilst minimizing waste in its simplest terms. This broadens into reducing time and cost whilst improving sustainability measures and is also the preferred method of manufacturing favoured by Toyota, Nike, Intel and more.

These principals and their record performance since the pandemic have been key factors in securing Pfizer the number 6 position in the best global supply chains this year.

Intel’s secured it’s position as the number #7 best global supply chain this year. Their revenue is predicted to dip from $79.02 Billion in Last year to between $65-68 Billion this year but the reason why may surprise you.

Intel has 15 Manufacturing sites worldwide with locations in the USA, Israel, China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Costa Rica, with more than 9000 Tier 1 suppliers in 89 countries providing direct materials for their production processes. This includes intellectual property, tools and machines for their factories, logistics and more.

Within Intel’s own supply chain their SVP of Global Manufacturing admitted to facing alot of recent challenges with China’s "Zero-Covid" policy, inflation in the USA and the war in Ukraine all causing issues with their new supply chain innovations 

Regardless of this, evolution hasn’t slowed down for Intel from an investment standpoint, in fact they commented in a recent presentation that these transitional periods are the perfect time to double down and keep pushing. 

In their words...

“Intel doesn't just predict the future, they invent it.”

Intel has brought us some of the most widely used open systems technology in history, including the USB, 5G, Wifi, and more.

In the past year alone they have invested capital in the region of about $25 Billion into their supply chain. Covering their Capital Expenditure, Supply Chain tools and systems as well as their standards and performances.

With the total addressable market of PC’s still remaining above "pre-covid" levels. Intels focus on semiconductors has been validated with the Landmark Chips act and investment in chips act being passed in both US and Europe. So business is bright for intel

The future comes with its own challenges, with raw materials becoming more scarce, a focus on sustainability and reducing its water use and carbon footprint is key for Intel, urging them in the direction of making more reliable, energy efficient computers, which fundamentally prop up the world economy. (so no pressure guys) 

However, Intel understands that with great power comes great responsibility, as of today about 80% of the energy Intel uses in its supply chain is sustainable green energy with targets of them being net zero by 2040.

Intel isn’t stopping there with plans to drive a 10 X more efficient computing standard by 2030, setting a new example for all tech companies to follow amid the looming energy crisis. It’s with these innovations and lofty goals that will ultimately benefit us all that Intel was able to secure the number #7 spot in the best global supply chains of 2022.

Intel is another company that is moving towards an integrated system to manage visibility and operations across its global supply chain. The new 208 million USD system is a massive investment for the company and is expected to take 5 years to return the investment according to this published document.

Despite being a food and drinks processing conglomerate, Nestlé is one of the most technologically robust companies out there. Generating $87.1 billion in revenue across over 2000 brands in their portfolio and earning their place as the 8th best supply chain of 2022.

Nestlé is the biggest food company in the world, with suppliers in over 186 countries and employing 276,000 people as of 2021. Their supply chain boasts 376 factories worldwide manufacturing products within confectionery, pet care, nutrition and health sciences, water and more.

Founded in Switzerland in 1876 by Henri Nestlé the company began primarily as a baby formula vendor, but has grown into a multi food organization that boasts over 29 brands bringing in more than a billion dollars in revenue a year.

Their acquisition of brands has been prolific with Nestlé now owning Wonka candy, Purina One pet supplies and even having equity in cosmetics brands like L’Oreal and Ralph Lauren to name a few.

Nestlé sources agricultural raw materials – principally milk, coffee, cocoa, cereals, vegetables and alike either through trade channels or directly from farmers. 

Their 376 manufacturing sites offer a wide range of innovations when it comes to efficiency, Deploying and exploring emerging and new technologies. Nestlé works closely with universities and tech incubators to solve problems within the industry. Some of the innovations include Ai controlled Layer picking equipment, Transmitters for their dock traffic light system and YMS (yard management system). and 3D printing technology to name a few.

Robotics and automation also play a big part in Nestlés manufacturing sites. For example a manual picking operation is capable of about 200 cases per man-hour, but with robotics processing they can increase this to 900 cases on the same site in the same amount of time.

Nestlé is also one of the first companies to invest significant resources into blockchain technology across its supply chain. Creating a complete history of their products and ingredients, from source to store shelf. 

Despite negative media coverage in a number of instances, Nestlé continues to thrive and move towards a more sustainable, diverse, environmentally friend and ethically conscious standard for its supply chain with a number of published goals covering these issues. 

It’s with these steps in recent years that Nestlé has secured itself the number 8 spot in the best global supply chains of 2022. 

The combination of supply and demand for Lenovo’s products, combined with its slick new cloud based enterprise system landed them in the number 9 spot of the best global supply chains in 2022.

If you and 7 friends were sitting in an office working off laptops there is a statistical probability that 1 of you is using a Lenovo product. In 2021 the global PC production increased by 45 million units compared to the year before. Amongst this 45 million Lenovo produced 10 million alone, by far the largest increase of any single vendor.

In addition to their growth as a PC vendor, Lenovo’s enterprise business, that’s “for profit” initiatives to me and you, has also seen growth of 20-25% year on year. Making them a contender for the most growth of any vendor in the tech space.

Lenovo is able to see such competitive growth for a number of reasons; Their manufacturing footprint is strong which refers to the positioning of their production and operation activities in terms of value chain and geographical location.

They have more than 35 manufacturing sites in more than 9 countries globally

Including China, the USA, India and Mexico giving them a huge geographical advantage to ship products to suppliers.

Speaking of suppliers, Lenovo also manages over 2000 suppliers directly. Most of their competitors, even the bigger PC companies are not engaged directly with so many at this scale. 

As well as laptops, Lenovo’s production portfolio also includes servers, workstations, storage solutions, smart tv’s, tablets, smartphones and even apps. So when it comes to tech products, they’re no slouch.

So how do they do it? Well, Lenovo’s in house manufacturing arm LCFC uses an enterprise cloud platform to boost it’s output and agility called Nutanix. 

Implementing Nutanix has seen Lenovo increase its research and development, and manufacturing execution systems performance by 30%. In addition saving them 20% in licensing costs that they would incur using another 3rd party platform. 

So there was a perfect storm of a smooth implementation of this new hybrid cloud system to manage their global manufacturing whilst saving them money. Combined with a massive increase in demand for their products like laptops with people moving over to remote work environments during the pandemic.  

Although only being the 1470th most valuable company globally from a market cap perspective, their increases over the past couple of years secured them the number 9 spot in the world's best supply chains this year.

This new supply chain venture for Microsoft landed them in the number 10 spot of the
25 best global supply chains in 2022 and helped Bill Gates buy a rather lovely yacht.

Supply chains of old were messy and analogue, in recent years companies have taken a more data driven approach to be predictive instead of reactive. As many felt they were chasing the horse when it had already left the stable. Legacy systems include things like routine maintenance, truck drivers signing off pick up sheets and other manual processes.

This is a bad approach. Data needs to be in real time and predict the customer and supplier needs so companies need a new system that gives future insight and foresee’s issues before they occur. A digital system.

Here comes Microsoft. With a market cap of 1.72 Trillion (with a T) US dollars and over 220,000 employees, Microsoft knows a thing or two about growth and efficiency. Large corporations needed a new system to manage the immense data being output through their supply chains. Well, Microsoft builds these systems.

In 2021 Microsoft stepped into the gauntlet of supply chain management software systems with Dynamic 365. Their platform gives companies the visibility and forecasting they need to make sure every cog in these massive operations is working at maximum efficiency.

Some of the companies who use Microsoft Dynamics365 to run their operations are

Mercedes Benz
L’Oréal
Coca Cola
Chipotle
The Miami Heat
Toyota

As well as helping other companies with software, Microsoft’s Hardware supply chain implements some of the most recognised sustainability codes of conduct and risk assessments for its suppliers in the entire world. It’s easy to see with such a leverage on not only consumer but business technology why they're in the exclusive trillion dollar market cap club.

In addition to Microsoft's entry on this list, Gartner also recognises Microsoft as one of its 4 “Leaders for Cloud ERP for product centric enterprises” in their trademarked Magic Quadrant, alongside Oracle, SAP and Infor.

Microsoft’s hardware suppliers operate under codes of conduct that reach or exceed the responsible business alliances and have a pretty detailed report of their sourcing of raw material practices as well as their other sustainability measures here.
In addition to their recognition on this list, Forbes named them #3 in their World’s Most Reputable Companies for Corporate Responsibility 2019