Report ranks Apple No. 2 in supply chain management

Apple received a composite score of 6.40, just behind chart-topper Nokia, which registered a 6.74. Procter & Gamble tied IBM with a composite score of 5.43, placing both firms a distant third on the list.

"Apple's unparalleled demand-shaping capability lets its supply chain record spectacular results without sweating costs like everyone else," wrote analysts for AMR Research.

The firm's report aims to identifies the top 25 manufacturers and retailers that exhibit superior supply chain capabilities and performance over the past twelve months. The companies mentioned are said to demonstrate excellence across basic metrics related to execution – return on assets, revenue growth, and inventory turns – and are recognized as supply chain leaders.

"The importance of this leadership is hard to overstate," said Kevin O’Marah, senior vice president of research at AMR Research. "Companies in this year’s Supply Chain Top 25 are able to respond quickly and efficiently to opportunities arising from market or customer demand.  It is not simply a matter of cutting costs."

In recent years, AMR Research's report has shown that supply chain leadership translates into stronger market performance. Consistently, the Supply Chain Top 25 as a whole has outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the NASDAQ.