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Report ranks Apple No. 2 in supply chain management

In its annual Supply Chain Top 25 report, AMR Research praises Apple for its superior supply chain capabilities and performance, ranking the consumer electronics maker second in a list of retail and manufacturing heavyweights.

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."

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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.



9 Comments

mgkwho 19 Years · 165 comments

NICE- this is for the entire past year too.

-=|Mgkwho

kresh 20 Years · 372 comments

Apple's inventory turn rate is amazing. Their turn rate is 7.3 days, the next the list is Tesco at just short of 19 days.

Brings new meaning to "Just in time" hehe

SpamSandwich 20 Years · 32917 comments

Looks like following all of this recent good news there's a bit of profit-taking on AAPL today...

jeffdm 21 Years · 12733 comments

What is Apple's "unparalleled demand-shaping ability"? Is that weasel-speak for "they make stuff people want"?

louzer 21 Years · 1054 comments

Quote:
"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."

Of course not. The last thing anyone would accuse apple of was cutting costs! (Oh, wait, I guess they're talking their costs, not the prices they charge, huh?).

And just because they're able to respond to market demand, doesn't mean they do. Take those waiting for the next macbook, for example. Demand for that hasn't pushed apple any harder.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kresh

Apple's inventory turn rate is amazing. Their turn rate is 7.3 days, the next the list is Tesco at just short of 19 days.

Brings new meaning to "Just in time" hehe

Bear in mind that its not a 'days' value, its based on money (as it says on the bottom of the little chart).

And while it sounds great, bear in mind its also the reason why there's a wait on certain hardware, esp. the new stuff.