Manufacturers and distributors of personal care, hygiene and nutritional products all feature highly in Gartner’s Supply Chain Top 25 Companies of 2020. Gartner is a research and advisory firm that ranks global companies annually, based on their business performance and their demonstrated leadership in supply chain.
As well as being leaders in their sectors, many companies are currently exhibiting their expertise and capabilities by making a difference during the most significant disruption in our lifetime.
Studies find that there are several apparel companies manufacturing personal protective equipment (PPE), adult beverage companies making hand sanitizer, industrial companies shifting to producing ventilators and airlines converting dormant warehouses into food bank processing centres.
1. Purpose-driven organisations
To achieve their goals, the top-rated companies have to show agility and resilience. The study finds that “it has been a marvel to witness the strength and creativity of the supply chain community rallying around a purpose (pandemic response), and demonstrating this aspiration by keeping our society fed, supplied and healthy”.
“Nestlé shows a strong focus on customer centricity to drive growth and profitability with an emphasis on improving product availability on-shelf and online, and being the ‘partner of choice’ with key customers. To improve product availability, Nestlé is investing in additional capacity and performance in select manufacturing facilities to increase agility, transforming its planning capabilities with demand-sensing technologies and integrating strategic collaboration with key customers.”
Unilever, one of the companies in Gartner’s Masters category, is tackling the problem of palm oil which is a key input to its personal care products. Palm oil is typically sourced from places where deforestation and disenfranchisement of smallholders is an issue. Its sourcing organization is leveraging advanced tools, such as geospatial mapping combined with mobile device signal tracking, to certify “deforestation-free” palm oil supply.
Colgate-Palmolive, P & G and Unilever are also driving sustainability initiatives, having ambitious plans for recycling of waste and have set ambitious conservation goals for natural resources.
2. Business model transformers
The take-up of e-commerce is putting pressure on supply chains to adapt quickly and re-invent their ways of doing business leading to disruptive events happening every day which are creating new market opportunities.
We have seen clearly that Amazon Inc. is a serial disruptor. In the retail apparel sector, Inditex, the owner of Zara, has been integrating store and physical operations and deploying product-level RFID systems. This has enabled a material shift in the organization’s sales channels, with online sales growth in 2019 reaching 23% year on year and now accounting for 14% of net sales.
L’Oréal, (No. 10), with its ability to personalize customer offerings, is a great example of a traditional consumer products company that is in mid-transition to operating as a retailer with both physical stores and direct-to-consumer capabilities.
3. Digital orchestrators
Frequently, adopted technologies include robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI) and/or machine learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is integrating next-generation ERP systems that replace a patchwork of older versions and one-off systems that were developed by individual business units or inherited through mergers and acquisitions.
Diageo, the U.K.-based leader in adult beverages, (No 14) has a commitment to standardization and simplification enabling functional excellence in supply chain and procurement to be embedded across all markets and centres of expertise.
BMW’s workforce investments include hiring in future-oriented fields, such as AI, and smart production and logistics. New training profiles at its German plant locations include IT application development, IT system integration and electronics for automation technology.
This article has been adapted from the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for 2020.
As experts in FMCG and retail, The Supply Chain Consulting Group is well-placed to help you. We have implemented our own Business Continuity Plan and are working at full capacity.
Call us for an initial no-obligation discussion on 01926 430883 or email us at info@sccgltd.com
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