Every year Gartner identifies the companies that best exemplify the demand-driven ideal for today’s supply chain and rank them in what is called The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25. The ranking score is based on a combination of the peer and Gartner opinion, Return On Assets, inventory turns and 3 year revenue growth. 
However, are these methods of comparing companies truly the best way of measuring “who did supply chain best?” Lora Cecere, an enterprise strategist who was a Gartner analyst for 2 years, with AMR Research for 6 years and is now the founder of her own firm Supply Chain Insights, recently published the article, Why I No Longer Believe in the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25. In the article, she brings up very interesting problems, or as she calls them “hiccups”, and highlights the weakpoints in the methodology used to determine the Top 25. A few major problem areas she points out include: All industries are different, the approach is too simplistic, there is an over-dependency on ROA, it seems like a beauty pageant, etc.
While the Gartner Top 25 is the first step in measuring the “best in supply chain,” the research has not gone far enough. Eric Pringle, the CEO of IPS recently spoke with Regina Denman, an employee at Supply Chain Insights, and was fascinated by the research they are doing. The company, will soon share their findings at the Supply Chain Insights Global Summit where all 36 equations, industry analysis and sector performance will be shared. To read Lora’s article, Why I No Longer Believe in the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25, click here.
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