WINNER of last quarter Unilever
Unilever has topped research and advisory firm Gartner’s ranking of the industry’s top 15 best-performing sup- ply chain leaders for the third time. Inditex, Nestlé, H&M and Schneider Electric are ranked in second to fifth place, respectively. The other companies in the top 15 are Novo Nordisk, L’Oréal, Diageo, BASF, Adidas, BMW, Reckitt Benckiser, Nokia, British-American Tobacco and Danone. The ranking assesses the strategic and operational supply chain initiatives of the leading companies headquartered in Europe. Unilever secured the top spot thanks to a 10.3% return on assets, an inventory turn rate of 7.5 (2017 cost of goods sold / 2016 quarterly average inventory) and revenue growth of 2.6%. Stan Aronow, research vice president at Gartner, com-
LOSER of last quarter Maersk & IBM
Despite the best intentions of IBM
and Maersk with TradeLens, launched at the start of this year, the future of this blockchain-based trade platform for the real-time monitoring of ocean freight looks increasingly uncertain as it strug- gles to persuade companies to sign up. So far, just one other shipping company has agreed to become involved alongside Maersk:
Pacific International Lines
(PIL). Marvin Erdly, head of TradeLens at IBM Blockchain, is quoted as saying that other carriers must come on board soon, otherwise there will be no product. Numerous participants from various parts of the shipping supply chain, including ports and customs authori- ties, terminals, importers and logistics service providers, have signed up to the initiative. But the key links in the chain – the shipping companies themselves –
have not. It appears that other carriers are against the idea of collaborating with rival industry giant Maersk. An indus- try advisory board has been set up to promote equality on the platform in an
effort to encourage more shipping com- panies to get involved. However, the fact remains that Maersk and IBM retain the full and equal rights to the intellectual property.
mented on the “excellent revenue growth” across the board, which at 8.3% is higher than in both 2017 (6.8%) and 2016 (3.7%). “Moreover, European sup- ply chains scored very highly in the cor- porate social responsibility aspect,” he said.
Aronow described the results of the Top
15 as demonstrating “healthy growth, despite heated trade rhetoric”. This year, he has noticed that “protectionism is spreading in response to announced moves by the US and UK, which has led many organizations to re-evaluate the location strategy for their supply net- works”.
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SUPPLY CHAIN MOVEMENT, No.31, Q4 2018
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