"In this year's edition, there are several long-time leaders with new lessons to share and a number of more recent entrants from the high-tech, industrial, chemical, auto and life sciences sectors," says Stan Aronow, research vice president at Gartner.

For the first time, Unilever topped the ranking, followed by McDonald's, Amazon, Intel and a newcomer to the top five, H&M. Five new companies made the Supply Chain Top 25 this year with Schneider Electric, BASF and BMW joining the list for the first time, and HP and GlaxoSmithKline rejoining after several years.

Apple and P&G continued to qualify for the Masters category, which Gartner introduced in 2015 to recognize sustained supply chain leadership over the last 10 years. While this category is separate from the overall Supply Chain Top 25 list, these companies continue to be evaluated as part of Gartner's annual research study.

Apple continues to succeed by offering platforms that ecosystems of partners build on to meet customers' needs. The big forward-facing question for Apple and its supply chain is whether it can deliver on the next big innovations to continue the revenue and earnings pace of the last decade.

For the majority of its products, P&G is running an end-to-end synchronization program. Every part of the supply chain operates based on the daily cadence of consumption, in some cases triggered by demand at the shelf. The supply chain team brings data and analysis skills to the process with the ultimate goal of increasing the value that each active SKU contributes to the company.

Along with the Masters category, the Supply Chain Top 25 continues to offer a platform for insights, learning, debate and contribution to the rising influence of supply chain practices on the global economy.

The top 25 companies, in descending order are: Unilever, McDonald's, Amazon, Intel, H&M, Inditex, Cisco Systems, Samsung Electronics, The Coca-Cola Co., Nestle, Nike, Starbucks, Colgate-Palmolive, 3M, PepsiCo, Walmart, HP, Schneider Electric, L'Oreal, BASF, Johnson & Johnson, BMW, GlaxoSmithKline, Kimberly-Clark and Lenovo Group.

Source: Gartner Inc.