“European supply chain organizations continue to improve relative to their global peers in 2018, now making up 11 of the top 25 best global supply chain organizations, up from 10 in last year’s report,” said Stan Aronow, research vice president at Gartner. “Just two companies held the same position as last year in the European top 15 — Unilever and Inditex in first and second place respectively.”

There were three new entrants to the European top 15 this year. Novo Nordisk came in at No. 6, British American Tobacco at No. 14 and Danone at No. 15.

“The companies in the European top 15 continued to demonstrate excellent revenue growth with a three-year weighted average of 8.3 percent in 2018, up from 6.8 percent in 2017 and 3.7 percent in 2016,” Aronow said. “Moreover, in keeping with recent years, European supply chains scored very highly in the corporate social responsibility and opinion score aspects of the rankings.”

European Supply Chain Top 15 for 2018

1. Unilever
2. Inditex
3. Nestlé
4. H&M
5. Schneider Electric
6. Novo Nordisk
7. L’Oréal
8. Diageo
9. BASF
10. Adidas
11. BMW
12. Reckitt Benckiser
13. Nokia
14. British American Tobacco
15. Danone

Aronow added that there are three key supply chain trends common to European supply chain leaders:

Scaling digital supply chain capabilities. The use of robotic automation, sensor-based monitoring, augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI)-based customer service is now being scaled in factories, warehouses and back offices. In addition companies are working toward the goal of end-to-end synchronization from point-of-demand back to manufacturing and supply.

Customer collaboration, service and experience. Focusing on the total customer experience by better understanding customers’ use of products, predicting future demand and more quickly responding to issues even before they appear.

Visibility and traceability across the end-to-end supply chain. Operating in a business ecosystem with real-time insights to not only react upon disruptions, but also be more predictive.

“The European companies on this year’s top 15 list are successfully pursuing digital optimization in these areas,” Aronow said. “Looking ahead, progress toward digital transformation will mean integrating across all of these capabilities and scaling them in the business.”

Source: Gartner