Top Supply Chain Companies

Top supply chain companies are a great place to start when researching best practices.  This list of top supply chain companies is in alphabetical order so that companies are easy to find and there is no arguments about who is better than who. This is just a list of companies that have have good supply chains.   Would love to hear more from you.

Alibaba

The Alibaba supply chain is one that many forget about or may not know about.  It is right up there with Amazon and Walmart.

• Aggregated Alibaba Supply Chain blogs
• Alibaba Wikipedia

• “A leader should have higher grit and tenacity, and be able to endure what the employees can’t.” ~Jack Ma
• “I want to change history, do something important in my life, and influence individuals like we have with millions of small businesses on Alibaba. Then they love and respect you because you made their life important.” ~Jack Ma
• You need the right people with you, not the best people.”  ~Jack Ma
• “My job is to help more people have jobs.”  ~Jack Ma
• “I’m not a tech guy. I’m looking at the technology with the eyes of my customers, normal people’s eyes.” ~Jack Ma

Amazon

The Amazon supply chain has made the companies incredibly efficient.  A few things to research to dive into Amazon would be its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.  Also search for Amazon Robotics as well and Kiva robots.  These two searches will take you to some great information.

• Aggregated Amazon Supply Chain blogs
• Amazon Videos
• Amazon Wikipedia
• If you never want to be criticized, for goodness’ sake don’t do anything new. ~ Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon
• All businesses need to be young forever. If your customer base ages with you, you’re Woolworth’s. ~ Jeff Bezos

Apple

Apple’s supply chain is one of the best in the world, if not the very best.

• Aggregated Apple Supply Chain blogs
• Apple Videos
• Apple Inc. Wikipedia
• Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them. ~ Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple Inc.
• Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. ~ Steve Jobs
• Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. ~ Steve Jobs

FedEx

• FedEx Videos
• “You can’t make people do what’s right. You can lead them, and you can empower them to make the right decision, but if you don’t produce a culture that allows them to do that, then all the rest is just bumping your gums as one of my old business partners used to say.” ~ Frederick W. Smith, founder and CEO of FedEx

IKEA

• IKEA Videos
• “If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example. I have to do so for all the IKEA employees.” ~ Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA’s founder
• “I could regularly travel first class but having money in abundance doesn’t seem like a good reason to waste it. Why should I choose first class? To be offered a glass of champagne from the air hostess? If it helped me arrive at my destination more quickly, then maybe.” ~ Ingvar Kamprad
• ‘Happiness is not reaching our goal. Happiness is being on the way. It’s our wonderful fate to just be at the beginning.” ~ Ingvar Kamrad

Procter and Gamble

P&G has been known for a very long time as one of the top supply chain companies.  P&G and Walmart changed supply chain forever when they started sharing electronic information in the 1980s.

• Procter and Gamble (P&G)
• “We develop and grow leaders. P&G people are given the opportunity – the assignments, experiences, and coaching – to become the strongest leaders they can be.” ~ A.G. Lafley, former CEO of P&G

Starbucks

• Starbucks Videos
• “Starbucks is not an advertiser; people think we are a great marketing company, but in fact we spend very little money on marketing and more money on training our people than advertising.” ~ Howard Schultz, CEO Starbucks
• “Great companies that build an enduring brand have an emotional relationship with customers that has no barrier. And that emotional relationship is on the most important characteristic, which is trust.” ~ Howard Schultz

Toyota

• Toyota Videos
• “Why not make the work easier and more interesting so that people do not have to sweat?  The Toyota style is not to create results by working hard. It is a system that says there is no limit to people’s creativity. People don’t go to Toyota to ‘work’ they go there to ‘think’.”  ~ Taiichi Ohno, father of the Toyota Production System
• “All we are doing is looking at the time line, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing the time line by reducing the non-value adding wastes.” ~ Taiichi Ohno

UPS

• UPS Videos

Walmart

Walmart is one of the top supply chain companies in the world.  One of the reasons Walmart grew as quickly as it did is because of the innovation in its supply chain.

• Aggregated Walmart Supply Chain Blogs
• LinkedIn Walmart Discussion
• “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves it s amazing what they can accomplish.”  ~ Sam Walton
• “I have always been driven to buck the system, to innovate, to take things beyond where they’ve been.”  ~ Sam Walton