Stan Aronow, research vice president at Gartner, said, "This year we are introducing a brand new category to highlight the accomplishments and capabilities of long-term leaders. We are, therefore, recognizing those companies that have consistently had top five composite scores for at least seven out of the last 10 years and placing them into a 'masters' category, separate from the overall Supply Chain Top 25 list," said Mr. Aronow. "In this the inaugural year for supply chain masters, we want to recognize two companies demonstrating sustained leadership: Apple and P&G."

Mr. Aronow said that both Apple and P&G have made major contributions to the supply chain profession over the years. P&G was one of the first to characterize and embed the concept of a consumer-driven supply chain, and Apple, defining the very notion of a "solution" supply chain, blazed new trails with its demand creation capabilities.

Chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) and their teams face an environment where business models must change quickly, where the expectation is that they will spend as much or more time growing and innovating as they will streamlining and promoting efficiency. Gartner has termed this reality "bimodal." Traditionally, supply chain executives have been successful because they were good at driving down costs. The leaders now realize they will be judged on cost containment as well as the ability to promote and support the top line.Increased Customer Intimacy

Another trend is a focus on customer experience as a measured priority in supply chain organizations. Independent of the product being sold, leaders are focused on listening more closely to their customers and responding with innovative solutions.

"This year, we heard from more companies extending visibility and insight beyond first-line customers and moving on to the end users of their products. Their supply chains are not just collecting data concerning the details of the sale, but also the patterns of usage and resulting sentiment of the end user," said Mr. Aronow.

While still a nascent concept, the view on how supply chain can leverage digital capabilities to support new business models and improve broader value chain performance became clearer this year. Manufacturing is currently at the center of many digital capabilities and leading companies recognize that "the factory" is not just somewhere inside the four walls of the company or an outsource partner. Digital synchronization of manufacturing lines with upstream suppliers and other supply chain functions is where the business value starts to multiply.

The logistics function is not far behind manufacturing in terms of automation using sensors, gateways, tracking systems and business rules to predict and alert when there will be a variance to the current plan of record. Logistics control tower capabilities are not new, but when combined with more affordable sensors and computing power, they portend the democratization of deeper visibility that can reduce risk and improve both operating costs and customer-service levels for many companies.