AMR Research's Supply Chain Top 25 Report - published in 2004 and 2005, with the 2006 edition on the horizon - offers a ranking of large public companies against AMR's definition of supply chain leadership. As with any such ranking, much discussion surrounds who is overrated or underrated, and whether the rankings are fairly calculated. Yet for most, such debates are missing the point. First, the purpose of the report is not to highlight supply chain leadership overall. Companies in the Top 25 stand out in part because they are visible. Professionals in the supply chain and manufacturing community regularly ask about best practices as both a sanity check of their own efforts in deploying technology, and to communicate with constituents in finance or sales. Dell, Procter & Gamble, Motorola, and Intel - all ranked in last year's report - validate principles of vendor managed inventory, design for manufacture, and postponement with interviews in the press, conference presentations, and academic research contributions.
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