Amazon Winning On the Move
Apple may be king of supply chains, but the wild Amazonian queen may yet win the logistics game of thrones.
According to Gartner's Supply Chain Top 25 for 2012, the prestigious industry ranking system, Amazon "is a great example of an 'orchestrator' that goes beyond simply borrowing and adapting others’ best practices and consistently defies conventional wisdom."
That provocative spirit is the antithesis to the more traditional Apple, who were cited for their "zealous focus on starting with the consumer experience and working back through the design of its supply network".
Apple's textbook logistics have been good enough to give them the top spot in the rankings for five years running. But Amazon's spirited and inventive campaign has injected new life into the race, and challenged assumptions about how a supply chain should work.
They've challenged the B2B community with Amazon Supply, a bold venture to occupy a potentially limitless sphere in global industry logistics. And they've reorganized their massive traditional warehousing to prioritize their digital offerings.
Gartner notes: “Moving into the media tablet business with the Kindle Fire, Amazon has shifted its model so that nine of its top 10 offerings are now digital content, augmenting its vast physical supply chain."
Watch out, Apple.
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