The Focus on Supply Chain Increases Dramatically at America’s Top Companies
This is the third in a series of articles for SupplyChainBrain analyzing how often the term “supply chain” appears in the annual reports of S&P 500 companies.
The first article, published in 2017, covered the period from 2005 to 2015, revealing a sharp increase from 860 mentions to 1,762. The second article, published in 2020, showed continued growth, with 2,264 mentions in 2019.
This latest study analyzes the S&P 500 annual reports from 2020 to 2023. As shown in Figure 1, mentions of “supply chain” nearly tripled from 2019 to 2022, largely driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, which put supply chains in the spotlight as companies faced widespread disruptions.
However, there was a slight decline from 2022 to 2023, with most industries mentioning “supply chain” 5% to 10% less than in the previous year.
In this article, we’ll explore key themes from the S&P 500 annual reports, highlight the companies that reference supply chain the most, and conclude with what many companies described as a “return to normal” in 2023.
Figure 1: Supply Chain Mentions
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a dominant theme, frequently cited as a major disruptor of supply chain efficiency and reliability. Many companies reported increased lead times, rising supply chain costs and reduced capacity. Additionally, social distancing and employee safety measures were added to many annual reports in 2020.
Inventory-management strategies. The pandemic also increased lead times and influenced discussions on inventory levels. Many companies adjusted their strategies to mitigate longer lead times and demand fluctuations.
John Deere worked with suppliers to ensure optimum inventory levels. Align Technology maintained inventory levels greater than historically required, and Generac experienced higher working capital investment, primarily driven by further elevated inventory levels. Zebra Technologies anticipated inventory levels to remain elevated from historical levels for
