Walmart Case Study: Half a Century of Supply Chain Management

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) is the leading large-format general merchandise and discount retailer in the U.S., challenging Wal-Mart in electronics, toys and apparel while also seeking to differentiate with higher-end fashions and products for an upscale audience. As of the close of their latest fiscal year (FY2011), Target operated approximately 1,760 stores encompassing 233,000 square feet in 49 states and the District of Columbia. The company is divided into the retail and credit card divisions and moves the majority of its products through a highly integrated network of 37 different distribution centers, which include four food distribution centers. Target is one of the most well-entrenched large format retailers in the U.S., has the ability to manage their pricing strategies at a level of accuracy and precision that is comparable to Wal-Mart (Henderson, 2001). Unlike Wal-Mart, Target concentrates on a value-based message that concentrates on quality and price differentiation to sustain their gross margins while Wal-Mart concentrates on supply chain efficiency and a continual reduction of supplier and transaction costs (Krishnamurthi, 2001).

Walmart has the right to describe about the current benefits and job security they offer to their employees. They can also explain employees about how they are better than other unionised stores. They can also explain about the negative effects of unionising the store like strikes and job hour losses. They can inform them about the union fee employees has to pay if they join the unions. They can inform about the negative motives of people who run these unions. They can also explain them that the employees are treated as “associates” rather than just “employees” so it is duty of them to protect the best interests of the company.

As the leading discount retailer in the United States, WalMart (NYSE:WMT) has consistently shown an exceptional ability to master the complexities of logistics, supply chain management, retailing and pricing management. The WalMart supply chain is among the most advanced and sophisticated in its use of analytics and information systems globally, often computing pricing variation and analysis literally overnight based on satellite uploads of information (WalMart Investor Relations, 2013). WalMart has also successfully taken a capital-intensive business model and transformed it into a retailing business capable of generating high profitability from low margin products based one efficiency alone (Zhu, Singh, Manuszak, 2009). WalMart is also one of the most-researched companies in the world, and continues to provide in-depth financial data on their Investor Relations site (WalMart Investor Relations, 2013). The purpose of this analysis is to evaluate the mission, vision, and overall strategy of WalMart and also define three objectives for improving the organization's financial position, showing how the objectives defined relate to the mission, vision and strategy of the company. In addition for each objective, meaningful performance measures are provided in addition to defined expected level of performance as well. For each of the objectives chosen at least one new

Wal-Mart had been criticized for its record in employee relations. Wal-Mart had no unions, despite

The purpose of this business report is to gain familiarity with Wal-Mart and to learn about the different aspects that make Wal-Mart a successful company. This report gives an in-depth analysis of the company history, services and products provided, the company philosophy, business methods, organizational structure, and financial and competitive analysis.

Retail super-giant Wal-Mart has fought its way to becoming the world's largest company. Wal-Mart’s legendary supply chain technology has allowed them to break the three-day barrier that some economists in the eighties felt that it was unbreakable. In other words, Wal-Mart is often able to replenish items on the Wal-Mart shelf in less than three days – not from the central warehouse to the shelf, but from the manufacturer to the shelf. With quick and reliable 2-day turn around, Wal-Mart is able to maintain lower levels of inventory and still meet customer demand. These lower inventory levels result in either a reduced floor plan with lower carrying costs and lower interest expense – or a greater diversity of products on the store shelves.

Walmart’s approach means frequent, informal cooperation among stores, distribution centres and suppliers and less centralized control. The company’s supply chain allowed consumers to effectively pull merchandise to stores rather than having the company push goods onto shelves by tracking customer purchases and demand. Through the use of universal product codes, implementation of Retail links at the store, use of RFIDs and smart tags, suppliers and manufacturers within the supply chain synchronize their demand forecaste under a collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment scheme, and every link in the chain was connected through technology that includes a central database, store-level point-of-sale systems, and a satellite network. As per report, there was a 16% reduction in out-of-stocks with the use of RFIDs and pointed out that the products using an electronic product code were replenished three times as fast as items that only used bar code technology. These strategies have made Walmart to be the dominant force over other competitors with information and technology helping its supply chain strategy attain greater

The two supply chains of Walmart and Amazon are different from each other and are efficient at their own perspectives. Both the supply chains are highly efficient in reaching out the customers in different ways. Walmart’s supply chain is completely based on store based retailing whereas Amazon’s supply chain is based on online retailing. The various methods followed by Walmart in its supply chain are vendor management inventory, cross-docking and central warehousing. Amazon acts as a retailer, as a third party and as an agent in supply chain management while selling various products through online.

Supply chain innovations should ensure on-shelf availability at retail outlets, improving collaboration between vendors and retailers, translating supply chain costs to product pricing, lean inventory and real time replenishment. Wal-Mart should ensure that process differentiation to determine the right method of moving products with varying demand characteristics (Akehurst, C., & Alexander, N. (1995)

From a gallon of milk to a complete home makeover, Wal-Mart is the kind of store consumers (to include myself) go to buy all their home goods. What we don’t see are the management aspect of the operations, the issues stores, management, and executives go through on a daily basis. Wal-Mart has several challenges it goes through, from self-inflicting wounds to battling competitors for the lowest prices and consumer business. However its CEO’s both past and present have set the foundation and direction of where Wal-Mart is to be headed in the 21st century. With direction and orders in-hand, its top executives have developed

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retail and departmental store chain. Having business operations in 27 countries with 69 different brand names, Wal-Mart is able to serve a huge number of customers per day. Wal-Mart is the fastest growing and the most successful retail brand in the world. The factors which make it the strongest brand in its industry include large customer base, sound financial strength, strong brand image, and huge supply chain network. Wal-Mart has certain weaknesses in its operations and business setup like low acceptability of certain products, high employee turnover, and less recognition of newly introduced brands. These weaknesses can be overcome by availing attractive opportunities from the market and investing more in the most profitable areas. Wal-Mart faces the biggest threat from its competitors and ever-changing customer preferences.

Walmart has a large retail seafood business and it is always a challenge to reduce cost and promote sustainability. With upward trend for the demand of sea-food, depletion of the seafood supply is inevitable unless Walmart have a deep engagement of their supply chain. One strategy that Walmart wants to promote to their suppliers is for all of them to take up the Marine Stewardship Council’s certification program. This process will be time consuming, expensive and complex. The depletion of some fish poses a threat to Walmart and its seafood supply chain.

A few reasons as to why Wal-Mart became a leader in the retail industry is due to their practices in obtaining competitive advantage by offering the lowest prices for the market. Wal-Mart built their practices by giving suppliers transparency to meet the demand of customers and granting them long-term relationships by purchasing goods in bulks. In addition, their turn times on inventory are three-five days faster than regular competitors. The inventory shelves are similar to Honda since they only hold up to four hours of inventory in their manufacturing site. Also, Wal-Mart holds their own transportation which is why they can manage their costs efficiently for the company. Their transportations system constitutes links between suppliers, distribution centers and retail stores. They have restrictive criteria for drivers where in order for them to be hired they would have to be accident free for a consistency of minimum 300,000 miles accident free. The supply chain practice that they have gained since they began the business was strategically faster and cheaper than all competitors. 85% of Walmart’s inventory is taken care of by their own transportation system and only about fifteen percent is taken care of by the suppliers through cross-docking. Wal-Mart uses

Wal-Mart is arguably the most dynamic corporation in the last 50 years in the United States, if not the world. Arising from its beginnings in Bentonville, Arkansas, it has grown to over 4,400 discount stores, super centers and corner markets worldwide. Wal-Mart continues to expand despite public criticism of its labor practices as well as complaints about their treatment of competitors. The many strengths of Wal-Mart, like their low cost production and marketing practices, will aid Wal-Mart as it continues to grow in the retail

Walmart is equally ranked among the highly valuable companies, in terms of market value, as well as the biggest grocery retailer where it generates more than 51% of its sales from the grocery business. This paper explores Walmart’s operation management with regard to supply chain characteristics, global business operations, production processes, the company commitment to quality and excellence, inventory methodologies, operational planning and movement towards lean processes (Massengill, 2013).