...Walmart: Supply Chain Management Walmart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton and is considered one of the global giants in supply chain management. The company has become the world’s biggest retailer with the largest amount of sales per square foot, the highest inventory turnover rates, and net operating profit of any of its major competitors. This powerhouse manages approximately $32 billion in inventory and stocks products manufactured in more than 70 countries worldwide. With these kinds of numbers, it is vital that Walmart is able to continue to effectively and efficiently run its supply chain. The organization is dedicated to a business strategy that drives out costs and enables consumers to save money and live well. The way in which Walmart conducts business is distinctly different from its rival, Amazon, who also dominates the North American and global retail environment. Walmart has found continued success by working with fewer links in its supply chain, expanding strategic vendor partnerships, utilizing cross docking to replenish inventory, and embracing technology to track and restock inventory. Additionally, the company has made great strides in developing a highly structured and advanced supply chain by meeting customer demands and achieving cost structures that allows them to provide low everyday pricing on products. As with any company, Walmart has faced many challenges within its supply chain and continues to execute strategies to overcome such challenges. In...
Words: 2674 - Pages: 11
...Walmart’s Supply Chain Management In the fiscal year of January 2015, Walmart had grosses of 486$ billion. That income came from more than its 4,500 stores in the U.S. They were able to jump from the 14th to the 13th position in research and analysis company Gartner’s annual ranking. That jump was mainly due to their well functioning and innovating supply chain. As Walmart stocks products made in more than 70 countries and at any moment, operates more than 11,000 stores in 27 countries around the world, having an effective and efficient supply chain management is imperative for the survival of the Walmart brand. Walmart’s has around 160 distribution centers of almost 120 million square feet and all within 130 miles of the stores it supplies. Sam Walton opened the first Walmart in 1962, and even in the first years the management of their supply chain was impressive. In the 1980’s Walmart began working directly with the manufactures in order to reduce costs. They introduced what they called the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), each manufacturer was responsible for their own products in Walmart’s warehouse. Furthermore, in order to reduce even further their costs, Walmart pursued strategic partnerships with most of its vendors, who where promised long term and high volume purchase in exchange of low costs. They also benefit from economies of scales; the volume purchased each year is so immense, that it gives huge bargaining power with its suppliers. They also...
Words: 682 - Pages: 3
...Management Information Systems 13e KENNETH C. LAUDON AND JANE P. LAUDON CHAPTER 2 GLOBAL E-BUSINESS: HOW BUSINESSES USE INFORMATION SYSTEMS Walmart’s Retail Link Supply Chain CASE 1 VIDEO CASE Systems SUMMARY An introduction to Walmart’s Retail Link system, one of the largest B2B supply-chain systems in the world. Retail Link connects consumer purchase data to the Walmart purchasing system and to vendor supply systems. Retail Link plays a key role in Walmart’s corporate strategy to become the dominant low-cost provider of retail goods. L=7:13. URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUe-tSabKag CASE Walmart is a well-known leader in the application of network technology to coordinate its supply chain. Walmart’s supply chain is the secret sauce behind its claim of offering the lowest prices everyday. It’s able to make this promise because it has possibly the most efficient B2B supply chain in the world. It doesn’t hurt to also be the largest purchaser of consumer goods in the world. With sales of more than $443 billion for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2012, Walmart has been able to use information technology to achieve a decisive cost advantage over competitors. As you might imagine, the world’s largest retailer also has the world’s largest supply chain, with more than 60,000 suppliers worldwide. In the next five years, the company plans to expand from around 5,000 retail stores in the United States (including Sam’s Clubs)...
Words: 927 - Pages: 4
...To begin with, Walmart (the American multinational retailer corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores), has earned its reputation as the largest retailing company in the world. The man behind who started everything and laid down the basic principles and philosophy to be emulated by Wal-Mart people is Sam Walton, who found the company in 1962. Last year, Wal-Mart's annual sales were $350 billion and it had more than 8,500 stores in 15 countries and with over two million employees. It was in the early eighties that, in order to follow their business model based on a low price strategy, Wal-Mart placed heavy emphasis on developing and implementing tight supply chain solutions which has catapulted them not only to the top of the retail channel but into the history books. The four core principles that engulfs the overwhelming success of Walmart are; the focus on the improvement of sales, constantly reducing costs such that they will be able to capitalize on cost saving opportunities to be passed on the customers, the adoption of efficient distribution and logistics management systems to ensure the constant flow of the goods and the use of highly advantageous innovative information technology (IT) tools that makes the operating processes even faster, efficient and up to date. The key for the phenomenal growth of Walmart rely on the emphasis being placed in the customer needs and the reduction of cost through efficient supply management practices as Walmart’s...
Words: 1299 - Pages: 6
...Vision & Mission Statement 3 Industry Analysis 4 Competitive Analysis 5 Financial Analysis 6 SWOT & QSPM Analysis 6 Strategy Recommendation 7 Action Plan 9 Conclusion 10 Appendix One- External Factor Evaluation Matrix for Walmart 11 Appendix Two- Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix for Walmart 12 Appendix Three- Walmart’s Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM) 13 Appendix Four- Financial Ratios 2010 Fiscal Year 14 Appendix Five- Walmart SWOT Matrix 15 Appendix Six- Porter Five Forces Model 16 Appendix Seven-Action Plan 17 References 18 Company Background Wal-Mart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton with the first store opening in Rogers, Arkansas. Incorporated on October 31, 1969 and became publicly traded in 1972. What Sam Walton set out to accomplish when opening the first Wal-Mart store in 1962 was to save people money and to help them live better. Wal-Mart serves customers more than 200 million times per week at over 9,800 retail outlets located in 28 countries (Walmart, 2011). Retail outlets offer a wide variety of products, with stores having over 30 departments of general merchandise and full service grocery outlets. This has made Wal-Mart a leader in the general merchandise industry as well as a top competitor in the grocery industry. Vision & Mission Statement The mission statement of Wal-Mart reflects the purpose that Sam Walton...
Words: 3764 - Pages: 16
...[;’p// Walmart Case Study: Half a Century of Supply Chain Management SCM 607 Dr. John Wu March 15, 2014 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 4 BACKGROUND OF THE COMPANY 4 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 5 KEY ISSUES 6 EXTERNAL ANALYSIS 7 Economy 8 Customer Behavior 8 Technology 8 Politics & Legal Aspects 8 INTERNAL ANALYSIS 9 Company Culture 9 Operations 9 Purchasing & Suppliers 10 Inventory 10 Logistics 10 SWOT ANALYSIS 11 Strengths 11 Procurement 11 Distribution 12 Store Network 12 Information Systems 13 Weaknesses 14 Procurement 14 Store Network 14 Human Resources 14 Focusing on the Supply Chain 14 Opportunities 15 Focusing on the Supply Chain 15 New Initiatives and a Reorganization 15 Threats 16 Human Resources 16 DECISIONS 17 CONCLUSION 18 EXHIBIT 3 19 EXHIBIT 3 (continued) 20 EXHIBIT 3 (continued) 21 EXHIBIT 5 22 REFERENCES 23 Walmart Case Study: Half a Century of Supply Chain Management INTRODUCTION Walmart dominates the retailing industry in terms of its sales revenue, its customer base, and its ability to drive down costs and deliver good value to its customers. After all, the world’s largest corporation, employing 1.8 million associates worldwide, takes pride in having received numerous accolades for its ability to continuously improve efficiency in the supply chain while meeting its corporate mandate of offering customers everyday low prices. Walmart demonstrates how a physical product retailer...
Words: 4242 - Pages: 17
...Map the Supply Chain Paper-Walmart Cathi Stark MKT/421 June 23, 2014 Jeannette Singh Map the Supply Chain Paper-Walmart The supply chain is an important part of business. Supply chain management (SCM) is controlling of the movement of goods. It includes the flow and storage of raw supplies, work-in-process inventory, and finished commodities from beginning to point of utilization. The Supply chain management is network of facilities and distribution options that goes into improving your company. Making a product or service and delivering to customers by finding raw components. Today, SCM systems focus on extending beyond an organization's four walls to influence: Suppliers, Suppliers, Customers' customer. This paper will discuss each connection in the supply chain and the reason and significance of each in Walmart’s industry. There are five main components of supply chain management. They are plan, source, make, deliver, and return. Every company needs a strategy [plan] on how to manage the resources in order to achieve their customers demand for their products and services. The supply chain management is developing a set of metric to monitor the supply chain so that it can deliver high qualities and values to customers. Next is the source; to create their products, companies need to be very careful when choosing suppliers to deliver their goods and services needed. The managers need to develop a set pricing and delivery system in the supply chain. They can also put...
Words: 836 - Pages: 4
...Executive Summary Walmart is the biggest company in the world with a highly complex, but efficient, supply chain. In this essay we will try to analyze the bargaining power of Walmart over its suppliers, the importance of RFID (its pros and cons) and make an overview of the green supply chain and its importance for the future of Walmart. Company Overview The Walmart story began in 1962 from the vision of a man called Sam Walton who had worked for a famous retailer called J.C. Penney in Arkansas and Missouri and decided to open a store of his own. With a very aggressive price strategy and conveniently opened stores, locations and schedules, he was very successful and by 1969 he already had 18 stores in the United States. During the 1970’s the company went public and in the 1980’s the company opened Sam’s Wholesale Club, a concept based on the successful cash-and-carry, membership-only warehouse format pioneered by the Price Company of California (now Costco Wholesale Corporation). In 1992 Walmart started expanding to the international markets; they entered Mexico in 1992 through a joint venture with Mexico’s largest retailer, Cifra, to open Sam’s Clubs. The next step was to enter Canada which they did in 1994. Walmart continued to expand internationally, entering China in 1996. Nowadays they are also in Brazil, Argentina, India, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, United Kingdom, El Salvador, Japan, Chile and Guatemala in a total of 14 different countries outside the U.S....
Words: 3524 - Pages: 15
...1-Wal-Mart history and Introduction The first Wal-Mart was opened in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. By 1969 it was incorporated into Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and in 1972 went public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company grew steadily across the United States, and by 1990 was the nation's largest retailer. In 1991 and 1994, Wal-Mart moved into Mexico and Canada respectively. By 1997 it was incorporated into the Dow Jones Industrial Average. As of 2005, Wal-Mart has stores in the United Kingdom, and Puerto Rico, and brings in revenue of close to 300 billion dollars a year. In 2006, Wal-Mart invaded the China and India's markets. During the last two decades, Wal-Mart has been able to take advantage of the rise of information technology and the explosion of the global economy to change the balance of power in the business world (Wikipedia, 2006). Today Wal-Mart continues to grow and their success is not only from their sound strategic management planning but also from its implementation of those strategic plans. In other words operational planning has been an important key to their success. 2-Wal-Mart Strategy Once plans have been developed, an organization must address how management will be accomplishing be those plans. This involves operational plans that must flow from strategy; specify resource, time issues, and commitment of human resources. Operational plans at the lower - levels of the organization, have a shorter time horizon, and are narrower in scope (Bateman...
Words: 2018 - Pages: 9
...activities. Walmart is known for having the biggest data warehouse used, which is larger then 4 Petabytes. Wal-Mart is very secretive about their data warehouse. After achieving a major milestone Teradata, Wal-Mart’s data warehouse supplier, was given permission to announce a few shallow facts about Wal-Mart’s data warehouse. • Wal-Mart has indeed the world’s largest, non military, database with a size of one-half a petabyte. • It is the world’s largest data warehouse Wal-Mart keeps track of 100 million customers buying billions of products every week. Using this data allows Wal-Mart to achieve Always Low Prices. It is the data warehouse that enabled Wal-Mart to become one of the 15 most profitable companies in the world. Let’s look at some sales questions Wal-Mart’s data warehouse has to answer: • How much orange juice did we sell last year, last month, last week in store X? • Comparing sales data of orange juice in various stores? • What internal factors (position in store, advertising campaigns...) in- fluence orange juice sales? • What external factors (weather...) influence orange juice sales? • Who bought orange juice last year, last month, last week? A data warehouse really is a Decision Support System (DSS). Providing the data to support business decisions is hole point of a data warehouse. A data warehouse coming from the IT department, or from the higher IT consultants is never going to work if the support from the business side is missing WalMart shares the same...
Words: 898 - Pages: 4
...------------------------------------------------- like you:…………………………………………. Date:……………………… | 1. Walmart’s focus on supply chain management is responsible for its leadership in the retail industry. Discuss the distribution and logistics practices adopted by Walmart. How far has Walmart’s supply chain contributed to its competitive advantage? Explain. The retail biggest giant, retail supermarket chain “Walmart” serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at more than 10,130 retail units under 69 different banners in 27 countries. With fiscal year 2012 sales of $443 billion, Walmart employs 2.2 million associates worldwide. And the organization is one of the fortune 500 companies. Walmart Stores, Inc., is the world’s largest public corporation by revenue and the largest private employer in the world (about 2.1 million employees in 2008). In 2008, the company operated about 4,000 stores in the United States (discount, supercenters, neighborhood markets, and Sam’s Clubs) as well as more than 2,200 stores in other countries, mostly in Mexico, Canada, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. Its revenue exceeded $400 billion, with net income of about $15 billion. Sam Walton said it best, “If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone…we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life. During the initial years, Walton focused on establishing new stores in small towns, with an average population of 5,000. These towns were largely neglected...
Words: 14036 - Pages: 57
...Executive Summary Walmart is one of the largest retailers in the United States and dominates the discount retailing business. It has historically outperformed and continues to outperform its competitors. To improve slowing growth, Walmart must focus on retaining its strengths in I.T implementation, distribution planning and vendor and store management but implement these skills in growing internationally and including organic products in its merchandise. Analysis Walmart succeeded in the US by selling branded products at a lower cost that other options available to customers. Walmart’s centralized purchasing system allowed it to have better economies of scale than its competition. It is also never too dependent on a single vendor so it maintained its bargaining power. Its logistics set up was also much more efficient with about 80% of all merchandise going through its own distribution system .Also its electronic hook ups to its vendors allowed both Walmart and the vendors to reduce inventory costs and transfer the savings to its customers. Walmart also grew initially by building stores in small rural towns and saturating the market. These locations resulted in lower operating expenses but the towns were not big enough for another store, this effectively created a barrier for competitors to enter these saturated markets. Walmart’s financial performance favors comparably compared to its competitors and by 1993 had achieved an ROE of 33% annually since inception. In the same...
Words: 1084 - Pages: 5
...Walmart Case Study Beth R. Thornhill Organization The relevance of choosing Walmart lies in their enormous growth and their strategies to be and maintain their competitiveness in the free-market. Some of their strategies were outlined by San Walton, founder of Walmart include: Sam Walton’s strategy of, “If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone…we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life.” (Walmart.com) Background on Walmart Walmart serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at more than 10,130 retail units under 69 different banners in 27 countries. With fiscal year 2012 sales of $443 billion, Walmart employs 2.2 million associates worldwide. Walmart was founded in 1962, with the opening of the first Walmart discount store in Rogers, Ark. The company incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., on Oct. 31, 1969. The company's shares began trading on OTC markets in 1970 and were listed on the New York Stock Exchange two years later. The company grew to 276 stores in 11 states by the end of the decade. In 1983, the company opened its first Sam’s Club membership warehouse and in 1988 opened the first supercenter -- now the company’s dominant format -- featuring a complete grocery in addition to general merchandise. Walmart became an international company in 1991 when it opened its first Sam's Club near Mexico City. (Walmart.com) Background on Walmart Strategy Traditionally, Walmart...
Words: 4430 - Pages: 18
...Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates approximately 11,047 retail units under 69 banners in 27 countries. It has three segments: The Wal-Mart Stores, The Sam’s Club, and International. The Wal-Mart Stores segment includes 4,759 Discount Stores, Supercenters, and Neighborhood Markets in the United States, as well as Walmart.com. It offers apparel for women, girls, men, boys, and infants; domestics, fabrics, and notions; stationery and books; shoes; housewares; hardware; electronics; home furnishings; small appliances; automotive accessories; horticulture and accessories; sporting goods; toys; pet food and accessories; cameras and supplies; health and beauty aids; pharmaceuticals; jewelry; and optical, as well as photo processing services. The Neighborhood Markets include dry grocery, meat, produce, deli, bakery, dairy, frozen foods, pharmaceuticals, photo processing, health and beauty aids, household chemicals, paper goods, general merchandise, and pet supplies departments. The Sam’s Club segment includes 624 stores and comprises the warehouse membership clubs in the United States and samsclub.com. It offers hard-goods, soft-goods, software, electronics, jewelry, sporting goods, toys, tires, stationery and books, institutional-size grocery items, and selected private labels. The International segment operates 6,288 various retail formats in countries to include Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. This segment operated 261...
Words: 2364 - Pages: 10
...STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT MGMT E -5000 WALMART CASE ANALYSIS BY Indhu SEPTEMBER 19th, 2012 SWOT Analysis of Wal-Mart: (2008- 2010) EXTERNAL ANALYSIS: Significant findings on the PESTEL analysis were:(Refer Fig 1 ) * Socio Cultural factor: One of the most important concerns among consumers during that period was price. Since its establishment Walton focused on Everyday low prices (EDLP) and always geared towards the low- income groups of the society. This provided Walmart better opportunities and helped them gain a competitive advantage in the industry. * Demographic factor: Another opportunity facing the industry was that Consumers (working Mothers and other American workers) wanted ease of shopping (fast, efficient and one-stop shopping). Walmart provided its customers with what they want in the Walmart supercenters combined with its wholesale unit “Sam’s Club”. * Technological Factor: Heightening of Internet users (70% of the population) and more people were comfortable shopping online. This yielded both favorable (lower over head costs and convenience to the customers with wide choices of items and prices that were appealing) and unfavorable (Walmart has invested heavily on the infrastructure like the EDI links and POS systems) circumstances. * Economic Factor: Domestically the U.S market had a very slow growth. Although the economy was said to be in recession it favored the growth of the organization because it offered consumers commodities at a...
Words: 2726 - Pages: 11
