...Running head: Walmart Information Systems 1 Walmart Information Systems Research Project-Group2 CIS 511 Fall 2011 Amber Slemmons, Brooke Williams, Cheri Evans, Ismael Molina, & Wesley Belz Walmart Information Systems Walmart Information Systems Executive Summary: 2 Walmart, the billion dollar retail giant, has grown significantly over the past five decades, incorporating numerous different types of information systems into their daily operations. The company is well recognized for their innovation when it comes to utilizing the latest technologies and information systems to maximize their profitability. Information systems structures and processes play a critical role in Walmart’s success and today they are bringing that innovative spirit to the market as they move toward full implementation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). This technology allows for Walmart’s operations to function efficiently and effectively as they are capable of sending and receiving real time data to the networks. By doing so they are able to communicate the information to the retailer and the product manufactures making it possible for Walmart to remain competitive in the retail industry by properly controlling its inventories. This report will explain how Walmart has utilized several information systems throughout the course of its history such as: point of sale, satellite communication systems, data warehouses, retail link systems, electronic data interchange (EDI), and most recently...
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...[;’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...
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...An E-Business Analysis of Walmart Patricia Brandon-Garst E-Business Professor Victor Olufeso August 29, 2011 An E-Business Analysis of Walmart Walmart is the world’s largest company and quite possibly the most powerful retailer. Walmart began as strictly a brick and mortar store but has advanced into click and mortar over the last five decades. Walmart may soon become a major competition for huge online only retailers like Amazon. The recent acquisitions by Walmart are sure to be placing this retailer in place for an online invasion of epic proportions. Walmart was started by Sam Walton in rural Arkansas in 1962. Sam Walton had previously owned a franchise in the Ben Franklin stores since 1944 and also opened a small chain of stores called Walton’s 5 & 10. Sam Walton was extremely industrious and had a knack for increasing sales in businesses. His ability to find ways to slash prices to the lowest bottom line is the reason for the success of Walmart. (Sam Walton, 2009) Walmart stores have been geared toward the low-income customer segment. The concept of frugality is the central tenet of the company. Even the Walmart headquarters is a drab and plain building in a small town in central Arkansas. There are no luxuries at the headquarters and it is not based in a fancy big city. During the recent downturn of the world economy when other businesses were going under, Walmart had reported sales growth of 11%, amounting...
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...Ways Walmart Can Improve Their IT Systems Allison Malan Keller Graduate School of Management This paper is prepared for: Managerial Appls of Info Tech, Spring 2015, taught by Stephen Wheeler. Abstract 1. The subject of this paper is to discuss different IT problems and solutions in a large retail company. 2. This paper will discuss the IT Walmart currently uses and the ways in which Walmart would benefit by updating their systems. 3. The problem with Walmart’s current system is it is old and dated, making it harder and more time consuming to guide through. 4. Updating their current system will make it easier and more efficient to navigate through. 5. Initially this will cost a lot of money, since Walmart is such a large corporation. Over time, however, this will save the company many hours of labor. 6. This paper is directed to Walmart’s Home Office IT. Since the first Walmart store opened in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas, we've been dedicated to making a difference in the lives of our customers. Our business is the result of Sam Walton's visionary leadership, along with generations of associates focused on helping customers and communities save money and live better. (1) The Walmart U.S. segment includes the Company's mass merchant concept in the United States operating under the Walmart or Wal-Mart brands, as well as walmart.com. Walmart U.S. is the Company’s largest segment, having generated approximately 59% of the Company’s...
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...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)...
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...throughout Walmart Stores, Walmart Super Centers and Sam Clubs. The products obtainable from Walmart or Sam can range from movies, books, electronics, jewelry, music, toys, baby necessities, sports, home, garden, patio, clothing, “vision” center, “photo” center, wireless service, auto service and pharmacy to name a few. You can find grocery items in the Walmart Supercenter. When we enter Walmart, we see a variety of items on the shelves, but do you know how they get there. Logistics of the supply chain helps with this part of the business. Walmart moves millions of products from the manufacturers, suppliers and distribution centers to its store’s shelves. For a company like Walmart, “development and research is not only a function which needs to maintain a competitive level with the rest of the industry, but it must outdo the rest of its competitors. When it comes to research and development Walmart devotes a large amount of capital.” Walmart spreads cash across the company’s different functions, whereas a greater of the funds is invested in technology. Walmart established a “satellite system” in 1983 that connected its entire stores, headquarters, distribution centers and suppliers which acted as a just-in-time processing system to keep up with the control of inventory. In other words, as an item is purchased from the store, the supplier receives a message alerting them to include that item in the next day’s shipment to the closest distribution center. This system allowed...
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...Walmart: E-business Analysis Dustin Cooper Intro to Information Systems Professor Young Bao Choi August 29, 2011 An E-Business Analysis of Walmart Walmart is the world’s largest company and quite possibly the most powerful retailer. Walmart began as strictly a brick and mortar store but has advanced into click and mortar over the last five decades. Walmart may soon become a major competition for huge online only retailers like Amazon. The recent acquisitions by Walmart are sure to be placing this retailer in place for an online invasion of epic proportions. Walmart was started by Sam Walton in rural Arkansas in 1962. Sam Walton had previously owned a franchise in the Ben Franklin stores since 1944 and also opened a small chain of stores called Walton’s 5 & 10. Sam Walton was extremely industrious and had a knack for increasing sales in businesses. His ability to find ways to slash prices to the lowest bottom line is the reason for the success of Walmart. (Sam Walton, 2009) Walmart stores have been geared toward the low-income customer segment. The concept of frugality is the central tenet of the company. Even the Walmart headquarters is a drab and plain building in a small town in central Arkansas. There are no luxuries at the headquarters and it is not based in a fancy big city. During the recent downturn of the world economy when other businesses were going under, Walmart had reported sales growth of 11%, amounting to $6.4 billion. Walmart has also made some...
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...Summary: The video illustrates to us the details about the Walmart’s supply chain. It explains the organization’s central computer system and its immeasurable distribution centers. It also covers what makes Walmart so successful and what gives them the competitive edge over other regular organizations. Walmart’s central computer system is the world’s second largest computer system, only smaller than the computer system in the pentagon. This computer system tracks each item sold at every individual Walmart nation wide. This permits Walmart to track what things are constantly sold the most at each location, which helps them decide how every individual area should be stocked. For example, if camouflage items are being sold more in North Carolina stores then in California stores then they will increase the stock of camouflage items in North Carolina rather than to that of the California stores. This data additionally transfers to the organization's distribution center , where a large number of things are put away and shipped across the country. These distribution centers have supply chains that are running every minute of every day. They are run and organized to a precise science so everything runs easily. At the point when an order rolls in from a store, they find the product in the warehouse, put it on the conveyor belt and after that it is put on a particular truck that takes the item to the store. Discussion: As an MBA student, this video is exceptionally fascinating for...
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...Tablet of Contents The Beginning of Walmart Logistic………………………………………………………… 3 Magic of the stripes………………………………………………………………………………. 3 Walmart’s Cross Docking……………………………………………………………………….. 5 Downfall of Barcode System…………………………………………………………………… 6 Power to the RIFD………………………………………………………………………………….. 7 Walmart’s RFID Influence in China………………………………………………………….. 9 The Chinese RFID investment…………………………………………………………………. 10 Chinese market potential………………………………………………………………………… 11 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………. 12 The Beginning of Walmart Logistic Wal-Mart as we all know it, it is an American multination corporation that operation in a largest chain discount stores in the world. Sam Walton, the successful business man from Arkansas began his retail store in 1940, worked at J.C. Penney and later on started a small retail chain store called “Ben Franklin”. It wasn’t till 1962; Mr. Walton opened the first Walmart store. In the beginning, Walton had his strategy set to low income families and offered a considerably lower cost than his competitors, the low price strategy allowed Walton to steer forward with his real goal to become the supply chain logistics giant. By 1987, Walton have led the store into a growing rampage, Walmart had 1,198 nationwide, sales in the 15.9 billion and had 200,000 associates (Walmart, http://walmartstores.com/aboutus/7603.aspx, 2011), In the same year the company also became the largest private satellite net work in the country and...
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...A Comparative Study of Walmart Operations in Canada & Mexico Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary…………………………...………………………………...…...2 2. Introduction………………………………………………………………………….3 3. Walmart and the Canadian Marketplace……………………………..…………3 A. Country Competitiveness B. Cultural Environment C. Political and Legal Environment D. Entry Strategies 4. Walmart and the Mexican Marketplace……………………………..………….10 A. Country Competitiveness B. Cultural Environment C. Political and Legal Environment D. Entry Strategies 5. Summary Comparison of Canadian and Mexican Markets…………………….18 6. Recommendation…………………………………………………………………….19 7. References…………………………………………………………………………...21 1. Executive Summary This report closely examines the operations of the world's largest retailer, Walmart, in Canada and Mexico. Assessments of market conditions in both countries have been conducted in terms of country competitiveness, cultural, political and legal environments and the strategies used by Walmart upon entry. Tying into these international business factors, specific aspects of international economic integration, monetary systems, social responsibility and corruption have also been reviewed. While being part of one continent and a common trade bloc (NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement), considerable differences between Canada and Mexico are apparent. These differences are individually analyzed on the following pages. Inevitably, they...
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...Supply Chain Innovations by Walmart By Institution Supply Chain Innovations by Walmart It is without a doubt that Walmart has achieved the greatest operational and logistical triumphs in history. According to Supply Chain Digest, Walmart operates more than 10,000 stores in 27 countries around the globe, stocks products manufactured in more than 70 countries and managed over $32 billion in inventory (Lu, 2015). With such kind of numbers, there is a need to have an efficient and effective supply chain management. Walmart has been able to achieve this through technology. Technology forms the foundation of its supply chain as it owns the biggest information technology infrastructure of all private companies in the world. Its State-of –the-art network design has allowed Walmart to precisely forecast demand, predict inventory levels, and manage service response logistics and customer relationships For example, Walmart becomes the first retailer to make use of the Universal Product Code bar codes that allowed for immediate collection and analysis of store level information. It went further to devise Retail Link, an enormous Bentonville database (Lu, 2015). With the help of a global satellite system, this database is linked to analysts who forecast demands of suppliers to the supplier network. This displays real-time sales information from cash registers to Walmart distribution centers. Manufacturers and suppliers within the supply chain bring together their demand projections...
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...Name College ABSTRACT: Walmart is an internationally known corporation with locations throughout the world. From its very humble beginnings, this firm has made significant strides in the creation and maintenance of a healthy and thriving supply chain. Nevertheless, all businesses have areas that present challenges, and Walmart is no different. This report will evaluate six areas of Walmart's supply chain, as well as the potential problems associated with each component. Walmart would not be nearly as successful as it is today without having plans for when parts of its program breakdown, and these are examined here, too. Finally, we discuss the value of a quality and reliable supply chain for overall viability in the market. Information on Walmart's Supply Chain Policies I have chosen to write my essay on the universally known and internationally successful firm, Walmart. Regarding background data, Walmart began in the late 1960s. Amazingly, Walmart grew rapidly throughout the 1970s, expanding to over 275 stores by the end of 1970. The domination continued, with Walmart adding additional features and brands to its already huge corporation, ultimately creating one of the world's most well known retail stories. Although there are many unique points that make up Walmart's retail success, one of the most important includes the capitalization of Walmart's retail chain. Walmart consistently emphasized the need to reduce its...
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...Walmart was founded in 1962 and by 1990’s grew into the biggest retailer in the United States. Many business organizations such as Walmart invest heavily in information systems to achieve the following strategic business objectives: operational excellence; new products, services, and business models; customer and supplier intimacy; improved decision-making, competitive advantage; and survival. Successful attainment of these objectives aids company in implementing corporate strategies and achieving its goals. Operational excellence is one of the major aspects that companies strive to achieve in order to be successful. This includes efficiency of operations and higher levels of productivity and profitability. Walmart is able to operate and produce in a more effective way through the use of information systems and keen business practices. In 2010, Walmart realized 408 billion in sales because of its operational efficiency, which mostly results from the company’s utilization of Retail Link system, the industry’s leading data warehouse. Company is able to achieve such high sales through optimization of the existing relationship with suppliers and providing them with access to the Retail Link system, which is able to follow and store supplies’ movement from suppliers to warehouse, to store and then to customer. The system is providing just-in-time process of inventory control by automatically generating and sending an email to the supplier as soon as their item is sold. In this...
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...faces. Wal-Mart History Sam Walton was a man who believed in leadership through service. After gaining experience in retail through his own small variety store Sam Walton open the first Wal-Mart in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas (Walmart, 2012). Within five years Sam Walton and his wife owned 24 stores, ringing up $12.7 million in sales (Walmart, 2012). Two years later the Walmart stores Inc was officially incorporated. In 1970 Walmart became a publicly traded company, 1971 the first distribution center was opened, and in 1972 Walmart was listed on the New York Stock Exchange with 51 stores and sales of $78 million (Walmart, 2012). In the 80s the first Sam’s Club opened, the first Walmart super center opened, cash registers were replaced with computerized point–of–sale systems, and the company installed the largest private satellite communication system in the United States, linking the company's operations through voice, data, and video communication (Walmart, 2012). In the 90s Walmart reaches $1 billion dollar a week in sales and expands internationally to Mexico City, Canada, China, and the United Kingdom. In 2002 Walmart topped the Fortune 500 ranking of America's largest companies and entered the Japanese market (Walmart, 2012). In 2005 Walmart contributes relief in the form of products and...
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...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....
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