Wal Mart Supply Chain Management

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WAL MART SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Introduction

Supply chain management is the process that an organization uses to “improve the way the company finds the raw components it needs to make a product or service and deliver it to customers (www.supply-chain.org 2006).” There are five basics components of a supply chain management system-plan, source, make, deliver, and return.  Planning is the “strategy for managing all the resources that go toward meeting customer demand for the product or service (www.supply-chain.org 2006).” The source components are “the suppliers that will deliver the goods and services the organization needs to create the product or service (www.supply-chain.org 2006).”  Make applies to manufacturing the product or the activities necessary to provide the service to the customer. Deliver is the logistics, getting the product or service to the customer (www.supply-chain.org 2006).  The last component is return where quality assurance comes into play (www.supply-chain.org 2006). The goal of this paper is to identify the existing supply chain management processes with Wal-Mart as a comparison to other supply chain practices in an effort to recommend changes to the current system.

Wal-Mart’s Supply Chain Management

Wal-Mart is one the largest retailing companies in the world.  Due to its proficient supply chain management practices, Wal-Mart has been recognized by analysts for its ability to achieve leadership-status.  Its supply chain management is backed by the need to meet the demands of customers while reducing costs.  The company’s success is its ability “to offer a vast range of products at the lowest costs in the shortest possible time.  It was all made possible due to Wal-Mart’s highly automated distribution centers, which significantly reduced shipping cost and time, and its computerized inventory system, which speeded up the checking out time and recording of transactions (ICFAI 2004).”  

Flow of Materials to Wal-Mart

        Wal-Mart’s objective was to reduce its purchasing costs and offer the best prices to its customers.  It acquired goods directly from manufacturers, bypassing all intermediaries.  Wal-Mart took advantage of the source component of supply chain management, the company negotiated prices with its suppliers and finalized the deal only when it was confident that the prices weren’t lower somewhere else (ICFAI 2004).  Wal-Mart spent a significant amount of time learning the cost structure of its vendors as to know when they were receiving the best prices for their customers.  Once satisfied with a vendor, Wal-Mart ensured and built long-term relationships with them.

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Wal-Mart used distribution centers to warehouse inventory for its stores.  In most cases Wal-Mart used its own trucks to pick up inventory from its suppliers, proving to be cost-effective aiding in more cost savings for customers.  Inventory turnover was very high, about once every two weeks for most inventory items (ICFAI 2004).  In some cases, suppliers delivered goods such as automotive and drug products to the stores (ICFAI 2004). About 85% of the goods that were available at the stores passed through the distribution centers (ICFAI 2004). The distribution centers were used to keep a continuous and consistent flow of ...

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