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Name: Li Yunyun
Student Number: 120229121
Word Limit: 1960
Hand-In Date: 17.05.2013
Name: Li Yunyun
[L2](Traub,
costs constituted about 1.7% of its cost of sales, which was far less than the figure for its
certain competitors, say, Kmart (3.5%) and Sears (5%)(Johnson, 2006). This study will
attempt to demonstrate that information system/technology does of importance in the
success of supply chain management at Wal-Mart through analysing Wal-Marts
competencies, problems, information technologies used to facilitate its supply chain
management and certain metrics of the happy results.
Name: Li Yunyun
of retailers, Wal-Mart always follows EDLC (Everyday Low Costs) philosophy, which
means reducing costs while enhance productivity and efficiency throughout its supply
chain (Walmart, 2012).
Few can deny the reality that Wal-Marts efficient supply chain does gain competitive
edge for the company.
[L3]The
warehouse constitutes 85%; while for its competitors, this figure ranges from 50% to
65%. Also, the replenishment process only takes 2 days on average, compares with at
least 5 days for others. Additionally, both of Wal-Marts shipping costs and transport
costs stand at approximately 3%, of the total costs, while for its competitors, these two
percentages are about 5% (Chandran, 2003).
Name: Li Yunyun
Another competitive advantage is that there are a great many powerful suppliers who
are willing to sell their merchandise to Wal-Mart regardless of the lower prices
provided by the company. The reason for this may be the strong purchasing power
possessed by Wal-Mart. It was estimated that sales to Wal-Mart comprised 17% of
P&Gs revenues and 13% of Gillettes revenues (Johnson, 2006).
To enhance efficiency throughout supply chain, cooperation between Wal-Mart and its
suppliers is required. Thus, another challenge for this retail giant arises for two
reasons[L4]. Firstly, Wal-Mart owes 100.000 suppliers differing from company size and
product sales volume, to make all the vendors provide products needed at the lowest
price, a collaborative is necessary. But striking a balance of profit margin between
different parties is very difficult (Walmart, 2012; Chiles & Dau, 2005). Secondly,
because of the EDLP promise to customers, Wal-Mart is a tough negotiator when
purchasing items from manufactures. And the buyers of the company complete procure
process only when they feel customers cannot easily find lower prices for certain items
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Name: Li Yunyun
from their competitors (Chandran, 2003). According to an article called Should you
just say no to Wal-Mart? written by Bowman (1997 cited in Bloom & Perry, 2001),
there are many suppliers feeling being squeezed and pressured by Wal-Mart by means
of lowering prices, shortening delivery time, offering special allowances and carrying
extra inventories.
The retail giant has actually experimented central database, store-level point-of-sale
systems and satellite network since mid-1980s. When combining with the utilisation of
barcodes, it would be possible for staff acquiring and analysing real-time information in
stores. And the combination of sales information and certain external data, say, weather
forecast, enables Wal-Mart to help buyers making purchasing forecasts more accurate
(Johnson, 2006).
Name: Li Yunyun
(Chandran, 2003).
Logistics:
Nevertheless, the integration of REMIX technology, the global satellite system that has
benefited Wal-Mart greatly in recent years, seems to change the way used currently to
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Name: Li Yunyun
distribute high velocity products (bread, lettuce, etc.) that are cross docked in smaller
warehouses and have lower level of automation throughout the supply chain. Instead,
this technology enables one distribution centre to serve a cluster of retail outlets so that
to add food distribution centres handling high velocity products (Abbaterusso, 2010).
Inventory management:
By the use of IT capacities possessed, Wal-Mart can better control the level of inventory
i.e., storing more items that are popular among customers while reducing overall
inventory. Furthermore, computers can link Wal-Mart with the vendors. For instance,
Wal-Mart is cooperating with P&G to maintain inventories in retail outlets and build
reordering system linking all computers of P&G to the companys stores and
warehouses, the computer system would send message to P&G when identifying
certain product needs to be replenish, and then the system will send a replenishment
order to the nearest P&G before P&G delivers items demanded to distribution centre or
to stores (Chandran, 2003).
Besides, Inforem and RFID can also facilitate inventory management. Inforem is a
system contributing to the automation of Wal-Marts replenishment process. This
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Name: Li Yunyun
system can decide when to order and how many inventories to order, which renders
replenishment more accurate (Chiles & Dau, 2005). And the installation of RF
technology enables retailers to know the location and quantity of inventory accurately
without counting manually, which can be very time-consuming and prone to errors
(Dunne&Lusch, 2005). But a critical problem limiting the widespread experimentation
of RFID system is costs involved. In 2000, the cost of a single tag was roughly $1. In
2003, the average price of RF tags varied from 15 to 20 cents. But it is predicted that the
use of RFID would be widespread provided that only when the cost of each tag can
reach 5 cents or lower (Donovan, 2003 cited in Prater, et al., 2005).
Overall, Wal-Mart seems always adopts information technology for supply chain
management from mid-1980s to now, and the installation of these systems/technologies
does help in each link within a supply chain; also, these technologies aiding enhancing
core competencies have been kept changing and innovating.
Metrics:
Some claim that successful supply chain management (SCM) generally contributes to
lower product costs and highly competitive pricing for the buyer (University of San
Francisco, 2013). Thus, the happy end would be measured from these two aspects.
Price of goods can be used as a reliable indicator of the improvement of supply chain at
Wal-Mart. Over recent years, it does not guarantee the lowest price in the market, but it
can guarantee a relatively low overall price i.e., it is possible for other retailer to price
certain products lower than Wal-Mart at certain time, say, promotional activity (Chiles
& Dau, 2005).
Name: Li Yunyun
incoming goods (Boyle, 2003, n.p. cited in Jones, et al., 2005). Besides, warehouse and
distribution costs can be reduced by 3 to 5 percent through adopting RF technology
(Wrolstad, 2004 cited in Jones, et al., 2005).
In conclusion, Wal-Mart, the largest retailer over the world, has held its top position
within retail sector for many years. It shows in the case that Wal-Marts competitive
advantages can be mostly attributed to its efficient supply chain (lower distribution
costs, less delivery time, etc.). And IT and communication systems have fully been used
and kept innovating for enhancing the productivity while reducing costs of Wal-Marts
supply chain since last century. Moreover, these systems/technologies can, to some
extent, help the retail giant solve problems faced through ensuring the accuracy and
efficiency of the whole supply chain and promoting communication and collaboration
between Wal-Mart and its partners within supply chain.
Referencing List:
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Name: Li Yunyun
Bloom, P. N. & Perry, V. G., 2001. Retailer power and supplier welfare: The case of
Wal-Mart. Journal of Retailing, 77 (2001), pp. 379-396.
Chiles, C. R. & Dau, M. T., 2005. An Analysis of Current Supply Chain Best Practices
in the Retail Industry with Case Studies of Wal-Mart and Amazon.com. Master.
Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
at:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2012/full_list/
Cottrill, K., 1997. Reforging the supply chain, Journal of Business Strategy, 18 (6), pp.
35-9.
Dunne, P. M., & Lusch, R. F., 2005. Retailing. 5th ed. Mason, OH: South-Western.
Jones, M.A. et al., 2005. The adoption of RFID technology in the retail supply chain.
The Coastal Business Journal, 4(1), pp. 29-42.
Name: Li Yunyun
Available
at:
http://www.resolvergrc.com/supply-chain-issues-plague-walmart/
Prater, E. et al., 2005. Future impacts of RFID on e-supply chains in grocery retailing.
Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 10(2), pp. 134-142.
at:
http://procureinsights.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/a-winning-strategy-is-walmartright-to-%E2%80%98delayer%E2%80%99-a-guest-author-post-by-iaccms-ceo-t
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tribution/cross-dock-solutions.aspx[Accessed 25 April 2013].
Supply Chain Digest, 2013. Supply Chain News: Walmart US Chief Says Sales are
Suffering Because of Challenges in Keeping Stores Shelves Stocked. [Online]
Available
at:
http://www.scdigest.com/ontarget/13-03-04-1.php?cid=6794&ctype=content
[Accessed 24 April 2013].
Tirchwell, P., 2004. Retailers raise the bar on logistics performance. The Journal of
Commerce, 5(3), 14-19.
Traub, T., 2012. Wal-Mart Used Technology to Become Supply Chain Leader. [Online]
Available
at:
http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/85508/wal-mart-used-technology-to-be
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Name: Li Yunyun
at:
http://www.usanfranonline.com/wal-mart-successful-supply-chain-management/
[Accessed 25 April 2013].
Walmart, 2012. 50 years of helping customers save money and live better, 2012 Annual
Report. Bentonville: Walmart.
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