Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
PRODUCTIVITY
AND
MANAGEMENT, MEERUT
REPORT ON DISTRIBUTION & LOGISTIC MANAGEMENT
SUBMITTED TO:-
BIBEK BISWAS
ISHAN GHOSH
JAYBIR MAHTO
KUMAR AMRITANSU
CONTENT
NO. OF WORDS—3,591
Acknowledgement 3
Executive summary 4
Introduction 5
Conclusion 14
Bibliography 15
As we all know that the assignment needs hard work, keen insight and
long patience with deep vision based on content operation hence it
becomes a humble duty to express our sincere gratitude to Prof. Sham
Sharma sir for giving us this interesting & challenging project
However, we accept the sole responsibility for any possible errors and
would be extremely grateful to the readers of this report if they bring
such mistakes to our notice. We express our gratitude to all those who
directly or indirectly help me in this project.
So in this case study we have gone deep inside and we came to know
that about wal-mart & some of its supplier.
INTRODUCTION
History of Wal-Mart-
Sam Walton, a businessman from Arkansas, began his retail career when
he started work on June 3, 1940, at a J. C. Penney store in Des Moines,
Iowa where he remained for 18 months. In 1945, he met Butler Brothers,
a regional retailer that owned a chain of variety stores called Ben Franklin
and that offered him one in Newport, Arkansas. Walton was extremely
successful in running the store in Newport, far exceeding expectations.
However, when the lease came up for renewal, Walton could neither come
to agreement on the existing store's lease renewal nor find a new location
in Newport. Instead, he opened a new Ben Franklin franchise in
Bentonville, Arkansas, but called it "Walton's Five and Dime." There, he
achieved higher sales volume by marking up slightly less than most
competitors. On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount
City store located at 719 Walnut Ave. in Rogers, Arkansas. The building is
now occupied by a hardware store and an antique mall. Within five years,
the company expanded to 24 stores across Arkansas and reached $12.6
million in sales. In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas, in
Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (formerly branded as Wal-Mart, branded as
Wal-Mart since 2008 is an American public multinational corporation that
runs a chain of large discount department stores and a chain of
warehouse stores. In 2010 it was the world's largest public corporation by
revenue, according to the Forbes Global 2000 for that year. Incorporated
on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock
Exchange in 1972. Wal-Mart, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, is
the largest majority private employer. and the largest grocery retailer in
the United States. In 2009, it generated 51% of its US$258 billion sales in
the U.S. from grocery business. It also owns and operates the Sam's Club
retail warehouses in North America.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis of Wal-Mart
Strengths
• Brand Image:
Wal-Mart is a powerful retail brand. It has a reputation for value for
money, convenience and a wide range of products all in one store.
• Core competencies:
Wal-Mart has grown experienced global expansion The company
has a core competence involving its use of information technology
to support its international logistics system, cross docking, supply
chain management.
• Investment and R&D:
People are key to Wal-Mart's business and it invests time and
money in training people, and retaining a developing them.
Weaknesses
• Weakness due to huge span of control:
Wal-Mart is the World's largest grocery retailer and control of its
empire, despite its IT advantages, could leave it weak in some
areas due to the huge span of control.
• Since Wal-Mart sell products across many sectors (such as clothing,
food, or stationary), it may not have the flexibility of some of its
more focused competitors.
Lead farms also serve as a meeting place for in-field, hands-on technical
training sessions. Trainings are organized on a case-by-case basis based
on the needs of individuals and groups of producers. To ensure optimum
technical support, technicians generally maintain continuous contact with
lead and beneficiary farmers via phone and in-person farm visits. Lead
farmers also assist in providing technical assistance to beneficiary
farmers.
Basically this is a direct threat from Wal-Mart to the suppliers, and they
have the power to do so. Carey, a partner at Bain & Co., gives the
example of his friend in the umbrella business that once supplied for Wal-
Mart. One year the umbrella owner went to Wal-Mart and requested a five
percent increase in sales price and Wal-Mart turned him down. The owner
then lowered his request to a small two percent increase and Wal-Mart
denied his request completely and even quit doing business with them
altogether. They told him that they would go with a Chinese manufacturer
which was incredibly cheaper than him.
Which was founded in 1926, had, by the 1990s, become the sixth-largest
producer of women's lingerie in the United States, employing 700
workers. Wal-Mart became the biggest purchaser of Lovable's goods. In
1995, Wal-Mart demanded that Lovable slash its prices to compete with
cheap imports. When Lovable indicated it could not do that, Wal-Mart
illegally reneged on its contract, and outsourced the lingerie production to
Ibero-America, Asia, and China. Without the Wal-Mart market, in 1998
Lovable had to close its American manufacturing facilities and fire the
workers. Stated Frank Garson, who was then Lovable's president, "Their
actions to pulverize people are unnecessary. Wal-Mart chewed us up and
spit us out."
Wal-Mart buys a lot of its goods from China, which in many sections of
the country, pays very low wages. One case that has come to light
concerns the Ching Hai Electric Works Co. in Shajing, which produces
electric fans. The factory makes several million fans per year, and sells
them under many of the world's leading brand names, and also under two
of the company's own names. The workers' starting salary is $32 per
month, which is more than 40% below China's minimum wage of $56 per
month. There are also reportedly many workplace accidents in the
factory. In the late 1990s, Wal-Mart started making demands that the
price of the fans be lowered, and they have fallen from approximately $7,
to $4 per fan. But to lower the price, the manager of the plant had to cut
its workforce in half, to 1,500 workers, while maintaining the same level
of orders. This has led to many workers working 14 hours per day, for a
little amount.
It’s also found that the companies currently worked as a supplier for
walmart most would say it’s great one about their relationship, as they
don’t want to say anything at all. A lot of companies refused to even
discuss Wal-Mart on any level. Just by refusing to talk, it is easy to grasp
how powerful Wal-Mart is. Companies do not want to take chance saying
anything that could be taken negatively if Wal-Mart heard about it
because they can stop doing business with any supplier at the drop of a
hat. Most companies cannot afford to lose their market share they get
from Wal-Mart shoppers. It’s hard to work with Wal-Mart, but it’s hard not
to work with them at the same time.
Wal-Mart is the number one retailer in the World and is at the top of the
Fortune 500 listing. Wal-Mart operates in many countries world-wide and
is moving into new countries every year.
Wal-Mart is also expanding as a retailer. They have expanded into many
other sectors of the marketplace, including groceries, gas stations,
electronics, and auto maintenance. Each year, Wal-Mart finds new ways
to grow and offer more services to their customers.
As a result of Wal-Mart's ever growing size and variety of services they
offer, an efficient supply chain management and their public affairs
department is going to become more and more important. And as the
animosity against Wal-Mart becomes more widespread, here and in
foreign countries, Wal-Mart is going to have to work harder to maintain
their good reputation. Wal-Mart's foundation will become increasingly
more important for giving things back to the community. In order for Wal-
Mart to stay at the top of their game and follow the company strategy and
achieve their key policy goals, they are going to have deal better with
their stakeholders and make sure they guard their reputation well. Apart
from their core competency it also provides assistance to its suppliers
also, as it is mentioned in the report that there are evidences which
shows its support providing to farmers. Fintrac worked with Wal-Mart to
improve their quality of agricultural practices.
On the other hand Wal-Mart has ravaged companies by leveraging its
enormous sales power and its access to products produced by slave labor,
to make suppliers follow its pricing decision.
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2003/3046wal-mart_pricing.html