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 A management information system (MIS) is a system
or process that provides information needed to
manage organizations effectively

 Management information systems are distinct from

regular information systems in that they are used to
analyze other information systems applied in
operational activities in the organization.

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g Sam Walton, a businessman from Arkansas,
began his retail career when he started work on
June 3, 1940,

g He opened a new Ben Franklin franchise in

Bentonville, Arkansas but called it
"Walton's Five and Dime.´

g On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Wal-Mart

Discount City store located in Rogers, Arkansas.
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g Wal-Mart's success is solely due to their efficiency in

supply chain management and logistics.

g Wal-Mart turns over their inventory on a weekly basis.

 

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 104 Wal-Mart stores and 36 Sam's Clubs, the company

has installed RFID readers at the receiving docks at the
back of the building, near the trash compactors and
between the back room and the retail floor.

 For the cases of goods that are shipped to the stores

with RFID tags, Wal-Mart records their arrival by reading
the tag on each case and then reads the tags again
before the cases are brought out to the sales floor.

 By using sales data from its existing point-of-sales

system, which is not using RFID, Wal-Mart subtracts the
number of cases of a particular item that are sold to
customers from the number of cases brought out to the
sales floor.
 


 When a case is brought out to the sales floor, the

system records that it's being put out on the
shelves.

 When the case is read at the trash compactor, the

status within the system is changed to "on shelf."

 Suppliers can get updates on the location of their

goods within 30 minutes of the goods· movement
from one part of the store to another with a 98%
read rate.
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 Wal-Mart uses Retail Link to provide vendors with the

information needed to forecast demand for their
products

 To accurately forecast, Use Retail Link to view the

historical sales of your product.

 Insufficient work without the information provided

from Retail Link,.
 Wall -Marts Retail Link extranet, it has begun to
integrate RFID process, radio frequency identification
data, to the original 7 Wal-Mart stores in Texas.

 This technology gives an accurate reading on what items

have been replenished, therefore not relying on people
to record the information.

 By using this technology it will reduce out-of-stocks by

providing the location of goods with RFID tags.

 It helps the retailer by sharing its data with the suppliers

automatically notifying when
 items are on the shelves.
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 Using the RFID tags, shipments are automatically

entered into their system, and each department has
a handheld "Telxon" .

 Every tag on the shelves is scanned to get on-hands,

and when an item is purchased at the register, it is
automatically taken out of their system.
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g £oint-of-sale system : A computerized system that identifies

each item sold, finds its price in a computerized database,
creates an accurate sales receipt for the customer, and stores
this item-by-item sales information for use in analyzing sales
and reordering inventory. Aside from handling information
efficiently, effective use of this information helps Wal-Mart
avoid overstocking by learning what merchandise is selling
slowly.
g Over 5 year period, Wal-Mart invested over $600 million in
information systems.
g Telecommunications : Wal-Mart use telecommunications to link
directly from its stores to its central computer system and from
that system to its supplier's computers.
This allows automatic reordering and better coordination.
Knowing exactly what is selling well and coordinating closely
with suppliers permits Wal-Mart to tie up less money in
inventory than many of their competitors.
At its computerized warehouses, many goods arrive and
leave without ever sitting on a shelf. Only 10% of the floor
space in Wal-Mart stores is used as an inventory area,
compared to the 25% average for the industry.
  





g The idea of bar code scanning required that industry develop a

universal product code (U£C) system, a standard method for
identifying products with numbers and coding those numbers
as the type of bar code shown in the photo.
g The use of bar code scanners made it unnecessary to stamp
the price on every item (except in states that still require this
for consumer protection). This reduced costs but also
eliminated jobs of some of the clerks who formerly did the
stamping.
 



g
Wal-Mart has invested heavily in its unique cross-docking
inventory system. Cross docking has enabled Wal-Mart to
achieve economies of scale, which reduces its costs of sales.

With this system, goods are continuously delivered to stores

within 48 hours and often without having to inventory them.
The system reduced the handling and storage of finished
goods, virtually eliminating the role of the distribution centers
and stores.

The manufacturer directly forwarded the goods to a place

called the ´staging area.µ
g The goods are packed here according to the orders received
from different stores and then directly sent to the respective
customers.

Lower prices also eliminate the expense of frequent sales

promotions and sales are more predictable.

Cross docking gives the individual managers more control at

the store level.




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g In the early 1970s, Wal-Mart became one of the first
retailing companies in the world to centralize its
distribution system, pioneering the retail hub-and-
spoke system.

g Under the system, goods were centrally ordered,

assembled at a massive warehouse, known as
¶distribution center· (hub), from where they were
dispatched to the individual stores (spoke).
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g The hub and spoke system enabled Wal-Mart to

achieve significant cost advantages by the
centralized purchasing of goods in huge
quantities..
and distributing them through its own logistics
infrastructure to the retail stores spread across the
U.S.
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g Employees at the stores had the ´Magic Wand,µ
a hand-held computer which was linked to in-
store terminals through a radio frequency
network.

g These helped them to keep track of the

inventory in stores, deliveries, and backup
merchandise in stock at the distribution
centers.
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g Wal-Mart is one of the leading retail chain in

the world and is spread in many countries.
g The main reason for their success is the
effective utilization of latest technological
devices and systems for managing the
inventory and supply chain management.