Walmart's Supply Chain Management By: Brandon Robinson

Walmart's Success Rising five-year trend, Walmart® grossed $476 billion in the fiscal year that ended in January 2014, up from $408 billion in fiscal 2010 The National Retail Federation ranks Walmart as the world’s top retailer in 2014 based on global sales’ it has a “mature supplier collaboration process” supported by technology.

Supply Chain Components Walmart’s overall methods of supply chain management differ little from the main components of most supply chains: purchasing, operations, distribution, and integration. But Walmart has refined these methods.

Purchasing purchasing managers- who determine which products will sell, find vendors and arrange deals for the products. Removing chain links. Strategic Sourcing

Operations Operations portion of a supply chain focuses on demand planning, forecasting and inventory management. Technology plays a key role in Walmart’s supply chain Universal Product Code bar codes, Retail Link and Radio Frequency Identification Tags (RFID).

Distribution Moving the product from warehouses or manufacturing plants to stores and ultimately to customers. Cross-Docking.

Integration Supply chain integration connects the flow of work and information among all links in the supply chain to maximize efficiencies. Supply Chain Synchronization and Less Centralized Control. Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI),

Conclusion “Supply chain management is moving the right items to the right customer at the right time by the most efficient means”

References Lu, C. (2014, May 8). Incredibly successful supply chain management: How does walmart do it? Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.tradegecko.com/blog/incredibly-successful-supply-chain-management-walmart Walmart: Keys to Successful Supply Chain Management. (2015, January 1). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.usanfranonline.com/resources/supply-chain-management/walmart-keys-to-successful-supply-chain-management/#.VTWQwU10wq1