assignment on supply chain management of walmart

Walmart Supply Chain: What Makes It (Still) So Successful

By Meredith Flora Last updated on February 23, 2024

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Table of Contents

What makes Walmart’s supply chain so successful?

Walmart and shipbob’s winning fulfillment combo, walmart supply chain faqs.

With a revenue of over $570 billion , Walmart continues to rank number one on Fortune’s Global 500 list. This marks their ninth consecutive year at the top position, making Walmart the largest company in the world by revenue.

Walmart’s success can be attributed to having their own supply chain to streamline fulfillment and cut down on costs. It also provides them with more control over their logistics network .

In this article, we take a closer look at the Walmart supply chain and why it continues to be so successful decades later.

Walmart’s supply chain success can be attributed to their tactful decisions to start investing in the right initiatives, including technology and expanding their logistics network, to provide value in the ecommerce space.

Below we break down the various initiatives that has made Walmart’s supply chain successful.

Early investment in supply chain optimization

Walmart’s focus on optimization is one of the largest factors contributing to the brand’s supply chain success.

The retail giant is constantly striving to improve existing systems and processes to create an optimized and efficient supply chain to provide their customers with “everyday low prices” — one of the company’s unique (and renowned) selling points.

Among the many supply chain optimization strategies, the company places great emphasis on omnichannel — multiple channels available to its customers. Walmart’s Marketplace creates a home for thousands of retail stores with the ultimate goal to save time for the consumer.

Walmart also provides multiple marketplace fulfillment options, such as in-store pickup, ship from store, and even digital pharmacy fulfillment. Globally, Walmart offers 7,000+ pickup locations and 5,000+ delivery locations.

Fine-tuning the supply chain management system

Walmart is constantly striving to improve their supply chain management system.

From the get-go, the company started removing links within the supply chain and purchased goods in bulk to be transported directly to their stores.

They then began working directly with manufacturers and distributors to cut out the middleman to further streamline the supply chain.

This approach plays a key role in their supply chain success. With fewer players in the supply chain, the company can lower costs and cut back on lead times to offer quick and affordable fulfillment .

Developing strong relationships with vendors early on

Walmart’s strong relationships with vendors have played a major role in their supply chain success. They go straight to the source and identify vendors who can provide them with the best price and can meet their high-volume demands.

Walmart establishes strategic partnerships with these vendors, guaranteeing them consistent business through long-term, high-volume purchases. In return, the company can enjoy wholesale prices, which keeps customer prices competitive throughout the years.

To further strengthen these relationships, Walmart also establishes open communication networks with their vendors. This allows them to improve the flow of inventory within the supply chain and anticipate possible disruptions before they escalate into larger problems, such as backorders , stockouts, and delivery delays.

Outsourcing inventory control with vendor managed inventory (VMI)

Walmart has further strengthened and simplified their supply chain by implementing a vendor management inventory (VMI) model.

VMI involves suppliers managing their own inventory that’s stored in Walmart’s warehouses. With this approach, the company puts the responsibility of managing inventory in the hands of suppliers, so they can save time and money on inventory management.

With an electronically backed VMI system, suppliers have access to Walmart’s inventory data, allowing them to keep track of real-time inventory levels and sales. This makes it easy monitor how much stock is available and how certain products are sold.

Based on this information, they can see when they need to send more inventory to Walmart and keep their stock replenished.

This simplified inventory management model results in fewer delays in replenishment and reduces stockouts. It’s particularly useful since Walmart deals with hundreds of thousands of SKUs from thousands of suppliers, which can get complicated and expensive to manage.

By transferring some of the inventory control activities to the vendors, the company can save time and focus on tasks that need to be handled in-house.

It also means that Walmart doesn’t need to spend more on dedicated personnel to manage the inventory coming from each supplier, which results in lower costs for them. All Walmart has to do is monitor the transport of inventory from warehouses to their stores.

Capitalizing on the power of technology

As Walmart undergoes a digital transformation , they’re making extensive investments in supply chain digitization and infrastructure. These investments have contributed to the successful supply chain that we see today.

Between 2019 and 2020, 72% of Walmart’s strategic capital expenditures were attributed to supply chain transformation , which includes supply chain technologies, infrastructure, and ecommerce. During this period, the company spent more than $11 billion.

These investments have resulted in faster, more flexible fulfillment , and more accurate demand forecasting .

Walmart also uses technology in their initiative to reduce packaging waste. Packaging algorithms make it easier to find the right-size packaging for each product by accurately capturing product dimensions and other attributes.

Additionally, Walmart has implemented an advanced warehouse management system (WMS) in their distribution centers . This more nuanced WMS supports better inventory control and labor planning to streamline their supply chain operations .

Overall, one of the largest technological investments they’ve made is in automation. Autonomous mobile robots are helping warehouse staff move pallets, while other automation tools are used for picking items or packing them inside containers.

Walmart has also made significant investments in sortation equipment, which will automatically sort products and allocate them to the right locations within the warehouse. Robust warehouse control systems help to establish a link between these automation equipment and the WMS.

ShipBob is an official Walmart partner and participates in Walmart’s TwoDay delivery program .

ShipBob’s fulfillment platform integrates with Walmart Marketplace to display free 2-day delivery badging and fulfills 2-day orders approved by marketplace sellers.

Here is how ShipBob’s integration with Walmart works.

Two-day shipping

assignment on supply chain management of walmart

By connecting ShipBob with Walmart , businesses can provide two-day shipping with 100% coverage across the continental United States.

You can connect your Walmart store to ShipBob in minutes, sync your inventory, and choose what fulfillment center locations to send inventory to.

Your “Free 2-day delivery” badge will appear prominently near the “Add to Cart” button, which captures attention and generates, on average, 50% more conversions.

ShipBob’s on-time delivery rate is over 95%, which provides merchants with reliability and speed.

“DTC is our bread and butter, and with ShipBob we can offer 2-day shipping, gift notes, and other aspects of the modern delivery experience that consumers want.” Aaron Patterson, COO of The Adventure Challenge

Warehousing

ShipBob offers warehousing solutions to help you manage your inventory more efficiently. When you outsource fulfillment to ShipBob, our team of fulfillment experts take care of the entire process of receiving, storing, and managing your inventory.

By storing your inventory across one or more fulfillment center location, you benefit from lower warehousing costs while also improving delivery speeds.

Once ShipBob receives your inventory and orders are placed on Walmart.com, they are automatically sent to ShipBob to be picked, packed, and shipped.

From the ShipBob fulfillment platform, you can track activity, manage SKUs and inventory levels across locations, and view storage costs.

“ShipBob’s analytics are a huge bonus for a merchant looking to partner with a single 3PL that has a built-in order management tool. I was so stoked about being able to see the optimized layout of where you should be distributing your inventory is great. Having inventory and warehouse management capabilities built into your 3PL is such a value-add, especially for smaller companies.” Juliana Brasil, Director of Operations at Food Huggers

Inventory management

ShipBob’s inventory management tools further simplify the fulfillment process by providing a single dashboard to view real-time inventory levels across locations.

With real-time insight into inventory, you can get ahead of inventory replenishment, access data to improve demand forecasting, and make better business decisions.

You can even keep track of the number of units sold per day, so you know when to prepare for inventory replenishment. From the ShipBob dashboard, you can use the inventory data available to set reorder points to prevent stockouts .

Walmart integration

ShipBob’s integration with Walmart improves product visibility on Walmart Marketplace while also having your orders fulfilled through ShipBob.

Thanks to ShipBob’s omnichannel fulfillment capabilities, your inventory levels are updated in real time to reflect the purchases across all your sales channels, including Walmart. This way, you don’t end up accidentally selling more products than you have in stock.

With the Walmart integration, you can get your products in front of millions of customers and provide a seamless order fulfillment experience.

To learn more about how ShipBob partners with Walmart, contact ShipBob today.

Here are answers to the top questions about Walmart supply chain.

Does Walmart have its own supply chain?

Yes, Walmart has one of the largest supply chains in the world. Their nuanced supply chain establishes a more direct relationship between vendors and end consumers. Walmart runs their own distribution centers and partners with logistics companies like ShipBob to further expand their supply chain network.

What is Walmart’s supply chain strategy?

Walmart’s supply chain strategy is highly focused on direct, long-term relationships with manufacturers, distributors, and ecommerce businesses. The goal is to reduce the number of touchpoints within the supply chain to reduce lead times and speed up fulfillment. Walmart also heavily invests in supply chain technology to improve efficiency and accuracy throughout their network.

What are the advantages of selling on Walmart Marketplace?

Selling on the Walmart Marketplace will give you access to the retailer’s 120+ million monthly customers. This means you can get your products in front of a massive audience, which will improve the chances of boosting sales. Moreover, the Walmart Marketplace doesn’t charge you any monthly fees. Marketplace fees are commission-based, which means you only pay a fee when you make a sale.

Written By:

Meredith Flora

Meredith is a Content Marketing Specialist at ShipBob, where she writes articles, eGuides, and other resources to help growing ecommerce businesses master their logistics and fulfillment.

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Half a Century of Supply Chain Management at Wal-Mart

By: P. Fraser Johnson, Ken Mark

Length: 23 page(s)
Publication Date: Apr 19, 2012
Discipline: Operations Management
Product #: W12894-PDF-ENG

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A stock analyst is preparing a recommendation on what his firm, a large U.S. investment house, should do with its stake in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, was trying to recover from a series of missteps that had seen competitors such as Dollar Stores and Amazon.com close the performance gap. Competitors had copied many aspects of Wal-Mart's distribution system, from cross-docking product to eliminate storage time in warehouses, positioning stores around distribution centres, and widespread adoption of electronic data interchange (EDI), to manage ordering and shipping from suppliers.

Learning Objectives

There are several topics that can be discussed with this case: Supply chain management Sustainability of competitive advantages Competition in global retail

Apr 19, 2012 (Revised: Nov 12, 2013)

Discipline:

Operations Management

Geographies:

United States

Industries:

Retail trade

Ivey Publishing

W12894-PDF-ENG

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Case Study | Wal-Marts Supply Chain Management Practices

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Detailed discussion on Walmart’s supply chain management

Your report needs to include the following:

a brief overview of the organisation and its supply chain within the select scope. You can delimit the scope, for example, by focusing on a set of products/services or by addressing a part of the supply chain. Here you are also required to provide a high-level map of the supply chain using simple tools available in MS Word. (i.e. no need to use special software).
critical analysis and evaluation of the following three areas within the supply chain of the organisation:
supply chain complexity
supply chain risk management, and
supply chain sustainability
three well-justified recommendations to improve a set of supply chain performance measures based on your analysis and evaluation above (i.e. one for each), plus discussion on how each recommendation could be applied.
a discussion section on how the future of the organisation’s supply chain should look, reflecting on what we learn from the ‘supply chain of the future’ sub-topic (e.g. see ‘emerging mega-trends’ or ‘seven major business transformations’) or ‘managing the global supply chain’ topic.

Introduction Supply chain is analyzed as the process of suppliers needed for creating the specific product for the organization. Walmart’s supply chain management is considered to handle as well as optimize the process of supply chain which includes the goods and services. It is considered as important in the commerce. The effective strategies are required to be followed for the supply chain management. The report includes the analysis of Walmart’s supply chain management. In supply chain, the three areas which are supply chain complexity, supply chain risk management and supply chain sustainability will be discussed in the report. The recommendations to the organization will be provided to improve the set of supply chain performance measures.

Overview of the organization and its supply chain in distribution

Walmart is engaged in wholesale and retail business where they maintain a various outlets and warehouses across the world. The company provides various goods and services at low prices every day. It operates from various business units like Walmart USA, Walmart Sam’s Club and Walmart International. The US division of Wal-Mart is a purchaser of consumer products. Under the walmatrt, they have Wal-Mart, Walmart neighborhood markets, along with walmart.com and other brands in e-commerce market. Walmart International manages various hypermarkets, supermarkets, super centers, warehouse clubs, and cash and withdrawals outside the US. The Sam Club section includes the membership of samclub.com and warehouse club. The company was founded in 1945 by Samuel Moore Walton and James Lawrence Walton and having their headquarters in Bentonville, Pennsylvania, USA.

Wal-Mart earlier has a small share in the logistics and supply chain industry. The American retailer has a stock of products that came from 70 nations across the globe, has more than 11,000 outlets, and manages a huge inventory worth US$33 billion. From household furniture to clean food, Walmart has every type of stock. As per many experts, the technology used by Walmart allows them to forge such a vast network. Walmart has commence their chain from 1962 and keep on updating their technology to improve the business and customer base on recurring manner. Companies in their supply chain synchronize their expected sales through planning, collaboration, forecasting and replenishing systems.

Walmart’s supply chain management

Each chain is connected by the database system which is centrally organized and a sale system which is store level linked along with a satellite system (Golicic aand Smith, 2013). When implementing their supply chain strategies, the company does not engage in the business of cooperating and sharing information with other parties. Walmart has truly changed the retail industry through its collaborative approach of exchanging the information among their suppliers, distribution centers and stores. In order to provide a seamless experience of shopping and provide the functions necessary to promote growth, it is making tremendous efforts, from changing the appearance of the store to implementing novel technologies for its employees (Dao, et al., 2015).

Source: (Dao, et al., 2015)

What are the three areas of Walmart’s supply chain management? In the Walmart’s supply chain management, the various areas are included which are required to be analyzed for the achieving the objectives. The three major areas which are evaluated in the Walmart are supply chain complexity, supply chain risk management and supply chain sustainability.

Supply chain complexity The complexity of the supply chain is caused by multiple factors, which are usually the result of increasing customer hope for faster delivery times, customized experience and expanded products. These determinant force owners of the brand to provide customers with more unique orders in their entire supply chain, need to strengthen cooperation with business owners, improve the management of inventory with supply vendors, and have deep visibility and control in all steps involving supply chain. An answer to why complexity exists in the supply chain is that expectations of the customers have turned out greatly over the few years in the past (Christopher, 2016). Buyers are eager to maintain transparency and flexibility in the process of their purchase, and make unique fulfillment idea a necessity, majorly for organisation that want to maintain or grow their commerce with their existing customers. Some of the expectations include are mentioned in below paragraph.

Whether it is B2C delivery on the same day or B2B order-to-order fast delivery, It is observed that the delivery cycle has been greatly shortened to meet customer needs. Although this can act as a source of advantage among its competition a few years back, it is a must in the economy of today. Walmart has maintained and improved its delivery cycle to create the image among customers. Moreover, customers want to track the status of the delivery of the order made by them where they need an effective tracking mechanism. They do not expect a fast delivery but wanted to maintain accuracy regarding the timeline within which the order is going to deliver. Walmart had also faced such issues in their delivery mechanism and need to involve an effective technology to support such requirement. Furthermore, business expectations greatly affect the complexity of the supply chain. Most of the corporates do not desire to keep the status quo, but want to go beyond it. The world post internet provides huge opportunities for every company to expand its business scope and cover a larger and wider customer base. However, this growth has greatly increased the complexity to satisfy new consumers. Some of its factors includes the expansion of market where in order to increase more turnover, business need to increase its reach to different market, involving new supplying vendors, faster delivery modes and customer satisfaction. Acquisition of other business is also a way to expand where business purchase another business in same line in order to remove the competition and enhance the customer base (Mangan and Lalwani, 2016). Walmart have followed the same approach in order to reach its business existence in various parts of the world and have remarked its position in the market. Apart from this, the relationship between suppliers and partners is essential to expand your influence among existing customers and reach new customers. However, maintaining such relations that are critical to satisfaction of customers and evaluating, negotiating, and optimizing these affairs that add on complexity. Collaboration between suppliers and understanding of partners is critical to success. The company keep on facing such issues in Walmart’s supply chain management and have enrolled various managers to mitigate such complexities (Negi and Anand, 2014).

Supply chain risk management In this, there are various aspects which needs to identify to mitigate the evolving risk. Such components are mentioned below.

Operational Coordination: This includes cooperation between suppliers and company by aligning the supplier's product flow with the speed of retail. Walmart, the largest retailer in the United States, achieves this goal through supplier-managed inventory. By this model, Walmart enables suppliers to access the data related to point sales, and with such data, the vendor is responsible for maintaining shelf inventory. They send products automatically on inventory and sales. Although this poses risks to suppliers, it also has benefits (Tan, et al., 2018). First, it helps in avoiding over inventory and easy stock outs, which can lead to the need for discounts. Second, through various sales promotions, they can predict the sales and demand. This mechanism also helps Walmart to keep the everyday low prices and maintaining its value.

Push mode: Traditionally, the cost of production is optimized by pushed mechanism. If the prediction is wrong, it will push up the inventory efficiency, but it is risky, and due to obsolescence, reduction, and storage, one cannot understand the actual cost of inventory. Switching to the pull system that responds to customer needs will affect efficiency of production and increases its effectiveness, thereby diminishing the risk of overstocking (Barney, 2012).

Determining the risk appetite of operations: It usually does not adequately address the degree of risk that the company is willing to accept or pursue its goals. If an organization knows it, then it can have conflicting and multiple views from various individuals and departments within the company. The top priority of the organization is to manage the efficiency and risk (Waters and Rinsler, 2014).

Design of supply chain: Walmart’s supply chain management operates in various ways, reflecting the characteristics of product, capabilities of vendor and customer needs. The design of supply chain does also involve various mechanism to support the transportation of products with optimized transportation, promote reverse mechanism to repair of dispose products. The design of its supply chain must be created on the equilibrium between operational risk and performance. Walmart has strong logistics mechanism and sometimes faces issues which they keep on updating through various channels (Allen, et al., 2014).

Assessment of resilience of operation: Resilience means the capability to recuperate from a disaster or adapt to hardship, rebound from an incident, and reach a stronger condition than previous to the interruption. Its value came from predicting the duration and cost of harm and taking steps to reduce both. Here the cost is computed from the inaction. Company will be able to increase the layer of effective risk only when the disruption cost is more than the cost to reduce risk (Van der Vorst and Beulens, 2012).

Supply chain sustainability A truly sustainable supply chain will not cause damage to social or natural systems, and at the same time will generate profits over a longer period of time. If customers are willing to establish a truly sustainable supply chain, continue to do business, a supply chain sustainability is calculated by the triple base line i.e. planet, profit and impact on people, which is considered as major component of supply chain.

Supply chain act as a linkage between a output function and input function in Walmart. In addition to conventional challenges, like reducing costs, ensuring punctual delivery and shortening a time of transportation, new challenges facing environmental friendly goods also include new measures that are conducive to logistics management. This change in paradigm normally reflects people's understanding that profitable supply chains can only come through sustainability (Nguyen, 2017). When considering sustainability, various organisation consider business operations of their own. As a result, the correct cost pertains to environment cannot be computed out. It is also possible that the waste remain untouched in the supply chain. Now, the sustainability of the supply chain can be computed out, and the supply chain can formulate a sustainable action plan. Walmart’s supply chain management needs cooperation to establish a successful and sustainable supply chain. Through collaboration, the supply chain can share allocations, so half of the empty vehicles would not return back to the destination. Similarly, the products pertains to same address can be delivered on the same truck. They can also jointly invest in canals, airships etc. through some methodology, thereby reducing the impact on environment and reducing costs.

There are 3 levels of sustainability achievement criteria where the first one is called a base level where all the organizations take a small steps in reducing costs such as switching the lights off, recycling paper, switching the idle systems off, etc. Some of measures including technology like teleconferencing, procurement of staff centrally, etc. are addition initiatives taken by the management in this level (Meredith and Shafer, 2019). Another one refer to thinking sustainable where companies have begun to realize the need to incorporate their sustainability into the operation pertains to supply chain and review their stage within the scope of local operations. The supply chain involves rationalization and optimization of distribution and manufacturing, product design and supplier management, etc. The last level is called scientific sustainability where companies use tools such as benchmarking and audits, which offer a structure for managing the operations of supply chain. In this way, the impact of the environment on the agility, cost, and flexibility of the supply chain network can be clearly assessed. Walmart’s supply chain management highlight green operations and promotes operations to standardize organisation and operations of the government (Chen and Yu, 2014).

The corporate team in management of Walmart has been struggling for most of the past, focusing only on operational efficiency, profits and growth. But now, the company broadened its horizons and established a network of employees, non-profit organizations and various agencies of government. They are collaborating and establishing contacts with different NGOs to enhance the sustainability factor of their supply chain. They will not add costs related to sustainability to customers (Green, et al., 2012).

Recommendations Below are the three recommendations to improve the performance of the supply chain.

Distribution network: The distribution network of the Walmart is the operational hub which company should build. Distribution affects all aspects from tracking of delivery to sales strategy. The major purpose is to enhance the distribution network, which Walmart can achieve through a cluster view or holistic approach which is required for the supply chain complexity. Using the holistic approach, company can check the basic parts in the network of distribution and willing to compute out how the assessories work in synchronized way. If the efficiency is not what Walmart expect, they can determine where the company need to make changes. Unlike the holistic approach, the cluster view combines diagrams, graphs, and other detailed information to help you focus on the flow of company-specific functions. It will help in making the process effective.

Monitoring Cash flows for supply chain risk management: Cash flow monitoring is considered as the basic tool used by various businesses for enhancing supplier management. It is analyzed as essential for tracking the payments of the different department in the process of supply chain and developing tbhe effective plans for understanding the technologies which are usef=d for transferring the money (Christopher, 2016). Simply put, the company is required to understand the process of payments to vendors and logistics companies, how often they are paid, the means of payment, and any fees transferred to consumers. In case of supplier management, payment technology is included for pay bills to the suppliers, like POS machines, electronic pads used by warehouse workers when receiving goods. This can be very good mechanism for Walmart in improving the tracking of their cashflows.

Mapping of supply chain for sustainability: Walmart is required to prepare and follow the map for the challenges which are faced in the supply chain sustainability. The steps includes the inventory suppliers, identification of environmental and social challenges and prioritizing the suppliers efforts. They can adopt the CHSM Hill for the supply chain sustainability strategy for evaluating the products and completing the procedure of supply chain. Effective sustainability requires the communication which is required to be done with the suppliers.

Supply chain of the future Walmart’s supply chain will have a broader outlook for future which are defined below. Fulfillment centers will become a novel kind of store: Company is of view that retail supply chains used to be one-way, but they are now more like spaghetti leading in every direction. This is largely due to organisation changing the way they handle the fulfillment of an order.

The future Walmart’s supply chain management will be digital which will also include the collective strategy development and win- win thinking. It will include the strategic vendor partnerships by constructing the communication as well as relationships with the suppliers to improve the material flow with the low inventory level.

The future supply chain will include the new model which involves to create the virtual network and customer value oriented. Walmart’s future supply chain will be transformed from the supplier-centric to customer centric. In order to face the challenges, the Walmart will be transformed from the functions to the processes of the organizational structure (Christopher, 2016).

The effective technology will be adopted in the future supply chain which is essential for the supply chain strategy. The Radio frequency identification tags will be used which includes the codes for tracking the products. Walmart’s supply chain management strategy can delivers the business with a number of sustainable competitive advantages, containing reducing product costs, reducing inventory costs, improving in-store varieties and choices, and providing consumers with highly competitive prices. The strategy provides help to Wal-Mart for becoming a dominant force in the highly competitive market across the world. With the development of technology, Wal-Mart is required for focusing on innovating process and system for improving the supply chain and increasing the efficiency (Sarkis, 2013).

Digital transformation is considered as the biggest future of Walmart’s supply chain which includes to bring the change in technologies, techniques in the process of supply chain. Walmart can adopt the latest technologies for bringing the change in the supply chain. By using the EDI with suppliers, Walmart supply chain in future will help in cutting the various transaction costs. It will help in linking with the suppliers effectively and maintaining the relationship for the growth and delivering the products.

Conclusion At the end, to conclude it is analyzed that the Walmart adopt the various strategies for managing the supply chain of the business. The key areas of supply chain are analyzed in the report which is supply chain complexity, risk management and sustainability. It is analyzed that in Walmart the areas are required to be evaluated for measuring the performance and increasing the productivity of the organization. The three recommendations are provided for improving the set of supply chain measures. In Walmart, the future of Walmart’s supply chain management which look digitalized by implementing the SCM system. In order to manage the global supply chain, they are required to bring the inventory innovation.

Reference Allen, J., Browne, M., Woodburn, A., and Leonardi, J., 2014, January. A review of urban consolidation centres in the supply chain based on a case study approach. In Supply Chain Forum: an international journal (Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 100-112). Taylor & Francis.

Barney, J.B., 2012. Purchasing, supply chain management and sustained competitive advantage: The relevance of resource?based theory. Journal of supply chain management, 48(2), pp.3-6.

Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.

Dao, N.H.T., Daniel, J., Hutchinson, S. and Naderpour, M., 2015. Logistics and Supply Chain Management Investigation: A Case Study. Walmart’s supply chain management In Service Research and Innovation (pp. 216-230). Springer, Cham.

Golicic, S.L. and Smith, C.D., 2013. A meta?analysis of environmentally sustainable supply chain management practices and firm performance. Journal of supply chain management, 49(2), pp.78-95.

Green, K.W., Zelbst, P.J., Meacham, J. and Bhadauria, V.S., 2012. Green supply chain management practices: impact on performance. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 17(3), pp.292-295.

Mangan, J. and Lalwani, C.C., 2016. Global logistics and supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.

Meredith, J.R. and Shafer, S.M., 2019. Operations and supply chain management for MBAs. Wiley.

Negi, S. and Anand, N., 2014. Green and sustainable supply chain management practices-a study of Wal-Mart. Journal of Operations and Supply Chain Management, 7, pp.141-157.

Nguyen, T.T.H., 2017. Wal-Mart’s successfully integrated supply chain and the necessity of establishing the Triple-A supply chain in the 21st century. Journal of Economics & Management, 29, pp.102-117.

Sarkis, J., 2013. A strategic decision framework for green supply chain management. Journal of cleaner production, 11(4), pp.397-409.

Tan, B., Yan, J., Chen, S. and Liu, X., 2018, December. The impact of blockchain on food supply chain: the case of Walmart. In International Conference on Smart Blockchain (pp. 167-177). Springer, Cham.

Van der Vorst, J.G. and Beulens, A.J., 2012. Identifying sources of uncertainty to generate supply chain redesign strategies. Walmart’s supply chain management International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 32(6), pp.409-430.

Waters, D. and Rinsler, S., 2014. Global logistics: New directions in supply chain management. Kogan Page Publishers.

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Operations Management Assignment: Supply Chain Management Of WalMart & Amazon

Task: Develop a detailed and well-researched operations management assignment report that identify, analyze, and compare the supply chains of Amazon and Wal Mart. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each. Determine and justify which supply chain is likely to be more effective over the next 5 years.

1. Introduction The present report on operations management assignment sheds light on the concept of supply chain management (SCM) that controls the link among the production, shipments, and distributions of the products. Supply chain management assists companies and it also reduces the costs of delivery of the products. Similarly, the management helps to deliver the product quickly and efficiently to the customer. Any organizations’ supply chain management manages the delivery and manufacturing services of the company. The current report is emphasising the manufacturing and delivering process of Walmart and Amazon in next five years. The management planned out the whole process and helps the company to manufacture the product for the customers. In the current report, the supply chain management of Amazon and Walmart has been discussed. It has been also been justified the effectiveness of supply chain management in the report.

2. Overview of The Organizations Operation and supply chain management (OSCM) manages the broad area of the retail industry to cover both manufacturing as well as a service industry. OSCM controls functions such as material management, distribution, planning, logistics, retail, demand, order fulfilment, and much more. The two biggest American retailer companies, Amazon and Walmart are in constant rivalry. Both of the company made effective changes to develop and meet the expectation of the customer. Amazon work and dominated the online platform where Walmart prevails in physical space.

In 1994 Amazon started its journey as a textbook ordering platform and transformed into diverse e-commerce online platform holding the rank one position in supply chain and company service. Amazon does not relies on their vendors to make the services better, with the help of inventory and warehouses, they can make the services better (Flamand et al., 2020). Amazon.com is a multinational retailer of online e-commerce that was founded by Jeff Bezos. Amazon is well known for its innovative ideas and best pricing principles to expand its reach to verities of customers.

A businessman named Sam Walton started a grocery and big-box store in 1962 that transformed into the largest physical retailer store. Walmart is now operating in 26 different countries with its 11,400 stores, and almost 265 million customers visited the various Walmart stores, estimated by Walmart Corporation. Walmart adopted different sustainable strategies overtime to overcome different issues. Strategies developed with three objectives like 100 percent renewable energy, more sales product, and zero waste (Huchzermeier, 2016).

3. Identification of Supply Chain of Amazon Amazon has its supply chain strategy and has its delivery network. Sellers who sell products on Amazon have different fulfilments options. Sellers can choose from the fulfillment options by Amazon or can do the fulfillment manually. Through the Amazon fulfillment options Amazon can sort, packed the products, and delivered them to their fulfillment center. FBA falls impact the sales and profits of the products (Sun et al., 2020). It affects the profit gap of using FBA and FBS (fulfillment by sellers).

Amazon has added a new feature called Probability Level Demand Forecast, which helps to communicate the inventory demands to vendors. The demand of the consumers can be checked by the sales history of the consumers. The demand for the products can be forecasted through the search history of products by consumers. The supply chain strategy of Amazon includes warehousing, manufacturing, delivering the products.

The main part of Amazon's supply chain management is warehousing. It can make the availability of the products from anywhere from the world. Most of the warehouses are strategically located in the big cities and the inventory of the company is spread amongst them, to meet the demand of the customers. Amazon’s warehouses are also located in smaller areas which can make the delivery of the products faster.

The delivery strategy of Amazon has numerous options. It includes free and two-day Prime deliveries. Prime deliveries can make the delivery of the products within an hour or less. It is the biggest supply chain strategy maintain by Amazon. Amazon saves storage costs by distributing inventory centers (Yu et al., 2016). The retail company also has a different approach while processing the products for delivery.

The company also approached many advanced technologies to pick and pack orders and stacking the products in inventory. The company has also introduced drones through which the orders can be delivered from the nearest inventory. Amazon allows third party invasion in their manufacturing process. It will be profitable for the company. Amazon’s in-house supply chain controls the complete manufacturing process of the products (Bharadwaj, 2019). It advantages the competitiveness in the market.

4. Identification of Supply Chain of Walmart Walmart has 11,510 stores, the majority of which are in the United State, so the majority of suppliers are from the United States. They also have suppliers from Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, China, Taiwan, France, Hong Kong, and other countries. Through advanced network technologies, Walmart manages the supply chain management of their organization. The total number of Walmart suppliers is approximately 60,000, which is the largest in the world. Walmart’s largest suppliers are connected by Retail Link with their inventory management system and also suppliers can track their actual sales. Walmart mainly focuses on cost leadership which focuses on end-to-end operational cost at the lowest level along with the highest productivity (Heller, 2017). It has been stated that Walmart has a “mature supply collaboration process” which is supported by modern technology.

Walmart excellently manages its supply chain through technology. Their motto is “collaboration and cooperation with suppliers” which helps to maintain a more efficient supply chain. Walmart manages the delivery process from its inventory warehouses. The company also relies on the vendors and suppliers to manages the SCM of the company. This is known as VMI or “Vendor Management Inventory” which helps to reduce the irregular inflow of inventory and also ensures the availability of products. Integration of demand and management of supply is the essence of supply chain management (Jawad, 2017). Every link is connected by a centralized database management system, store-level sales, and satellite system.

Strategy to expand around distribution centres in which distribution centres are made in new areas supporting new stores.
Use of electric data interchange system which links the suppliers and helps Walmart to control and coordinate in product scheduling and receiving.
Combining store and warehouse using “big box” store format which helps to keep the supply chain steady.

Suppliers of Walmart can synchronize their projected sales through planning, forecasting, collaboration, and replenishment.

5. Analysis of Amazon and Walmart Supply Chains Amazon's supply chain focuses on technological development. The company introduces millions of automation and robotic solutions in the supply chain department. It improves the companies' delivery and efficiency speed. Amazon has the most effective supply chain strategies in the world (Ceil, 2020). It makes the competition in the market fierce. Walmart used an innovative operation that helps support its new planning and offer customers different products at low-price. Walmart provides the same products as Amazon. It can be mentioned that Walmart offers services in Sam’s Club. It helps the customers to have excess to the exclusive savings and fuel savings. Unlike Amazon, Walmart uses everyday low prices services that help them to revive and gain more customers.

The figure is showing the financial sides of Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba. These five financial factors help to analyse effective strategies (Flamand et al., 2020)

Amazon is the fastest-growing company that earned almost 233 billion dollars in 2018. One of the main forces of transformation is the innovation of an efficient supply chain.

6. Comparison of Amazon and Walmart Supply Chains

7. Justification of Supply Chain Management Developing a supply chain management system in a company creates a future position in market competition. In this paper, analysis is done on two companies to evaluate their efficiency in coming future years. The chosen company is Amazon has developed their supply chain strategy to reduce the operational cost of a middle man and provides better service to their customers (Das, 2020).Reduction in production cost reflects in low price product which attracts more customers. Reduction cost strategy implementation make Amazon company’s strategy more efficient over the next five years. Another chosen company is Wal-Mart company, they develop their strategy for global expansion of their business for this goal they also focus on low price strategy (Heller, 2017).Both of the company focusing on low price strategy.

Only pricing strategy does not make the supply chain management effective for future use. For making supply chain management more effective, it is necessary of handling end toxic products appropriately to prevent their adverse effects on the environment. Amazon Company needs to develop more concern on this for the future safety of the environment. Analyzing the existing supply chain helps the company to identify issues and find solutions globally (Jawad, 2017). Wal-Mart Company also possesses limitations in their existing supply chain by developing the incidents of gender discrimination and improper working environment. Amazon company always focus on maintaining diversity culture in their work place which will make the strategy, effective over next five years. The modification of the supply chain management, of Wal-Mart makes the services of the company exceptional.

The global expansion of the company needs better security for the company otherwise it will damage the company. It also develops the risk for data hacking in large data transfers through the network. Amazon company needs to develop a more strategic plan to avoid the issues of data breaching. Amazon Company also needs to focus on the development of warehousing for enhancing supply chain effectiveness in upcoming years. The thin pricing strategy of both companies also decreases profit rate which needs more concern for increasing effectiveness in supply chain management. Amazon Company always focuses on customer benefits to provide them better service and they always modify their business structure. For this service, they develop a sophisticated way to avoid gathering for shopping (Polacco & Backes, 2018). Amazon company always focus on customer satisfaction this strategy make them more efficient over five years.

8. Conclusion In the report, analysis has been done on the existing supply chain management in two chosen companies. The report also focuses on the manufacturing process for next five years of both companies. In Amazon Company there is some limitation along with beneficial effects that have been discussed in the above paper. Wal-Mart Company's limitation has also been evaluated to guide them to become more efficient in the future. In the current paper, the future of these two-supply chain management has been analysed and their effects on company growth have been discussed.

9. References Bharadwaj, S. (2019). The Engineering Behind A Successful Supply Chain Management Strategy: An Insight Into Amazon. Com. 281–286.

Ceil, C. (2020). Sustainable Global Supply Chains at Amazon. SSRN Electronic Journal, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3520424

Collis, D., Wu, A., Koning, R., & Sun, H. C. (2018). Walmart Inc. takes on Amazon. com. Harv. Bus. Sch. Publ, 30.

Das, S. (2020). Multi echelon supply chain design for Amazon private brands (pp. 1–56). Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Flamand, O. J., Wisher, A., & Riley, S. (2020). Strategic Plan: Amazon.

Heller, F. (2017). Technological innovation applied to walmart and tesco’s supply chain (pp. 9–10).

Huchzermeier, A. (2016). How Walmart built sustainability into the supply chain. The Business & Management Collection.

Jawad, S. (2017). A literature analysis of Walmart’s supply chain excellence in term of integration, distribution and operations. 1–4.

Nguyen, T. T. H. (2017). Wal-Mart’s successfully integrated supply chain and the necessity of establishing the Triple-A supply chain in the 21st century. Journal of Economics & Management, 29, 102–117.

Polacco, A., & Backes, K. (2018). The amazon go concept: Implications, applications, and sustainability. Journal of Business and Management, 24(1), 79–92.

Sun, L., Lyu, G., Yu, Y., & Teo, C. (2020). Fulfillment by Amazon versus fulfillment by seller: An interpretable risk?adjusted fulfillment model. Naval Research Logistics (NRL), 1–19.

Trivedi, S., & Madan, M. V. (2018). Amazon Supply Chain Management: A Case Study. NOLEGEIN-Journal of Supply Chain and Logistics Management, 23–27.

Yu, Y., Wang, X., Zhong, R. Y., & Huang, G. Q. (2016). E-commerce logistics in supply chain management: Practice perspective. Procedia Cirp, 52, 179–185.

10. Appendices

Figure 1 – Amazon Supply Chain

Figure 2 – Walmart Supply Chain

Figure 3 – Supply Chain Link both Walmart and Amazon

Figure 4 – Walmart Vs Amazon

Figure 5 – Comparison between Walmart and Amazon

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Walmart Supply Chain Assignment 2022

Prepare and deliver a business report about Supply Chain Management for an organization of choice.

Added on 2022-10-04

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Blockchain in the food supply chain - What does the future look like?

Archana Sristy

Sr. Director - U.S. Omni Tech

Nov. 30, 2021

More often than not, when people hear the word "Blockchain" they relate it to Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH) . On the contrary, the new-age tech goes far beyond and finds more complex applications. In supply chain, there are several instances of Blockchain technology being used.

The De Beers Group tracked 100 high-value diamonds along its supply chain from mine to retail, creating unprecedented asset-traceability assurance and solving two major issues in the diamond industry – avoiding the trade of conflict diamonds and offering trust in provenance (assuring the origin) of valuable and polished diamonds
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the UAE's state-owned oil company, launched a Blockchain supply chain system pilot program in collaboration with IBM to track oil from the well to the customers and automate the transactions that take place along the way
Circa 2017, global shipping giant Maersk completed the first test of its Blockchain tech to manage cargo. The company developed the TradeLens supply chain platform with IBM to help track cargo ships and containers
FedEx is a part of the Blockchain in Transport Alliance ( BiTA ) and launched a Blockchain-powered pilot program to clarify the data stored on the Blockchain to best resolve customer disputes by helping them receive information in a more streamlined manner
Fish supplying firm John West started including codes on the tuna cans that allowed customers to trace the product back to the fishermen
In late Jan 2020, Ford Motor Company announced that it would use Blockchain tech to trace cobalt supplies used in electric car batteries to ensure that they get an authentic product to maintain the quality

And the list goes on.

So, why are companies adopting Blockchain technology in the supply chain?

A Blockchain is a ledger on which new transactions are recorded in blocks, and a cryptographic hash of data identifies each block. It is impossible to recreate the data from this hash. Even if a tiny detail of the transaction data is changed, it creates a different hash, with each hash of the block included as a data point in the next block, making tampering extremely difficult (almost NIL).

It comes as no surprise that the Economist called Blockchain technology The Trust Machine in 2015.

Coincidentally, in the same year, China experienced a massive food safety issue, with the government seizure of 100,000 tons of smuggled pork, beef, and chicken , some of which dated back to the 1970s.

These situations raised two vital concerns for the food supply chain industry – food fraud and food traceability.

Walmart came up with solutions rooted in Blockchain technology for the issue.

Playing a part in food traceability

When it comes to food traceability, it is vital to show where the food was sourced from and where it has been.

Within Walmart, it began in 2016, when the Vice President of Food Safety in the company, asked his team to trace a package of sliced mangoes to the source.

It took his team 6 days, 18 hours, and 26 minutes. While all the data was there in the system, arriving at the information took a long time.

After partnering with IBM to create a food traceability system based on the Hyperledger Fabric (a project hosted by the Linux Foundation), Walmart could trace the mangoes stored in its US stores within 2.2 seconds , literally, the speed of thought!

The same tech was used to trace the pork in China by uploading the certificates of authenticity to the Blockchain leading to more transparency and trust.

One of the most notable contributions of Walmart as a global food safety initiative leader is – the Walmart Food Safety and Collaboration Center . It led to investing in food safety research via internal supplier networks as well as leveraging JD’s expertise in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data.

Walmart, along with JD, IBM, and Tsinghua University in Beijing, built a Blockchain ledger to track the movement of pork for its Chinese supply chain in 2016, which was a part of the new consortium to enhance food safety. IBM offered its Blockchain Platform and expertise, while Tsinghua University acted as the technical advisor of the key technologies for the process.

Together, the companies collaborated with the food supply chain providers and regulators to develop the necessary standards, solutions, and partnerships to enable a safe food ecosystem in the country. The new system connected and verified various pork suppliers, shippers, and buyers, along with others who were involved in moving the product around China.

These exercises were the biggest proof of concept within the industry and formed the stepping stone to better food traceability.

Walmart – a pioneer in food traceability

In August 2017 – Walmart announced a Blockchain partnership with big names in the supply chain industry such as Dole, Kroger, McCormick, Nestlé, Tyson Foods, and Unilever to collaborate and find new applications that could help increase food traceability.

By September 2018, it was possible for the company to trace over 25 products from as many as five different suppliers- including mangoes, leafy greens, strawberries, dairy products, meat and poultry, packaged salads, and even baby food. The system was so efficient that one could take a jar of a product or a salad box and trace the ingredients back to the farms from where they were harvested.

In the same year, the retail giant announced: “a new, Blockchain-enabled Walmart Food Traceability Initiative to increase transparency in the food system and create shared value for the entire leafy green farm to table continuum.”

As a part of the initiative, all fresh leafy greens suppliers were expected to trace their products back to the farms within seconds as opposed to days. To do so, the suppliers were required to capture the data using the IBM Food Trust network using GS1 standard communication protocols like EPCIS. The traceability data that needed capturing and sent to the Blockchain included - product ID (GTIN-14), lot/batch codes, purchase orders, and date/time codes (harvesting, processing, shipping, and receiving).

By 2019, Walmart was already a pioneer in the food safety business.

One of the most significant piece of news arrived that year from the Walmart China Blockchain Traceability Platform It introduced the first batch of 23 product lines tested and launched on the platform, enabled by VeChain’s Blockchain technology.

The same year, the company piloted a Blockchain technology for the end-to-end traceability of shrimp sourced in Andhra Pradesh, India, and shipped to select Sam's Club locations in the USA. This was the first-ever known use of Blockchain supply chain technology to track shrimp exports from farms to overseas retailers.

What does the future hold for Blockchain technology in the Food Industry?

Creating accountability and ensuring transparency across the food supply chain is a necessity rather than an afterthought, especially with food contamination being rampant across the globe . Blockchain tech can effectively help trace the contaminated product (even if it is just an ingredient) back to its source and curb the further spread of foodborne illnesses.

Apart from the rapid containment of the illnesses with decreased response times, Blockchain also reduces food waste due to selective recalls leading to better recall management. To put things in perspective, about 17% of global food production may go wasted, according to the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Food Waste Index Report 2021 , with 13% of this waste coming from retail.

Also, granular information about food items derived from Blockchain supply chain solutions removes the guesswork and helps merchants make decisions on how they handle the goods such as getting the accurate shelf-life data of fruits to halt discarding food that is still fresh.

At Walmart, we give precedence to quality products at every level.

Implementing innovative Blockchain solutions helps us get detailed insights into every single event and take informed actions. This enhanced visibility enables us to manage suppliers better, conduct more efficient quality checks, and drastically reduce time and costs at various levels of the supply chain.

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(USA) Manager Ii, Quality Engineer - Supply Chain

Location BROOKSVILLE, FL
Career Area Project and Program Management - PMO
Job Function Process Improvement
Employment Type Regular/Permanent
Position Type Salary
Requisition WD1854953

What you'll do at

Position summary..., what you'll do....

Promotes and supports company policies, initiatives, procedures, mission, values, and standards of ethics and integrity.

Leads Process Improvement tools and methods (for example, 5S, root cause analysis, six sigma, time and motion studies) to eliminate Quality losses and deviations in an area within a Distribution Center according to Network Process Structure using Walmart Performance System (WPS) programs. Compiles and submits deviations to existing One Best Way playbooks and provides input to Divisional Focused Improvement Teams on project ideation and replication opportunities.

Assists with the tactical deployment of the Quality Excellence WPS program methodology. Manages project execution of top Quality losses in the functional area and assists in building the capability of other area managers and associates.

Assists with the creation of area Quality loss profile analysis and performance metrics. Develops gap analysis to support WPS integration.

Leads Quality-related savings projects within area of responsibility by taking loss out of the process.

Supports Department Managers with WPS programs, projects, associate engagement, and KPI improvements within process area.

Delivers expected functional area results through Key Performance Indicator (KPI) analysis, loss elimination, and by creating standard work to reduce process variation. Assists with the review and response of Quality focused process improvement projects owned by area managers

Coordinates, completes, and oversees job-related activities and assignments by developing and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders; supporting plans and initiatives to meet customer and business needs; identifying and communicating goals and objectives; building accountability for and measuring progress in achieving results; identifying and addressing improvement opportunities; and demonstrating adaptability and promoting continuous learning.

Provides supervision and development opportunities for associates by hiring and training; mentoring; assigning duties; providing recognition; and ensuring diversity awareness.

Ensures compliance with company policies and procedures and supports company mission, values, and standards of ethics and integrity by implementing related action plans; utilizing and supporting the Open Door Policy; and providing direction and guidance on applying these in executing business processes and practices.

Minimum Qualifications...

Outlined below are the required minimum qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no minimum qualifications.

Preferred Qualifications...

Outlined below are the optional preferred qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no preferred qualifications.

Primary Location...

About walmart.

"I love that at Walmart, each associate has the opportunity and autonomy to create their own career path and grow."

All the benefits you need for you and your family

Multiple health plan options, including vision & dental plans for you & dependents
Financial benefits including 401(k), stock purchase plans, life insurance and more
Associate discounts in-store and online
Education assistance for Associate and dependents
Parental Leave
Pay during military service
Paid Time off - to include vacation, sick, parental
Short-term and long-term disability for when you can't work because of injury, illness, or childbirth

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to specific plan or program terms. For information about benefits and eligibility, see One.Walmart.com/Benefits .

Frequently asked questions

On average, how long does it take to fill out an application.

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No, you cannot change your application after submitting, so please make sure that everything is finalized before you hit the submit button.

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Processing of information on paper is minimal, and Walmart processes application information using an applicant tracking system (ATS). Access to the data within the ATS is restricted to authorized personnel, and the system itself is held to high security standards by Walmart.

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assignment on supply chain management of walmart

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Walmart Supply Chain: What Makes It (Still) So Successful

Need Help With Order Fulfillment? ShipBob Can Help.

What makes Walmart’s supply chain so successful?

Early investment in supply chain optimization

Fine-tuning the supply chain management system

Developing strong relationships with vendors early on

Outsourcing inventory control with vendor managed inventory (VMI)

Capitalizing on the power of technology

Two-day shipping

Warehousing

Inventory management

Walmart integration

Does Walmart have its own supply chain?

What is Walmart’s supply chain strategy?

What are the advantages of selling on Walmart Marketplace?

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Blockchain in the food supply chain - What does the future look like?

(USA) Manager Ii, Quality Engineer - Supply Chain

What you'll do at

Minimum Qualifications...

Preferred Qualifications...

Primary Location...

All the benefits you need for you and your family

Frequently asked questions

Can I change my application after submitting?

How do you protect my personal information?

What are the recommended Internet Browsers for applying for open roles?

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