Operational Challenges in Walmart Inc: A Study on Operational Processes

Running head: Operation Management - MBA 1
OPERATION MANAGEMENT - MBA
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Operation Management –MBA 2
Introduction
Operation management can be termed as the business areas that design and control
business operation and process that aim at production. Business process refers to an activity or
set of activities that will accomplish a specific organizational goal. The business operation
management is faced with many different operational challenges that need to be addressed. One
of the businesses that have been experiencing operational challenges is Walmart Inc (Walton
2012, pp. 299–306). Walmart Inc is a multinational retail business that is based in the United
States of America. The company has various stores throughout the United States of America and
other countries being the largest retailer in the United States of America. Operational
management uses the four Vs profiles as a tool to understand the operation processes of a
company. These four Vs include volume dimension, variety dimension, variation dimension and
visibility dimension. Some of the challenges that are cited by the management of the Walmart
Inc poor restocking procedures, high traffic leading to delays in online transaction and payment,
and long queues causing delays that is attributed to poor service delivery. The following paper,
therefore, explores various operational process challenges that are identified from Walmart Inc.
Operational processes
Despite the high ranking of Walmart Inc as shown in APPENDIX II, there are many
challenges that affect the company with most these challenges touching on the operational
processes. Some primary operational processes include restocking and brand design, delayed
payment and general transaction leading to long queues and high traffic in the digital services
delivery leading to delayed operational or transactions cited by customers visiting online shop.

Operation Management –MBA 3
These processes aim to meet the company's objective and performance. Walmart as a
multinational retailer has clear set performance objectives and has robust operational processes.
Despite the Walmart Inc has good performance objective map that was developed to enhance the
performance of the retailer, there are some operational processes that are still not fully designed.
Some of these operational challenges are primary operational processes (Ryan, Stephen & Lee
2009).
Operational challenges
The key challenges that are experienced within the Walmart Inc retail being the largest
retailer include operational processes challenges Walmart Inc has been experiencing many
challenges due to the migration from in-house store business to online shopping. The business,
therefore, has different operational or primary process challenges that are connected to the four
Vs of operation management profile. Firstly, the company has experienced delayed transaction
and high traffic jam in digital due to online and physical store integration. Secondly, the retailer
also has restocking challenges where there has been delayed restocking leading to complainant
by customers. Thirdly, delays in payments leading to long queues in most of stores and this is
attributed to store layout and design causing operational process challenges within the business.
These operational challenges from the primary operational process that is fundamental to every
business and if not properly addressed may lead to more challenges (Ingram, Yue & Qingyuan
2010, pp 53–92).
The digital services have been delayed leading to complaints from customers and online
users. High traffic in the online shopping version of the Walmart Inc has seen high operational

Operation Management –MBA 4
challenges that slow down the whole company’s digital services. The digital platform integration
with the physical facilities is one of the challenges that affect the business. The software
integration facilitates the variety dimension and visibility dimension of the four Vs operation
management profile. As this operational process touch on the flexibility and variety of services
that the company offers as compared to other similar businesses. E-commerce software
integration is one of the challenges that the business has been experiencing since the
development of the online shopping platform (Wisner & Linda 2008). Integration of the physical
store with the online shopping platform offers critical challenges that make the business to slow
down its operational processes. This is also due to the need to continuously update the software.
Moreover, the customers’ online purchasing modules need to be fully enjoined to the physical
location of the resources. This should offer smooth digital services that enhance the customer's
support services. Retail operational processes therefore currently have a slow services provision
that mainly lies in this operational process (Vollmann, William, Clay & Robert 2005).
Long queues and slowed payment services in Neighborhoods Market stores of Walmart
Inc. long queues challenges that are related to storing layout or design is also another important
operational challenge experience as shown in APPENDIX I. Designing and setting store layout is
another challenge that is deeply affecting the operation management of the Walmart Inc. The
store layout and design concerns particularly the visibility dimension that enables the customer
to reach the product at their convenience. The current layout in most Neighborhoods Market
stores makes the business operation slowdown thereby affecting the customer’s service delivery
(Birchall & Yeager 2006, p. 9). For instance, the digital service delivery wholly depends on the
layout and the design of the online shop. When compared to other retailers, stores such as