Business Management Report: Walmart's Supply Chain Strategy Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Walmart's supply chain management, exploring its strategies, international business approaches, and distribution network. It delves into the company's use of technology, including RFID, EDI, and other innovations, to optimize processes such as sourcing, procurement, inventory, and transportation. The report examines Walmart's strategic fit between its international business strategy and supply chain, considering factors like localization, global product strategy, and transnational strategy. It critically assesses the various elements of the supply chain, including facilities, sourcing, inventory, and transportation, while also identifying gaps in the distribution network. The report concludes with recommendations for further improvements and highlights the importance of SCM in the retail industry, emphasizing the company's adaptation to emerging technologies for enhanced efficiency and consumer satisfaction.

1/4/2020
Business Management
Report
Student name

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Background of the supply chain of the Walmart....................................................................2
Walmart international business strategy in terms of International, Global Product,
Localisation, Transnational Strategy......................................................................................4
Analyse the Walmart supply chain strategy...........................................................................5
Analyse the strategic fit between Walmart’s international business strategy and supply
chain strategy..........................................................................................................................6
Critically examine each of the elements of the supply chain:................................................8
Facilities.............................................................................................................................8
Sourcing/Procurement........................................................................................................8
Inventory............................................................................................................................8
Transportation/Distribution Information sharing...............................................................8
Analyse gaps in their distribution network.............................................................................9
Conclusion and recommendations...........................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
Business processes should be managed in a proper manner. There are many processes in a
company, which have created for managing internal and external processes of a firm. The
supply chain management (SCM) system has used for managing the supply chain process of a
firm. This report will discuss about the role of technologies in supply chain management. In
addition, there are many things to manage in a company, but the supply chain process must
be proper to improve the performance of the company (Baden-Fuller & Haefliger, 2013).
Walmart is a huge firm in the retail industry. The company has achieved the first position in
the field of retail business because of technological innovations and business strategies. The
company has used emerging technologies for managing its various business functions
especially supply chain, customer relationship, inventory and more (Gilmore, 2018). It is a
huge example in front of the world that Walmart has proved that innovations and
technologies are helpful in business development and growth.
This report will analyse various factors of the company, which are beneficial for the success
of the company. It will critically analyse the distribution system of the company. In the later
section of this report, recommendations will provide for the company.
Background of the supply chain of the Walmart
The retail industry is based on various things, which must be proper to use. There are three
main things in the retail industry, which are marketing, distribution, and delivery. A firm
should design differ satrapies to manage all three works (Bharadwaj, et al., 2013). This
industry can be divided into two segments, which are shop retailing, and online retailing. In
the case of shop retailing, a place is used to buy products, such as shop, and warehouse. In the
case of online retailing, online services have used for shopping, such as e-commerce.
Walmart is a chain of large department stores (CeMAT, 2019). It was added to the New York
stock exchange in the year of 1972 after the foundation of the company in 1962. Walmart has
stabilized 276 stores in 11 states in a decade, which is a good thing for the company. Walmart
has opened supercentres for better services to its consumers. Walmart has adopted
technologies in 1990, which has provided many benefits in the present as well. The sale of
Walmart in the year 2010 is $405 billion, which is a huge amount. Currently, the company
has associated with more than 2.1 million employees worldwide (Tradegecko, 2019). The
headquarters of the company was situated in Bentonville, Arkansas US.

The company has used the advance level of services for the supply chain. In addition, the
supply chain process can be managed using emerging technologies, which has provided
better outcomes. There are various internal processes in the supply chain process, such as
buyers, suppliers, vendors, and customer management (Chen, et al., 2012). It is a huge
process in which all the products and services should be managed in a proper manner for
taking good feedback for customers. Moreover, Walmart has created sub-processes to
manage their supply chain process (Chesbrough, 2010).
The company has followed different approaches to manage their supply chain process, such
as traditional and cross-docking approach, which makes them better from others. In addition,
business processes can be managed in a better way using technologies and information
systems (IS). Moreover, consumers have believed in the services of a firm because of the
proper delivery of products and services (Daniel, 2019). It makes faith in them to continue
purchases and services. There are many advantages of the supply chain process in a firm, as
Walmart makes a good image in the market because of a better supply chain management
system (Darwin, 2016).
Source: (Ramdas, 2014)
The firm has used a new approach to manage the collection and distribution systems. It has
collected different products from its manufactures directly, which has stored in the
distribution centre with a proper bar code of the products using the RFID system. The product

directly distributed from the distribution centre, which is a time-saving process (Davoren,
2019).
Moreover, there are many emerging technologies, which are helpful in the distribution
system, such as Augmented Reality (AR), Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud Computing (CC),
Big Data (BD), and many more (Enprode, 2019). Most of the processes have based on
technologies, such as transportation, product management, inventory, identification system,
and more. There are many advantages to a good SCM system. It has provided various
benefits to the company as well as better services to consumers as well (Fearne, et al., 2012).
Walmart international business strategy in terms of International,
Global Product, Localisation, Transnational Strategy
There are many different types of challenges in front of Walmart in the global market. Thus,
it is necessary to develop international business strategies, which makes help into the global
product, transnational strategy, and localization. In addition, Walmart has used advance
technologies for managing all the things in a better way (Flashglobal, 2019). Walmart has
managed its internal processes of the supply chain systems using technological innovations,
as data is the most important part of a system. Thus, Walmart has used good quality of IT
infrastructure for managing their data and information, which is necessary for the whole
system. Walmart is using smart technologies and innovations to improve its speed of supply
chain (Franken, 2014).
Technologies are providing better results in most of the areas, such as retails, marketing,
sales, and many more. Most of the traits have used technologies for managing various things.
In addition, traditional approaches have used for some specific purposes, as they are not
providing better outcomes. Thus, crossdocking is a new approach to improve the speed of
supply of products (Isik, et al., 2013).

Source: (CeMAT, 2019)
The company has used new approaches to manage all the things in a better way. In addition,
supply chain systems have designed in three levels, which are SCM life cycle, SCM
functional processes, SCM integrated solution. It involves different phases, which are
strategic sourcing, demand planning, distribution network, logistics, transportation and
shipment management. It is based on a single aim to deliver the right products on time to the
end-user, which is a customer (Ladd, 2018).
Walmart is the first firm, which has used Hub and Spoke system for retail. In this system,
customers can order using a centralized system, which has if information to their hubs and
distribution centres to deliver the item to the end-user. It is nectary to improve the basic
processes, which are better for the company. This system has some disadvantage, which is a
bad weather condition, and efficiency issues (Manuj & Mentzer, 2008). Moreover,
distribution and procurement are useful for managing different types of issues, such as bad
weather and efficiency. Walmart has managed 140 distribution centres in the year 2009,
which had around 1200 items stocked (McKevitt, 2018).
Analyse the Walmart supply chain strategy
Supply chain management (SCM) is including various processes, such as conversion,
sourcing, logistics, procurement, and more. In addition, the enterprise resource planning
(ERP) system is a system, which has integrated most of the internal and external resources of
the company, such as human resources, financial resources, assets, and more (Perkins, 2017).
Most of the processes have managed using technologies, which can be failed because of
many reasons, which can be managed using a backup and disaster recovery plan.
Additionally, the maintenance system is necessary for managing all the distribution systems.

In addition, the distribution network should manage all the things, which must be improved
various things.
Moreover, consumers have used the smart services of Walmart at their various stores. It has
provided pickup and delivery services for their customers to save time and money. In
addition, Walmart has implemented new technologies in its business, such as AR, Big data
and many others. It will improve the performance of the SCM system. In addition, Walmart
has used various resources for managing their internal processes. The company has created
new systems, which makes work easier for humans, as some processes are time taking. Thus,
Walmart can adopt new devices and tools to develop new systems.
Analyse the strategic fit between Walmart’s international business
strategy and supply chain strategy
Walmart has used electronic data interchange (EDI) for procurement. It is necessary to avoid
loss of information, which is not good for the business. In addition, data transfer is easier
with computer networks. It has provided a large amount of information within a second to
another distribution centre (Ramdas, 2014).
Source: (Gilmore, 2018)

Source: (Tradegecko, 2019)
Walmart has minimized its operating margin every year, which is good for the company as
well as consumers. It makes a huge impact on the value of the product as well.
Source: (Tradegecko, 2019)
Walmart is facing huge compaction in the market from Amazon.com, Target Corp, and many
more. There are many good advantages of managing operating margins, such as profit,
revenue, and many more (Robinson, 2019).

The US has improved the demand for various things, which are considered in the retail
industry. Electronic devices are highly demanded in the industry, which has provided a huge
benefit to the company. It will be high in the next year, as per the surveys (Rouse, 2010).
Walmart has lengthy practiced strategic sourcing to find merchandise on the nice fee from
suppliers who're in a role to make sure they can meet the call for. The corporation then
establishes strategic partnerships with most of their carriers, providing them the potential for
lengthy-term and high quantity purchases in exchange for the bottom possible expenses
(Rubin, 2018).
Moreover, Walmart streamlined deliver chain control by means of building verbal exchange
and courting networks with providers to enhance cloth drift with lower inventories. The
network of world providers, warehouses, and retail shops has been defined as behaving
almost like a single company (Sabherwal & Becerra-Fernandez, 2012).
Critically examine each of the elements of the supply chain:
Facilities
Walmart has provided better facilities to its end-users using their SCM system, which has
managed vendors and customers in a better way (Zeng, et al., 2012). It has provided all the
information about their products. Customers can track their products using a tracking number,
which can be possible using mobile phones, tablets, and laptops as well (Slade, 2017).
Sourcing/Procurement
The firm has used advanced technologies to manage suppliers and buyers of the company,
which is beneficial in the procurement. Walmart has used different tasks for sourcing
products from various manufacturers (Trkman, 2010).
Inventory
The Inventory Management system is useful for proper information on shipping and other
things. Walmart has connected Point of Sales (POS) systems with their inventory and other
systems that provide all the information on sales and purchase. In addition, bar code
technology has adopted by the company for fast services (Vercellis, 2011).
Transportation/Distribution Information sharing
Transportation is an easier process in which all the things have manged using technologies.
Walmart has used the best vehicles for transportation with location identification. RFID
(Radio Frequency Identification) is made better. Moreover, Walmart has improved the supply

chain system using RFID (Tradegecko, 2019). Transportation can be better with the help of
various technological innovations, such as GPS enabled devices, RFID, and many more.
Analyse gaps in their distribution network
The company has provided its best facilitates to its consumers, which is possible at their end.
In addition, there are some gaps in its distribution network, which must be reduced using
emerging technologies. Moreover, it will be more beneficial for the business of the company.
Moreover, there are some processes in the SCM, which can be managed using technological
innovations. It will be better for the company as well as its end-users (Wu, et al., 2013).
Source: (CBINSIGHTS, 2019)
Furthermore, Walmart can improve their ICT services using cloud-based services and
applications, which can improve the supply chain process. It will improve the efficiency of
the system. In addition, most of the processes can be managed using business strategies, to
reduce transportation using smart techniques. SCM system can provide the item to the
consumer from their nearest distribution centres. It will improve their speed and reduce
transportation costs as well. In addition, IT infrastructure is the main part of this process in
which all the processes are managed in a proper manner (Tradegecko, 2019).
Moreover, SCM can be a better system in managing internal processes using new
innovations, such as virtual and augmented reality. In addition, there are some basic needs of
an SCM system, which are perfect technology and systems. Besides, there are some threats to

these systems, which can stop the whole process of the supply chain. All the systems have
based on online processing, which was based on internet services. Thus, it is necessary to
secure the network of the company. It will improve the working of the whole system.
However, cyber-attacks are always an issue in front of companies (Bloomberg, 2019).
Walmart began with the goal to provide clients with the goods they wanted, each time and
wherever they wanted them. Walmart has created a unique image in the world using its SCM
system. The employer then focused on growing price structures that allowed it to offer
everyday low pricing. subsequent, Walmart targeting developing a more quite dependent and
superior supply chain management strategy to make the most and beautify this competitive
advantage and assume marketplace management function (Gilmore, 2018).
Conclusion and recommendations
In conclusion, Walmart has created a good example in the world through its supply chain
system. The firm has managed many stores around the globe based on technologies and
business strategies. It is the best part of a system to manage their business processes in a
better way. The firm has involved technologies for managing their business functions, which
has provided huge growth in revenue and profit. There are many good things in the SCM
system of Walmart. Most of the things are managed using business strategies and IT-systems.
Walmart has used crossdocking technique to improve the performance of the systems.
Moreover, consumers are more satisfied with the system of Walmart in the supply chain. This
report has analysed international business strategies. There are many things to manage using
business strategies. It is good for the SCM system for the firm.
Finally, many good technologies have used by the firm, which will provide huge benefits to
the company. It will provide new opportunities for Walmart, which is necessary for managing
various things. Walmart should integrate most of the technologies and business strategies to
develop a new environment, which will good for the company and consumers. Walmart
should develop a training and education centre for its employees and consumers to
understand the whole working of the SCM systems.
The firm should adopt technological innovations for managing its other processes. Most of
the consumers have used fast service providers, which is good for the company. There are
some basic processes, which have improved the productivity of various products. There are

some specific recommendations for the company, which can be beneficial for Walmart to
enhance its business in the international market with more benefits, which areas:
 Develop the integration of local and international business strategies to manage
global businesses of the company.
 Establish new systems for managing issues and challenges, such as IoT, AI, and
more.
 Develop sustainable development strategies to secure the world from climate
change.
 Involved user-led innovations to manage cost and time of products.
 Manage new systems using new frameworks, such as COBIT, ITIL, and many
others.
 Improve IT service management system to manage various systems of the company.
The company must use these recommendations for managing various business processes,
which will provide various opportunities for the company in the future.