Evaluating Supply Chain Management in Walmart: A Global View

This report critically evaluates Walmart's global supply chain management, highlighting both positive attributes like increased revenue and controlled costs, and negative aspects such as high regulation and system vulnerabilities. It explores the gap between assessment and execution of supply chain improvements, multidimensional global supply chain issues including limited online potential and high delivery costs, and strategies to manage these challenges through automation and efficient transportation. The report also examines relevant theories like Agency Theory and Network Theory, and best practices such as establishing strong supplier relationships and leveraging technology. Ultimately, it emphasizes the importance of global lead-time management and time-compression for improving Walmart's supply chain efficiency. Desklib offers a range of solved assignments and past papers for students.

Running head: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
SCM

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT 2
Executive summary
The purpose of this report is to emphasize on evaluating the process of supply chain of
Walmart. The successful supply chain management is an imperative element in measuring
both external and internal business success.
This report discussed many positive and negative attributes of Walmart Australia in supply
chain management. There are certain positive attributes like an increase in revenue,
controlled costs, quality control, and competitive edge. It is found that there are certain
disadvantages such as negative aspect of the supply chain management excessive regulation,
needless complications, the dearth of compliant suppliers/vendors, and vulnerable to system
collapse. It could also decline the overall productivity of the firm.
It is also found that there are some multidimensional global supply chain problems like
inadequate online potential, high delivery cost, choice of several trades-offs, as well as
existing entrenched competition. It is addressed that certain approaches can control the
challenges of supply chain like adopt automation and efficient transformation.
In addition, it is examined that adopt automation and efficient transportation is effective in
the improvement in the organizational task. In this report, certain theories are discussed that
can help Walmart supply chain management such as GSCM (global supply chain
management) like Agency theory and Network theory in global supply chain management.
Apart from this, it is found that different practices can be applied by the firm like establish
relationships with your main suppliers, green initiatives must be taken seriously, take full
advantage of technology, and collaborate internally and externally. This report concluded that
global lead-time management and time-compression could directly affect the total cycle time
(tct) compression strategy and higher lead-time.

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Table of Contents
Executive summary...............................................................................................................................2
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................4
Positive attributes of Global supply chain in Walmart.......................................................................4
Negative attributes of Global supply chain in Walmart.....................................................................5
Gap between assessment and execution of supply chain improvement.............................................6
Multidimensional global supply chain issues and techniques to reduce the issues............................7
Limited Online Potential................................................................................................................7
High Costs of Delivery..................................................................................................................7
Selection of Variety Trade-offs.....................................................................................................7
Existing Entrenched Competition......................................................................................................8
Strategies to manage the supply chain challenges.................................................................................8
Adopt Automation.............................................................................................................................8
Efficient Transportation.....................................................................................................................9
Value Relations.............................................................................................................................9
Warehouse Management...............................................................................................................9
Current global Supply Chain Management best theories and practice.............................................10
Agency theory.............................................................................................................................10
Network theory in GSCM (global supply chain management)........................................................11
Practices of supply chain management............................................................................................12
Establish Relationships with Main Suppliers...............................................................................12
Green Initiatives Must Be Taken Seriously.................................................................................12
Take Full Advantage of Technology...........................................................................................13
Collaborate Internally and Externally..........................................................................................13
Using supply chain technology........................................................................................................13
Improve performance of supplier.....................................................................................................14
Implementing meaningful metrics...................................................................................................14
Importance of global lead-time management and time-compression...............................................14
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................15
References...........................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
This report presents thegap among assessment and application related to improvement in
supply chain. This paper also explains the favourable as well as unfavourable attributes
related to Walmart. In addition, it also assesses the several concern associated with global
supply chain, which could help to deal with significant decliningdifficult supply chain
concerns within Walmart in retail industry.
It also demonstrates different strategies to manage the supply chain challenges of Walmart. It
also shows the current global supply chain management best theories and practice of
Walmart. Lastly, it discusses the significance related to time-compression as well as global
lead time management with respect to Walmart.
Positive and negative attributes related to global supply chain of Walmart.
Positive attributes of Global supply chain in Walmart
Increase in Revenue
Global supply chain helps to increase in revenue of Walmart. For example, it permits the
company to focus on assets and also helps in obtaining more rewards. Since, it is considered
in business function as it can have positive impact on revenues. Global supply chain can be
optimized as much as possible in Walmart (Aikat, et al., 2017). Along with this, global
supply chain management permit Walmartfor prioritizing as well as emphasize on specific
resources that would enhances operating profits and increase market share.
Controlled Costs
Global supply chain management can decline the expenses of Walmart, particularly
transactional expenses that are unavoidable between partners, vendors, and subsidiaries. For
example, Walmart is required to use frills that can delay in procedure and incurred the

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT 5
unnecessary expenses. In this way, effective global supply management could be used to
control the costs (Beske and Seuring, 2014).
Quality Control
Global supply chain helps to make sure the quality. For instance, when Walmart is facing the
concern regarding maintaining the severe compliance check such as approving or passing the
defective products in it, then there is need to hire specialist related to supervision compliance
at the time of process (Beske, Land, and Seuring, 2014).
Competitive Edge
Due to financial benefits, better product, and stricter compliance, Walmart would be
competent for fighting its rivalry as well as appeared as a leader regarding supply chain
management.
Negative attributes of Global supply chain in Walmart
High Regulation
It is addressed that integrating the suppliers can create a challenge for company in order to
organise every external with internal supply. There is no necessity that all suppliers should
meet each norm and regulation. For instance, Walmart uses generic strategy related to supply
and logistics chain management but, it could have a negative impact on business because of
practicing the same standard developed in the retail industry (Brandenburg, Govindan, Sarkis,
and Seuring, 2014).
Needless Complications
Global supply chain management can lead toan uncertain condition, in which, resources can
be shared as well as superfluously wasted. For example, Walmart should deal according to its
own strength during supplying the product at the global level.
Shortageregarding compliant supplier

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In Walmart, there could be inadequate number of supplier in terms of dealing with contracts
at the global level when terms of global supply chain management do not suit their business
precedence. It can affect the procurement as well as supply costs because those suppliers are
willing to obey new regulation. Consequently, it can highly impact on operation (Christopher,
2016).
Weakand Collapse System
In Walmart, there could be ruin in balances and payments due to gap in compliance
evaluation as well as inspections. Due to the global supply chain, one error in Walmart can
decline the whole-system (Fahimnia, Sarkis, and Davarzani, 2015).
Gap between assessment and execution of supply chain improvement
It is stated that the main issue that is addressed in the organization is supply chain cost as well
as misplaced improvement efforts that could affect the overall performance of the firm. It can
also be found that Walmart has not used many strategies related o the supply chain that could
also make a gap between the implementation and evaluation of supply chain improvement.
For example, Walmart is failed to integrate make liaison with the broader business strategy
that could impact on the overall outcome of the study (Fredendall and Hill, 2016). It could
not concentrate on developing different plans that support what the business is and why this
business will be selected by the customers, which could also create a gap between evaluation
and implementation of supply chain improvement.
It is also examined that the organization also could not be a focus on the undiscovered and
unpalatable facts that will directly impact on the overall outcome. It is stated that the
beginning of the expensive process of extraction could make a gap as it would influence the
overall outcome of the study.
It is also illustrated that knowledge-sharing program could decline the supply chain process
of the firm. For example, Walmart should boost its logistics performance for making a higher

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profit and improve their business. Due to the lack of development, training, and knowledge, a
strong focus on education could create gap between the assessment and execution of supply
chain enhancement in least time (Fredendall and Hill, 2016).
Multidimensional global supply chain issues and techniques to reduce the issues
Limited Online Potential
There is a potential concern for Walmart related to limited online potential. The new
development scheme related to Walmart is a key market player with respect to home delivery
shopping. However, it was unsuccessful due to the limited presence of potential online. For
example, due to the older IT system as well as inadequate knowledge about IT staff, Walmart
is less competent for demonstrating the entire facility and products to the consumer online.
But, the limited online potential was not capable of motivating the consumers in purchasing
the products via Tesco Plc (Harvey, and Harvey, 2014).
High Costs of Delivery
Walmart is the largest retail store in the USA. Moreover, in Walmart,the market share of the
company can cover the higher division related to the global retail sector. Hence, Walmart has
adopted online buying services for their consumers and offer home delivery related to
shopping.
This logistic system was not adequately implementing because of high delivery costs,
particularly for uncontrolled logistics. For instance, Walmart should pay higher for delivering
the purchasing product while the item delivered through outside of London. It generates
several complexities in operational management procedure. Because of high delivery
expenses related to an outbound logistic system, Walmart is failed for implementing the new
logistic system in operation mode (Hazen, Boone, Ezell, and Jones-Farmer, 2014).
Selection of Variety Trade-offs

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It is assessed that demand of individual is changing promptly. For example, new adopted
logistic system related to Walmart was initiated for home delivery of products that bought
through online. But, there isa different individual who demands cash on delivery regarding
purchased products as a high amount of customer have demand for online payment after
purchasing products (Hugos, 2018). Moreover, a large number of trade-offs generate
difficulty for new logistic system associated with Walmart.
Existing Entrenched Competition
It is a key challenge related to Walmart in the retail and logistics system. In a previous time,
the company uses the physical logistic system with the perspective of products as well as
services. For instance, Walmart has adopted the home delivery facility for shopping as
compared to its key competitors in the market. But, the current market player of Walmart has
already built their business effectively in the retail market.
There is a high range of logistic facility like e-logistic that permits the Walmart to enable
consumers for online payment and cash on delivery related to buying the product in an
effective manner. For example, Walmart uses pay pal system in their e-logistic services that
permits the consumers for securing the online trisection related to buying products. It
develops customer loyalty and reducing the market share of Walmart (Jaiswal, and Rohankar,
2014).
Strategies to manage the supply chain challenges
Adopt Automation
Under the stage of automation, technology plays a significant role to gain the efficiency of
the company. It is a significant role in the optimization of business procedure. There is
effective software that could be used in logistic procedures (Kalloniatis, Mouratidis, Vassilis,
M., Islam, Gritzalis, and Kavakli, 2014). For instance, business procedure software could be

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integrated in Walmart that offers specified updates about movement in goods. The client and
operator should have detail about the given below:
 The products that are dispatched through supplier
 Procurement related to goods within the warehouse
 Delivery of products at destination
It saves a substantial amount of time as manual interferences can be avoided. In addition,
feasible tracking support to enhance the overall procedure management. The accounting and
employee detail could be organized through a particular software building for these tasks.
Hence, Walmart can involve technology for boosting productivity(Srivastava and Kumar,
2015).
Efficient Transportation
In Walmart, transportation department can be effective for declining the expenses. It could be
restored for prompt delivery associated with products. For example, Walmart can opt for
straight and safest route.It can be effective for saving time and money. Along with this,
Walmart can develop cost-effective packaging for making sure the low investment and safety
of goods with services. It can improve the packaging by producing less volume as well as
declining the packaging weights (Mangan, Lalwani, and Lalwani, 2016).
Value Relations
In supply chain of Walmart, the team is significant concept for company that is accountable
for growth. Each member should be feasible in respective field of work, whether it is delivery
boy or warehouse manager. In this way, company should invest in adequate training for
workforces. For instance, regular training workshop can be also implemented by Walmart to
keep update their workforces about the latest trends in logistic industry. This supports to
increase the satisfaction and efficiency of customers (Kalloniatis, Mouratidis, Vassilis, M.,
Islam, Gritzalis, and Kavakli, 2014).

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Warehouse Management
In Walmart, effective logistic management is inadequate without feasible management of
warehouse. Warehouse operations could be considerably relied on the type of goods. For
instance, perishable products like needs refrigeration services and dairy products. Along with
this, grains can be stored in humidity free atmosphere. In addition, the specification may vary
in accordance to products. For example, Walmart should have aim to build the warehouse
inventory hence there would be least wastage of goods.
In addition, Walmart should maximise the storage capacity regarding warehouse. It should
use the vertical storage column at the workplace. For instance, significant execution related to
software could be practiced for sequencing the product in Walmart because there should be
no delay at the product delivery after placing order. The warehouse employees can be well-
trained for operation of warehouse(Waters, and Rinsler, 2014).
Resource scheduling
In order to attain well-managed monitoring as well as valuable control, it is significant for
Walmart for creating the remote monitoring schemes. It can help to track and locate the
movement of goods at local and international level. These remote monitoring systems should
be flexible in existing strategies and supply chain practices of Walmart, UK.
For example, the real time monitoring could be executed in Walmart through satellite
tracking as well as, monitoring of goods could be performed by executing ERP system and
RFID technology. It may monitor procurement, overseas supplier management, fleet
management system, and order processing (Kalloniatis, Mouratidis, Vassilis, M., Islam,
Gritzalis, and Kavakli, 2014).
Current global Supply Chain Management best theories and practice
Agency theory

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Agency theory is imperative in the supply management as it defines that retail chain is a
sequence of agreement among shareholders. For example, Walmart Company should hire
agents to maintain their day to day activity of business operations with their customers and it
would support the company to make an effective decision in favour of a supply chain
(Srivastava and Kumar, 2015).
In the supply management, agency relation could be classified in two ways: the first way
related to the relationship between organization and suppliers whereas, another way belongs
to the association between suppliers and buyers. A unique feature of the agency theory is to
segregate the control of the supply chain of an organization from ownership of the supply
chain. For instance, Professional managers or agents are accountable in Walmart for
controlling of the supply chain over day to day activities of business operation whereas, till
the date shareholder has an authority of ownership of SCM (supply chain management)
(Martínez-Jurado, and Moyano-Fuentes, 2014).
Network theory in GSCM (global supply chain management)
In GSCM, network theory is an essential theory in order to effective purchasing management
of an organization as well as, manages the supply chain of company in an appropriate
manner. The main characteristic of network theory is to define the association wherein
suppliers, organizations, buyers, and customers are involved. For example, network theory
focuses on the association among parties which helps the Walmart Company to increase its
product demand in the marketplace.
In order to this, purchasing department of the Walmart company supports the organization to
develop a specific product by using buying process or outsourcing process for that invention
which could be achieved by network theory (Monczka, Handfield, Giunipero, and Patterson,
2015). For example, this theory helps to make customer demand planning in favor of

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increasing the sale of Walmart’s items. It could be done by easily availing of resources and
by making an effective plan for developing an enduring partnership.
Social exchange theory
Social exchange theory is implemented to outline the model of procedural as well as
distributive justice in supply chain associations. SET demonstrates that behaviour and attitude
are assessed through rewards of interaction minus penalty of that communications. For
instance, with respect to supply chain relationships, a supplier creates a contribution to its
distributor through supply chain management policies of Walmart. In order to contribute to
its distributor, an expectation creates the return related to contribution after some
times(Waters, and Rinsler, 2014).
For instance, distributor of Walmart can receive the valued contribution for creating the sense
of reciprocates and obligation with feasible behavioural and attitudinal reaction. SET can
compose the set of proposition that outlines the system related to social exchange. Moreover,
fundamental proposition related to SET is that for performing all action, the more action can
be rewarded the member to exchange the ideas to perform and takes action in against the
success proposition (Vitti, et al., 2014).
Practices of supply chain management
Establish Relationships with Main Suppliers
The effective supply chain practice in Walmart is to develop a lasting relationship with the
suppliers long after validating the deal. But, it is two-way communication in which, both
buyers and sellers are actively organizing the association for completely increasing the
association. For instance, with the good alliance management system in place, it would be
easier for Walmart to keep the buyer and supplier relationship and ensuring the sustained
value as well as a constant enhancement (Srivastava and Kumar 2015).
Green Initiatives Must Be Taken Seriously