Operations Management Report: Walmart Layout and Strategies

This report provides an analysis of the operations management at Walmart's Hyde Park store. It begins with an overview of the store's layout, identifying positive aspects such as the strategic placement of high-demand items and cash counters to encourage impulse buying, and negative aspects like the distance of essential items from cash counters which may deter purchases. The report then delves into Walmart's supply chain and outsourcing strategies, highlighting the company's reliance on suppliers within the business market and its use of outsourcing to access specialized services and control costs. The report also touches upon the benefits of outsourcing, such as increased competition and reduced nepotism. References are provided to support the analysis of Walmart's operational strategies and decisions.

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Operations management
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Affiliation

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Operations management
Walmart Hype Park is one of the many stores associated with Walmart Company. The
retails involves in a number of activities. Among the departments associated with the walmart
Hype Park include pharmacy, sports and automotive, clothing and apparels, home and necessities
as well as groceries and vegetables (Baker, 2014). Among the products sold in the retail include
drugs, cloths, utensils, vegetables, sport’s cloth and some automotive products and services.
However, there are some positive and negative factors associated with the retail layout. Some of
those factors include
Positive and negative aspects of the layout
The layout of every store is designed in a way to attract more customers. Also, apart from
attracting the customers, managers make sure the layout is designed in a way that the store would
look clean. One must understand that the layout affect the company is two different ways. This
means that the layout may benefit the company or create threats to the store (John K. Halvey,
2014). Some of the advantages and disadvantages associated with the layout include
Positive aspect of the layout
Lists and shopping control
The managers operating in many stores understand that around 60 percentages of
customers visits the store without shopping list which brings the risk of impulse buying. Impulse
buying involves when a company also buys products he or she never intended to buy. In many
stores, managers deliberately place their top sellers such as bread and milk in opposite sections.
Also, from the picture provided above, the stores operate in-store bakeries in the stores which are
used to start the impulse-buying theories (Baker, 2014). This is because the store knows that the
sweet aromas of fresh breads and pastries nab hungry customers.
Cash Counters
From the layouts, Cash Counters are placed at the extreme end so that the customers can
spend some time before reaching the place when payment is made. By doing so the walmart
understands that customers would have a good amount of time to see other products and they
might end up buying more products from the store (Swati Bhalla, 2016).
Negative aspect of the layout
Also there are some negative aspects associated with the store layouts. Some of the
negative aspects include
Cash Counters
The Cash Counters are placed at the extremely end of the store. Some customers might end-up
not buying due to the long time used before paying for the products purchased. Also some
products which are bought daily such as pharmacy are placed far from the Cash Counters. This
might affect some customers when making the purchases (Swati Bhalla, 2016).
Supply-chain and outsourcing strategy

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The company gets supply from the suppliers within the business market. Outsourcing
involves getting services from the outside the company. Those services were previously provided
by the inside the company. The strategies which the Walmart Hype Park uses involve hiring
more qualified personnel than the one hired by the company. Hiring from the outside increases
competition level and reduces the cost used by the company in hiring and training process. In
some cases also the outsourcing helps to reduce the nepotism and corruption cases in the
company (Burkholder, 2015).

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References
Baker, M. J. (2014). Marketing strategy and management. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Burkholder, N. C. (2015). Outsourcing : the definitive view, applications and implications.
Hoboken (N.J.): J. Wiley.
John K. Halvey, . M. (2014). Information technology outsourcing transactions : process,
strategies, and contracts. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley.
Swati Bhalla, . S. (2016). Visual merchandising. New Delhi ; New York: Tata McGraw-Hill.