Industry name: Retail
Company name: Wal-Mart
Company history:
Wal-Mart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton in Rogers, Ark. It is an American multinational retail corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. They focus on making a difference in the lives of their customers, and helping customers and communities save money and live better. In 1969, the company officially incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Wal-Mart started its public trade on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. With the continued rapid growth, Wal-Mart was operating in 11 states with 276 stores by the end of 70’s decade. In the 1980s, the first Sam's Club opened, serving small businesses and individuals, and the first Wal-Mart Supercenter opened, combining a supermarket with general merchandise. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the company rose from a regional to national giant, Wal-Mart was the number-one retailer in the nation. In 2000s, Wal-Mart focus on offering customers a seamless shopping experience, whether they are online, in a store or on a mobile device. Also, during these times, Wal-Mart put some effort in implement several environmental measures to increase energy efficiency. Today, the company has grown to be the world’s largest and arguably, the most emulated retailer (History Timeline, 2013).
Map of the Supply chain management of Wal-Mart:
Diagram of SCM in Wal-Mart:
Conduct an analysis of the company's supply chain:
Wal-Mart’s overall methods of supply chain management differ little from the main components of most supply chains: purchasing, operations, distribution, and integration. But the retailer has refined the methods.
A supply chain begins with purchasing managers who determine which products will sell, find vendors and arrange deals for the products.
The operations portion of a supply chain focuses on demand planning, forecasting and inventory management. Forecasts estimate consumer demand for a product based on historical data, external drivers such as sales and promotions and changes in trends or competition.
Demand planning is used to create accurate forecasts, a critical step toward effective inventory management. Forecasts are compared to inventory levels to ensure warehouses have enough, but not too much, inventory to meet demand.
Moving the product from warehouses or manufacturing plants to stores and ultimately to customers is the distribution function of the supply chain.
Supply chain integration connects the flow of work and information among all links in the supply chain to maximize efficiencies.
For Wal-Mart, its SCM methods yield lower costs for products and inventory, better control over selection in its stores and the ultimate result of lower prices that can be passed to customers.
Retailer:
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Wal-Mart have some strategic objectives now we describe the strategy which company follow: In a general sense a company’s strategic objective means objective that an organization must achieve to make its strategy succeed. Strategic objectives are, in general, externally focused and (according to the management guru Peter Dracker) fall into eight major classifications: (1) Market standing: desired share of the present and new markets; (2) Innovation: development of new goods and services, and of skills and methods required to supply them;
(3) Human resources: selection and development of employees; (4) Financial resources: identification of the sources of capital and their use;
(5) Physical resources: equipment and facilities and their use; (6) Productivity: efficient use of the resources relative to the output; (7) Social responsibility: awareness and responsiveness to the effects on the wider community of the stakeholders;
(8) Profit requirements: achievement of measurable financial well-being and growth.
On the other hand
Statements of vision tend to be quite broad and can be described as a
