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Walmart Operations and Supply Chain Management

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Institution Affiliation

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Walmart Operations and Supply Chain Management

With the greatest sales per square foot, inventory turnover, and operational profit of any

bargain retailer, Walmart has grown rapidly over the last two decades to become the biggest and

perhaps the most powerful retailer in the world. If you want proof of Walmart's success and

impact in retail, you need go no further than the company's stock price history. Successful supply

chain management has been almost associated with the company as it has expanded from a

regional shop to a worldwide powerhouse. One of Walmart's founding principles was to make it

possible for consumers to purchase products from the store at any time and in any location (Tan

et al., 2018). After that, the corporation prioritized creating cost structures that would enable

them to maintain consistently low prices. In order to capitalize on this competitive advantage and

take the lead in the industry, Walmart shifted its focus to creating a more sophisticated supply

chain management strategy.

Over the years, Walmart has perfected the art of strategic sourcing, which involves

searching for items at the lowest possible cost from suppliers who are confident in their ability to

satisfy demand. The business then forms strategic alliances with the majority of its suppliers,

promising them long-term, high-volume orders in return for competitive pricing. In addition,

Walmart optimized its supply chain management by building communication and connection

networks with suppliers to enhance material flow with smaller inventory. It's been said that the

worldwide system of manufacturers, distributors, and retailers operates nearly like a unified

enterprise. Walmart, in its never-ending quest to provide cheap pricing to customers, has

embraced and invested in technology to become a frontrunner in the retail industry's

standardization of inventory tracking and replenishment practices. According to Lin (2019) the
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corporation reportedly spent $10.5 billion on IT in 2015 and has made considerable investments

to enhance its eCommerce potential.

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References

Lin, R. (2019). The importance of successful inventory management to enterprises: A case study

of Wal-Mart. In 2019 International Conference on Management, Finance and Social Sciences

Research (MFSSR 2019). London: Francis Academic Press.

Tan, B., Yan, J., Chen, S., & Liu, X. (2018, December). The impact of blockchain on food

supply chain: The case of walmart. In International Conference on Smart Blockchain (pp. 167-

177). Springer, Cham.