StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Inventory management at WAL-MART - Case Study Example

Cite this document
Summary
Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart discount store in the year 1962. The first Wal-Mart Discount store that he opened was in a City in Rogers, Arkansas. Currently, there are 941 stores all across the United States (Frat Files). One advantage of Wal-Mart and probably its reason for success was that it started making its discount stores a little outside the city so that it is more convenient for customers to come and shop there, with its spacious aisles and enough space for everyone to park and large displays…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER91.4% of users find it useful
Inventory management at WAL-MART
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Inventory management at WAL-MART"

Download file to see previous pages

It also succeeded due to its global strategies. It became the first private-sector company in the world to have employed over one million personnel. It provides large spacious, wide, neat, brightly-lit aisles and shelves stocked with area for people to look around and provide a variety of goods. The average size of a Wal-Mart store is 107,000 square feet (www.walmart.com). Each store employs about 225 people. The employees are called associates as they hold value for the company (Frat Files).

The stores feature a variety of quality, value-priced general merchandise, including (www.walmart.com): Wal-Mart operates each store, from the products it stocks, to the front-end equipment that helps speed checkout, with the same philosophy: provide everyday low prices and superior customer service. Lower prices also eliminate the expense of frequent sales promotions and sales are more predictable. Wal-Mart has invested heavily in its unique cross-docking inventory system. Cross docking has enabled Wal-Mart to achieve economies of scale which reduce its costs of sales.

With this system, goods are continuously delivered to stores within 48 hours and often without having to stock them. This allows Wal-Mart to replenish the shelves 4 times faster than its competition. Wal-Mart's ability to replenish theirs shelves four times faster than its competition is just another advantage they have over competition. Wal-Mart leverages its buying power through purchasing in bulks and distributing the goods on its own. Wal-Mart guarantees everyday low prices and considers them the one stop shop.

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT at WAL-MART Just-in-time inventory (JIT) is the concept of only carrying as much inventory as needed to supply to customers or consumers. Many companies are using JIT to reduce inventory costs and increase gross profits (Damiano, 2005). It makes more sense for companies to use their dollars elsewhere, rather than tying them up in inventory that is just sitting in a warehouse. Wal-Mart's inventory philosophy focuses on getting the good out of the shelves and into the customers hand in the quickest and most cost efficient way as possible and Wal-Mart is a paragon of such efficiency.

JIT (Just in Time) is an inventory management technique invented by the Japanese. The first users of this technique are said to be the Toyota people and to this day, this technique is being effectively used by them. The concept behind JIT is that it optimizes the production process byreducing waste and keeping negligible inventory (Epps, 1995). Inventory has a holding cost in terms of keeping the excess inventory in warehouses whose rent has to be paid thus increasing the cost of the inventory.

As a retailer, Wal-Mart has been able to achieve respectable leadership by using this technique to reduce the holding costs and decreasing wastages. The most important factor in having a Just-In-Time inventory system is to have the best logistics system in place. This includes having clear transport routes,

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Inventory management at WAL-MART Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
Inventory management at WAL-MART Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1531827-inventory-management-at-wal-mart
(Inventory Management at WAL-MART Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
Inventory Management at WAL-MART Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1531827-inventory-management-at-wal-mart.
“Inventory Management at WAL-MART Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1531827-inventory-management-at-wal-mart.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Inventory management at WAL-MART

Supply chain management at Wal-Mart

This paper aims to explore supply chain management at wal-mart.... Executive summary – supply chain management at wal-mart In 2006 Wal-Mart Inc's sales stood at US$312.... Additionally, by utilizing information systems with real time updating, inventory management is also centralized which leads to significant scale economies.... In 2006 wal-mart Inc's sales stood at US$312.... hellip; This paper analyzes the wal-mart's supply chain management....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Business Analysis of Wal-Mart

Business Analysis of wal-mart NAME: AFFILIATION: UNIVERSITY: Business Analysis of wal-mart Introduction In United States of America (USA), wal-mart is leading and well-known retail giant which has grown to become Multinational Corporation.... hellip; wal-mart initiated its operations in 1962 and it is a corporation that runs large chain of discount departmental stores along with warehouses in various countries (Walmart Stores, 2012)....
4 Pages (1000 words) Research Paper

Wall-Mart and Information System

wal-mart is the largest retail store in the world.... wal-mart has become very popular with its customer particularly due to its aggressive internet marketing.... hellip; wal-mart is amongst the fortune 500 companies and its financial strength is very evident considering that it leads other fortunes 500 giants like GE and Microsoft in terms of revenue generation.... Unexpectedly, wal-mart is the only largest fortune 500 company that directly engages the common man....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Financial Analysis for Managers

Target's OPM remained consistent from 1999 to 2001 and improved from 2001 to 2002 due to the stronger supplier relationships, restructuring of stores and more effective inventory management.... wal-mart and Target.... This, in turn, has brought about a clearer perspective on the business strategies adopted by wal-mart and Target groups. wal-mart registers nearly $20,000 profit every minute of every day.... Last fiscal year, wal-mart recorded profits of $10....
4 Pages (1000 words) Case Study

Wal-Mart Stores Business Performance

This report presents an analysis of wal-mart Stores, Inc.... The report attempts to understand… establish the reasons behind wal-mart's stupendous success in an industry considered saturated, and then goes into an analysis of the competitive advantages of the company, concluding with an attempt to predict the possibilities of wal-mart maintaining its track record in the Starting with the establishment of the first store in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas, Sam Walton together with his brother had managed to grow the firm to 32 stores spread across four states by 1969, when wal-mart Stores, Inc was incorporated, and subsequently to 330 stores spread across 11 states by 1980, culminating in 1,402 wal-mart Stores and 123 Sam's Wholesale Club outlets covering 29 states by Jan 1990 with Sales of over $25....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Organizational Change at Wal-Mart

The paper "Organizational Change at wal-mart" highlights that Wal-Mart has been criticized for self-administration of their own ethical benchmarks.... Packaged products at wal-mart are labeled with bar codes.... wal-mart's green retailing initiative should cover broader environmental concerns according to big-box format of retailing.... hellip; Generally speaking, wal-mart has been the dominant retail discount chain.... The entrance of new uprising superstars such as Tesco and Target makes it difficult for wal-mart to maintain its market dominance....
10 Pages (2500 words) Case Study

Wal-Mart Questions to Be Answered in Depth

This assignment outlines important wal-mart questions for customers and partners and features of wal-mart Inc.... It describes a detailed characteristic of company, its management, marketing strategy, major products, and profits.... It is a low-cost technology and requires minimum human efforts to do tasks that range from billing to materials tracking and supply chain management (Angrish, S....
13 Pages (3250 words) Assignment

Role of Information Technology in Wal-Marts Success

nbsp; Wal-mart uses an inventory management system called Retail Link.... ll this information helps the supplier companies inefficient inventory management.... This paper "Role of Information Technology in wal-mart's Success" focuses on wal-mart, the largest retail company and the largest employer in the world, that has achieved very large scale benefits due to the use of Information Technology Systems in its operations....
5 Pages (1250 words) Case Study
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us