Walmart is a retail corporation that was founded in 1962 by Samuel Walton. The company was later incorporated on st October in 1969. It does business as Wall-mart store Inc. in which it operates in various sectors involving discount department stores, hypermarkets as well as Grocery stores. It operates in more than 27 countries, and over 11,000 stores all over the world and in the process manage an inventory of $32 billion in average (Clara, 2014). It as well stocks products from over seventy countries. The corporation’s mission is to “save people money so they can live better.” To achieve this mission the company buys its products at meager prices since it has a high buying power, exchanges high purchase volume for low cost and later passes the benefits to its consumers.
The retail stores are of three different categories which include Walmart stores, Walmart International and Sam’s Club. The categories offer a different kind of goods such as furniture, groceries, apparel, electronic appliances, and cosmetics. Over a half, the corporation’s stores are based in the United States and the rest of the other countries. It focuses on offering its consumers with lower and affordable prices to attract more customers. The largest segment of Walmart Corporation is the Walmart stores which involve the neighborhood and discount stores, and supercenters. This segment also brings the largest income to the corporation. Sam’s Club is the second largest and has the second most earning sector which is a membership only club. Its customers are mainly restaurants, offices, convenience stores, schools, and motels. International stores are the least, but the corporation is turning their focus towards them to improve the growth of the company (Clara, 2014).
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The company’s business-level setting is to expand its stores and services out of United States and make its service accessible to other countries. The company has discovered there is room for development and improvement in other nations. Over the years the corporation has been the making attempts on expanding the stores in other countries. To achieve this Walmart has set in place two strategies. First is acquisition and construction of new stores. Acquisition of supermarket is an approach used by Walmart as part of the entry. Construction is a strategy of expansion in countries where Walmart is already established. For the countries that the corporation is in the process of entry, construction of new stores is the first process of establishment. Other strategies implemented by Walmart include lowering daily process of products, having multiple store segments, reducing the cost of operation, diversification of merchandise brands to cover consumer needs, and utilizing acquisition strategy during entry into the foreign market (Clara, 2014). The corporation‘s big reason for success is its reduced cost of distribution and its cost efficiency in supply chain management. This makes Walmart have a significant advantage over its competitors and remain top, on business matters.
The Flows of Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods/products and services which involve raw materials, inventory of work in progress, finished goods movement from one point to the other and storage. For the finished goods, the movement is mainly from the storage or point of origin to the consumers. It involves management of the following three flows; product, information and financial flow.
Product (material) Flow
This is the process of physical movement of materials/products from supplier to consumers. It also involves delivering of services needed by the customers which include consumables, input materials or services such as housekeeping. The process is usually unit-directional in that the product flows from the supplier to customer (either internally or externally). On rare cases, the flow can go in the other direction when the consumer returns products to the vendor. Typically, the movement of products commences with the supply of raw materials to the manufacturers to the storage facilities from where they are distributed to final consumers. In Walmart, the flow of products is from the corporation to various stores all over the world where they are then moved to the supermarkets for consumer accessibility (Bsaikrishna, 2016).
Information Flow
It is a bi-directional flow or movement of information from supplier to consumers and from consumer to supplier. Information that flow between supplier and customers includes purchase orders, customer reviews, product data, invoices, description and pricing, quotations distributor information, and delivery status. Constant interaction with consumers and suppliers ensures the success of the supply chain. It is also important in ensuring the quality of products and services meets the customers’ expectations (Bsaikrishna, 2016). The information network may involve other partners such as retailers, distributors, providers of logistic services as well as dealers. The effectiveness of supply chain is enhanced by faster and better information flow which transforms the performance of the business.
Financial flow
There are two aspects of financial flow in supply chain management either based on investment capital or flow of funds. Investment capital is in the form of equipment, technology, and workforce contributing to the wellbeing of the business. The flow of funds involves the customer paying for service rendered of after confirmation received products. The money, therefore, flows from the customers to the suppliers. The flow can as well move from the supplier to the customer as a debit (Bsaikrishna, 2016).
Conclusion
The three flows (product, financial, and information flow) are essential components of supply chain management. Product flow is the movement of material from supplier to customer. The flow of information between supplier and consumers is called the information flow. The financial flow is the movement of funds when the customers pay for products or services. The success of a business or a corporation such as Walmart depends on the proper management of the three flows which constitute to an effectiveness and efficient supply chain.
References
Bsaikrishna, (2016). The five major flows in a supply chain. Retrieved July 1st, 2017 from https://brandalyzer.blog/2016/03/23/the-five-major-flows-in-supply-chain/
Clara, L. (2014). Walmart's successful supply chain management. Retrieved July 1st 20 17 from https://www.tradegecko.com/blog/incredibly-successful-supply-chain-management-walmart
