Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is an American multinational retailing corporation founded in 1962; the company operates as a chain of hypermarkets, grocery stores, and discount department stores with its head quarters at Bentonville (Krieg, 2014). While evaluating Wal-Mart China’s warehousing and transportation networks, it is clear that the organization faces challenges, especially when trying to get the best solutions. With information based on the constraints, infrastructure, and modes of transport the company will try to improve their operations among the customers who are in need of quality and excellent products that meet their needs.
Wal-Mart needs to improve their transportation networks to ensure smooth flow of products from one place to another and also to ensure that the goods reach the customers on time. According to Barthelemy (2011), transportation network is a spatial network describing a structure in which permits either vehicular movement or flow of commodities; examples of transportation networks includes, roads, railways, pipes, air and power lines transport. To ensure the company succeeds it should ensure that proper method of transportation are identified and used to ensure smooth and timely delivery of the commodities as this will increase the organization's performance and lower the costs of transport due to delay. One of the constraints of transportation in Wal-Mart is that some roads are not well developed and this makes it difficult for the company’s products to reach its clients. Some of the transportation networks are not easily accessible and this also it’s a challenge to the organization. Safety is also a greater challenge to transport as some transportation channels cannot be passed due to safety issues. To minimize this, the organization should look for proper means of transport such as air transportation to avoid the challenge of inaccessible and unsafe roads which makes it difficult in transporting goods to reach the consumers. For example, Air transportation is the better option since the organization is a global organization with customers all over the world and use of air transport will improve the organization's performance by ensuring that goods are delivered on time, and in good quality, as delays will be avoided. Though air transport is the best option, other methods of transportation can be ensured through for example improving the roads or using vehicles which can pass through the non-improved road to transport goods.
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A warehouse is a store or place where goods are kept waiting to be sold or distributed (Kumar, 2014). Warehousing is the act of storing goods that will be sold or distributed later. Warehousing helps manufacturers, distributors, and retailers monitor inventory and store it safely. Warehousing is one of the supply chain management which promotes the Wal-Mart become successful. The core strategy of Walmart is everyday low price and to achieve this the organization uses several technologies to achieve this. For example, Walmart uses the highly automated distribution centers as a key element in its supply chain system. Wal-Mart also has a truck fleet that operates 24 hours a day to ensure that goods received in the warehouses are distributed to their destination without a waste of time and also to avoid delay.
Warehouse functions in four ways that are receiving storing, order picking, and shipping with storage and order picking being the most expensive one (Pantin, 1962). To reduce these risks which are a constraint to the organization as they cause the organization extra costs the time goods stay in the warehouse need to be reduced. The Walmart has embedded itself in Cross Docking strategy in its supply chain this is to ensure that the warehouse does not cost the organization much. Wal-Mart Company ensures that goods received in the warehouse are distributed to their sales stores without staying in the warehouse for long; this is done to ensure that more space is created for other products and also to minimize the storage costs. The current warehouse network of Wal-Mart meets the storage needs especially with the use of cross docking in its supply chain activities; sometimes the warehouse is filled up, and there is no space for new goods to be stored, and this becomes a challenge since the organization ends up incurring extra costs as they have to look for another place to store the goods. Hazardous materials need proper handling to ensure that no harm is caused to the environment or the people; for example, the Wal-Mart had to pay a fine because of the poor management and disposal of the hazardous material which was not well disposed of. The organization ensures that it follows the proper procedures when disposing of the hazardous material to protect the environment and the human beings from harm.
Transportation and warehousing play a vital role in Wal-Mart company as they are they are the main activities in its supply chain management. To ensure an organization is successful proper transportation and warehousing should be ensured; proper transportation methods should be identified and used. Road, air, pipes, water are examples of transportation network with the air transportation being the fasted mode of transportation. The warehouse is used to store goods awaiting distribution; proper use of warehouse should be ensured to ensure that costs are minimized. Goods should not stay long in a warehouse as a longer stay of goods in the warehouse increases storage costs. Wal-Mart uses cross docking to ensure that goods do not stay for long in the warehouse and thus no extra costs are incurred.
References
Krieg, Katherine (2014). Sam Walton: Founder of the Wal-Mart Empire . ABDO Publishing Company .
Kumar, A. (2014). Warehouse – Layout Planning and Part Feeding Methods . Dee Publishing Private Ltd.
Barthelemy, W. (2011). " Spatial Networks." Physics Reports. http://arxiv.org/abs/1010.0302
Pantin, W.A. (1962). " The Merchants' Houses and Warehouses of King's Lynn " . Medieval Archaeology.
