Saving Walmart

Case: Saving the World through Supply Chain Management

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Does Walmart’s use of automation and information technology eliminate the need for workers and managers? Critically discuss.

Does Walmart’s use of automation and information technology such as the approach of electronic data interchange (EDI) or radio frequency identification (RFID) eliminate the need for workers and managers? The direct answer to this case would be a no. Indeed, when the founder of Walmart; Sam Walton started to practice the usage of automation, it did caused a huge blow to the human resources in this organization but not to the extent of completely eliminate the need of the workers and managers. Instead, this approach has caused great of the need for workers and managers.

“Walmart is our Retailer of the Year for lots of good reasons. At the top of our list is that it is gaining share in practically every market where it operates”. (Thayer 2009, p. 14)

First off, let’s take a good look into Walmart’s background. Like any other retail business, Walmart started out small back in 1985 by Sam Walton who imbued the philosophy; ‘offer shoppers lower prices than they get anywhere else’. Today, Walmart has become one of the biggest supply chain organizations in the world of business. Supply chain management is a vertical integration (private owned supply chain) of all components namely manufacturing, distribution, resources and manpower into a value adding work process that enhances the economic value and financial value of an organization or stakeholder. Walmart has evolved to such operation due to the fact of their constant effort to reduce their financial spending; finding multiple methods to cut the costs of their expenses in logistics and supplies by working directly with the manufacturers. In addition, Walmart also come up with a solution by introducing the usage of automation to increase the efficiency of the organization....