Wal-Mart Supply Chain

Wal-Mart Supply Chain

American InterContinental University Online

Abstract

This paper will address Wal-Mart’s supply chain including quality management.

Wal-Mart Supply Chain

In 1962, Wal-Mart opened their first discount store in Arkansas. Seven years later Wal-Mart was formed as a corporation and the following year began to trade their shares eventually was listed on the New York Stock Exchange a couple of years later. Now they have become a global conglomerate with stores in 15 different countries. They currently employ over two million employees worldwide with sales reaching over $400 billion in the year 2010 (About Us, n.d.). Currently they are ranked number one in Fortune’s Global 500 (Global 500, 2011). A major part of their global business is supply chain management and quality management in providing the lowest prices to their consumers.

There are six different components to an organizations’ supply chain. Supply chain is the process from beginning to end of a products distribution that meets the consumers needs while hitting the targeted market. These six components are; production, supply, inventory, location, transportation, and information. The first component on production deals with the product demand of the consumers and getting that demand to the consumers (Supply Chain Management, 1999). Wal-Mart strives to procure the best products at the lowest prices for their consumers. They have partnered up with several different suppliers of products that Wal-Mart currently sells in all of the different categories in which their stores have on their shelves (Suppliers, n.d.).

Second is supply where a company will decide whether or not they can produce or manufacture the products that they will be selling at their stores. If a company cannot produce their own products efficiently and economically they will then outsource. A company will need to find a supplier that best suits their needs such as quality of product and the speed at which they can...