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Walmart Supply Chain Essay

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Retail super-giant Wal-Mart has fought its way to becoming the world's largest company. Wal-Mart’s legendary supply chain technology has allowed them to break the three-day barrier that some economists in the eighties felt that it was unbreakable. In other words, Wal-Mart is often able to replenish items on the Wal-Mart shelf in less than three days – not from the central warehouse to the shelf, but from the manufacturer to the shelf. With quick and reliable 2-day turn around, Wal-Mart is able to maintain lower levels of inventory and still meet customer demand. These lower inventory levels result in either a reduced floor plan with lower carrying costs and lower interest expense – or a greater diversity of products on the store shelves. …show more content…

For several industries in Asia, in particular pharmaceuticals, security issues include fake branded products and the substitution of goods with counterfeit or inferior quality replacements. Recent supply chain security initiatives are also designed to address security problems relating to the sale of counterfeit goods. In August of 2008, Hong Kong customs discovered 2.5m cigarettes in a container that was marked to contain other goods. If these items had not been identified as fake, they could have been sold as original brand goods, resulting in a substantial shortfall in excise income for the Hong Kong Government. These factors need to be taken into account when considering Asian supply chains in order to sustain competitiveness. The main factors are: The cost associated with the physical transfer of goods is an essential piece of information in the negotiation of an international trade transaction. To maintain a product’s competitiveness, the seller must make sure that his cost is as low as possible. However, in any particular supply chain, this cost is made up of a number of cost elements corresponding to services that enable physical linkages between supply chain members. These elements cannot always be clearly quantified beforehand. Transit time is an important element as well. Any reduction in transit time therefore reduces the overall cost of the delivered goods. Transit times can be improved by

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