Introduction

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) is an American MNC headquartered at Arkansas, US. The company

belongs to the retail industry that operates through a chain of grocery stores, department stores

and hypermarkets. The mission of the company is to enable the people to save money so that

they can live a better life. The vision of the company is to become such a destination for the

customers where they can save money irrespective of the ways in which they shop. The

company’s strategic goal is to accommodate customers and become the go-to retailer for the

customers in the country (Walmart, 2019).

Supply Analysis

Walmart is a retailer which deals in a variety of eight different products out of which the food

and beverages as well as agricultural products accounts for more than 50% of the product

portfolios. The company dominates its supply side which exerts a high pressure on the suppliers

and their bargaining power. The company exploits the suppliers in return of the future growth

that is promised to them by Walmart. Moreover, a large of number of suppliers are interested

to work with the company which enables them to invoke a sense of competition among the

suppliers and procure the commodities at a rate which helps the companies to adopt to low cost

strategy and progress to the vision of being a go-to retailer for the customers (Muñoz, Kenny

and Stecher, 2018). The company has major supplies in the US and its largest supplier of is

Plug Power which is a developer of cell technology.

Figure 1: Product Categories of Walmart

 (Source: Walmart, 2019)

Sustainability Analysis

Walmart is the leader in the US for a total capacity of solar and installations that it has installed

on-site. Around 25% of the operations of the company are undertaken using renewable energy

resources, wind turbines and solar panels. The company plans to double the usage of such till

the year 2020 (Gielens, 2018). The goal of the company is to cut up to 20% energy consumption

in its stores which is expected to save an amount of $1 billion for the company. The company

has also reduced the usage of plastic bags in its stores and has also diverted around 81% of the

materials from the stores in the US. The company also reduced its CO2 emissions by increasing

the operational efficiencies. The company generates extra amounts by adopting to sustainable

methods which it passes on two the customers by offering them reduced costs of the products.

Discussion of Procurement and Supply Chain

Walmart is arguably the world’s largest retailer with a high rate of inventory turnover and

operating profits. These feats are achievable only if a company has an efficient procurement

and supply chain process. Walmart’s manufacturers have become responsible for the products

that are in the warehouses which led to a close rate of 100% on the merchandises. The company
has kept the distribution costs very low which has led to an increased in the profit margin of

the company (Tan, et al., 2018). The strategic sourcing of the company is very effective in

nature as they have enabled to find the products from such suppliers who ensure to meet the

demand. Walmart has also established partnerships with a lot of vendors by offering them

potential relating to high volume of purchases for a long term in exchange of lower prices. The

company has also streamlined the procedure of supply chain by constructing a relationship and

communication network with the suppliers to improve the flow of materials in addition to lower

inventories (Kshetri, 2018). The network which consists of retail stores, warehouses and global

suppliers operate as a single firm. The collaboration of the company with the different entities

have led to the elimination of the third parties have made the supply chain procedure of the

company very successful. The innovative technological strategies such as Cross-docking,

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and investments in advanced technologies of inventory

play a key role in the supply chain of the company. The manufacturers and suppliers of the

company efficiently synchronize the demand projections under the schemes of planning,

replenishment and forecasting. All the links of the chain are connected through technology

which includes a centralised database, a store level point of sale system and a satellite network.

The company’s state of the art technology and the network design has allowed the company to

forecast the demand, predict the levels of inventory and create routes of transportation that are

efficient in nature.
Reference List

Gielens, K., Geyskens, I., Deleersnyder, B. and Nohe, M., 2018. The New Regulator in Town:

The Effect of Walmart's Sustainability Mandate on Supplier Shareholder Value. Journal of

Marketing, 82(2), pp.124-141.

Kshetri, N., 2018. 1 Blockchain’s roles in meeting key supply chain management

objectives. International Journal of Information Management, 39, pp.80-89.

Muñoz, C.B., Kenny, B. and Stecher, A. eds., 2018. Walmart in the Global South: Workplace

Culture, Labor Politics, and Supply Chains. Texas: University of Texas Press.

Tan, B., Yan, J., Chen, S. and Liu, X., 2018, December. The Impact of Blockchain on Food

Supply Chain: The Case of Walmart. In International Conference on Smart Blockchain (pp.

167-177). Springer, Cham.

Walmart. (2019). About Us. [online] Available at: <https://corporate.walmart.com/our-story>

[Accessed 28 May 2019].