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〃It really was a small town。 If you wanted to go to a third party for logistics; it
was impossible。 It was pure survival。 Now with all the attention we are getting there
is an assumption that our low prices derive from our size or because we're getting
stuff from China or being able to dictate to suppliers。 The fact is the low prices
are derived from efficiencies Wal…Mart has invested in…the system and the culture。
It is a very low…cost culture。〃 Added Glass; 〃I wish that I could say we were brilliant
and visionary; 'but' it was all born out of necessity。〃
The more that supply chain grew; the more Walton and Glass understood that scale and
efficiency were the keys to their whole business。 Put simply; the more scale and scope
their supply chain had; the more things they sold for less to more customers; the
more leverage they had
with suppliers to drive prices down even more; the more they sold to more customers;
the more scale and scope their supply chain had; the more profit they reaped for their
shareholders。 。 。
Sam Walton was the father of that culture; but necessity was its mother; and its
offspring has turned out to be a lean; mean supply…chain machine。 In 2004; Wal…Mart
purchased roughly 260 billion worth of merchandise and ran it through a supply chain
consisting of 108 distribution centers around the United States; serving the some
3;000 Wal…Mart stores in America。
In the early years; 〃we were small…we were 4 or 5 percent of Sears and Kmart;〃 said
Glass。 〃If you are that small; you are vulnerable; so what we wanted to do more than
anything else was grow market share。 We had to undersell others。 If I could reduce
from 3 percent to 2 percent the cost of running my distribution centers; I could reduce
retail prices and grow my market share and then not be vulnerable to anyone。 So any
efficiency we generated we passed on to the consumer。〃
For instance; after the manufacturers dropped off their goods at the Wal…Mart
distribution center; Wal…Mart needed to deliver those goods in small bunches to each
of its stores。 Itmeant that Wal…Marthad trucks going all over America。 Walton quickly
realized if he connected his drivers by radios and satellites; after they dropped
off at a certain Wal…Mart store; they could go a few miles down the road and pick
up goods from a manufacturer so they wouldn't come back empty and so Wal…Mart could
save the delivery charges from that manufacturer。 A few pennies here; a few pennies
there; and the result is more volume; scope; and scale。
In improving its supply chain; Wal…Mart leaves no link untouched。 While I was touring
the Wal…Mart distribution center in Bentonville; I noticed that some boxes were too
big to go on the conveyor belts and were being moved around on pallets by Wal…Mart
employees driving special minilift trucks with headphones on。 A computer tracks how
many pallets each employee is plucking every hour to put onto trucks for different
stores; and a computerized voice tells each of them whether he is ahead of schedule
or behind schedule。 〃You can choose whether you want your computer voice to be a man
or a woman; and you can choose
English or Spanish;〃 explained Rollin Ford; Wal…Mart's executive vice president; who
oversees the supply chain and was giving me my tour。
A few years ago; these pallet drivers would get written instructions for where to
pluck a certain pallet and what truck to take it to; but Wal…Mart discovered that
by giving them headphones with a soothing computer voice to instruct them; drivers
could use both hands and not have to carry pieces of paper。 And by having the voice
constantly reminding them whether they were behind or ahead of expectations; 〃we got
a boost in productivity;〃 said Ford。 It is a million tiny operational innovations
like this that differentiate Wal…Mart's supply chain。
But the real breakthrough; said Glass; was when Wal…Mart realized that while it had
to be a tough bargainer with its manufacturers on price; at the same time the two
had to collaborate to create value for each other horizontally if Wal…Mart was going
to keep driving down costs。 Wal…Mart was one of the first companies to introduce
computers to track store sales and inventory and was the first to develop a
computerized network in order to share this information with suppliers。 Wal…Mart's
theory was that the more information everyone had about what customers were pulling
off the shelves; the more efficient Wal…Mart's buying would be; the quicker its
suppliers could adapt to changing market demand。
In 1983; Wal…Mart invested in point…of…sale terminals; which simultaneously rang up
sales and tracked inventory deductions for rapid resup…ply。 Four years later; it
installed a large…scale satellite system linking all of the stores to company
headquarters; giving Wal…Mart's central computer system real…time inventory data and
paving the way for a supply chain greased by information and humming down to the last
atom of efficiency。 A major supplier can now tap into Wal…Mart's Retail Link private
extranet system to see exactly how its products are selling and when it might need
to up its production。
〃Opening its sales and inventory databases to suppliers is what made Wal…Mart the
powerhouse it is today; says Rena Granofsky; a senior partner at J。 C。 Williams Group
Ltd。; a Toronto…based retail consulting firm;〃 in the 2002 Computerworld article on
Wal…Mart。 〃While its competition guarded sales information; Wal…Mart approached its
suppliers as if they were partners; not adversaries; says Granofsky。 By implementing
a col…
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laborative planning; forecasting; and replenishment (CPFR) program; Wal…Mart began
a just…in…time inventory program that reduced carrying costs for both the retailer
and its suppliers。 'There's a lot less excess inventory in the supply chain because
of it/ Granofsky says。〃 Thanks to the efficiency of its supply chain alone; Wal…Mart's
cost of goods is estimated to be 5 to 10 percent less than that of most of its
competitors。
Now Wal…Mart; in its latest supply…chain innovation; has introduced RFID…radio
frequency identification microchips; attached to each pallet and merchandise box that
comes into Wal…Mart; to replace bar codes; which have to be scanned individually and
can get ripped orsoiled。 In June 2003; Wal…Martinformed its top one hundred suppliers
that by January 1; 2005; all pallets and boxes that they ship to Wal…Mart distribution
centers have to come equipped with RFID tags。 (According to the RFID Journal; 〃RFID
is a generic term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify
people or objects。 There are several methods of identification; but the most common
is to store a serial number that identifies a person or object; and perhaps other
information; on a microchip that is attached to an antenna…the chip and the antenna
together are called an RFID transponder or an RFID tag。 The antenna enables the chip
to transmit the identification information to a reader。 The reader converts the radio
waves reflected back from theRFID tag into digital information that