Walmart

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Introduction Walmart is one the biggest companies in the world. In 2012, Walmart regained the No. 1 spot for fortune magazine’s list of 500 American companies’ ranked by revenue. This is no small feat with sales being over 400 billion dollars in 2012 alone. The United States in 2012 only accounted for 62% of the net profits of Walmart making a multinational enterprise. In the business world there are multiple types of performance measures that can be applied to Walmart showing how large this multinational enterprise truly is and the quality it provides. Walmart is able to maximize customer savings and its profit margins by controlling its supply chain by focusing on key aspects. Walmart’s operation’s strategy is the key to their success and must be understood before their performance can be measured as well as how their supply chain effects that performance. Operation’s Strategy Walmart’s operation’s strategy has the acronym that spells pockets. POCKETS stands for Price, Operations, Culture, Key Item Promotion, Expense Control, Talent, and Service. This operation strategy has given Walmart a competitive advantage since 1962 when Walmart was founded. (Clough) This strategy understand that customers have specific needs and wants that must be meet. A major customer need is affordable products which is the first focus in Walmart’s operation’s strategy. First a company must meet order qualifiers for customers to want to buy from them, one major part of which is affordability. If a customer cannot afford something then the business will not be an order winner. The focus is on providing customers with their slogan of “everyday low prices”. Walmart’s also promotes time saving measures by having large stores where a vari... ... middle of paper ... ...onomy. Conclusion Walmart has demonstrated that it is not just a small retailer but an innovator on operations management since it was founded. Sam Walton started a small company but by having a solid operations strategy he was able to develop a global empire. Operations management is more than just the day to day workings but is of forecasting the future and finding innovative ways to improve to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Walton’s strategy follows the ideas of the basic lean principles. Even though Walmart provides some of the lowest cost products on the market today, they are constantly looking for ways to eliminate waste, increase speed and response, and reduce costs. Walmart is a company to watch when it comes to supply chain management as they work on ways to apply the lean principles to their already lean stores.

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