Case Study: How Walmart Enhances Supply Chain Management with ERP Initiatives?

Wal-Mart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton and is been in the business of selling anything and everything people need for their everyday life with an everyday low price strategy. The success of Wal-Mart is mainly due to its focus on continuously improving operations through its efficient supply chain management practices. Sam Walton was not mainly concerned about opening more stores in small towns, but also came up with several innovative practices to improve the way business was conducted in the store. From the inception, Sam Walton provided products at a reduced cost than its competitors. Wal-Mart follows the “Everyday low prices” business model.… Read the rest

Reverse Logistics Process Formalization

Reverse logistics is the process of planning, implementing and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from the point of consumption to the point of origin for the purpose of recapturing or creating value or for proper disposal. Despite the growing recognition of the importance of reverse logistics, many companies are not ready to meet the challenges involved in handling returns. The rapid growth in the volume of returns far outpaces the abilities of firms to successfully manage the returns. Because of all the uncertainties involved, reverse logistics program development and implementation becomes very complex.… Read the rest

Importance of Customer Service in Supply Chain Management

Supply chain is basically considered as a strategic concept that involves understanding and managing the sequence of activities -from supplier to customer-that add value to the product supply pipeline. The role of customer service in the supply chain management is not incidental. Every company in this chain, irrespective of market size mainly they thankful to its customers as the fact is that in all profit of firm there are customers are in center whom to buy the goods and services produced by each one of them. This century marks the end of monopolies and therefore customers can make an array of choices.… Read the rest

How Logistics Productivity Improvement Affects the Economy as a Whole as well as the Position of Individual Consumer?

Generally logistics refers to the inbound and outbound flow and storage of goods , services, and information within and between organisations. The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), which is the pre-eminent professional organisation for academics and practitioners in the logistics field, formed in 1963, defined logistics management as ” that part of supply chain management that plans, implements and controls the efficient, effective forward and reverse flow and storage of goods ,services, and related information between the point of origin and the the point of consumption in order to meet customers requirements “.

Logistics Productivity Improvement and the Economy

Logistics has become an enormously important component of the gross domestic product (GDP) of industrialized nations and thus affects the rate of inflation, interest rates, productivity, energy costs and its availability and other aspects of the economy as well.… Read the rest

Concept of Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)

An important feature of a world class organisation is the way the organisation has been able to develop and link its suppliers with its external processes. Supplier relationship management can be defined as the relationship that exists between the supplier and its buyer based on long term commitments and trust with the ultimate aim to maximize the potential value of the relationship. This will include the management of different forms of supply relationships such as partnership, joint venture and vertical integration.

The critical importance of supplier relationship types to achieve supply chain competitiveness can be viewed under the following headings:

The effective use of strategic partnership

Typical traditional short term relationship is characterize by irregular or ‘one-off’ transactions that give rise to supply uncertainties, difficulties in choosing suppliers, and is price oriented making this type of relationship unreliable and unsupported.… Read the rest

Value Added Roles of Warehouses

Nowadays, the warehousing is playing a very important role in the supply chain management. Due to the strong competitive market nowadays, the function of warehouse is requiring to extend to a wide range. The warehousing not only provides the function of holding or storage the goods but it also provides the value-added services to improve the performance of the supply chain. The value-added services provided by warehouses are including;

  1. Buffer:  The warehousing is holding the goods for the downstream stages of supply chain. It is to balance the difference goods schedules and aim to deal the efficiency in the distribution process and achieve the economic of scale.
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