Their legacy is in traditional multi-tier distribution channel management, where the location of the warehouses had to coincide with the locations of retailers and corporate accounts. Yet today the company is increasingly moving towards could computing which frees them from the location-specific requirements, which the majority of their business is predicated on (Casacchia, 2012). Ingram Micro is in the middle of a multi-year strategic shift from having logistics entirely located near retailers and larger customers to being more virtual. While Ingram has grown through acquisition globally, the locally-based approach to distribution in California and New York continue to be the foundational structure of the logistics systems of the company.
Walmart is the retailer included in this analysis and has a logistics model that is the most customer-centric of all three the role of each Walmart Supercenter is to also serve as a distribution center with the majority of employees being part time, splitting their time between working the store floor and also helping...
Walmart has created a business model that makes each large retail location also a stocking product center This is done to minimize stock-outs and also ensure the highly seasonal nature of their business can be anticipated and reacted to quickly. Walmart requires their suppliers to also support direct store distribution (DSD) and Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) to further ensure products are on the shelves for customers when they need it (Chuang, Donegan, Ganon, Wei, 2011).
References
Casacchia, C. (2012). Ingram cloud adds Amazon, Salesforce.com. Orange County Business Journal, 35(25), 3-3,10.
Ming-Ling Chuang, Donegan, J.J., Ganon, M.W., & Wei, K. (2011). Walmart and carrefour experiences in china: Resolving the structural paradox. Cross Cultural Management, 18(4), 443-463.
Kapuscinski, R., Rachel, Q.Z., Carbonneau, P., Moore, R., & Reeves, B. (2004). Inventory decisions in dell's supply chain. Interfaces, 34(3), 191-205.
