Wal-Mart Warehousing
Wal-Mart is a corporation that has successfully utilized its business model and mission of providing high-quality products to its customers at the lowest price possible. With the utilization of such beliefs, Wal-Mart has become one of the most successful corporate entities within the United States and its respective success has been noted further on an international level. To fully understand Wal-Mart's success as a company, one can view it comparatively. If Wal-Mart were a country, it would be the world's 26th largest economy, just behind Austria -- that says quite a lot (Lecavalier, 2010, p.1). While Wal-Mart's success has generally been linked to this business model and its corporate policy, there is one facet of Wal-Mart's success that is less frequently noted, despite its significance in the company's respective success, and that facet is warehousing. Wal-Mart's ability to provide its customers with top-quality products would cease to exist if the company was unable to warehouse and store its resources and products efficiently. In understanding Wal-Mart's ability to efficiently warehouse its products, one can better understand its relative success in the market. Additionally, one can view the standards that need to be met for Wal-Mart's distribution of services, which cannot be warehoused.
Wal-Mart's Warehousing Strategies and Methods
Wal-Mart's efficiency as a company can be largely contributed to its ability to manufacture products all over the world and get them...
Such flawless logistics are the result of efficient business models and innovation, both of which Wal-Mart possesses and utilizes in nearly each business decision or action that is made or taken. One of the biggest innovations that Wal-Mart has introduced is its flexible regional warehousing system. Most Wal-Mart stores are within a six hour drive of a Wal-Mart warehouse, which ensures easy access and transportation of products with quick turnaround (Brown, 2006, p.1). Author and business analyst J.W. Camerius (2004) wrote, "As the nation's largest retailer and in many geographic areas the dominant distributor, Wal-Mart exerts considerable influence in negotiation for the best price, delivery terms, promotion allowances, and continuity of supply, and many of these benefits could be passed on to consumers" (Camerius, 2004, p.C382).
Much of these success factors come from the company's ability to store and distribute its products at company-run warehousing sites, that allow Wal-Mart executives and employees to hold complete control over their product storage and transportation, cutting out the middle man and ensuring that product maintenance and distribution meet only Wal-Mart's standards and nobody else's. In addition to maintaining a series of warehouses across the country, Wal-Mart maintains significant numbers of…
