Wal-Mart's Quality Management Case Study

Quality Management

Wal-Mart is the largest retailer worldwide that sells a wide range of goods including food items in several countries across the globe. As a result of its growth and profitability, Wal-Mart is not only the world's largest retailer but also one of the biggest companies in the world. One of the major factors that have contributed to the increased profitability of this company is its renowned supply chain management system. Based on its business model, Wal-Mart places significant emphasis on maintaining a highly efficient supply chain. This is mainly because the firm deals with huge inventory worth nearly $45 billion, but roughly turns it over 10.6 times annually or on a monthly basis. The other crucial components of Wal-Mart's supply chain management include management of data and volume as well as cost leadership. These components are mainly geared towards ensuring quality management that enhances the success and profitability of the organization.

Quality Management at Wal-Mart:

Quality management has become a major issue in the modern business environment because consumers are increasingly demanding the highest quality in every aspect of a product. Therefore, for many companies it is no longer enough to concentrate on ensuring that products and services meet particular requirements. The significance of quality management is that it provides more value to the customers, which implies that it needs to become an integral part of the value chain of a company. Through an effective approach, a company can turn quality management into a strategic asset that contributes to huge profits and success.Wal-Mart's quality management is seen in the value of its strategic supply chain, which possess great flexibility and quality (Ketchen et. al., 2008, p.236). While the company has a sophisticated logistics system, the integration of quality management in supply chain management has enabled it to easily withstand competition and price wars from its rivals. Even though Wal-Mart is not renowned for having the best quality merchandise in the past few years, the company has carried out several initiatives to incorporate quality measures in its processes, particularly supply chain management. Since it is a retailer rather than manufacturer, Wal-Mart's quality control measures are differentiated. In order to achieve the best quality, the company actively engages its suppliers in quality control measures. For instance, Wal-Mart requires an initial inspection of a sample before ordering merchandise from a particular supplier.

The first example of how Wal-Mart uses quality management in its logistic systems is the use of RFID technology to keep track of inventory as it moves through the firm's system. RFID technology is one of the various technologies employed by Wal-Mart to help in its inventory management and logistics. Once the company has taken the inventory after tracking its movement in the system, it knows where to direct the inventory. The technology enables the company to enhance the efficiency of its global supply chain management and logistics system through more precise ordering decisions and improved visibility of global supply….....