Supply Chain: A Case Study of Walmart China

Supply Chain: A Case Study of Walmart China
Student’s Name
Institution
Supply Chain: A Case Study of Walmart China
Companies such as Walmart in the retail industry have quite a wide range of products that would require the establishment of different kinds of warehouses to ensure storage and distribution of products and services in their desired conditions. Consequently, these companies have to adopt either the staple stock-flow distribution center model or the cross-dock distribution center model. For short-term storage of inventory of perishable products, staple stock-flow distribution centers (DC) is most suitable. Staple stock-flow ensures that the space in the distribution are utilized up to their capacities and is thus the most desired model in maintaining inventory (Richard Ivy School of Business Foundation, 2015). The staple stock-flow DC model also offers flexibility with the inventory of up to seven days. This distribution center model has some shortcomings too. The cost for setting up the infrastructure and acquiring the equipment is relatively high. The staple stock DC model also has a limitation with the number of Stock Keeping Units (SKU) that can be allocated.
The cross dock flow distribution model, on the other hand, offers flexibility, with the capacity to handle an infinite number of SKUs (Richard Ivy School of Business Foundation, 2015). The fact that cross-dock flow does not require space for inventory cuts costs of the acquisition of equipment space, handling, and even the construction. On the flip side, with cross-dock flow DC model, scheduling can be complex because it is dependent on the supplier’s efficiency. The supply chain can be messy with inefficient and unreliable coordination of the supplies with cross-docking....