Likes Vs. Dislikes about the company’s use of information systems

§  Likes:

·        The company was able to use IS in a way that no other company could, it uses information system to help maximize the profit and cut the costs of both inventory and workers' salaries since information system is helping also in cutting the number of workers and save time.

·       The company was able to built a efficient way in communicating with suppliers which helped building a strong base of suppliers who were more the happy to do business with Wal-Mart .

§  Do not like:

·        Wal-Mart is completely depending on the use of information system which sometimes is leading to harming the employees over there and will let them get fired since IS is covering everything and they are no longer needed in the company.

How information system are helping in the company(part1)

v RFID System:

Helps in keeping track of the goods for both Wal-Mart and the supplier and helps in saving time and effort and reducing the number of workers.

v Point-of-sale system (POS):

Helps in handling information efficiently and effective use of information which helps Wal-Mart avoid overstocking by learning what merchandise is selling slowly and also provides better inventory management.

v Telecommunications:

This allows automatic reordering and better coordination. Knowing exactly what is selling well and coordinating closely with suppliers permits Wal-Mart to tie up less money in inventory than many of their competitors. At its computerized warehouses, many goods arrive and leave without ever sitting on a shelf. Only10% of the floor space in Wal-Mart stores is used as an inventory area, compared to the 25% average for the industry.

Information system used in Wal-Mart(part3)

    Cross Docking:   

Wal-Mart has invested heavily in its unique cross-docking inventory system. Cross docking has enabled Wal-Mart to achieve economies of scale, which reduces its costs of sales. With this system, goods are continuously delivered to stores within 48 hours and often without having to inventory them. The manufacturer directly forwarded the goods to a place called the ´staging area. The goods are packed there according to the orders received from different stores and then directly sent to the respective customers.

Lower prices also eliminate the expense of frequent sales promotions and sales are more predictable. Cross docking gives the individual managers more control at the store level.

    Voice-Based Order Filling (VOF)

In1998, Wal-Mart installed a voice-based order filling (VOF) system in all its grocery distribution centers. Each person responsible for order picking was provided with a microphone/speaker headset, connected to the portable (VOF) system that could be worn on waist belt.

They were guided by the voice to item locations in the distribution centers.

The VOF system also verified quantities picked, and could respond to a variety of requests such as providing product detail (type, price, barcode number, etc.)

Information system used in Wal-Mart(part1)

•     RFID System:   

104 Wal-Mart stores, the company has installed RFID readers at the receiving docks at the back of the building, near the trash compactors and between the back room and the retail floor.

o For the cases of goods that are shipped to the stores with RFID tags, Wal-Mart records their arrival by reading the tag on each case and then reads the tags again before the cases are brought out to the sales floor.

o      By using sales data from its existing point-of-sales system, which is not using RFID, Wal-Mart subtracts the number of cases of a particular item that are sold to customers from the number of cases brought out to the sales floor.

o When a case is brought out to the sales floor, the system      records that it's being put out on the shelves.

o      When the case is read at the trash compactor, the status within the system is changed to "on shelf."

o      Suppliers can get updates on the location of their goods within 30 minutes of the goods movement from one part of the store to another with a 98%read rate.