Historically the delivery of most products to Walmart would entail a supplier delivering to a Walmart Distribution Center (DC) and Walmart responsible for shipping from their DC to each store. Earlier this year Walmart announced that it would take over distribution of products to its DC’s from thousands of retailers. Major benefits of this change have been stated as cost savings to Walmart by keeping their trucks busy and reduced disruption caused by late deliveries.
However, I read an article (http://www.storefrontbacktalk.com/supply-chain/wal-mart-takes-back-its-supply-chain-it-back-in-the-spotlight/) that indicates there is an underlying factor that may be nearly as valuable. When picking up pallets of product at the supplier, the driver will scan RFID information before product is loaded into the truck. This will allow data stored on each RFID to be visible to the business hours or days earlier than it would traditionally have been seen when unloading each truck upon arrival at their DC. This means a missing pallet (or other product issue) can be identified and corrections made to business plans much sooner. This increased visibility into the supply chain can improve inventory accuracy and help improve service while reducing costs.
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