Production and Inventory (Essay Sample)

Production and Inventory
Name
Institution
An inventory management system refers to a system that is used to track all the items that are kept in the store of the Walmart store using technology. It has showed that it is an invaluable tool that helps many stores to run in an efficient manner. It has hence been in a position to save money maintaining its inventory and thus increase the sales through the using of the collected data.
In the year 1962, the first store of the Walmart was opened by Sam Walton. Throughout the years, the store has been developing and constantly growing because they have been providing products at low prices and having a friendly customer service. These amongst others such as products of high quality and in plenty, flexible negotiations with clients and others have made Walmart become the world leader in trading and thus securing a place in the industry of the globe CITATION Pau01 \l 1033 (Westerman, 2001).
The products that Walmart deals in include clothing, shoes and accessories, automotive tools and repair, home improvement tools, electronics and entertainment, and others. Its revenue in 2014 was $473.1B USD making it the largest company by revenue in the world. The companies target competitors include Costco, best buy, supermarket chains, target supermarkets and other leading companies. The company is said to be serving over 200 million customers on a weekly basis. They have various stores in Africa, China, South America and Europe CITATION Joh15 \l 1033 (Roberts, 2015).
The features of the inventory management are extensive. The features begin with monitoring, and that includes the monitoring and evaluation of stocks levels in all locations of the world. It evaluates the level of stock in all the stores that are located in the various parts of the world. Such massive store requires monitoring. Also, there is tracking. This follows and keenly observes the movement of all the stock. There is also the feature of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). In this case, both sensors and bar codes, scanners are used in the tracking of the flow of inventory CITATION Eff08 \l 1033 (Oz, 2008).
In addition, there is an optimization. The data that is used from the management systems of inventory seems to optimize the inventory. Some of the examples of the information is the fast-moving inventory, slow moving inventory and the dead or dormant inventory. Also, there is reporting. The reports are generated from the inventory management system thus being reliable and detailed. Finally, there is the prediction. It uses collected data to forecast or predict the future trends of sales, hence allowing for more concise and precise management of physical inventory CITATION Eff08 \l 1033 (Oz, 2008).
When it comes to inventory management, some aspects are discussed. The aspects are technology/system, infrastructure, architecture, and resources. On technology/system, retail link works on a database system that was developed by Walmart and allows the company to track sales, review trends, manage inventory, and communicate with suppliers and many other functions. This facilitates the inventory management in making work easier and reducing costs that might be involved in the hiring process CITATION Pau01 \l 1033 (Westerman, 2001).
The infrastructure, architecture, and resources are utilized in such a way that there is a linked computer network that has an intranet. The intranet connection allows connection to all the stores and the corporate offices. There are servers and software that have the capability of processing massive amounts of data and information. There are scanners, barcodes or radio frequency technology that takes place in transmitting data about an individual product to the scanner or the data collection device CITATION Joh15 \l 1033 (Roberts, 2015).
From the previously stated, the organization manages its inventory information efficiently. They have employed technology such as the radio frequency that allows for recording of an item when it enters and leaves the store. They have proceeded and put up a central place for managing the information about the company and about the products it offers. Its information technology team is dedicated and has made the company stand out from the rest. This has im...