7/26/2019 Wal Mart Forecasting

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• In 1962 Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart store. Today, Wal-Mart has over6,500 stores worldwide that sold over USD$312 billion in merchandise in 2006. Tohelp manage this complex business, Wal-Mart has developed a data warehouse forCollaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR) with its suppliers.

• The data warehouse contains data for each item carried in each store for each dayfor the past 65 weeks. To day this system has eight terabytes of data on inventories,

returns and market baskets. Wal-Mart’s buyers, merchandisers, logistics andforecasting associates, along with its 3,500 merchandise suppliers, have access to thisdata. More than 30 computers applications are available so that the users can askpractically any questions they want.

•  Wal-Mart provides each of its suppliers with a monthly profit-and-loss statement foreach item supplied, along with a past history of demand and a forecast future sales.

This information appears on the supplier’s server and the supplier can interact with Wal-Mart planners to arrive at an agreed forecast for planning and replenishmentpurposes. Suppliers can also do their own analysis using Wal-Mart’s vast datawarehouse. Using the state-of-art system, both Wal-Mart and its suppliers engage incollaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment decisions.