> Keith Nybakke wrote:
>
>> But, there is something else going on, too. WM has one of the best
>> logistics system in the world and they used it to good result in
>> response to Katrina.
>>
>> For many years they have used a lot of the money they don't spend on
>> health insurance and overtime to create a massive sophisticated
>> system for moving goods from factory to port to distribution center
>> to retail outlet. For WM to fill a few trucks with carefully chosen
>> merchandise is no more difficult that any of you putting three clean
>> tee-shirts into a grocery bag.
>>
>> I almost hate to say it, but WM could teach FEMA a thing or two
>> about the logistics of staging and moving a precise mix of supplies
>> needed in any type of situation.
>
> Yeah, and studing the WMT logistics system could even revive some of
> the prestige of economic planning! *Everything* is coordinated out of
> Bentonville; it's a capitalist Gosplan.
>
When I worked for a local department store, scanning inventory, the scanner was satellite linked to a distributor in the central valley(california), not the corporate headquarters.
I'm not questioning the vertical intergration of the company, but it isn't as monolithic as all that. Some processes are much more efficient when they are decentralized and WM know that and utilizes it, like most national companies. Otherwise JIT inventory would just be another seemingly good idea that no one ever tried, and most of the LTL trucking companies(although walmart trucks their own) would have gone out of business years ago.
And on a final note: The Hog Farm commune could teach FEMA a thing or two about logistics, crowd handling, sanitation and food preparation for the DPs, but I understand that Halliburton is serving BBQ & Jambalaya at the Houston AstroDome for the few DPs that ended up there, and that's gonna beat out brown rice veggies and oatmeal for everybody when the FEMA contracts for disaster relief are distributed. [cynical sneer]
Leigh www.leighm.net