> > 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.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Is it that Wal-Mart isn't that centralized, or that centralization itself isn't a good thing? Because Wal-Mart is that centralized, and given the way they've been kicking retail ass, it's hard to argue that it doesn't work too well.
Doug