Wal-Mart Spearheads Another Best Practice In Supply Chain Execution: Wireless Industrial Vehicle Management

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world's largest retailer, with nearly 6,500 stores and wholesale clubs across 13 countries, more than 1.9 million associates worldwide, and revenue of more than $312 billion in fiscal 2006. The company has been termed "most admired retailer" by FORTUNE magazine. Wal-Mart also enjoys a reputation as a leader in supply chain technology and efficiency. It invented the practice of sharing sales data via computer with major suppliers and has been a global innovator in the use of wireless technology—warehouse management systems (WMS) and radio frequency (RF) data communication systems, for example—to track and manage the flow of goods though its distribution centers.

Never satisfied with the status quo when it comes to improving operations, Wal-Mart began looking at wireless technology for another application: controlling and monitoring forklifts and other industrial vehicles that move merchandise inside its distribution centers. More than 100 such vehicles are utilized in a typical Wal-Mart distribution facility.