Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Chapter 11- Wal-Mart Improves On-Shelf Availability Through the Use of Electronic Product Codes - RFID

http://emol.org/emclub/?q=walmartrfid


SUMMARY

One of American largest companies Walmart improve their on-shelf availability through the use of electronic product codes. Since using the new (RFID) technology Researchers at the University of Arkansas found a 16 percent reduction in out-of-stocks and the study also showed that out-of-stock items with EPCs were replaced three times faster than comparable items using standard bar code technology. There were studies which showed that the RFID help stores to be were 63 percent more efficient to replace out-of -stocks than the normal control stores. The RFID also showed the researchers that out-of-stock on the EPC tagged items were reduced at a rate more than three times faster than that of the non-tagged items within the same store. Walmart is also desired to move to the Gens2 standard of EPC tags, it has been said that the Gen2 has proven to be very successful in improved read rates. The great thing about the Gens2 they are a lot less costly and the cost of the was was the number one driver to the cost. In some cases the price tags can be reduced by over 70 percent. The new technology not only helps to reduce their inventory in the whole supply chain, it also benefited in driving the cost down. which help Walmart to be more efficient and progressive than the other vendors.


CONNECTIONS
The connections that are in this article and chapter 11 are that the new RFID technology is a part of the perpetual inventory that is made more advance. The RFID technology is also more effective than the old system and the periodic inventory method- which is still used in small businesses today. The RFID system is much more time consuming, the cost using this system is much lower and the need of manual labor is sufficiently decreased- but it is still needed for accurate numbers at the end of the accounting cycle. This helps the business to grow and expand faster without needing to spend a great amount of extra money that can be used to promote or to advertise to help sell their products.



REFLECTION
In my opinion I think that switching to the new technology the RFID is a great investment for the company because the new system allows the company to replace out-of -stocks 63 percent more efficiently than the currently system. There is a 16 percent reduction in out-of-stocks and the out-of stocks with EPCs were replaced three times faster. With the second generation of Gen2, the prices of the tags can go down by 70 percent and with lowered prices of the tags -mostly likely the price of the items in the store may also go down. With the lower prices, this can help attract more consumers to shop at Walmart. With this system I can see the benefits for the company, which allows them to save a whole lot of money, time and the need of hiring more employees to do physical scanning of products. However, this system is relatively new so they will be testing it out and in the long term they will be able to see if this system is the best for the company.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Chapter 6- Harmonized Sales Tax

http://www.fraserinstitute.org/newsandevents/commentaries/6815.aspx

Summary
This article reports that that the Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced that BC will replace its PST with a single Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) in the beginning of July 2010. The HST benefits businesses by ending business inputs, decreasing the cost and the tax penalty on new business investments. It will also make BC more encouraged in investments, more business competition and it will provide long term benefits to British Columbia. While the PST(current tax seven percent tax) applies to businesses, this greatly increases the cost of machinery and this cost causes business development to become more expensive than needed. From the harmonizing tax businesses will also benefit from reduction in unproductive tax-compliance costs. The only problem is that the delaying of supplements until mid-2010 can cause businesses to hold back from major purchases and this wouldn't be helpful to the economy.


Connections
The connections with this article and chapter 6 is that the seven percent PST and five percent GST will be replaced by the new Harmonized Sales Tax. This will affect the way which accountants do their books, which means there will no longer be separate documents for the Provincial Government and Federal Government. There will be less work involved for the accountants because instead of needing to separate the two sales taxes and worrying about the GST recoverable, they can just record the taxes as one and all the procedures for doing the taxes would be easier to keep track of. Therefore business owners can easily save money and time from all the paper work and complicated procedures.

Reflection
In my opinion the new Harmonizing Sales Tax will benefit business because they will save a lot of money from not needing to pay the seven percent in tax. But on the other hand the HST would burden on consumers because almost everything they purchase from mid-July will be increased by seven percent.The enforcement of this taxes may cause consumers to hold back from buying things other than the things that are essential for them. When there is less consumers in the market the economy may begin to fall and led into something similar to the depression.