BusinessWeek peeks into the tech world of WM, profiling its CIO and executive VP Linda Dillman:
Dillman, who has been with Wal-Mart for 12 years, following a five-year stint at computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ), helps the retail chain use technology to figure out things like the right mix between self-service checkouts and live cash registers in a typical store. More important, she has helped cut weeks off invoice-processing time and billions off its costs of managing inventory.READ THE WHOLE THING! IN case you won't here's another key paragraph:
More efficient inventory management is another of Dillman's priorities. Six weeks ago, she introduced the so-called FISH (First In and Still Here) report, distributed to key merchants and Wal-Mart execs, that traces how long various inventory items have remained on the chain's shelves. The idea is to discover which products aren't selling well and to adjust inventory levels accordingly. Even below-cost price reductions can translate into huge savings for Wal-Mart, which carries $25 billion to $30 billion in inventory at a given moment.
Posted by Kevin on May, 12 2004 at 08:16 AM
