Operational management problems of ASDA - Essay Example

In managing and operating a business in the retail industry, the management has to continuously evaluate the role of supply chain in order to ensure that there are sufficient number of supplies available as well as the company has several products as inventory for backup which can be called when needed. The role of supply chain is critical in retail industry because consumers are looking for different products at the stores and if they do not find the product they want then this would make them dissatisfied and frustrated.

Because of this frustration, consumers might not be willing to come back to the store therefore it might lead to losing customers therefore the role of supply chain is important in managing overall operations of the business as well as ensuring that the customers of the company are satisfied. Purpose of the Research Study: This research report is helpful in identifying and revealing different operational management problems that ASDA currently faces. The role of distribution and logistics have drastically changed in today’s competitive market and supply chain has been now used in order to gain competitive advantage over competitors.

Firms in the retail industry have been continuously working to improve their overall supply chain management processes and when firms like Tesco who is the market leader of UK retail industry is also working on improving its supply chain management processes to ensure that the operations of the company are managed without any kind of issues and consumers are able to find their products. Similarly, ASDA has also implemented several operational systems in order to improve the overall process of the organisation as well as make better use of logistics and distribution department of the organisation.

ASDA has also setup data warehouse which plays an important role in providing information to operate the business processes. Background of the Company: ASDA is one of the largest retail organisation in the UK retail industry. The company provides different products to the customers including toys, food, clothing etc. through its several supermarkets store. The company has been operating in UK as a subsidiary of Wal-Mart, as a result of acquisition held in the year 1999. The overall market share of the retail organisation in the grocery market of United Kingdom is around 16.

5 percent (Arch, 2010). Apart from this the company also has mobile service network and has also expanded in several other areas. However, most of these diversifications were unsuccessful (Ellis-Chadwick, Doherty & Anastasakis, 2007). Being a part of Wal-Mart, ASDA is