Wal-Mart to punish suppliers for delivering early

© Redwood8

If there’s one thing consignees absolutely hate, it’s goods arriving at their facilities late. Well, it also transpires that Wal-Mart doesn’t much like shipments arriving early either, it can push up inventory costs, and suppliers that are guilty of either – as well as improperly packing goods – will be subject to fines in a new “On-Time, In-Full” programme. The world’s largest retailer appears to believe this will net it around $1bn in extra revenue, according to this report from Bloomberg. The OTIF philosophy may have already been pioneered by large multinational supply chains – Target introduced a similar policy last year – but the sheer scale of Wal-Mart, with 150 mega-sized distribution centres across the US, makes it a different proposition. FMCG suppliers will have to “deliver what we ordered 100% in full, on the must-arrive-by date 75% of the time. Items that are late or missing during a one-month period will incur a fine of 3% of their value”.