Business 4

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review Chapters 3 and 4 in the required textbook, Operations and Supply Chain Management. In addition, review the Walmart (Links to an external site.) website.

In retail, point of sale capability is directly tied to factories and supplier cooperation. For example, Walmart’s trucking and GPS, cross-dock warehouse load and unload operations, and RFID enable their supply chain to be fast and on-time (i.e., reliable). Outsourcing and supplier discounts for huge order sizes give Walmart much power in the global supply chains. Competitors such as Target, Safeway, and Costco have copied many of their methods and practices, so Walmart’s competitive advantage has diminished.

Using Walmart’s case as an example, select another company, and review their competitive advantage. How does the company use the competitive priority cost to its competitive advantage? Research, then explain, and provide examples.

In your paper,

• Research how your selected company uses the competitive priority cost to its competitive advantage.
• Explain your company’s priority cost as a strategic advantage.
• Provide examples from your selected company.

The An Organization’s Competitive Advantage paper

• Must be two to three double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.).
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted

For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).

• Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
• Must use at least two scholarly, peer-reviewed, or credible sources in addition to the course text.
  • The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
  • To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, view this Ashford University Library Quick ‘n’ Dirty (Links to an external site.) tutorial, which introduces the Ashford University Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA: Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.).
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the APA: Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.