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Walmart is taking a technology-driven approach to mitigate weather-related disruptions in its supply chain.
Severe weather can spur potential challenges such as spikes in demand for household essentials, or reduced fulfillment center capacity. The retail giant works to position inventory in the best possible location to keep stores stocked and deliveries to customers on time despite the disruptions, Indira Uppuluri, SVP of supply chain technology, said in an interview with Supply Chain Dive.
To fulfill that mission, employees use predictive artificial intelligence and machine learning models that factor in historical weather patterns and real-time data to see how the company's network may respond to weather-related hurdles before they occur. The insights from those tools help planners find opportunities to reposition inventory, tweak transit times or reroute shipments to unaffected locations before severe weather hits, per a June 24 company blog post last month.
"We bring a lot of signals together to simulate what it would mean for us and what the impact to our stores and customers is going to be," Uppuluri said, adding that transportation capacity and employee availability are other considerations the company weighs.
