On the technology front, Tohamy points out that Wal-Mart is "dealing with very small suppliers that typically won't have the IT infrastructure that will allow them to give their customers--which are Wal-Mart's suppliers--visibility into what they're doing," Tohamy says. "The amount of data and criteria that we need to look at to make an educated decision on whether a supplier is abiding by whatever regulations and guidelines we need them to abide by, in terms of green and environment--this is not a manual exercise that anyone can go through." And if those small suppliers can't supply that data, how can Wal-Mart know if its suppliers are truly compliant?
Wal-Mart, of course, has a long history of pushing forward with IT-based supply chain initiatives -- with or without the initial support of its supplier base. The most recent example has been the various mandates that its U.S. suppliers affix radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to goods moving throughout Wal-Mart's supply chain.
For all of the challenges Wal-Mart and its suppliers now face, however, Tohamy says the fact that Wal-Mart is embarking on the strategy is a big step in the right direction that will force other large companies to follow suit.
"Just like with RFID, labeling, packaging: it's Wal-Mart starting these initiatives and putting a stake and time line in the ground," she says, "and that will make the industry start to think about these things more seriously."
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