The following data are approximations based off of SupplyPike research.
The findings showed, most notably, that “Barcode Compliance: Incorrect Quantity” makes up a quarter of the total dollars lost to SQEP defects. Also, “Barcode Compliance: Incorrect Quantity,” “ASN Not Downloaded,” and “Overage” make up roughly 65% of the total dollars lost to SQEP defects.
SQEP Defects by Total $ Lost
That being said, suppliers are used to seeing a large number of other defects. From the supplier’s perspective, the total number of dollars lost is much more important than the total number of defects incurred. But from a retailer perspective, it may be important to know also which defects are most recurrent.
SQEP Defects by Total # of Defects
Whereas, in terms of total defects, there seems to be a fairly even spread of defects. But the cash amount shows a different story. The bulk of total dollars lost go mainly to a handful of defects:
Barcode Compliance: Incorrect Quantity
ASN Not Downloaded
Overage
Label Compliance: Incorrect Quantity
Barcode Compliance: Incorrect Barcode
None of the other defects make up more than 5% of the total dollars lost, and all of the rest of the defects combined make up only 17% of the total dollars lost.
Percentage of Total Dollars Lost by Phase
Phase 1 and Phase 2 both comprise a significant portion of the total fines for SQEP, coming in at around 90% for both of them. These are only approximations, however,
Phase 1: 42.4%
Phase 2: 47.5%
Phase 3: 10.1%
Takeaways for Walmart Suppliers
In sum, it is easy to get distracted by the defects that are seen the most on the SQEP Dashboard, but it is important to prioritize the defects that have the greatest dollar impact on your business.
In the end, Barcode Compliance and ASN accuracy appear to be two of the trickiest areas of compliance within the SQEP program at Walmart. Corrective action is key, especially in the FIXit app for Phase 2, as well as having a good sense of the SPSCS ‘23 as a resource.
Benchmarking your performance against these key metrics will give you a sense of the peculiarity (or not) of your Walmart business. Suppliers with a large number of SKUs and a high turnover rate may have a very different set of SQEP challenges than a CPG with a few hardline SKUs.
Each Walmart business is its own animal when it comes to compliance, but making progress starts with having a thorough sense of Walmart’s rules and regulations in the SPSCS ‘23.