Final answer:
P&G is improving its value-delivery network by assigning employees to work alongside Walmart to streamline the supply process and optimize their partnership. The approach aims to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and demonstrates a trend toward sustainable and fair labor practices in large corporations.
Step-by-step explanation:
Proctor and Gamble's (P&G)'s strategy of assigning twenty of its employees to live near and work at Walmart's headquarters is to improve its value-delivery network. This approach mirrors the Japanese business innovation of just in time delivery, where parts are delivered daily to manufacturing plants, reducing warehousing costs and improving quality control. By having P&G staff at the Walmart headquarters, the goal is to enhance the speed and cost-efficiency of supplying P&G products to Walmart stores, thus optimizing the supply chain partnership between the two companies.
Such practices demonstrate a commitment to improving labor policies, as seen with Walmart's history of labor and discrimination disputes and its recent initiative to power facilities with renewable energy. The choice to embed P&G employees at Walmart is indicative of modern corporate efforts to not only save costs but also to adopt more sustainable and worker-friendly practices in the long run.