Case $4$ The Home Depot Initiates New Cooperation in Supply Chain ManagementAtlanta$-$based Home Depot is the leading chain of stores in the United States with sales of $$15\mathrm{.}4$ billion and profits of $$731\mathrm{.}5$ million. With more than $2,500$ stores in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, Home Depot ranks among the twenty largest U$.$S$.$ retailers. Fortune magazine named Home Depot America's most admired retailer in $2019,$ and it consistently makes Fortunes list of "America's most admired corporations.Home Depot was founded in $1978$ by Bernard Marcus, Arthur Blank, and Ronald Brill, all former Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers executives. Their first three stores opened in the Atlanta area in $1979,$ and they added a fourth in$1980.$ Over the years, the firm acquired Bowater Home Centers, Modems Shoppers World stores, and Aikenhead, a Canadian home$-$improvement retailer.The typical Home Depot store stocks more than $50,000$ home improvement materials, building supplies, and lawn andgarden items in more than $100,000$ square feet. To cater to both do$-$it$-$yourselfers and professional contractors, the storesfollow a strategy of providing superior customer service, low prices, and a broad product assortment. They also offerproduct installation services, free professional consultation on home improvement projects, and how$-$to seminars on a variety of do$-$it$-$yourself projects.As a leader in both its supply chain and its industry, Home Depot is using re$-$engineering to become more efficient inphysical distribution, logistics$,$ inventory control, security, and electronic data interchange systems to help manufacturersimprove their productivity and thereby supply Home Depot with better quality products at less cost. After recognizing thatit needed to implement a core canier program $($with $89$ percent of its deliveries going from vendor to store, store receivingdocks were overwhelmed with incoming trucks from multiple carriers$),$ Home Depot required its suppliers to switch todesignated national carriers. This stipulation was met with substantial resistance for several years until Home Depot began listening to vendors concerns and implementing some of their suggestions. Home Depot now offers two choices of carriers in each region.Its success has led Home Depot to form the Inbound Consortium, a cooperative partnership of retailers such as Wal$-$Mart,Handy Andy, Target, Lowes, and others, in which regional trucking companies making deliveries can provide betterservice, faster delivery, and greater efficiency in their operations. We think Wal$-$Mart and Home Depot can help eachother,$\text{'}$ insists Rebecca Nash; director of traffic. Home Depot has also made suggestions for standardizing packaging and delivery that saves its suppliers millions of dollars.Another radical change was Home Depot's insistence that its vendors switch from shipping products on wooden pallets toplastic slipsheets. Slipsheets cost about one$-$sixth as much as wooden pallets and, because they are thin, they take up lessroom in storage and on trucks, allowing more goods to be transported at one time. The slipsheet program resulted insignificant cost and manpower savings of over $$1$ million dollars annually from hauling away wooden pallets. To motivatesuppliers to switch, Home Depot distributed a humorous promotional video to vendors with the advantages of slipsheeting.It has also founded the Slipsheet Retailer Coalition to share the benefits and expand the uses of slipsheeting throughout theretail industry.Home Depot also made greater use of Electronic Data Interchange $($EDI$),$ a paperless system that electronicallyprocesses orders from stores to manufacturers, alerts stores when merchandise is scheduled to arrive, and transmits invoice data. The system helps Home Depot avoid stockouts and allows it to track shipments instantly, resulting inbetter customer service.Home Depot is also trying to persuade the retail industry to standardize other elements, such as UPC $($bar code$)$symbols and security devices. Such standardization and re$-$engineering will enable Home Depot to become even moreefficient in its role as supply chain leader while providing better value and service to its customers.

Question:Why do you think Home Depot has formed a cooperative partnership with Walmart and other competitors?