IMPROVEMENT OF WAREHOUSING PROCESSES THROUGH DIGITALIZATION SOLUTIONS: A CASE STUDY OF COMPANY X
Keywords:
warehousing processes, digitalization, WMS, RF terminals, payback periodAbstract
Companies providing warehousing services are constantly seeking solutions to optimize warehouse operations and processes, reduce time consumption, and improve economic performance. However, they face a shortage of qualified personnel, growing customer expectations, and increasing competition, which, according to Winkelhaus and Grosse (2020), drives the integration of physical processes with data flows. According to Tubis and Rohman (2023), this raises the main research problem: what digitalization solutions can be applied in a warehouse to streamline processes, reduce the error rate, and achieve greater economic benefits?
The aim of this research is to identify the warehousing process problems at UAB "X" and to propose potential digitalization solutions. The object of the research is the improvement of warehousing processes through digitalization solutions. The applied research methods include document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and observation.
The research results revealed that the main problems at UAB "X" include time-consuming receiving operations due to paper-based documentation, excessive employee movement (11.8 km per shift), and a 1.4% error rate caused by manual labor. The proposed digitalization solutions for improving warehousing processes include the implementation of a Warehouse Management System (WMS), the integration of Radio Frequency (RF) terminals, and the application of dynamic ABC classification. These solutions aim to generate annual savings of €61,680, with a payback period of 0.73 years.
A combination of research methods (triangulation) was chosen to ensure data reliability and objectivity: document analysis allowed for the identification of problems in the initial stage, observation enabled the measurement of actual operational time consumption in a natural environment, and semi-structured interviews provided the deeper expert insights necessary for selecting the appropriate digitalization solutions.
