Advanced information infrastructure for enabling control and effectiveness in warehouse operations

Paper in proceeding, 2009

The primary purpose of the paper is to outline the possibilities for logistics process improvements of a warehouse through the use of information systems (IS). The secondary purpose of the paper is to show how a warehouse can be integrated in an advanced information infrastructure, an intelligent infrastructure, by using IS and Auto-ID technology as enablers. This paper is descriptive and conceptual, with an approach combining both deductive and inductive methods. A literature review was conducted in order to gather the necessary theory to create a framework founding the analysis. A case study was conducted in order to gather empirical data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to gather data related to the warehouse functions and processes. Documents regarding the processes were identified and analyzed for further data regarding the activities and processes. The collected data was analyzed in order to identify how the logistics process could be improved, and when the analysis was completed an experiment was conducted in which the improvements were tested.