Abstract
Abstract : Warehousing plays one of the most vital parts in any organization, and is fundamental in facilitating global trade. A firm with a viable warehouse management system can easily meet customers’ demand. Additionally, warehousing also ensures that goods are readily available and delivered faster at reasonable prices to a network of global clients. However, if it is not properly structured and managed, it can hinder a company from competing globally. To this end, the overall aim of this study was to explore factors affecting warehouse influence on ability to gain competitive market advantage. Research has revealed that warehouse management as a core enabler of manufacturing competitiveness continues to be underappreciated by top management. To achieve the aforementioned goal, this study adopted a two-fold approach. Firstly it critically analysed a set of previous studies that were conducted on warehouse management systems within various business organizations. This helped in identifying gaps existing in the current literature. Secondly, the study used a quantitative approach to administer questionnaires to various experts from different manufacturing firms in order to address the identified flaws. The data collected from various consultations with industrial experts were analysed using deductive reasoning techniques. Respondents were from manufacturing using a case study with three different firms located in the province of Gauteng. The participants that took part in this study were chosen by means of convenience sampling. This method was preferred due to its ability to give the researcher an opportunity to select participants that were easily accessible. The findings of this study have revealed that current warehouse management systems put in place by most of the South African manufacturing firms are unintegrated and unautomated. This in return hinders the industry from gaining global competitive market advantage. Additionally, the results demonstrated that there is a lack of zone pickings, which causes a lot of unnecessary movements and consequently damages the warehouse system. Furthermore, it was observed that most staff working within the warehouse division are technology illiterate which also creates a lot of delays. Despite, the fact that we live in a highly digitalized century, it is worrying to note that the appetite to adopt digital-based WMS is very low.
M.Tech. (Operations Management)