AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
APPLICATION OF MODERN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN INNOVATION OF BUSINESS
LOGISTICS PROCESSES
a
ANITA ROMANOVÁ,
b
PATRIK RICHNÁK,
c
KLAUDIA
PORUBANOVÁ,
d
VLADIMÍR BOLEK
University of Economics in Bratislava, Faculty of Business
Management,
a,d
Department of Information Management,
b,c
Department of Production Management and Logistics,
Dolnozemská cesta 1, 852 35 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
email:
a
anita.romanova@euba.sk,
b
patrik.richnak@euba.sk,
c
klaudia.porubanova@euba.sk,
d
vladimir.bolek@euba.sk
The paper was elaborated within VEGA 1/0436/17 Conceptual Frameworks of IT
Governance and their impact on the competitiveness of companies in the Slovak
Republic – proportion 80 % and the Project of Young Teachers, Researchers and Full-
time PhD. Students at University of Economics in Bratislava, No. I-19-104-00 New
dimension of logistics in the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Slovak enterprises –
proportion 20 %.
Abstract: Business logistics in 21
st
century has been transforming its form, because it
could be characterised by higher flexibility, innovations, accuracy, reliability,
orientation on customer and application of worldwide logistic technologies and
systems. Modern trends and logistic direction are mutually devoted just very little
attention. The main aim of the paper is to identify the impact of selected information
technologies on selected logistics processes. As a result of digitization, logistics forms
the basis for the implementation of new modern technologies, the transition to
advanced production systems and the differentiation of product offerings. This is also
confirmed by the results of a survey conducted in 85 Slovak enterprises and a
statistical evaluation of the survey.
Keywords: information technologies, logistic processes, business logistics, Warehouse
Management System, Radio Frequency Identification, Pick-by-Systems
1 Introduction
In current turbulent times, logistics is impacted by globalisation
and dynamic growth of new technologies. Every business reacts
to these changes swiftly and flexibly and accommodates to needs
of the market. Modern era brings also changes and new direction
of logistics itself. If business wants to survive in competitive
fight, it must include new means, methods, techniques,
approaches and technologies of business logistics into its
genesis. Nowadays, we can observe various approaches towards
trends, depending on views of many authors and businesses.
Beginnings of warehouse evidence via computer reach back to
80
th
years, when they used to record volume of stored materials.
Currently systems of warehouse management offer many options
on how to manage, control, optimise stockroom and distribution
operations. Processes which occur in warehouses are of large
importance for the circulation of goods throughout the supply
chain. Warehousing itself refers to taking care, transportation,
loading, unloading, packing and processing of goods between
the production and consumption for commodity and other
various functions. According to authors Bartholdi and Hackman,
the warehouse process of order picking takes 70% of time and
55% of costs which makes it a significant process in a
warehouse. The order picking process can be one-dimensional,
two-dimensional and three-dimensional (Bartholdi, 2014).
Warehouse is very important for every company, especially for
production and retail sector, but also for the whole supply chain.
Term warehouse is often mentioned in a negative context, as the
cause of high costs and waste of time, without adding value to
the product. Such understanding of warehouse and warehousing
process is limited and does not observe the key tasks of
warehouse management, such as: reducing the warehouse cost
and holding inventory, increasing efficiency, increasing
accuracy, increasing productivity while achieving greater value
for customers and higher levels of service quality (Richards,
2017). To analyse and measure the effectiveness, according to
Richards, it is necessary to approach the processes from where
the deficiencies can be indicated. Basic warehouse processes are
the following: receiving, put-away, internal replenishment, order
picking, accumulating and sorting, packing, cross-docking,
dispatch and shipping. Receipt and storage are considered
inbound processes, while others are considered outbound
processes. Beside these processes, there are also value-added
services which are not obligatory but depend on the warehouse
type and various provided services. In various warehouses,
goods which usually enter as units of a larger scale, go through
reorganization submitted to repackaging that results with units of
a smaller scale. Afterwards, they are broken down into smaller
quantities throughout order picking, packing and finally
distribution. In this kind of warehouses, operations which are
done daily are tied with human performance and greatly depend
on it. The smaller the handling unit, the greater the handling
cost. Smaller units require more labour and much more
processing to be delivered. Precisely, pallet manipulation at a
warehouse directly influences the time used for picking.
2 Literature Review
The core of WMS is in warehouse map, which includes detail
parameters of storage space on shelves and free space while it
follows the same rules and criterions e.g. in space utilisation and
others. WMS also includes data of stored goods, their
dimensions, stock rotation, packaging, dispatching. Every
logistics operation is noted and hence it is known where logistics
unit is located, what the parameters are and what its date of
expiry is (Brezovský, 2014). Warehouse management involves
the control and optimisation of the complex warehouse and
distribution system. It might be said that warehousing and
inventory management represent support to the production
process and strive to complete coordination in relations with all
functions, such as marketing, finance, human resources etc.
Therefore, any disruption in coordination can cause serious
problems throughout the whole business process.
According to Bartholdi and Hackman (2014), collecting orders
in the warehouse wastes the largest share of time of all
warehouse activities, approximately 70%. Therefore, it is very
important to minimize the pickers’ collection time and picking
route. Affecting the mentioned total collection time by order
decreases, and the number of successfully collected orders per
hour increases. When collecting orders, it also appears that the
largest share of work is done by warehouse workers. In order to
meet large orders of many customers, the warehouses have
several shifts performing tasks of collecting orders. From an
economic point of view collecting orders makes up to 55% of
operating costs in the warehouse. Therefore, it is important to
reduce the order picking cost by optimizing time and picking
route because it greatly reduces the overall storage costs.
Warehousing process includes receiving, putting away, storage,
order-picking and dispatching of raw materials/products (Ming
et al. 2013). Order-picking is one of the most important activities
in the warehouse. This warehouse activity includes retrieving
raw materials and/or products from the warehouse at the request
of the customer, or presents a process of gathering raw materials
or products which are prepared according to some customer
orders (Reif et al. 2010). Order-picking, as labour-intensive
warehousing operation, involves checking the availability of raw
materials and/or products, assembling documents, defining the
schedule for preparing orders and transportation. This operation
could be very capital-intensive in situations when warehouse is
automated (De Koster et al. 2007).
According to Rakesh and Adil (2015), the warehouse layout
decision is important as it affects several aspects of a warehouse,
including various costs and storage capacity. Step toward
warehouse optimization is by use of their algorithm that
determines lane depth, number of storage levels, lateral depth
and longitudinal width of a three-dimensional order picking
warehouse. It also helps in knowing the quantum of change in
the cost due to change in different parameters, which are difficult
to predict due to the interaction of multiple effects and trade-
offs. When there is a need for achieving operational efficiency
and cost savings, warehouse management and warehouse
operations are appropriate areas, in terms of achieving savings
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