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Bibliometric research in Warehouse Management System from 2006 to 2016

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 Proceedings of The 22nd World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI 2018)
Bibliometric research in Warehouse Management System from 2006 to 2016
Kyane Alves de Matos Freire
MRO Logistics
Avenida das Américas, 700, building 6, rooms 145-150, Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, 22640-100,
Brazil
ABSTRACT
Warehouse Management System (WMS) is a very popular
information technology (IT) to control receive, inspection,
address, storage, separation, package, shipping, and
documents sending. Because of this, many practitioners are
still interested on this IT, and researchers are working on
this subject. Bibliometric studies have been using to search
the best papers related to the subjects discussed in a
research. It contributes to the quality of the issue, the
analysis about what are the main authors publishing about a
specific subject, the main journals, and countries where the
papers are published. The purpose of this paper is to verify
the completeness of the literature with regard to the
treatment of WMS. A bibliometric research was conducted
using Scielo, Scopus, and Web of Science. The collected
data were analysed to show where the articles were
published, the number of papers published per author, the
number of papers published per year, and other analysis.
The authors discovered that Asia and Europe concentrated
72% of issues, there is no concentration by subjects,
journals or authors, from 2006 to 2016, with WMS

      
Carlos Francisco Simões Gomes
Production Engineering Department, Fluminense Federal University
Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, 24210-240, Brazil
Priscilla Cristina Cabral Ribeiro
Production Engineering Department, Fluminense Federal University
Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, 24210-240, Brazil
company implements a WMS reach the elimination of
storage buffers and the reduction of operation time [8].
This paper aims to verify the completeness of the literature
with regard to the treatment of WMS. For this purpose, a
bibliometric research was conducted by research bases as
ISI Web of Science, Scopus and Scielo, and a quantitative
analysis of the issues from this search. Four items structure
the paper: this first, the problem; the second part, a
literature review; the third, the bibliometric analysis; the
fourth, the results from the analysis; finally, the fifth is the
conclusion.
2. WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
2.1 Infrastructure
The rapid development caused by globalization makes the
supply chain management more complicated [9], turning
necessary a more sophisticated logistic planning, including
warehouse operations. To contribute to this purpose,
warehouse system is necessary, and its main function is to

 
          
 

  


 
receive products (from inbound or manufacturing lines), to
store materials until they are requested, and then, to extract
concentration about years, in 2013 and in 2016 the authors 
products from inventory and ship them in response to the
   
     
 

found more papers published. [4] (p. 175). WMS also monitors the job 

order information (stock time, stock route, stock

Keywords: Warehouse Management System; bibliometrics completion time, stock status) and it shows status whether
analysis; infrastructure; operations. 
the job is completed or not and also shows the information
There are many studies, which found that information
technology (IT) application software can be fundamental in
improving safety because of its capability to provide
immediate feedback, aid in decision making, prevent errors
and increase compliance [1]. Since the e-commerce came
popular, companies should exchange information about
their products in a quick flow, using ITs in their operations.
Logistic operations support this flow, by the stock,
warehouse, distribution, and transportation systems.
Manufacturers aiming conservation of stocks for
production or distribution, commonly use warehouses, and
the performance of any distribution network is largely
determined by the good operation of warehouses [2] (p.


    
93). Th goals have a conflict as
maximization of space utilization, and the minimization of
the average length of the tours on which the request items
are collected [3]. Despite this conflict, these logistic
       
  

    
facilities
requirements for warehousing operations have significantly
  
 

[4]. [5] (p. 483) and [6] assume that the main
warehouse activities include receiving, transfer and put
away, order picking/selection, accumulation/sortation,
cross-docking, and shipping.
Warehouses planning is inevitably influenced by a correct
and organized allocation of items [7] (p. 180). Warehouse
Management System (WMS) is an information technology
(IT), which improves the issues in a warehouse operation,
being a good option for companies in all sectors. When a
              
[10] (p. 281). This IT is a bridge
between strategic and operational level in a company,
1. INTRODUCTION allowing the dynamic response to order demand essential to
agile supply chains, and can reduce costs with accuracy
data which it and other ITs can generate - to lean supply
chains. With barcode, voice data entry and Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) data communications
technology, WMS changes conventional warehouses
improving their efficiency and productivity [11].
For [12] when WMS integrates with voice picking results
on a better organization, helping the company to determine
all the variables and based on them, make the best decision
on inventory and shipping. Because of this, WMS allows an
important transformation into warehouse, large and
relatively homogeneous arrival materials turn into small,
frequent and heterogeneous output quantities in response to
   

   
  
customer demands. The small and frequent output
quantities result from the fulfilment of the customer order
lists [4] (p.175).
     


      
ITs can help with security in Distribution Centers (DCs),
 and in an WMS security systems are included, and with RF

technologies conducting a series of equipment checks,
instructing to proceed/not to proceed to operate equipment
and alerting vehicle damage to the maintenance department
can reduce the accidents in these facilities [1] (p. 78).
Per these authors, this integrated system lead to an increase
of productivity because collection, sorting and archiving of
paper forms were computerized. Since the checks are
electronically recorded and archived, there are no errors in
missing documents and can be done with no manual labor
needed to sort and search [1].
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 Proceedings of The 22nd World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI 2018)

involving a large number of considerations and a group of

WMS can integrates with other ITs, as RFID, in a supply experts.
chain. Advances in ambient intelligence and RFID  # $      


 


technology have enabled development to new approach in
         " 

[21] (p ication systems such as RFID 

the logistics and production domain call -  ! and barcode are inherent parts of warehouse management, 

is based on information recovered from products and and improve its efficiency and effectiveness . These set of
resources at the bottom of the chain, which is then benefits is a consequence of RFID performance. This IT
transmitted to the upper levels and impacts decision- can identify, classify, and manage the flow of materials and
making across all supply chain areas [13]. information throughout the supply chain wirelessly without

human intervention in order to avoid human error.


  

      
        %
      
      
  

A similar idea was developed by [10] a combination of 

Indoor Positioning System (IPS) and WMS, with an condition, and history can be stored and retrieved on a real- 

infrastructure containing a tag, a receiver, a gateway, and
an integrated software and database server. This system
will lead the managers of DCs to track and trace the
products, by the tags, which is similar with RFID system
integrated with WMS.
A WMS based on Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP)
produces benefits such as: simplify system structure,
increase agility, expansibility and maintainability, and
solve some existing problems in current WMS [14]. This IT
plays a critical role in supply chains and large production
processes, when a company applies variability modeling
techniques in WMS, in order to improve the degree of reuse
and shorten the delivery time to customers [15]. The major
challenges of this IT include the correlation between
picking and shipping processes for timely order delivery
and inefficient management of inbound process (i.e., from
receiving to shipping) [6]. To improve these processes, [16]
explain the importance of real time information in WMS,
and [17] explain concluding the same. The authors said
that the construction and use of an IT Infrastructure based
in a Data Warehouse and OLAP Technology can be used in
the decision-making processes for continuous improvement
applied to a quality management system of a manufacturing
company.
2.2 WMS and other ITs
According to [18], automation for order picking processes
in warehouses is only deployed to a limited extent. Some
factors lead to this: the need of large and long ranging
investments; dynamic market demand requires more and
more systems flexibility; and the products characteristics
like size and/or weight may change significantly over time.
Because of this, the majority of order picking systems still
be manually operated.
In spite of the manual way to operate warehouse activities,
the author explains the importance of order picking
strategies as a core function within a WMS. [18] is not
against technologies in warehouse operations, but he
observed that there is no conditions to apply routing
heuristics in storage areas. For the cases of routing
heuristics application, the author suggested the use of Line
Sequence Optimization (LSO), which calculates the line
sequence with the minimum travel time. During the article,
he presented a case study showing that the LSO is planned
to be integrated as a supplementary functionality into an


existing WMS of a supplier, and this functionality will
    
 
   

           
 
time basis, giving better visibility for decision making [22]
(p. 532). When WMS joins with lean and RFID, they allow
the reengineering and change the operation processes
resulting on benefits to the logistics operations in
warehouse, as reduce of the processing time of data
transmitting to WMS at receiving and shipping docks, and
on the total operation time from current stage to future
stage.
[23] showed the ability of RFID to organize the inventory
in a petroleum company. In two months, the efficiency
increases and the errors were eliminated.
Even though WMS is an information technology, which
improves its issues from a simple internal inventory
management to a Supply Chain Management (SCM) tool, it
has some issues. These issues are:
- The lack of basic information for first -in-first-out;
- Inaccuracy of inventory information, difficulties;
- Inaccuracy of inventory information;
- Difficulties in figuring out the balance location;
- Inefficiency in terms of space in warehouse;
- Miscarriage when releasing;
- Difficulties in checking out-of-stock before the release;
- The inability to have actual inspections on commodity
([24] Apud [25]).
Because of this, WMS is the core element of SCM, and a
system that facilitates a superb inventory management and
warehouse operation [25] (p. 160).
Connecting with WMS and other ITs, Internet of Things
(IoT), a technological revolution in the future of computing
and communication that is based on the concept of anytime,
anyplace connectivity for anything. It has impacted solution
domains, such as Smart Grid, Supply Chain Management,
Smart Cities, and Smart Home. It includes enabling
network and communication technologies, such as IPv6,
web services, RFID, and 4G networks [26] (p. 1).
Implementation and integration of fast-growing IT
technologies have demonstrated great improvement
opportunities of a warehouse in terms of a tighter inventory
control, a shorter response time and a greater variety of
SKUs (stock keeping units). These capabilities can be
enhanced by using smart-labels such as RFID tags,
automatic identification (Auto-ID) sensors, wireless
communication networks, and indoor warehouse
  
  
 
management systems (iWMS) [27].

[19] proposed an integration between WMS and QR code 3. MATERIAL AND METHOD
with the objective of improving the efficiency of warehouse
management. They showed how the WMS function works This paper reached its aim, using a bibliographic and a
with QR code. They provide a basic design of WMS based documental research supported by a deep bibliometric
on QR code, discussing several key problems in the research. Bibliometric is a set of laws and empirical
process, given many solutions and relevant code to these principles, which contribute to establish the theoretical
specifics problems. foundations of information science and utilizes quantitative
analysis and statistics to research the distributed
[20] focus on select the right WMS, according to the type architecture, quantitative relation, varying pattern as well as
of products, can be more appropriate to them. The authors a quantitative analysis of the document information [28].
used a fuzzy extended analytical hierarchy (FEAHP), and
explain how the method of FEAHP can do this, how to This method investigates the structure, characteristics and
select a software with FEAHP, considering administrative patterns of the underlying science and technology. It has  
&          '  

aspects of the product. They chose the software quality (

some laws (bibliometric), which
%           

       
 $  '     
!

'   (     

assurance (SQA) and showed how to implement the  

 

      
 $     )
    '        
*
  

FEAHP with this software. The tool presented in this paper

involves many alternatives and criteria. According to the (analysis) [28]. In addition, its main purpose in this article
method, they concluded that FEAHP can be used in is to provide quantitative analysis of written publications
selecting information tools associated with logistics, [29].

201
 Proceedings of The 22nd World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI 2018)

Per [29], bibliometric methods are supported greatly by four years with a big publications explosion, 2006, 2010,
computerized data treatment and in the recent years, there 2013, and 2016. The year after a big contribution is a year
has been an increase in the number of publications within with less contribution. In a previous paper, we supposed
the field. This is partly due to the computerized methods, that 2016 and 2017 can increase contributions, and 2018
but also to the fact that a bibliometric method must include will be a year with few contributions, and what is
a certain volume of data in order to be statistically reliable. happening, this can be seen in Table 2.

For the bibliometric analysis in this paper the focus was on Table 2 - Papers by year
WMS, considering the period 2006 2016. Three search Year Number of papers Percentage
basis was accessed, Scielo (Brazilian basis), Scopus, and

   , 

 
   

 
       
  
   2016 11 26,19%
ISI-
+ +

2013 9 21,43%


management AND system. The sample, after choose the

areas in Scopus and Web of Science (computer science; 2015 4 9,52%
information systems; engineering industrial; computer 2010 4 9,52%
science; interdisciplinary applications; engineering; 2009 3 7,14%
manufacturing; management; multidisciplinary sciences; 2006 3 7,14%
engineering; multidisciplinary; computer science; software 2008 2 4,76%
engineering; business; information science; library 2014 2 4,76%
science), the period (2006-2016), and the document type 2012 2 4,76%

(article), was compounded by 62 articles. Within them, 24

   
-    
 
  %
 

+ .
,    
  
   
 
  # /
2011 1 2,38%
2007 1 2,38%
have as main aspects in common: subjects; countries;
Total 42 100,00%
authors; years when they were more published. Three of
them could not be accessed, one of them was wrote in
German, and three of them were wrote in Asian language, The journals that published the articles is another criterion
and the authors could not read. to analyze how the subject WMS has been having
published from 2006 to 2016. We can see another
dispersion after the analysis of journals. Just five journals
published more than one paper during all these years,
4. RESULTS
which means that WMS has different markets. Table 3
After select the main papers (just in Scopus were found 998 shows this:
papers) by criteria mentioned above, 153 were chose, and
42 papers were close to the paper proposal. The countries Table 3 Journals which published the articles
where the authors are working on WMS subjects and are Number of
Journal
included in 45 issues are: USA (4); China (5); South Korea papers
(5); France (1); Mexico (2); Colombia (3); Germany (5); Computers in Industry 4
UK (3); Italy (2); India (1); Brazil (3); Malasia (1); Computers, Industrial Engineering 3
Netherlands (1); Poland (1); Taiwan (6); Turkey (2). Some International Journal of Multimedia and
2
authors are from different countries and write the same Ubiquitous Engineering
paper, so the total is higher than 42, resulting in 45, as we Journal of the Korea Safety Management
2
can see in Table 1: and Science
Produção 2
Table 1 Number of papers by countries 20th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering
1
Countries Number of papers Percentage Conference
per country Archivos de zootecnia 1
Taiwan 6 13,33% Dyna 1
China 5 11,11% Electronic Commerce Research and
1
Germany 5 11,11% Applications
South Korea 5 11,11% Engineering Applications of Artificial
1
USA 4 8,89% Intelligence
Brazil 3 6,67% Engineering Management Conference 1
European Journal of Operational
Colombia 3 6,67% 1
Research
UK 3 6,67% Information Engineering and Electronic
Italy 2 4,44% 1
Commerce
Mexico 2 4,44% Information Technology 1
Turkey 2 4,44% Ingeniería e Investigación 1
France 1 2,22% International Journal of Advanced
India 1 2,22% 1
Manufacturing Technology
Malaysia 1 2,22% International Journal of Computer
Netherlands 1 2,22% Information Systems and Industrial 1
Poland 1 2,22% Management Applications
Total 45 100,0% International Journal of Operations,
1
Production Management
After joining the papers in continents, we can see a International Journal of Production
1
concentration in Asia and Europe by the percentages, which Economics
have around 72% of the papers in this sample. The Journal of Applied Sciences 1
percentage of papers per continent are Asia, 40%; Europe, Journal of Digital Contents Society 1
33%; South America, 18%; and North America, 9%. Logistics Journal 1
Logistics Research 1
The analysis about countries and continents were done, this Mathematical and Computer Modelling 1
paper analysed how many papers were wrote by the authors Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 1
who are in this sample. Proceedings of the 2013 Int Conf
1
on Computer Sciences and Applications
The authors noticed an oscillation of the subject published Productivity Management 1
from 2006 to 2016. During 2016, we have the highest 1
Safety Science
number of the papers, followed by 2013, and 2015/2010.
Sensor Review 1
Even though the quantities are different, we can see that
Service Operations and Logistics, and
from 2010 to 2013, and from 2013 to 2015 the publications 1
Informatics (SOLI)
reduced, but increased again in 2016. There was a
publication increasing from 2007 to 2010, another Tecnura 1
increasing 2011 to 2013, and 2015 to 2016. There were Tehnicki Vjesnik-Technical Gazette 1

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 Proceedings of The 22nd World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI 2018)

Journal of Industrial Information [10] Kim, G., Kwon, O., Oh, A. (2016). Design of
1
Integration Warehouse Management System Using IPS under
The International Journal of Advanced Bluetooth Environment. International Journal of
1
Manufacturing Technology, Multimedia and Ubiquitous Engineering, 11(6), 281-288.
Total 42 [11] Gonçalves, M. E. (2009). Oracle warehouse
management system-security enhancements. Doctoral
dissertation, Porto University, Porto, Portugal.
5. CONCLUSIONS [12] Wilson, M. (2011). Focus on: supply chain. Hayneedle
optimizes DC processes with new warehouse management
WMS is an IT implemented to improve the operational and system. Chain Store Age, 33-34.
strategic issues in logistics activities, mainly warehouse [13] Reaidy, P. J., Gunasekaran, A., Spalanzani, A. (2015).
operations. The software allows the company to reach the Bottom-up approach based on internet of things for order
objectives in an easy way. The quality of warehouse fulfillment in a collaborative warehousing environment.
activities is improved (receive, inspection, address, storage, International Journal of Production Economics, 159, 29-
separation, package, shipping, documents sending), and the 40.
system registers, warehouses, and sends to other IS [14] Cheng, L., Didi, X., Mingyong, L., Yan, W. (2006,
accurate information, reducing errors, and, costs. Therefore, September). Design and implement of warehouse
this system leads to a higher customer service level, management system based on AOP. Proceedings of IEEE
because the productivity can increase. Because the quantity International of Engineering Management Conference,
of data is high, and the quality of the logistic service has to 2006 IEEE, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
be high, this IT must integrate with other ITs, such as [15] Fang, M., Leyh, G., Elsner, C., Doerr, J. (2013,
software FEAHP, QR Code, ERP, and some hardware December). Experiences during extraction of variability
(RFID). models for warehouse management systems. Proceedings
of Software Engineering Conference (APSEC), 2013, Seto,
To bibliometric method, the amount of data about this Japan, 20.
subject is high, because the quantity of scientific and [16] Liu, J., Yang, H., Jiang, T. (2013). Intelligent
technical papers, news, case studies, reports, and so on. Warehousing Operation Management System Based on
Then, this method helps to improve the results data, Safety Monitoring. Journal of Applied Sciences, 13(11),
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Knowledge discovery in databases process in developing
This stream of research, in the sample of this paper, has a countries industry: building an IT infrastructure based in a
dispersion in countries and authors, though Asia and data warehousing and OLAP technology for a quality
Europe concentrated around 72% of issues. There is an management system of an electronic manufacturing
oscillation by number of publications by year. There is no company in México. Proceedings of International
concentration by year, but during 2016 more papers were Symposium on Information Technology, 2008. ITSim, Kuala
published. This issue shows that the subject is still a stream Lumpur, Malaysia.
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and proposals to research. picking performance by sequence optimization. Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences, 20, 177-185.
[19] Wu, J., Xu, D., Li, Z. (2013, December) Research on
 
  %
   


 

  
  

   
  
   

concentrated the papers. We can conclude that this is a key techniques of warehouse management system based on
dynamic research area, with applications in many sectors. two-dimensional bar code. Proceedings of International
There was not a concentration in a specific journal or Conference on Computer Sciences and Applications (CSA),
specific group of authors, which shows the importance of 2013, Wuhan, China.
the subject and that anyone can study it. [20] Cortés, J. A. Z., Serna, M. D. A., Jaimes, W. A.
(2012). Applying fuzzy extended analytical hierarchy
(FEAHP) for selecting logistics software. Ingeniería e
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