A study of retail hyper market warehouse inventory management in Malaysia

Abstract

The objective of this article was to explore a retailer's warehousing inventory accuracy in Malaysia and improve its Warehouse Management System. A qualitative research approach was used to conduct an in-depth case study of two retail hypermarket warehouse operations in Malaysia, which provided data on logistics services. Many retailers made significant investment to improve the inventory accuracy and customised their value proposition to better meet the requirements of the customers. As a result, the role of warehouses has transitioned into managing the stock management between the end-to-end supply chain and retail business. Due to the highly competitive scenario in Malaysia, the retailers arecontinuously forced to improve inventory accuracy, with a warehouse management system- based application, to smoothen the tracking of inventory management. The findings of this study have major implications for academicians and the warehouse industry practitioners in terms of strengthening their understanding of the theories, practices, and solutions for obtaining optimal inventory accuracy. Future research could take up a quantitative study, to examine the relationship between warehouse management system and warehouse operational performance.