Analysis of Capability–Attractiveness for the Application of Industry 4.0 Technologies in Smart Warehousing of Chain Stores with a Sustainability Approach.

Abstract

Chain stores have expanded significantly. Warehouse management is one of the vital activities in the chain store industry; because performing it improperly can lead to delays in the supply and distribution of required goods, customer dissatisfaction, increased waste, the need for employee overtime, and increased operational costs. Therefore, it is evident that the use of technologies manifested in the Fourth Industrial Revolution significantly leads to saving time, energy, and costs; and in contrast, neglecting these technologies not only brings financial and operational losses, but can also lead to losing a competitive position in the market. An issue that has received less attention so far is the necessity of ranking and prioritizing the application of the technologies of this revolution based on their capability–attractiveness and scope of applications. Therefore, this research has been conducted with the aim of analyzing the capability–attractiveness of the application of Industry 4.0 technologies in smart warehousing of chain stores with a sustainability approach. A comprehensive analysis of the collected data from the expert community including academic specialists, artificial intelligence specialists, and software engineers was considered. Considering the deep information and knowledge of this group in the field of Industry 4.0 technologies and smart warehousing of chain stores, their views were considered vital for weighting the indicators. For this purpose, specialized questionnaires were distributed among this panel in order to record and collect their opinions regarding the “attractiveness” and “capability” indicators. In the analysis section, first the weights of the indicators were determined using the Best–Worst Method. Then, the various applications of Industry 4.0 technologies in smart warehousing of chain stores were evaluated using the VIKOR ranking method. The results show that the possibility of searching for and finding a specific item in the warehouse in the shortest possible time and the automatic registration of inventory reduction of goods from a shelf or pallet in the warehouse system indicate high attractiveness and capability. Also, the possibility of being aware of the most suitable location for placing goods based on the latest layout indicates low attractiveness and high capability. Also, access to real-time warehouse inventory, elimination of human errors during loading and shipping of goods, optimization of warehouse space considering awareness of the optimal order quantity of goods indicate high attractiveness but low capability. Also, accurate inventory counting in the shortest time, automatic recording of inspection, maintenance and repair data, intelligent connection of machinery and equipment to each other in warehouse management, awareness of the exact inventory of warehouse shelves or pallets at the time of placement indicate low attractiveness and capability.