Analysing the Role of Inventory and Warehouse Management in Supply Chain Agility: Insights from Retail and Manufacturing Industries

Abstract

Inventory and warehouse management function as one of the critical success factors in today’s supply chain because they affect the company’s performance and its customers’ satisfaction. Today, competition and volatility across the global markets are on the rise and for an organisation to be sustainable competitive the supply chain must be agile. Published within this review paper are details of the importance of inventory and warehouse management to supply chain adaptability with an emphasis on the findings of the retail and manufacturing industries. Specifically, it examines the way practices like lean inventory, automation, and the use of real-time data help organizations to become more flexible and respond to market signals more quickly. The paper also discusses the major issues, such as inventory management and service delivery, technology implementation issues, and disruption of the supply chain. Also, possibilities to advance, for example, via adoption of smart warehousing solutions and optimization via predictive analysis are mentioned to advance the supply chain. This study lays the groundwork for future research on improving supply chain responsiveness through improved inventory and warehouse management and provides suggestions for supply chain industry practitioners.