from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
In the current business environment, characterised by globalisation and technological advances, metallurgical companies are facing unprecedented challenges. In order to maintain competitiveness, these companies must demonstrate a capacity to respond to these emerging trends. In the context of intensifying competition and the pressure to reduce costs, the pursuit of innovative solutions to optimise logistics process is necessary. The implementation of advanced decision support systems supports the pivotal role of innovation and technological progress in ensuring sustained competitiveness in the metallurgical industry. The aim of paper is to present a methodology for the development of a dynamic multi-criteria decision support system for the management of distribution warehouses in the metallurgical industry in order to optimise storage, picking and loading processes. The methodology is based on a comprehensive process analysis of the warehouse management system and the identification of key factors influencing the decision-making processes. The development of a system utilizes the multi-criteria decision-making method of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), with the objective of evaluating and recommending optimal storage locations based on a selection of criteria. These criteria encompass trade-offs between production, logistics and warehouse requirements, including distance from critical points and warehouse location. The proposed model was tested on selected warehouse events under defined conditions, which demonstrated its potential to significantly improve the efficiency of the distribution warehouse management system, thus increasing the competitiveness in the metallurgical industry. The proposed methodology for both process analysis and decision support system design has been generalized for wider use across the metallurgical industry.
Keywords: Warehouse management; multi-criteria decision making; distribution warehouse, AHP; process analysis© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.