Data-Driven Optimization in SAP Extended Warehouse Management: Leveraging Analytics for Enhanced Warehouse Performance

Abstract

Modern supply chains are becoming more complex and therefore require data-driven decisions when it comes to warehouses' agility, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. This article is a systematic outline of how the SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) can be exploited to its analytical power to optimize the performance of the warehouse, in many aspects of its operation. The framework incorporates five interconnected elements, namely data foundation, analytic capabilities, process integration, performance measurement, and continuous improvement mechanisms. The framework helps form feedback loops of systematic optimization between analytical insight and operational process through identifying key points of analytics integration throughout warehouse processes between receiving and shipping. The implementation of various warehouse settings has shown long-term performance efficiencies with analytical competencies that are not in line with the functioning procedures and also the organizational designs. The framework fills the gap between the abstract analytic concepts and the actual warehouse operations to give realistic advice to organizations that want to turn warehouse management into an activity of constant execution, but rather dynamic and learning based optimization.