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_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
1Lappeenranta–Lahti University of Technology LUT, School of Engineering Science, Yliopistonkatu 34, 53850 Lappeenranta,
Finland.
*Corresponding author: E-mail: Ari.Happonen@lut.fi;
Chapter 5
Print ISBN: 978-93-91215-45-3, eBook ISBN: 978-93-91215-53-8
A Systematic Literature Mapping of Current
Academic Research Connecting Sustainability into
the Warehouse Management Systems Context
Daria Minashkina1 and Ari Happonen1*
DOI: 10.9734/bpi/castr/v5/9667D
ABSTRACT
Globalization, digitalization and rapid development of technology have made supply chains more
complex than ever before. Complexity has forced many organizations to outsource their warehouse
activities to Third-Party Logistics service providers. They, in turn, deploy automatization solutions and
tools such as warehouse management system (WMS) software to manage in-house logistics
services. However, research into third-party logistics (3PL) and WMS has so far been scarce,
especially, regarding WMS and its sustainability supporting aspects. Large-scale outsourcing has
recently received increasing attention from high-level decision-makers, in particular as regards the
overall sustainability of logistics-related actions and processes. This systematic mapping-based study
examines the current state of the art of academic literature considering WMS and its intersections with
topics related to sustainability. As a result of the specific focus of the work, only a small set of 22
studies was found to add value to the topic, which opens up additional research opportunities in this
direction. The majority of the studies were journal articles (13) rather than conference papers (9). The
most frequently used keywords in these studies addressed the topics of WMS, ICT, sustainability,
warehouse technology and operations. The content-based analysis revealed five main thematic
areas, namely, WMS concept development, optimization and improvement, Internet of Things (IoT)
and Industry 4.0, safety, and sustainability. Surprisingly, only one publication was devoted purely to
WMS and indices built on the triple bottom line approach. The study considered neither the functions
of WMS, nor sustainability-related features of WMS. The remaining studies discussed sustainability
mainly from the safety perspective. It is concluded on the basis of this study that there are significant
opportunities for further research in WMS and sustainability.
Keywords: WMS; Warehouse management system; 3PL; systematic literature review; third-party
logistics; environment; warehousing; sustainability; software; automatization; systematic
mapping study; digitalization; logistics; supply chain management; industry 4.0.
1. INTRODUCTION
In the current rapidly digitalizing world, companies are increasingly focusing on their core business
operations [1]. This trend is especially strong in large SMEs, which do form the core growth engine of
most national economies [2]. Additionally, tradition industries are looking for new business directions
trough operations digitalisation [3,4,5,6] and working in technology development competitions,
hackathons and code camp events with Universities [7,8,9,10,11] to be more competitive and
sustainable in their operations. At the same time, companies are building complex networks and
partnerships, and in the world of logistics, companies are outsourcing their warehousing operations
and fleets of company vehicles to enable highly efficient operations in their most profitable business
activities [12,13,14,15]. Of the many different outsourced business operations in modern companies,
the most commonly outsourced activities tend to be logistics, transportation, supply chain
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management and warehousing. The widespread practice of outsourcing of logistics has led to be the
logistics field being perhaps the most mature area of outsourcing in modern business and a widely
researched field in academia [16].
In the area of outsourcing of logistics services, the most common actors offering outsourced services
are the third-party logistics (3PL) providers [17,18,19]. 3PL providers offer strategic material stock
funding and business support activities [20], warehousing, set making activities, inventory
management and optimization [21], order processing, demand and supply matching/ synchronisation
[22,23], decanting, automated warehousing [24], collection and packing, item tagging and tracking
[25], shipping and other material handling services [26]. Recently, Ali et al. [27] claim that outsourcing
functions to 3PL businesses contributes greatly not only to economic, social and operational
performance but also to environmental performance and, according to Evangelista et al. [28], 3PL
firms should find ways to incorporate environmental management principles into their operations, as
environmental considerations will soon become a central criterion used for service provider selection.
It must further be kept in mind that the software solutions and automation tools that 3PLs deploy to
gain operations efficiency, i.e. the warehouse management system (WMS), are an important factor in
the total environmental impact of the outsourced service. On the other hand, these should be only
deployed, if the 3PL operator and their customer can find out proper collaboration [29] and gain
sharing models to make the solution worth file for both parties [30].
The WMS market, currently valued at USD 2.4 billion, is forecast to see considerable growth [31].
Briefly, a WMS can be defined as a set of IT software solutions designed for handling and optimizing
warehouse logistics activities and supporting warehousing process automation [32]. Drawing a simple
analogy, a WMS does the same for warehousing as enterprise resource planning (ERP) for enterprise
operations and asset management, and WMSs thus play a significant role in the planning and
operations of logistics services offered by third-party providers. Consequently, in the move toward
more sustainable operations, WMS should provide dashboards and key performance indicators (KPIs)
for environmental and sustainability performance. This issue was emphasized in recent research by
Torabizadeh et al. [33], who provided valuable information about sustainability indicators for WMSs by
mapping indicators from literature onto warehouse management KPIs. Because of the high impact
WMS can make to warehouses sustainability levels, it’s extremely important to understand what is the
status quo on literature on this topic and what academic knowledge can contribute to practical
development efforts.
Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has become a topic of increasing research interest as
concerns grow about the impact of modern lifestyles and business models. According to Khan et al.
[34], nearly half of research papers in the field of SSCM, discussing present and emerging trends,
contain some form of conceptual model and case studies. Khan et al. [34] conclude that despite the
numerous studies on SSCM, research has tended to focus on only a limited number of techniques
and topics. Thus, many other areas related to SSCM remain to be explored. One topic that has
received relatively little attention are the tools and software used to achieve sustainability in supply
chains storage locations / warehouse. In this regard the work on WMSs is relatively rare in SSCM
literature. Issues related to WMS and sustainability are likely to become increasingly pertinent as
legislation concerning production and energy usage becomes more stringent. Stricter legislation may
well result gains for supply chain partners who offer sustainable services. Consequently, any 3PL
service operator with sustainability value providing services, appropriate tools, processes,
automatization and software solutions, will be more interesting outsourcing partner. WMS is the tool
needed for sustainability trough automation and process efficiency optimization using a collaborative
model [35]. However, little research on 3PL and WMS has thus far been presented [36], especially as
regards features and functions in WMSs that support sustainability [37].
A recent systematic study [38] of the Scopus and Web of Science databases looking at SCM and
technologies adoption found only 15 articles discussing different types of IT systems and 12 articles
about RFID related technologies. The number of publications was increasing slightly, indicating
growing interest in IT systems in SCM (product lifecycle management, supply chain performance
measurement, inventory management, expanded material requirements planning). The researchers
found that the content focus most relevant to WMS was related to big data, sensors, and Industry 4.0.
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This finding is in line with other recent WMS related literature studies [37,39]. In short, there is a clear
shortage of academic literature examining WMSs from the perspective of sustainability, but little is
known about where exactly the biggest gaps are.
To fill the gap, authors did explore the current state of academic understanding of WMS and
sustainability via systematic mapping on area specific academic publications. Authors summarized
current knowledge into an easy to digest packet. The goal was to help both academic research in the
field and practical development of WMS related sustainability features and functions to enhance areas
of warehousing activities that have been somewhat neglected in a sustainability sense. We aimed to
produce a structured overview of research, and a full discussion of warehouse sustainability (use of
environmentally friendly materials for warehouse building construction, renewable energy, and
resources in warehousing) lies beyond the scope of this research. With the selected methods of
research, the focus was set to investigate current research directions, classifying them systematically,
and pinpointing research gaps and to understand the state of the art of the main WMS and
sustainability-related research directions and to classify areas which could benefit significantly from
additional research. For practitioners, the study presents the main research directions to show where
future progress could be made. These topics might be expected to be areas where WMS providers
and later 3PL providers could create sustainability-related value for their customers. The research
contributes to study of sustainable supply chains and cleaner production by indicating valuable areas
for future research.
2. BACKGROUND
Warehousing has environmental impacts from e.g. logistics operations performed inside the
warehouse, input-output actions and shipment related material protection materials [40,41,42]. Even
tough, warehousing outsourcing is known to introduce lot of carbon emissions, only small amount of
research is investigating the sustainability and efficiency enhancement on from WMSs for
warehousing [37]. The need for new research is clear, considering the growing concern about the
sustainability of logistics and warehousing operations. Also, despite growing digitalization of economic
activity, immense amounts of tangible products are still globally consumed in daily basis and the
volume of warehousing has been growing lately. The Warehouses do consume energy and resources
[43] and generate environmental impacts. For instance, 2017 global CO₂ emissions were around 36
billion tons [44] and over a billion metric tons of emissions would be saved if suppliers to just 125
multinationals increased their renewable electricity by 20 percentage points [45]. Given the mentioned
emissions, any greener activities in supply chains, including warehouse management development
efforts could reduce carbon emissions in the supply chain [46]. Either coming from the supply chain
and warehousing context or considering e.g. the motivation of workforce and gamification solutions to
boost the performance in sustainability related activities [47].
A recent systematic literature review (SLR) on green warehousing [48] acknowledged the topic as an
emerging research area. In analysis of research on inventory routing that included sustainability-
related aspects, Malladi and Sowlati [49] found that the majority of studies in the area were published
between 2014 and 2017, which is indicating this area of research to be quite fresh. Also, a recent
study by Mishra et al. [50] examined the beneficial effects of investments in environmental
technologies on the financial bottom line of the greenhouse flower retail business sector. A further
indication of raising interest towards sustainability in warehousing and logistics, including waste
reduction can be seen e.g. from IKEA, as indicated by the study by Luu [51].
In the area of sustainable warehousing, researchers have drawn attention to the importance of main
pillars of sustainable development [52,37]. In example sustainable warehousing activities and
operations should follow warehousing specific sustainability dimensions and also consider the
mentioned three sustainability pillars: the economic, social and environmental dimension [53]. To
achieve sustainable warehousing, suitable standards for operations ideologies and practical
approaches should be developed. In this regard, Bank and Murphy [54] describe the motives behind
the Sustainable Logistics Initiative from the economic, operational and sustainable perspectives. With
initiatives like these, organizations can develop improved sustainable warehousing guidelines and
benchmark their sustainable performance levels.
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In view of the ubiquity of 3PL operations and their considerable role in warehousing sustainability as
part of the warehousing input chain (in-house and outbound warehousing activities), it is surprising
how little has been published about the role of WMS software providers and logistics operators in
sustainable warehousing operations. The limited literature on WMS and sustainability-related aspects
indicates a clear gap in current academic knowledge. Furthermore, even system providers and 3PL
operators have noted that current WMSs have limited capabilities for reporting the sustainability
effects of operations run by WMS software solutions.
3. SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research method in this systematic mapping-based study comprised four main steps. The first
step began by gaining a general overview of current trends, research topics and practices, followed by
definition of research specific questions. The second step addressed the process of defining and
building keyword groups. Next, the keywords were prioritized and grouped in a manner supporting
collection of research specific relevant literature for future analysis steps. Using the defined keywords,
the work continued with a search process using a snowballing strategy [55] to extract new additional
keywords and area-specific terminology in previously found studies. Duplicates and non-relevant
publications were filtered out. The publications were analyzed in the third step. In the fourth step, the
results of the research were discussed, and conclusions drawn as regards research in the field and
practical implications. A schematic diagram of the research process is presented in
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the research method
The main goal of the systematic mapping study was to answer the following two research questions
(RQs):
1. RQ 1: What is the current state of academic research related to WMS and sustainability?
a. What are the current publication channels for area-specific academic literature?
b. What sort of keywords do academics lean into within the current academic literature?
2. RQ2: What are the focus areas of current academic literature, and what sort of themes are
currently surfacing from the literature?
a. What are the most typical themes for WMS and sustainability research?
Based on the set of RQs and nature of the study, a systematic literature study was carried out
focusing on academic literature. The mapping was based on SLR model stages, excluding the
extensive deep review cycles. This work drew on the methodology path built by Sahey and Gupta
[56], Pejcinovic [57] and Moher et al. [58]. The SLR procedure allows a growing body of literature
published in a research topic to be covered and highlights knowledge gap(s) [59]. One notable
disadvantage related to the methodology is its time-consuming and labor-intensive nature [60]. Fig. 2
illustrates the methodology used and presents key stages in this systematic mapping study.
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Fig. 2. Key stages of SLR covered in this research and based on works Sahey and Gupta [56],
Kitchenham [60], Pejcinovic [57], and Moher et al. [58]
In the model, the work of the literature review starts with a scoping stage, which typically comprises
formulation of study-specific RQs (given above). Thereafter, the planning stage continues with
elaboration of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Given the goal of systematically mapping available
academic literature on sustainability and WMS, we did not limit the time scope of the publications in
any way.
The Web of Science Core Collection was used as database for academic literature. Zotero tool was
used to collect the literature for the follow-up analysis and filtering phases. Only publications written in
the English language were accepted. Finally, systematic mapping was commenced, with a focus on
efforts to identify available evidence and describing the current level of knowledge of the topic [61].
Various software tools were used for visualization and data analyses.
4. KEYWORDS IDENTIFICATION AND PUBLICATIONS SCREENING
First, previous SLR studies on similar topics were briefly reviewed and their keywords used as a
starting point for defining search keywords. An asterisk (*) was applied to words when possible, to
give more variations and scope in the literature gathering phase. Following the steps of previous
publications, four main groups of topics for the keywords were chosen: Group A (warehouse
management system – 2 keywords), Group B (warehouse activity description – 6 keywords), Group C
(3PL operator wording – 4 keywords), and Group D (sustainability-related – 24 keywords). Table 1
shows the keywords used and a precise description of the procedure that led to the keywords
selection in this study is given later in the paper. In brief, each keyword from every group was
combined with a keyword from other groups to take every word/combination into account from all the
available four input groups.
Table 1. All used keywords in searches, where Group A (overall topic of warehouse
management systems), Group B (words related to warehouse management actions), Group C
(words related to third-party logistics), and Group D (words related to sustainability)
GROUP A
GROUP B
GROUP C
GROUP D
"wms"
"AS/RS"
"3PL"
"carbon"
pollut*
"warehouse
management system"
"automated storage"
“logistics operator”
"CO2"
prevent*
inventor*
"logistics service
operator"
control*
renewabl*
"material handling"
‘third-party
logistics”
clean*
repair*
"order-picking"
"circular economy"
reus*
warehous*
"cradle to cradle"
revers*
"eco"
recycl*
"emission"
recover*
energ*
regenerat*
environment*
remanufactur*
"green"
sustain*
"life cycle"
waste*
As Table 1 shows, Group A keywords included both “wms” and “warehouse management system”.
We based our Group A keywords selection on a recent study carried out by Minashkina and
Happonen [36]. However, in trial searches, it was found that using just “wms” without any explication
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connected to warehousing tended to include a huge number of non-related publications. The three-
letter acronym “WMS” is widely used in academic literature and it has multiple different meanings,
such as waste/water/workload management system or wildlife/weather monitoring system.
Table 2. The process of selected warehouse activity keywords based on Bartolini et al. [48]
and Ries et al. [62]
Selected warehouse
activity keywords
Bartolini et al - warehouse
activities and key processes
Ries et al - logistics activity description
"AS/RS"
"AS/RS"
"storage and retrieval systems"
"automated storage"
"automated storage"
"automated storage and retrieval"
inventor*
-
-
"material handling"
"material handling"
-
"order-picking"
"order-picking"
-
warehous*
warehous*
"automated warehouse", "warehouse",
"warehousing"
Table 3. The process of benchmarking sustainability keywords based on SLRs of Bartolini et
al. [48], Ries et al. [62] and Glavič and Lukman [63]
Selected
sustainability
keywords
Bartolini -
environmental
sustainability terms
Ries and et al - related
to the environmental
performance dimension
Glavič & Lukma -
sustainability principles,
approaches & sub-systems
"carbon"
“carbon”
carbon dioxide
-
"CO2"
“CO2”
-
"circular
economy"
-
-
-
"cradle to cradle"
-
-
-
"eco"
“eco”
eco-design
"emission"
“emission”
emission
-
energ*
“energy”
energy efficiency
-
environment*
“environment*“
environmental
environmental engineering,
environmental technology
"green"
“green”
green, greenhouse gas
green chemistry
"life cycle"
“life cycle”.
-
life cycle assessment
renewabl*
-
-
renewable resources
repair*
-
-
repair
reus*
-
-
reuse
revers*
-
-
-
recycl*
-
-
recycling
control*
-
-
pollution control
clean*
-
-
cleaner production,
pollut*
-
-
pollution control
prevent*
-
-
recover*
-
-
recovery
regenerat*
-
-
regeneration
remanufactur*
-
-
remanufacturing
sustain*
“sustain*“
sustainable
-
waste*
-
-
waste minimization, zero
waste
More study of the acronym “wms” showed that it could not be used on its own without some
warehousing related additional keywords being specified. Using “wms” separately as one topic limiting
keyword would result in lots of non-related studies, which in the worst case could have biased the
literature material set. Consequently, when searching for the topic of WMSs, we included the
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abbreviation “wms” together with either the full wording of “warehouse management system” or made
a selected combination of “wms” or “warehouse management system” together with warehous* or
inventor* to keep the results within the correct topic area. The term inventor* was chosen for use in
the searches as it was found to be used by some of the authors as a descriptive word associated with
warehouses and inventory activities. So, warehous* and inventor* were added to the Group B words.
Additionally, we ran searches with other words from SLR about green warehousing [48,62] to assure
full coverage of terms (Table 2).
As the goal of the study was to map current academic literature in WMS and sustainability for 3PLs,
outsourcing service providers needed to be included in the keyword set. This was achieved by
including keywords identifying their business area. The keywords for this purpose were collected from
Minashkina and Happonen [36]. The following keywords were extracted and built up for this study
“3PL”, “logistics operator”, “logistics service operator” and “third-party logistics. These keywords
comprised Group C.
To enrich sustainability keywords selection of Group D, we considered one more study in addition to
the previously mentioned studies by Bartolini and Ries used in Group B keyword selection. Glavič and
Lukman [63] investigated sustainable principles, approaches, and sub-systems. Table 3 below
illustrates the logic of building the keywords with sustainability-related terms from different academic
works for Group D.
In total, these four groups of searching keywords generated 1,152 different search combinations in
the 1st round search. Utilizing the keywords combinations did result only two unique academic
publications in the Web of Sciences database. The findings are presented in Table 4.
Table 4. Successful 4 groups keywords combinations and their unique results
SUCCESSFUL KEYWORDS COMBINATION
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
"warehouse management system“ AND
warehous* AND “third-party logistics” AND
sustain*
Minashkina and Happonen (2020). "A
development of the warehouse
management system selection
framework as academic-industrial
collaboration work with sustainability
considerations"
"wms" AND "order-picking“ AND “third-party
logistics” AND control*
"wms“AND warehous* AND ‘third-party logistics”
AND control*
Lu et al. (2014). "The role of
distributed intelligence in warehouse
management systems."
"wms“AND warehous* AND "3PL“AND sustain*
As the initial mapping revealed only two unique academic publications, it was a clear sign of the
absence of academic studies inside the topic area. On the other hand, the absence of publications
can open up new research opportunities for other researchers. Nevertheless, in this study, we
intended to focus more specifically the factors explaining the lack of publications. We found that the
inclusion of 3PL related keywords was the main publications excluding factor. Thus, the keywords list
was updated to omit that specific keyword group to improve the amount of available literature treating
WMS and sustainability. Additionally, the majority of keywords describing warehouse activity were
non-productive. Taking the aim of the work into account, only the keywords inventor* and warehous*
were left as general terms for Group B.
To verify the newly selected keywords, three main variation sets of keyword groups were run in the
2nd round of searches. Publications were screened for inclusion, based on titles and abstracts. In
cases of doubt about content relevancy, the full text of the publications was also examined. E.g. we
excluded studies that had nothing related to sustainability, but rather discussed a centralized WMS
architecture, implementation cases, warehouse layout algorithms and other ICT in logistics. This
second round search allowed us to include 15 unique tentative papers more to our results. Table 5
presents the results of this selection procedure (total found publications, unique after removing
duplicates, selected papers, and combined results from this search set). The number of publications
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found with this searching round is presented in Table 6 and the full list of studies is given in Error!
Reference source not found..
Table 5. Results of using the adjusted keyword combination in the 2nd round of searches
excluding 3PL keywords
Adjusted keywords combination
Results
With
dupicates
Unique
Eligible
publications
Combined
"warehouse management system“ AND inventor*
OR warehous* AND sustainability keywords
115
75
15
15
"wms" AND inventor* OR warehous* AND
sustainability keywords
75
54
3
"wms" AND "warehouse management system“
AND sustainability keywords
28
23
5
Using snowballing techniques, we extracted more keywords from this literature set relevant for the
research topic. Additional keywords tried instead of sustainability terms were digital*, digitis, digitiz*,
“industry 4.0”, “agile”, “lean”, “smart”. A table showing the results of the search combinations is given
in Error! Reference source not found.. The list of studies from the 3rd search round is in Error!
Reference source not found., and the overall search path is illustrated in Fig. 3. Due to the small
number of publications found previously, we updated keywords to the most inclusive format to ensure
that any possible contributing papers were not screened out before evaluation. This additional search
led to 10 more tentative studies for inclusion in the follow-up analysis.
Table 6. Results of 3rd round searches with additional keywords replacing sustainability terms
Adjusted keywords combination
Results
Within keywords search set
Total
combined &
unique
With
dupicates
Unique
Eligible
publications
Combined
"warehouse management system“
AND inventor* OR warehous* AND
digital* OR "digitis" OR "digitiz"
14
9
3
3
10
"wms“ AND inventor* OR
warehous* AND digital* OR
"digitis" OR "digitiz"
3
2
0
"wms“ AND "warehouse
management system“ AND digital*
OR "digitis" OR "digitiz"
1
1
0
"warehouse management system“
AND inventor* OR warehous* AND
"industry 4.0"
11
10
4
4
"wms" AND inventor* OR
warehous* AND "industry 4.0"
3
3
1
"wms" AND "warehouse
management system“ AND
"industry 4.0"
3
3
1
"warehouse management system“
AND inventor* OR warehous* AND
"agile" OR "lean" OR "smart"
25
22
5
5
"wms" AND inventor* OR
warehous* AND "agile" OR "lean"
OR "smart"
13
11
2
"wms" AND "warehouse
management system“ AND "agile"
10
10
2
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OR "lean" OR "smart"
After combining all shown search results and removing all duplicates, we ended up with 22 academic
publications, which are listed in Error! Reference source not found..
Fig. 3. Overall search history path.
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Fig. 3 illustrates the overall search process, final keyword-based results, numbers of included and
excluded studies and studies that passed through the full paper review to contribute in the content
mapping phase.
5. MAPPING THE LITERATURE AND FINDINGS
This chapter gives a descriptive analysis of the 22 studies selected for detailed analysis. A
comprehensive list with author names, titles, publication type, channel and year can be found in Error!
Reference source not found.. Fig. 4 illustrates the number of studies considering the subject of WMS
and sustainability in the period from 2011 to 2020. A cumulative sum analysis presents the overall
trend in this study direction for publication counts (Fig. 5). In general, there is a clear steady linear
growth trend, maybe even a bit on the exponential side. Apparently, the topic of warehouse
management and sustainability is a young field in sustainability studies, started in 2011, mostly
published in the last few years. Perhaps, the systems were not good enough in earlier times, and
sensor and data collection were not at an acceptable level for pragmatic case studies. It is perhaps
surprising that there were not been some concept papers before 2011.
Fig. 4. Increasing number of publications in the topic of warehouse management and
sustainability
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Fig. 5. Cumulative number of publications per year
The papers selected fit into two main categories: peer-reviewed academic journal and conference
publications. Of the 22 publications presented in Fig. 6, we can see that the majority of the
publications are journal articles (14), while the rest are conference-style academic contributions (8).
Fig. 6. Publication type
Reviewing only the total number of publications omits many details related to publishing progress over
time. Analysing the publishing channels of the publications at 3-year intervals, we can see how the
balance has changed between conferences and journals (Fig. 7). The total number of publications
was higher in journals. From the 2016-2018 and 2019-2021 timeframes, it is clear that authors in this
study area seem to be moving toward journals, rather than publishing in conferences.
Fig. 7. Publication type shown in three-year periods
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To get an overall view of the comprehensiveness of material treated in the publications, we continued
our analysis by examining the number of pages of the different publications. The number of pages per
publication was classified into 4-page interval groups (Fig. 8). Using the visualisation, it is apparent
that most of the studies (8) are from 9 to 12 pages in length. Overall, it looks like there is a preference
for authors to write a certain length of publications in this study field. We assume this comes from the
conference and journal-based length recommendations. Therefore, all publications were checked for
the exact page count to see whether this assumption would have grounds in a more fine-grained
analysis.
Fig. 8. Number of publications vs number of pages
Examining the exact page count, three groups were noticed (shown in Fig. 9): short publications (4–
12 pages with subgroups of 4–6 and 8–12 pages), long publications (14–23 pages), and one outlier
(with almost 30 pages). Given the previously found move toward journal publications, we anticipate
that in the near future there will be more publications in the higher page count groups.
Fig. 9. Publications with a specific number of pages
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Following numerical analysis, we considered the publishing channels. Table 7 and Table 8 provide a
list of journals and conferences in which the reviewed publications were published. It can be easily
noticed that the studies are found in a variety of different journals and conferences. With the exception
of the International Journal of Rf Technologies, which accounted for two publications, only one article
is found in each journal.
Even though the conferences and journals are mostly unique as channels, their focus areas are not
and can be generalized. Overall, the journals can be characterized as being specifically from the
areas of logistics, production and management, and engineering systems, while the conferences
mostly focus on engineering sciences and simulation/operation management. In short, when looking
for a sustainability point of view of WMSs, a good starting point could be to place emphasis on
engineering and production and/or operations management context channels.
Table 7. Journals publishing the reviewed papers
Journal
Number of articles
International Journal of Rf Technologies-Research and Applications
2
Ad Alta-Journal of Interdisciplinary Research
1
Concurrent Engineering-Research and Applications
1
Ifac Papersonline
1
Interaction Design and Architectures
1
International Journal of Intelligent Systems
1
International Journal of Logistics-Research and Applications
1
International Journal of Production Economics
1
Journal of Cleaner Production
1
Journal of Transport and Supply Chain Management
1
Safety Science
1
Strategic Management
1
Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review
1
International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics
1
Procedia Computer Science
1
Table 8. Conferences presenting the reviewed papers
Conference
Number of articles
15th International Multi-Conference on Systems, Signals and Devices
1
12th International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference
1
EDAMBA 2016: International Scientific Conference for Doctoral Students
and Post-Doctoral Scholars
1
International Engineering Research Conference
1
10th International Conference on Modeling and Applied Simulation
1
5th IIAI International Congress on Advanced Applied Informatics
1
Table 9. Authors who participated in more than one publication
Author
Number of articles
Trab, Sourour
3
Zouinkhi, Ahmed
3
Bajic, Eddy
3
Abdelkrim, Mohamed Naceur
3
Richnak, Patrik
2
Chang, Yoon Seok
2
Son, Dong Woo
2
Chekir, Hassen
2
Kim, Woo Ram
2
Ltaief, Radhouane Hadj
2
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Moving on from the publications to the authors, the productivity of the authors of the 22 studies were
analysed. It was quite clear that a few authors contributed more than others. A total of 10 authors
participated in two or three studies (Table 9). These particular authors might be those to contact when
other researchers are interested in finding co-operation partners or reviewers to comment on their
pre-prints.
To assess the performance and research quality of the studies, we compared various citation indexes
provided by different databases (Error! Reference source not found.). In this table, the articles with
dash lining are articles with the highest citation numbers (none of those are from the last 3 years).
While, the light grey background coloured articles are new (published in 2020), but still those have
already started to collect some citations. The first one is about the sustainable indicators, while the
second one is for developing the industry 4.0 era and WMS framework and the last one discovers
safety issues (all consider the future development of WMS and/or warehouse operations). After the
analysis per article, there is an average number to give a general overview of how many citations get
an article in a particular database. The sum table role gives for understanding how easy it is to get
citation numbers among databases.
All 68 keywords were retrieved from the 22 reviewed studies and their thematic use examined (Error!
Reference source not found.). The most commonly used keywords are related to WMS, ICT, safety,
sustainability, warehouse technologies and operations.
Fig. 10 shows the average number of keywords in 22 studies per year. A decision was made to
average the number of keywords per year because in most years more than one study was published.
It can be seen that the number of keywords in the studies is stable, but has increased in the last three
years, which can be interpreted as indicating that researchers are putting more effort into describing
and justifying their research with keywords.
Fig. 10. Average number of keywords per year
In addition, we mapped the main focus areas of the publications based on their context field (Error!
Reference source not found.). Fig. 11 shows our content-based analysis giving the five main topics
into which the publications can be categorized. Additionally, we classified the materials in relation to
how narrow or wide their selected publishing area was. In this classification, three publications
covered only one of the five main areas. Most of the publications (12) discussed WMS and
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sustainability issues from two main perspectives. Seven publications were found to be quite wide in
their content coverage as they took into account three different focus areas.
When mapping the contexts, it was found that the majority of publications brought up the topics of IoT,
smart technologies, Industry 4.0, various intelligence systems, and digitalization (15). The second
most popular are WMS development component issues (12) and efficiency enhancement (12). The
two least discussed / popular topics were safety considerations (5) and sustainability (4). Of the
papers considering sustainability, two relate to perishable goods and two discuss sustainability in
WMS selection and sustainability-related indicators.
Fig. 11. Content-based analysis
For a simplified view of research area issues covered in all 22 publications, abstracts were presented
in the form of a word cloud below (Fig. 12). This word cloud is quite revealing in several ways. Firstly,
it is a fast way to get an overview of significant and maybe even overused words. Secondly, it is easy
to pinpoint familiar words to see immediately the content areas of all 22 studies as a whole.
Fig. 12. Abstracts word cloud
6. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
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This systematic mapping study was designed to determine the current state of the art in the academic
literature considering WMS and sustainability topics. The mapping study of the Web of Science Core
Collection found only a small set of 22 studies relevant to topic studied. Analysis of the materials
showed that the academic literature found had been published in the last five years. It is not
immediately apparent why WMS and sustainability are so sparsely treated in published material.
However, this result might be explained by the rapid rise in new technologies, which has caused a
shift in understanding of the role of warehouses in supply chains such that they are nowadays seen
as more than just a costly building. Consequently, a warehouse is better understood as a smart
warehouse with a great deal of automation and integrated advanced technology solutions [64].
Moreover, Industry 4.0 has left a mark on traditional WMS, enriching operational possibilities and
generating the emerging technologies of cyber-physical systems and IoT [65]. Combining the data
analysis and growing concerns about pollution, waste and global warming, the increased interest in
cleaner warehousing and related production supply chains is not surprising.
Our findings have important implications for future research and may help researchers focus their
work in the right direction to support development of sustainability in the WMS context. Especially, we
were surprised that only one publication was devoted specifically to WMS and sustainability and
discussed indexes built on the triple bottom line approach. However, the study mentioned neither
WMS functions, nor WMS features that promote sustainability. On the other hand, sustainability was
discussed in all the reviewed papers in connection with other warehousing and management system
development issues. But then only a small set of papers (4) directly mentioned sustainability aspects.
One paper provided sustainability indicators for incorporation in WMSs, and another presented a
model for 3PLs for WMS selection and at the same time highlighted the importance of sustainability
integration in system selection. Altogether, the very sparse treatment of the contribution of WMS to
warehouse management sustainability as a part of cleaner production chains suggest a research gap
and opportunity for new authors to contribute to this area of research.
An unexpected research direction found was safety issues, which appeared quite frequently. It
suggests an association between sustainability and safety in warehouse management-related
literature. The finding makes sense if sustainability is considered from a work continuation and crisis
situation point of view. E.g. worldwide there are around 1,000 deaths per year as a result of forklift
accidents in warehouses, making work safety an important aspect in this context. Especially
nowadays when warehouses are more technology-driven, equipment and the working environment
should be designed such that they are suitable for a hybrid work between humans and technology
(robots, AS/RS, and other automated equipment). In the end, the safety of operations should always
be a priority. E.g. according the French National Institute of Research and Safety statistics, more than
60% of fatal forklifts accidents are due to forklifts overturning and drivers not using seatbelts [66].
Consequently, the interest in the safety of warehouse activities in the reviewed papers makes lot of
sense, especially as sustainability warehouse work & work safety are crucially important also in
COVID-19 like pandemic times.
As the current literature is so narrow, e.g. WMS sustainability supporting technologies, could be
developed and researched trough testing and implementing other related areas sustainable
supporting technologies in warehousing context [67]. Adding contributions to this research gap would
be essential from other area-specific academics to take sustainability aspects more profoundly into
account in WMS studies. Such information would help warehouse managers and 3PL operators more
effectively include sustainability parameters in decisions about selection of WMS [38]. Additionally,
warehousing sector could learn from other business areas e.g. trough benchmarking to see what is do
able and feasible in near future [68] and looking for modelling approaches to find ways to reduce
construction and maintenance costs of warehouses [69].
The findings of this work draw attention to the importance of research in the area of sustainability and
warehouse logistics and the need for more study focusing on sustainability aspects. In particular, the
research findings have important implications for the development and design of sustainability in
WMS and can help us understand that greater efforts can be directed towards sustainability in
warehousing. As a final note, a possible explanation for the low number of publications could be a
lack of understanding about warehouse activities as a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
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Moreover, it seems that there is not enough governmental and legislative pressure to force companies
to take sustainability into account in warehousing activities. In future work, political pressure for
ongoing law development could be studied more in detail. Additionally, further studies on the current
research topic are recommended to establish a clear connection between warehouse management
systems and sustainability.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to give our deepest gratitude for South-East Finland – Russia CBC programme for
supporting AWARE project, funded by the European Union, the Russian Federation and the Republic
of Finland. The funding has made it possible for publishing this work and disseminate the knowledge
on how there is still huge need for additional work to be done in sustainability related matters.
COMPETING INTERESTS
Authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity. 2021;7(1):59. DOI: 10.3390/joitmc7010059
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APPENDIXES
Appendix 1. The list of chosen publications from the 2nd round of searches with additional
keywords
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Appendix 2. The 3rd round of searches with additional keywords
KEYWORDS COMBINATIONS RESULTS
"warehouse management system" inventor* digital* 3
"warehouse management system" inventor* digitis* 0
"warehouse management system" inventor* digitiz* 1
"warehouse management system" warehous* digital* 7
"warehouse management system" warehous* digitis* 0
"warehouse management system" warehous* digitiz* 3
"wms" inventor* digital* 1
"wms" inventor* digitis* 0
"wms" inventor* digitiz* 0
"wms" warehous* digital* 1
"wms" warehous* digitis* 1
"wms" warehous* digitiz* 0
"wms" "warehouse management system" digital* 1
"wms" "warehouse management system" digitis* 0
"wms" "warehouse management system" digitiz* 0
KEYWORDS COMBINATION RESULTS
"warehouse management system" warehous* "industry 4.0" 10
"warehouse management system" inventor* "industry 4.0" 1
"wms" warehous* "industry 4.0" 3
"wms" inventor* "industry 4.0" 0
"wms" "warehouse management system" "industry 4.0" 3
KEYWORDS COMBINATIONS RESULTS
"warehouse management system" inventor* agile 1
"warehouse management system" warehous* agile 3
"warehouse management system" inventor* lean 1
"warehouse management system" warehous* lean 6
"warehouse management system" inventor* smart 0
"warehouse management system" warehous* smart 14
"wms" inventor* agile 1
"wms" warehous* agile 2
"wms" inventor* lean 1
"wms" warehous* lean 2
"wms" inventor* smart 0
"wms" warehous* smart 7
"wms" "warehouse management system" lean 2
"wms" "warehouse management system" agile 2
"wms" "warehouse management system" smart 6
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Appendix 3. The list of chosen publications from the 2nd round of searches with additional
keywords
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Appendix 4. The final list of found 22 studies for systematic mapping study
ID AUTHOR(S) YEAR TITLE TYPE
PUBLICATION
CHANNEL
PAGES
PAGES
NUMBE
R
1
Trab, S., Bajic, E., Zouinkhi, A. Thomas, A., Abdelkrim, M. N., Chekir,
H., Ltaief, R. H.
2017 A communicating object's approach for smart logistics and safety issues in warehouses Journal
Concurrent
Engineering-
Research and
Applications
53-67 15
2Minashkina, D. and Happo nen, A 2020
A Development of th e Warehouse Management System Selection Framework as Academic-
Industrial Collaboration Work with Sustainability Considerations
Conference
International
Engineering
Research
Conference
1-12 12
3Murauer, N. and Pflanz, N. 2018
A full shift field study to evaluate user-and process-o riented aspects of smart glasses in
automotive order picking pro cesses
Journal
Interaction Design
and Architectures
64-82 9
4Trab, S., Bajic, E., Zouinkhi, A., Abdelkrim, M. N. 2018 A hybrid decision-making-aided process for classified products wareh ousing Conference
15th Internation al
Multi-Conference
on Systems,
Signals and
Devices
704-709 6
5
Alias, C., Salewski, U., Ortiz Ruiz, V. E., Alarcón Olalla, F. E., Neirão
Reymão, J. do E., and Noche , B.
2017
Adapting Warehouse Mana gement Systems to the Requirements of the Evolving Era of
Industry 4.0
Conference
12th Internation al
Manufacturing
Science and
Engineering
Conference
1-13 14
6Giuseppe, A., Mario, E., Cinzia, M. 2011 Analysis of a Warehouse Management System by Means of Simulation Experiments Conference
10th Internation al
Conference on
Modeling and
Applied Simulation
70-79 10
7Romanova, A., Richnak, P., Porubanova, K., Bolek, V ., 2019 Application of Modern Information Technology in Innovation of B usiness Logistics Processes Journal
Ad Alta-Journal of
Interdisciplinary
Research
245-248 4
8Son, D. W., Chang, Y. S., Kim, N. U., Kim, W. R. 2016 Design of Warehouse Co ntol System For Automated Wareho use Environment Conference
5th IIAI
International
Congress on
Advanced Applied
Informatics
980-984 5
9Son, D. W., Chang, Y. S., Kim, W. R. 2015 Design of Warehouse Co ntrol System for Real Time Managemen t Journal Ifac Papersonline 1434-1438 5
10 Meyer, A., Niemann, W., MacKenzie, J., Lombaard, J. 2017
Drivers and barriers of reverse logistics practices: A study of large grocery retailers in South
Africa
Journal
Journal of
Transport and
Supply Chain
Management
a323 16
11 Torabizadeh, M., Yusof, N.M., Ma'aram, A., Shaharoun, A.M. 2020
Identifying sustainable warehouse man agement system indicators and prop osing new
weighting method
Journal
Journal of Cleaner
Production
119190 11
12 Andelkovic, A. and Radosavljevic, M. 2018
Improving Order-picking Process T hrough Implementation of Wareho use Management
System
Journal
Strategic
Management
3-10 8
13 Halawa, F., Dauod, H., Lee, I.G., Li, Y., Yoon, S.W., Chung, S.H. 2020
Introduction of a real t ime location system to enhance t he warehouse safety and op erational
efficiency
Journal
International
Journal of
Production
Economics
UNSP
107541
21
14 Goomas, D. T. and Yeo w, P. H. P. 2013
IT-assisted equipment sa fety checks system to improve compliance: A case study at a
distribution center
Journal Safety Science 77-86 10
15 Engelseth, P. and Gundersen, D. 2019
Lean and Complex Systems: A Case Study of Materials Handling at an on-Land Warehouse
Facility Supporting Subsea Gas Operation s
Journal
International
Journal of Design
& Nature and
Ecodynamics
199-207 8
16 Zhao, Z., Fang, J., Huang, G.Q., Zhang, M. 2017 Location Management of Cloud Forklifts in Finished Product Warehouse Journal
International
Journal of
Intelligent Systems
342-370 29
17 Yavas, V. and Ozkan -Ozen, Y. D. 2020 Logistics centers in the new industrial era: A proposed framework for log istics center 4.0 Journal
Transportation
Research Part E-
Logistics and
Transportation
Review
UNSP
101864
18
18 Richnák, P. 2016 New Development Directions of Logistics in an Industrial Company Conference
EDAMBA 2016:
International
Scientific
Conference for
Doctoral Students
and Post-Doctoral
Scholars
315-323 9
19
Trab, S., Bajic, E., Zouinkhi, A., Abdelkrim, M.N., Chekir, H., Ltaief,
R.H.
2015 Product allocation planning with safety compatibility constraints in IoT-based warehouse Conference
Procedia
Computer Science
290-297 8
20 Micale, R. and La Scalia, G. 2018 Shelf life-based inventory manag ement policy for RF monitored warehouse Journal
International
Journal of Rf
Technologies-
Research and
Applications
101-111 11
21 Ding, Y., Jin, M., Li, S., Feng, D 2020 Sma rt logistics based on the internet of things technology: an ove rview Journal
International
Journal of Logistics-
Research and
Applications
1-23 23
22 Lu, W., Giannikas, V., McFarlane, D., Hyde, J. 2014 The Role of Distributed Intelligence in Warehouse Manag ement Systems Conference
International
Journal of Rf
Technologies-
Research and
Applications
63-80 18
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Appendix 5. The number of citations counts per database
Where 0 means that an article was in a database and NA indicates an article not in the database.
ID
Google
scholar
Research
Gate
Scopus
Web of
Sciences
MS
Academic
Cross
ref
113 11 6 3 7 8
21 3 NA 0 0 0
32NA NA 0 0 NA
40 0 0 1 0 0
54 3 3 0 1 0
63 3 5 1 4 NA
71 1 NA 0NA 0
82 2 1 1 0 0
99 5 8 3 4 3
10 14 5NA 4 4 4
11 3 2 3 1 2 2
12 4 5 NA 3 1 1
13 3 1 2 0 1 2
14 6 6 4 2 3 3
15 0 1 0 0 0 0
16 13 8 8 5 8 8
17 5 3 2 0 1 2
18 0 0 NA 0NA NA
19 17 11 7 5 9 7
20 1 0 2 2 0 1
21 1 0 1 0 0 0
22 13 8 7 6 7 3
AVERAGE
NUMBER
5,23 3,71 3,69 1,68 2,60 2,32
SUM 115 78 59 37 52 44
CITED BY COUNTS
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Appendix 6. Keywords used in publications
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Appendix 7. Topic content base analysis
ID
WMS SOFTWARE / CONCEPT
DEVELOPMENT (12)
OPTIMIZATION /
EFFICIENCY
IMPROVEMENT (12)
SMART / IOT /
INDUSTRY 4.0 (15)
SAFETY
(5)
SUSTAINABILITY
/ WASTE
REDUCTION (4)
1x x
2x x x
3x x
4x x x
5x x x
6x x
7x x
8x x
9x x
10 x x
11 x x
12 x x
13 x x x
14 x x
15 x
16 x x x
17 x
18 x x
19 x x x
20 x x x
21 x
22 x x
12 12 15 5 4 total points
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Biography of author(s)
Daria Minashkina
Lappeenranta–Lahti University of Technology LUT, School of Engineering Science, Yliopistonkatu 34, 53850 Lappeenranta,
Finland.
Research and Academic Experience:
Ph.D. (Tech.), Junior Researcher, Industrial engineering and management at LUT University, Lappeenranta, Finland
(Apr 2019- Present)
Master of Science in Business Administration, Supply Management with Sustainability minor at LUT University,
Lappeenranta, Finland (Sep 2015 – Oct 2018)
Bachelor of Business Administration, International Business (double degree) at Munich University of Applied Sciences,
Munich, Germany (Oct 2014 – Jun 2015)
Bachelor of Business Administration, International Business at Saimaa University of Applied Sciences, Lappeenranta,
Finland (Sep 2012 – Jun 2015)
Research Area: Industrial engineering, supply chain management, logistics, 3PL operations, information management
systems, warehouse management systems, sustainability, digitalization of processes and operations, warehouse automation
systems.
Number of Published papers: 1 Journal article, 4 Conference proceedings and 5 Academic reports.
Special Award:
Master of Science Degree with Distinction (2019)
Both bachelor’s degrees completed with high scores
LUT certificates of Achieving Student (2015, 2016, 2017)
Award & scholarship grand in undergraduate study LUT foundation Research (2017)
Winner of UPM Circular Economy Boot Camp (2017)
Winner of DigiKaappaus Code Camp (2017)
Erasmus+ scholarship (2014-2015)
Ari Happonen
Lappeenranta–Lahti University of Technology LUT, School of Engineering Science, Yliopistonkatu 34, 53850 Lappeenranta,
Finland.
Research and Academic Experience: He works as project manager/principal investigator and University - Industry
collaborator at LUT School of Engineering Science in Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. His research focuses
mainly on practical and efficient industrial related applied research collaboration activities, both in B2B and in B2C contexts. He
contributes e.g. to the software engineering, Digital transformation, sustainability & ICT, supply chain digitalization, AI solutions,
hackathon & education related research areas. He is also actively participating in education and teaching development efforts
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for almost 20 years now and he is currently working as an intermediary in multiple research projects between Universities and
front-line innovative companies.
Research Area: Research areas include Digitalization, ICT for Sustainability, Robotization, Hackathons, Code Camps, Digital
transformation, Experimental innovation, Design thinking and Modern waste reduction and sustainability enhancement
methodologies, technologies, education practices and solutions.
Number of Published Papers: He has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers in leading academic journals, various
conference series, books and ebook chapters.
Special Award:
Organizing South Carelia local “Kaikille kone” –campaing (2020)
Organizing SkinnARila project competition for LTKY 50 year event (2019)
Organizing chair for Workshopping a Data Equity Manifesto (2019)
ICT4S Lappeenranta conference Company collaboration & Hackathon Master (2019)
LUT Nomitee for Allied ICT Finland (AIF) Growth Mill activities presentative (2018)
The Finnish Cultural Foundation 11 000 eur Grand for Civic engineering (2018)
LUT Personal nominated reward marketing (2018)
LUT presentative in Imatra municipality Digitalization & DT group (2016)
Other remarkable point(s): Roughly 20 externally funded projects, with over 2 million euros worth of new projects currently in
application pipeline.
_________________________________________________________________________________
© Copyright (2021): Author(s). The licensee is the publisher (B P International).
Reviewers’ Information
(1) Priscilla Cristina Cabral Ribeiro, Industrial Engineering Department, Fluminense Federal University, Brazil.
(2) Sergey Evgenievich Barykin, Russia.
