A study on organizing warehouse management

Purpose – This paper investigates how warehouse management, understood as a set of planning andcontrol decisions and procedures, is influenced by task complexity (TC) and market dynamics (MD).Design/methodology/approach – A multi-variable conceptual model, developed from existing literature.Findings – The study identifies TC and MD as key drivers of warehouse management, impacting planningextensiveness (PE), decision rule complexity, and control sophistication. Additionally, TC is found to be aprimary factor in determining the specificity of warehouse management systems (WMS).Research limitations/implications – Future research could test the model in different regions and furtherrefine the measurement of core warehouse management dimensions.Practical implications – Warehouses can be characterized by different levels of TC and MD, which helpsmanagers identify essential functionalities and select appropriate WMS software for their operations.Originality/value – This paper defines and measures the core dimensions of warehouse management,tests their impact, and assesses how these drivers influence WMS specificity. It also highlights that PE inproduction warehouses is influenced by different factors compared to distribution centers