Published Paper Details:

The inclusion of compliance at design and implementation stages of Warehouse Management System (WMS) assumes a vital importance in providing conformity with legal, environmental, and industry-related needs. Recent studies have highlighted the serious lack of proactive incorporation of compliance programs at the design stage, which tend to result in expensive rework, delays, and legal issues. The previous literature is largely confined to compliance matters at the backend, with no regard to the need to incorporate regulatory factors onboard from the design stage. Such practical restriction results in WMS systems failing to respond to changing regulations or needing extensive rework after the implementation stage, thereby adding to efficiency problems in the operations. Research has shown that the early integration of regulatory compliance in WMS development facilitates smoother implementation, reduces legal risk, and enhances operating efficiency. Early integration of compliance enables the system to handle regulatory changes more effectively, maintaining consistent compliance with changing laws and regulations without affecting operations. Furthermore, involving different stakeholders--such as legal experts and software developers--during WMS development makes technical specifications more appropriate to legal requirements. This approach not only minimizes compliance risk but also makes the WMS scalable, flexible, and future-proof. While such advantages do exist, they are not supported by complete frameworks and methodologies. Hence, filling this research gap by developing compliance-based WMS design frameworks would greatly improve the efficiency, flexibility, and legality of warehouse management systems to the advantage of both industry practitioners and regulatory authorities.