A cross-border workflow management framework for measuring the performance of warehouse operations

With the trend of manufacturing businesses moving from Hong Kong to Mainland China, the supply chain operation mode for logistics service providers (LSPs) is changing from local to cross border. In this business environment, logistics operations become complex in that customer orders need to be fulfilled across two regions. Therefore, the LSPs need to have to plan well and coordinate transportation and warehousing activities to facilitate the order fulfillment process (OFP). In this paper, a cross border workflow management framework (WMF) is proposed to help users to plan for the fulfillment of various customer orders with the most suitable resources and handling sequences within the warehouse. In addition, the concept of warehouse resources management (WRM), embracing the case-based reasoning technique and a rule-based mechanism, is introduced to enhance the flow of OFP. By following WMF in the pilot study, better customer order fulfillment with more efficient use of warehouse resources is achieved.