Investment decision-making in smart technology for air cargo warehouse

Abstract

This research studies Investment Decision-Making in Smart Technology for Air Cargo Warehouse at THAI Cargo in Chiang Mai Province. THAI Cargo has faced pressure from competitors with strengths in superior warehouse technology which makes various processes proceed quickly therefore causing a disadvantage in the competition. This research will use Value stream mapping (VSM) to study and collect the process information and time spent combined with the Pareto Diagram to find weak processes that take a long time and to screen the technologies that are pledged to be selected for the development of that process also retrieved the decision-making information from questionnaires with experience in warehouses for selecting criteria and technology to invest by analyzing the data of employees' decisions using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and the results of the analysis are displayed in a table format and bar charts. In conclusion, from the results of the AHP process from employees, it was found that the decision criteria will largely depend on Regulatory Compliance, Environmental Compliance, and Competitive Advantage consecutively, and the top 3 technologies that received the highest investment scores were Warehouse Management System (WMS), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and Automated Storage/Retrieval System (ASRS), respectively. Moreover, this research uses financial evaluation in accounting. This serves as an indicator of how attractive the technology is for investment and the analysis results will be displayed in table format. For the future, this research is organized to transfer knowledge in deciding to invest in technology and give a financial evaluation for a case study of the warehouse in Northern Thailand to whom dedicated their warehouse more effectively by applying the knowledge of this research.