# Smart Warehouse Management System: Architecture, Real-Time Implementation and Prototype Design
###### Abstract  
The world has witnessed the digital transformation and Industry 4.0 technologies in the past decade. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of automation and digitalization in certain areas of the manufacturing industry; in particular, warehouse automation often has challenges in design and successful deployment. The effective management of the warehouse and inventory plays a pivotal role in the supply chain and production. In the literature, different architectures of Warehouse Management Systems (WMSs) and automation techniques have been proposed, but most of those have focused only on particular sections of warehouses and have lacked successful deployment. To achieve the goal of process automation, we propose an Internet-of-Things (IoT)-based architecture for real-time warehouse management by dividing the warehouse into multiple domains. Architecture viewpoints were used to present models based on the context diagram, functional view, and operational view specifically catering to the needs of the stakeholders. In addition, we present a generic IoT-based prototype system that enables efficient data collection and transmission in the proposed architecture. Finally, the developed IoT-based solution was deployed in the warehouse of a textile factory for validation testing, and the results are discussed. A comparison of the key performance parameters such as system resilience, efficiency, and latency rate showed the effectiveness of our proposed IoT-based WMS architecture. automation; Industrial IoT; Industry 4.0; warehouse management systems; architecture modeling; MQTT 20222018 February 20222018 February 2  
IDs are also stored in a register or a computerized database against the product details. For the finished products that need to be delivered out of the warehouse, the information against their tracking IDs is updated in the database. In most warehouses, these tasks are mostly handled manually or with some partial automation [5; 6]. As the company's trade volume increases, the number of supply chains of goods also increases. This takes the form of a complex and integrated supply chain network in which many storage units and racks of a warehouse can be linked to each other or work independently [7]. The maintenance and management of such a complex network are challenging, and even more tedious tasks are monitoring and tracking all the goods. The need is to effectively manage all the ongoing processes of a warehouse and design a dynamic storage facility that can be accessed easily [8; 9]. Conventionally, the goods reaching the inventory are identified at the check-ins by either the Sales Order (S/O) or some ID, associated with them in the production department. An efficient way is to use automated tags or IDs; nonetheless, it is pertinent to tag every item or product reaching the inventory, which makes it easier to be tracked by the system. Different types of warehouses have their own storage allocation mechanisms depending on their needs and requirements. The storage area of a warehouse can be located adjacent to the whole supply chain or in some separate area to manage the transport expenses while communicating with the upstream and downstream stakeholders. Currently, for Warehouse Management Systems (WMSs), many tracking mechanisms are used. The authors of [10] proposed a system of barcodes to be implemented in every process of a WMS. Barcode scanners and barcode generators were used for this purpose. The efficiency was better compared to a manual system; however, the fact cannot be ignored that barcode stickers are less reliable and require replacing after some time. For relatively large warehouses, RFID tags have also been implemented as they are more reliable and last longer [11]. The integration of the IoT in recent years has been a game changer in terms of efficient warehouse management. Many new sensors and devices have been designed and deployed in various types of industries to facilitate the transition to the Industrial IoT [12; 13].