A Warehouse Management System (WMS) is a software solution designed to support and optimise warehouse functionality and distribution centre management. These systems support management in their daily planning, organising, staffing, directing, and controlling the utilisation of available resources to move and store materials into, within, and out of a warehouse. They also support staff in the performance of material movement and storage in and around a warehouse.
These systems are often integrated with a Transportation Management System (TMS) or an Inventory Management System.
Directed picking, directed replenishment, and directed putaway are key to WMS. The detailed setup and processing within a WMS can vary significantly from one software vendor to another. However, the basic logic will use a combination of item, location, quantity, unit of measure, and order information to determine where to stock, where to pick, and in what sequence to perform these operations.