Warehouse Management Department

A warehouse management system (WMS)

is a software application, designed to support and optimize warehouse functionality and distribution center management. These systems facilitate management in their daily planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling the utilization of available resources, to move and store materials into, within, and out of a warehouse, while supporting staff in the performance of material movement and storage in and around a warehouse.

Warehouse management solutions are primarily tactical tools, purchased and used by businesses to satisfy the unique customer demand requirements of their supply chain(s) and distribution channel(s), when the inventory and workload is larger than what can be handled manually, with spreadsheets. Motivation to purchase generally comes from a need to support sales growth or improve performance, and occasionally both.

Types

Warehouse management systems can be standalone systems, part of supply chain execution suites, or modules of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Depending on the size and sophistication of the organization, warehouse management can be as simple as handwritten lists or spreadsheets using software such as Microsoft Excel or Access, as well as specialty WMS software systems.