Warehouse management system (WMS) is the name attributed to computer programs "Program (computing)") intended to manage the operations of a warehouse.[1]​[2]​ It comes from the translation of the English term «WMS» (warehouse management system).[3]​[4]​.

También se refiere a la optimización de la gestión de almacenes para incrementar la eficiencia, reducir costos y mejorar la productividad dentro de la cadena de suministro. Entre las prácticas clave se destacan el aprovechamiento máximo del espacio disponible, la automatización de procesos mediante tecnologías avanzadas como robots y sistemas automáticos, así como el manejo eficiente del inventario a través de herramientas como RFID y sistemas de gestión de almacenes (WMS). Asimismo, se subraya la importancia de una organización adecuada del almacén y la capacidad de adaptar los procesos a las demandas cambiantes del negocio, lo que facilita la ejecución de pedidos y mejora la atención al cliente. [5]​.

Warehouse management systems[6]​ have the main objective of maintaining the stock values ​​of the items and their positions in the warehouse correctly and all the information on the movements of the items within a warehouse is achieved by recording all the physical movements of the warehouse and then consulting them in the database. Deleting records from the database is one of the main mistakes when creating a transactional system like this.

To avoid errors it is advisable to follow a series of practices:

Being a product that deals with a very specialized field, it is normally a departmental computer system that is linked to the rest of business management or ERP, since the warehouse management modules of standard ERPs normally do not meet all the required functionalities or lack the appropriate interfaces either for the management of automatic identification elements (bar codes, radio frequency tags, pick to light" viewers, voice picking systems, etc.) or automatic maintenance (miniloads"), stacker cranes, rotary cranes, extraction towers, roller conveyors, etc.).

A WMS has two basic types of optimization mechanisms "Optimization (mathematical)"), one dedicated to optimizing storage space, through adequate location management and another aimed at optimizing movements or flows of material, whether carried out by machines or by people.