A vertical automatic warehouse or vertical automatic cabinet or VLM (Vertical Lift Module) is a storage system that takes advantage of all the available height under the ceiling. This system is based on the principle of merchandise to man and not the other way around.[1]​.

The operation is very simple: the user chooses the product he wants, and the same if it moves vertically (on the shelf or in the shuttle) to the user.

Vertical warehouses have been designed to take advantage of the square meters of floor space in industrial warehouses, storing product at height and presenting it to the operator, thus minimizing the space allocated to corridors and stairs as opposed to that used in a light shelving mezzanine.[3]​.

Automatic warehouses can be used in industrial or office environments. They can store everything from raw materials to tools or finished products.

Automatic Warehouses of the Vertical type are used to store, as mentioned above, different types of merchandise, based on programmable automatons for remote handling.

A vertical automatic warehouse can work as an autonomous unit within a factory or a logistics center or can be linked to the center's computer systems to work in coordination with the rest of the manipulators, forklifts or stacker cranes and work as part of an automatic logistics chain.

The computer system (be it a factory or a logistics center) has software that controls all the movements of pallets or merchandise that are carried out in the center, taking into account movements that are carried out between different warehouses in the center, goods that have to be sent to the shipping section, goods to the picking departments, receipts of goods that have to be stored, supply of materials to the assembly lines, removal of finished products from the chains destined for storage, etc. and it calculates which movements are the highest priority and gives the orders to all the manipulators (including vertical automatic warehouses) that exist in the center so that each merchandise reaches its destination.

All pallets or storage units have a sticker with a barcode (or other system) incorporated and through readers, the system has identified all the pallets in the center, the stock and knows in which position on the shelf each one is located, being able to guarantee perfect traceability of all the merchandise or even when making shipments, remove the products with the latest expiration date.[4]​.