What is the difference between a WMS and a TMS?

A WMS runs work inside the warehouse — receiving, storage, picking, shipping. A TMS plans and buys the transport that moves goods between sites. They exchange orders, loads and shipping notices at the dock.

What are the main functions of a WMS?

Receiving, putaway, inventory and location control, picking and packing, and shipping, with labour and cycle-count management on top.

How many warehouses use a WMS?

In a 2025 Modern Materials Handling survey of 89 respondents, 49% used a WMS or inventory management solution. There is no official census.

Term

Warehouse management system (WMS)

A warehouse management system (WMS) is software that runs the work inside a warehouse: receiving, putaway, stock and location records, picking, packing and shipping. Germany's engineering standard VDI 3601 describes its purpose as the management and optimisation of the internal systems for storage and transportation. It hands loads to a TMS and trucks to a YMS.

Also called WMS, WMS software, warehouse management software, warehouse systemUpdated 13 October 2026

What it does

Function	What the WMS decides or records
Receiving	Checks deliveries against the ASN and order; raises the goods received note
Putaway	Chooses each pallet's location and records it
Inventory	Keeps quantity and location per item; schedules cycle counts
Picking	Groups orders into waves or batches and directs pickers
Shipping	Packs, labels and sends the ASN to the customer

WMS, TMS and YMS

The three meet at the dock. A WMS manages what happens inside the building; a transportation management system plans and buys the transport outside it; a yard management system controls the trucks and trailers between the gate and the dock door. VDI 3601 draws the WMS boundary to include quantity and location management, with transport inside the warehouse and its disposition.

Worked example: one inbound pallet, start to finish

ASN received 06:40 → truck gated in 08:00 (YMS) → pallet scanned against ASN 08:20, GRN raised (WMS) → location chosen and scanned 08:35 (WMS) → stock pickable · dock-to-stock 35 minutes

Illustrative times; the systems' roles follow VDI 3601 and the rows on yard management and goods receipt.

How common is one? In Peerless Research Group's 2025 survey for Modern Materials Handling, 49% of 89 respondents used a WMS or inventory management solution, and 35% a TMS — up from 25% a year earlier. It is a small trade-press sample, so read it as a direction, not a census.

The mistake people make

Buying a WMS to fix a process nobody has written down. The system enforces the putaway, slotting and picking rules it is given; a warehouse that can't say where each product should live, or which orders ship together, gets the same confusion faster.

FAQ