The evolution of warehouse management systems (WMS) is very similar to that of many other software solutions. Initially a system to control movement and storage of materials within a warehouse, the role of WMS is expanding to including light manufacturing, transportation management, order management, and complete accounting systems. To use the grandfather of operations-related software, MRP, as a comparison, material requirements planning (MRP) started as a system for planning raw material requirements in a manufacturing environment. Soon MRP evolved into manufacturing resource planning (MRPII), which took the basic MRP system and added scheduling and capacity planning logic. Eventually MRPII evolved into enterprise resource planning (ERP), incorporating all the MRPII functionality with full financials and customer and vendor management functionality. Now, whether WMS evolving into a warehouse-focused ERP system is a good thing or not is up to debate. What is clear is that the expansion of the overlap in functionality between Warehouse Management Systems, Enterprise Resource Planning, Distribution Requirements Planning, Transportation Management Systems, Supply Chain Planning, Advanced Planning and Scheduling, and Manufacturing Execution Systems will only increase the level of confusion among companies looking for software solutions for their operations.

倉庫管理系統(tǒng)（ WMS ）的演變與許多其他軟件解決方案是非常相似的。最初的系統(tǒng)用來控制物料在倉庫內(nèi)的流動和貯存，倉庫的作用正在延伸到包括輕型制造業(yè)，交通運輸管理，訂單管理，和完整的會計制度中。利用與先前的業(yè)務(wù)有關(guān)的軟件，制造資源計劃，作為一個比較，材料需求計劃（ MRP ）開始作為一個規(guī)劃要求，原材料的生產(chǎn)環(huán)境的系統(tǒng)。 物料需求計劃很快演變成以MRP系統(tǒng)，補充調(diào)度和容量規(guī)劃為基礎(chǔ)的邏輯制造資源計劃（ MRPII系統(tǒng)）。最終MRPII系統(tǒng)演變成企業(yè)資源規(guī)劃（ ERP ），吸收所有的MRPII系統(tǒng)的功能包括充分的財務(wù)與客戶和供應(yīng)商管理功能?，F(xiàn)在，無論倉庫管理系統(tǒng)演變成一個以倉庫為中心的ERP系統(tǒng)是一件好事或不可達(dá)的辯論。清楚的是，在倉庫管理系統(tǒng)，企業(yè)資源規(guī)劃，布局規(guī)劃要求，交通運輸管理系統(tǒng)，供應(yīng)鏈計劃，高級計劃與排程，以及制造執(zhí)行系統(tǒng)之間擴大重疊功能性只會增加那些尋找軟件解決方案業(yè)務(wù)的公司混亂水平。
盡管倉庫繼續(xù)獲得額外的功能，最初的倉庫管理系統(tǒng)的核心功能還沒有真正改變。其主要目的是控制管理系統(tǒng)在工藝操作相關(guān)聯(lián)的交易中的流動和材料儲存。定向采摘，定向補充，定向收集是倉庫的關(guān)鍵。從一個軟件供應(yīng)商到另一個在一個管理系統(tǒng)中詳細(xì)的安裝和處理可以有一個很大的差別，但是其基本邏輯將使用相結(jié)合的項目，地點，數(shù)量，度量單位，并以收集信息以確定在哪里儲存，在哪里挑選，以及以何種順序執(zhí)行這些操作。