Creating Items for Packaging Materials

Some packaging materials like pallets, containers, or cartons are very costly and should not be just given away. Certain packaging materials might be sold to customers; for others you want to keep track of the stock, so you can retrieve them later. To do this, it is necessary to create items for the materials used for packaging.

Automatic Generation of Packaging Items

Using automatically generated packaging items allows you to process deliveries without having to create packaging items manually for deliveries where handling units (HUs) are used. Based on the configuration, the system can create packaging items from the packaging products of the HU and the auxiliary packaging products inside the HU.

In SAP EWM, the option to create items for packaging material for outbound is available since release 9.1. For inbound the option to create these items is only available since SAP S/4HANA 2020.

Inbound Process

The information about the packaging material either comes as a HU from the LE inbound delivery or you create a HU manually or automatically in EWM before posting goods receipt. The creation of the item can be triggered through an explicit goods receipt posting or through implicit goods receipt when confirming a warehouse task (if activated).

Note

The figure illustrating the inbound process shows the packaging is done in ERP. It is also possible to pack in EWM before posting the goods receipt.

Outbound Process

During the creation of the outbound delivery, SAP EWM uses the HU packing information to automatically create packaging items.

Before the solution for the automatic generation of items for packaging materials was available, it was already possible to create items for packaging materials manually. While there are some clear differences in setup and handling between these two possibilities for outbound, the standard settings are the same for both inbound item types.

The following table gives an overview of the differences (all based on the standard settings):

The fact that in the standard setting the automatically created item is relevant for putaway and unloading, gives you two options in case you do not want to process the according warehouse tasks:

• You change the standard status profile by deactivating the relevant status. These are DAD, DET, DEU, DID, DPT, DUD, DUN, and DYD.
• You define and determine a special warehouse process type for the item type, with settings for automatic WT confirmation.

The following table gives an overview of the differences (all based on the standard settings):

The settings for the automatic generation of packaging items are similar for inbound and outbound:

• You activate the item creation for a combination of warehouse number and document type. For inbound you additionally have to option to activate the generation for implicit goods receipt (otherwise only explicit goods receipt postings are considered).
• You activate the item creation for the relevant packaging material types (there are two nodes in customizing, one for inbound, the other for outbound. This table is the same in both nodes, so the activation is always relevant for both directions).
  Note

  The activation is not based on the packaging material or product master, but on the packaging material type (which is a field in the product). That means that if you have, for example, different cartons, and for some you want to create items and for others you do not, you must have different packaging material types for the differentiation.
• For a combination of packaging material type, warehouse number and document type, you assign the item type to be used and the stock type for which GR or GI is to be posted.
• You setup the determination of the goods movement bin in the transaction Maintain Goods Movement Bind Determination (/SCWM/GMBIN_DET).

Additionally, there a several BAdIs available. They all belong to the enhancement spots /SCWM/ES_DLV_PACK_ITEM (for outbound) and /SCWM/ES_DLV_PACK_ITEM_I (for inbound).

For the creation of the item in the LE delivery, you setup the item category determination in ERP. The path for the customizing settings is as follows: Logistics Execution → Shipping → Deliveries → Define Item Category Determination in Deliveries. You need an entry for the LE delivery type and the UsagePACE. For outbound delivery items you can alternatively use the table in customizing under the following: Logistics Execution → SAP EWM Integration → Outbound Process → Direct Outbound Deliveries → Determine Item Categories for Direct Outbound Deliveries. This table gives you the option to determine an LE item category warehouse dependent - which is probably not required. The item type must be E Packaging Item (External).