Using Batch Managed Products

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

Manage batches.
Create batches in inbound processes.
Select batches in outbound processes.

Batch Management

In various industries, particularly in the process industry, you have to work with homogenous partial quantities of a material or product throughout the logistics quantity and value chain.

Batches of different products: water bottles, pills, oil barrels, and a stock supervisor checking a store shelf.

There are various reasons for this, including the following:

Legal requirements:
For example, the guidelines set out by Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) or regulations on hazardous material.
Defect tracing, callback activities, and regression requirement.
The need for differentiated quantity-based and value-based Inventory Management
For example, due to heterogeneous yield or result qualities or varying constituents in Production
Differences in usage and the monitoring thereof in materials planning in Sales and Production
Production or procedural requirements
For example, settlement of material quantities on the basis of different batch specifications

A batch describes a quantity or partial quantity of a certain material or product that has been produced according to the same recipe, and represents one homogenous, non-reproducible unit with unique specifications. Batch characteristics describe the technical, physical, and/or chemical properties of a batch, and are stored in the classification system.

Batch Distribution

Batches are managed centrally as master data in an SAP ERP system. What that means for SAP EWM, depends on the EWM system environment.

Comparison of batch and batch classification data transfer workflows between ERP and EWM systems, highlighting integration methods for classic and S/4HANA scenarios.

Note

While the previous slide only shows a distribution from the ERP system to the EWM system, it is also possible to create or change batches in EWM and distribute them back to ERP.

For an SCM-based EWM, the batches and batch classifications are transferred from the ERP system with the SAP Core Interface (CIF). Technically, the CIF uses a qRFC. An active CIF model is required for the immediate transfer for new batches or changes at batches. The batch can also be created and maintained in the EWM system with SAP EWM specific transactions.
For SAP S/4HANA embedded EWM, the batch information is only maintained in the ERP part of the system and is shared with EWM. EWM has no additional batch information. The standard (ERP) transactions for batch creation and maintenance can be used, batches can also be created in specific EWM processes (in an inbound delivery or during quality inspection).
In an SAP S/4HANA-based decentralized EWM, EWM uses the same batch information as if it would be embedded EWM. So, the batch is an object in the ERP part of the SAP S/4HANA system. It is created in the ERP system and transferred to the decentralized EWM through IDocs. For the creation of the IDocs, usually the activation of change pointers is required, but it is possible to trigger the transfer immediately. What options for batch creation and processing are available in the decentralized EWM system depends on the SAP S/4HANA release. With SAP S/4HANA 2020 FPS01 practically all limitations are lifted, it is also possible to create the batch in EWM. For details about limitations and supported processes, see the SAP Note, 2808143 - Overview: Batch management for decentralized EWM SAP S/4HANA.

Batch Creation

When you receive material that is batch relevant, a batch must be created before the goods receipt can be posted (as the batch is part of the stock information). The batch creation can happen at various times.

The batch can be created before you create the inbound delivery in ERP and directly entered in that inbound delivery. You can also create a batch in ERP during the creation of the ERP inbound delivery (customizing must be set up accordingly).

With an active CIF model for an SCM-based EWM, the batch data is immediately distributed and the batch information of the ERP inbound delivery is also available in the SAP EWM inbound delivery.

For an SAP S/4HANA based decentralized EWM the distribution is done through the evaluation of change pointers and through an IDoc. While this usually requires scheduling of the evaluation of change pointers for triggering this IDoc, the SAP Note, 2881061 - Decentralized EWM: Enhanced Settings for ALE Data Transfer, describes what to implement to overcome this limitation. After that the batch distribution is done immediately.

Batch Creation in EWM Inbound Delivery

The batch can also be created in SAP EWM. In that case, it is automatically created in the background in ERP using a remote function call.

Batch creation flow starting with inbound delivery in EWM, transferred via CIF/IDoc, and inbound delivery updates in ERP.

In an SCM based EWM the transaction /SCWM/WM_BATCH_MAINT can be used to create, change, and display batches. This transaction is not available in an SAP S/4HANA based EWM.

From SAP S/4HANA 2020 FPS01 on it is possible to create and change the batch in EWM with the standard batch transactions.

The batch can also be created in SAP EWM in the inbound delivery itself. This is possible in SCM as well as in SAP S/4HANA based EWM. In this case, in the standard only certain standard characteristics like the production and the shelf life expiration date can be directly maintained. There is a BAdI available to enhance the screen and to allow the maintenance of customer-specific characteristics. If this is not used, other characteristics must be maintained in the batch master record. This can then be done in ERP or in EWM. Batches can be created and characteristics can also be changed during quality inspection in SAP EWM, independent if it is SCM or SAP S/4HANA based.

Note

Depending on your system settings, it might not be possible to create the EWM inbound deliveries without any batch or if you enter in ERP a batch which does not exist yet. In this case check SAP notes:

3321794 - Error "/SCDL/ICC001" happens when creating new batch via /scwm/prdi or in Fiori apps
3010105 - /SCWM/INB_DLV_SAVEREPLICA queue is stuck in EWM SMQ2 with error message no. /SCDL/ICC001

Additionally check the settings in customizing for the Batch Management in the Delivery: Inbound Delivery (Customizing:SCM Extendend Warehouse Management → Extended Warehouse Management → Goods Receipt Process → Inbound Delivery → Batch Management and Remaining Shelf Live Check in the Inbound Delivery.

Batch determination

You can assign batches to be sold or picked manually at certain points, but it can be done automatically using batch determination, which uses condition technique. This enables you to define your own search strategies by choosing the relevant key fields from the business transaction to search for batches. For example, you choose the combination of customer and material and then specify the criteria for batch selection.

Batch Determination in Sales Orders

The batch can be determined automatically in the sales order. This batch is then copied into the ERP outbound delivery and the SAP EWM outbound delivery order and picking is limited to quants that are part of this batch. However, in a sales order, batch splits are not possible. This means that the system assigns one batch only. If this batch does not have the required quantity, the rest of the sales order is never fulfilled.

Batch Determination in Deliveries

During a batch determination in a delivery, the system always creates a batch split. The system can select as many batches as are required to fulfill the requested quantity, as long as the batch determination criteria are fulfilled. In the case where not enough stock is available in the right batches, the sales order is still open and can be fulfilled later when new batches with the required criteria are available.

Batch Determination with SAP EWM

From a warehouse point-of-view, a batch assigned in the ERP outbound delivery may not be the best choice, because the sort criteria for the batch determination do not reflect any picking strategies. SAP EWM does not have batch determination functionality. However, the interface can be set up so that ERP batch determination in the outbound delivery is only being used to determine the batch determination criteria that needs to be fulfilled, without assigning a batch. These criteria are then passed on to SAP EWM and used to determine the best quant from a warehouse picking strategy, while fulfilling the batch determination requirement.

Illustrates the batch determination process flow from ERP outbound delivery to EWM outbound delivery order and warehouse task, maintaining batch information throughout.

The switch to control the automatic batch determination in deliveries is where the warehouse number in ERP is activated as EWM warehouse number. In ERP Customizing, choose Logistics Execution → SAP EWM Integration → Basic Setup of Connectivity → Configure SAP EWM-Specific Parameters. When the checkbox for BatchDetEW (Batch Determination in EWM using Batch Att) is selected no batch is assigned, but only batch determination criteria is read and send to EWM. This does NOT affect a manually selected batch, or when the batch determination is done in the sales order or production order.

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