Defining the Warehouse

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to define a Warehouse Number in SAP EWM

SAP EWM Structure

When implementing SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM), look at the physical structure of your warehouse or warehouse complex, and create an SAP EWM structure that mirrors this. Define the individual physical areas within the warehouse, such as high-rack storage area, bulk storage area, and fixed bin picking area, as storage types within the warehouse. Define storage bins for each storage type as well. SAP EWM uses these storage bins to manage stock information for all products in the warehouse, at the storage bin level.

Shows a warehouse, its layout, structure and shelves

Warehouse Structural Elements

The warehouse structure in warehouse management is divided hierarchically and consists of the following elements:

  • Warehouse number

    The warehouse number is a four-character code that represents a single warehouse or warehouse complex.

  • Storage type

    A storage type represents a physical storage area in an individual warehouse. The technical, spatial, and organization characteristics are set in the customizing settings.

  • Storage section

    Each storage type can be divided into one or more storage sections. Storage bins with specific common attributes, such as storage bins for fast moving items that are close to the goods issue zone, are assigned to one storage section.

  • Storage bin

    In each storage type you have one or several storage bins. The coordinates of the storage bin indicate the exact position in the warehouse in which products can be stored.

  • Activity area

    An activity area is a logical grouping of storage bins. It can refer to a storage type, or it can represent a group of bins from several storage types. You can either assign storage bins manually to the activity areas, or if there is a 1:1 relationship between storage type and activity area, you can have the system generate the activity area and the assignment.

Warehouse Number

The organizational and physical attributes of a warehouse complex are set in Customizing under a warehouse number. These attributes include the weight unit, volume unit, and time unit. There are also various determination procedures for packaging specifications that are assigned at the warehouse number level.

As a general rule, use one warehouse number for each group of storage areas or buildings (warehousing complex) in the same geographical location. If your warehousing facilities are located in different cities or are physically separated by a longer distance, define a separate warehouse number to each warehouse complex.

Note

"Longer distance" does not mean that the distance has to be several kilometers. Every movement which leaves company premises, and required the use of public streets, should not be inside a warehouse number, as there is no standard way to create the probably required paperwork.

To define a new warehouse in SAP EWM, you can use the Copy Warehouse Customizing function to copy either one of the predefined SAP templates or a previously created warehouse. This process creates a new warehouse number with the same entries in all Customizing tables as the warehouse that was copied.

After you create the new warehouse, make a one-time assignment of a supply chain unit with the business attribute INV - warehouse to the warehouse number. You also assign a business partner as custodian.

Illustration of a Warehouse, the Warehouse number and assignment of a Supply Chain Unit and Custodian to the Warehouse number

Supply Chain Unit and Custodian

The supply chain unit (SCU) contains essential information for the warehouse complex, such as country, region, and time zone.

In the case of an SAP NetWeaver based EWM: When a plant location is created in SAP EWM by transfer using the core interface (CIF), the system automatically creates an SCU with identical general and address data and the business character Planning Location. Conversely, if you manually create an SCU with the business character Planning Location, the system automatically creates a location with identical general and address data. If, however, you create an SCU only with the business character Warehouse, and a planning location is not assigned, the system does not create a corresponding location.

Hint

Each warehouse number requires a unique supply chain unit. In an environment where several warehouses exist at one physical location (represented by the plant), it is necessary to create additional SCUs manually in the SAP EWM system.

One plant = one location created through CIF = one supply chain unit = one warehouse number that uses that SCU.

In an embedded EWM or decentralized EWM based on SAP S/4HANA, the SCU for the warehouse is always created manually.

Independently of the way the SCU was created, you have to assign the business attribute Warehouse manually.

When you have entered any product master data or document data for a warehouse, do not change the assignment of the SCU to the warehouse number as doing so can cause errors.

Custodian

Each warehouse number also requires the assignment to a business partner that represents the custodian. A custodian stores, manages, or further processes stock for another business partner without transfer of title. The custodian only maintains effective possession of the stock, whereas the owner maintains legal possession. The holder of stock inventory must not be confused with its owner.

In a scenario where a company has its own warehouse, the custodian is the business partner that represents the plant, which will also probably be the owner of the stock. The custodian does not have to be unique, so if there are several warehouses belonging to one plant, they can all use the same business partner as custodian.

Shipping Office and Goods Receipt Office

Besides the assignment of an SCU with the attribute INV - warehouse, a warehouse number also requires at least one SO - shipping office and one RO - goods receipt office (called "receiving office").

The shipping office and receiving office are actually not used much in the standard EWM, but it can be used for authorization checks and in condition technique. The RO or SO is also mandatory in the document header.

There are different ways to assign them to the warehouse number:

  • You use one SCU with all business attributes.
  • You use separate SCUs and build an hierarchy. The upper level of the hierarchy is the SCU with the business attribute INV, below that you have one or more SCUs with the attributes SO and / or RO.
Diagram that outlines SCU attributes and options for Warehouse, Shipping Office and Receiving Office

Note

For simplification the following text only mentions "shipping point" and "shipping office". Technically in an inbound delivery in ERP you can have a "goods receipt point", which is a shipping point which is also marked for goods receipt - but it has not the same usage as a shipping point for outbound processes in ERP.

These options usually mean that the shipping point of the delivery coming from the ERP system is not the same as the shipping office. This does not really matter in most circumstances, as the shipping point has no further usage, but in case you want to have the shipping point from ERP as shipping office in the EWM delivery, you need to model a SCU hierarchy and use a BAdI for determining the correct shipping office.

With SAP S/4HANA 2023 another option of assigning the shipping office and goods receipt office became available. This was necessary due to requirements for the integration of TM and EWM for advanced shipping and receiving (ASR). When you use embedded EWM, you would have anyway existing shipping points and create locations for these shipping points using the report /SAPAPO/CREATE_LOCATIONS. At the same time SCUs with the business attributes SO and RO are created. For a decentral EWM the locations and SCUs for this scenario would be created using the Data Replication Framework (DRF) from ERP.

Shows connection points between Shipping Point to Location to Shipping Office

You then activate in customizing for your warehouse number and (optionally) for document categories and document types that the mapping for the shipping office and goods receipt office is based on the shipping points.

Learning

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