Outlining Goods Receipt Processes in SAP EWM

The figure shows the basic goods receipt process that begins with the creation of an inbound delivery created from the ASN/purchase order in the SAP ERP system:

The inbound delivery is replicated to SAP EWM and becomes an inbound delivery notification (IDN). The IDN is used, for example, to reject the complete inbound delivery (as long as it is not active). The system determines the EWM-specific settings, such as the warehouse process type, and creates the inbound delivery (ID) using the post processing framework (PPF) from the IDN. The initial EWM warehouse tasks are generated from the SAP EWM inbound delivery. From the initial task or tasks, additional tasks may be created in SAP EWM based on process and layout storage control.

Expected Goods Receipt Process

Another goods receipt process that generates an inbound delivery in SAP EWM is the expected goods receipt process.

The system creates the notification of expected goods receipt (GRN) with reference to either a purchase order or production order in the SAP ERP system. The creation of the GRN is triggered through a report which is scheduled to run either in SAP ERP or in SAP EWM. The GRN contains a copy of all of the relevant logistics data from the source document. The system creates the expected goods receipt (EGR) from the GRN after it has been activated by SAP EWM.

In the expected goods receipt process, an inbound delivery can be created from an EGR document in SAP EWM. For this process, you enter the preceding document. When you save the document, the inbound delivery is sent to SAP ERP.

Note

In an SAP S/4HANA embedded EWM, neither the notification of expected goods receipt nor the expected goods receipt document exist, but it is possible to create the inbound delivery directly in SAP EWM with reference to the purchase order (or manufacturing order). In the decentral EWM, the use of the notification of expected goods receipt is optional since SAP EWM 9.5.

There are also Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) in place that allow you to open the transaction VL60 in SAP ERP and create the inbound delivery there, instead of creating it in SAP EWM.

The actual goods receipt posting can be triggered in different ways, but for a decentral environment it is always done in EWM.

Explicit goods receipt posting means that you start with the goods receipt posting as first activity in the warehouse. There are various possibilities to do this:

• Goods Receipt + Save in the inbound delivery:

  You can use the transaction or app for the processing of the inbound delivery to trigger the goods receipt.

• Physical Goods Receipt:

  This transaction offers possibilities to search for the inbound delivery through all kinds of information, like purchase order or door. You can process each individual item, like change quantities, pack, add information like serial number or batches and mark the item for goods receipt.

• When using the yard, you can post the goods receipt for the complete transportation unit content when it has arrived in the yard.

  A transportation unit is for example a truck. The content is the associated inbound deliveries.

The posting of the goods receipt can of course trigger the creation of the warehouse tasks for putaway.

Instead of posting the goods receipt as first step in warehouse processing, you can simply create the warehouse task. The confirmation of this warehouse task will automatically trigger the goods receipt posting in EWM and in ERP. But there are some things to consider:

• Confirmation of the warehouse task in a complex scenario: A complex scenario would be, for example, if there is first a task for unloading, then a warehouse task for a movement to a packaging work center, finally a warehouse task for putaway in the destination bin. The goods receipt posting is done with the confirmation of the first warehouse task, so with the unloading step. In case of an ROD/AFS scenario (described in the next lesson) the system would trigger a posting change once the material arrives at the final bin.
• When confirming warehouse tasks with mobile devices, the user confirms task by task. If, for example, the inbound delivery contains several items or HUs, and each of them is an individual warehouse task, each time such a task is confirmed the goods receipt for the warehouse task content is posted. That leads to a bigger quantity of material documents in the ERP system, especially if that is then again combined with the ROD/AFS scenario (which then eventually doubles the number of material documents).

  You can influence that the goods receipt posting is sent back to ERP only when the GR is completely done in EWM or when the putaway is completed. However, this means that during this time a stock difference between ERP and EWM exists (the GR posting in EWM is definitely done, this can not be avoided or delayed). The Goods Receipt Mode can be set in the Control Parameters for ERP Version Control or in the Process Profile for the inbound delivery. The process profile option is available because the control parameters for ERP version control option does not exist in embedded EWM.

Synchronous Goods Receipt In Embedded EWM

In SAP S/4HANA with embedded EWM, it is possible since release 2020 FPS01 to work without inbound deliveries for external procurements. The goods receipt posting on the ERP side creates a synchronous goods receipt posting in EWM and can create the warehouse tasks for putaway automatically.