Configuring the Integration Between Service Transactions and Logistical Processing in SAP S/4HANA

The next part of this unit introduces the configuration settings related to the creation of reservations for spare parts kept in stock, and also for externally procured spare parts and services.

In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Transactions→Settings for Service Transactions→Integration→Logistics Integration→Description of Logistics Integration for a description of some of the settings presented here.

In a standard SAP S/4HANA system, item category SRVM Service Part is available for such a spare part for a service (or repair) order and item category SVCM Service Part for that spare part for a service (or repair) confirmation.

If a reservation is being created, the system also needs to determine from which plant and storage location combination the spare part is reserved. This can be configured in Customizing, using SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Master Data→Organizational Management→Cross-Application Assignment of Organizational Units→Assign Plant and Storage Location to Service Organizational Units.

For a combination of a service organization, a service team and a service employee, the relevant plant and storage location combination can be defined. An asterisk (*) can be used to indicate that something is valid for all entries (for example, for the Service Team field or Service Employee field).

For service (and repair) confirmations, the way that material withdrawals are posted needs to be configured. These withdrawals can be posted out of plant/storage location normal stock or they can be posted out of (technician or customer) consignment stock. Again, the logistics scenario indicates what scenario is required. It is assigned to the transaction type of the service confirmation and the item category (in combination with a service organization and responsible service organizational unit).

This is configured in Customizing using SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Integration with Other SAP Components→Customer Relationship Management→Settings for Service Processing→Logistics Integration→Create and Change Logistics Scenario for Material Withdrawal.

The entry for transaction type SRVC (Service Confirmation) in combination with item category SVCM (and all service organizations and service organizational units) indicates that logistics scenario P Plant / Storage Location needs to be used. This means that the material withdrawal is posted out of plant/storage location stock, instead of out of customer or technician (that is, user) consignment stock (for which logistics scenarios are also available).

When planning service orders in SAP S/4HANA Service, certain spare or service parts (or services themselves: see later on) might need to be procured externally before the service order can be executed. For the external procurement of these service parts, the Logistics Scenario for the Procurement of Materials and Services needs to be defined as Purchase Requisition. Using this setting, the automatic creation of a purchase requisition for a service part within a service order can be achieved.

The process discussed here could be described as follows:

1. A service order is created within its item list a service part. This service part has an item category that has been set up as relevant for the creation of a purchase requisition.
2. The service order is released. Releasing the service order triggers the creation of the purchase requisition.
3. A purchasing specialist processes the purchase requisition by creating a purchase order for it. After delivery by the supplier, a goods receipt for the purchase order is posted.
4. After the procured service part has been received, a technician confirms its use by creating a service confirmation as a follow-up to the service order.
5. After releasing the service confirmation for billing, a billing clerk creates a billing document, which includes the price for the procured service part.

Since release 2021 of SAP S/4HANA, when using a scenario where a service part is procured externally using a purchase requisition, standard item category SPRM (PurchReq ServicePart) is available for use in a service order. The standard item category SPRC (PurchReq ServicePart) is available for use in a service confirmation.

This scenario and the two mentioned item categories (SPRM and SPRC) have been defined in the system, using the following configuration steps:

1. The document type and the pricing procedure that need to be used for the purchase requisition are identified in Customizing.

   Navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Integration with Other SAP Components→Customer Relationship Management→Settings for Service Processing→Logistics Integration→Set Purchasing Document Types for CRM Logistics Integration.

   Here, both the document type for the purchase requisition and the pricing procedure to be used in purchasing are selected. Condition type PMP0 (Manual Gross Price) (see step 3) is present in this pricing procedure.

2. It is required to configure which texts from the service order or in-house repair order are copied to which texts in the SAP S/4HANA purchasing documents (purchase requisition and/or purchase order).

   An example: for text object CRM_ORDERI, text ID 0002 is copied into text object EBAN (Purchase requisition texts) as text ID B01 (Item text).

   In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Integration with Other SAP Components→Customer Relationship Management→Settings for Service Processing→Logistics Integration→Copying Rules for Texts When Creating Purchasing Documents.

3. The item category for the externally procured service part for the service order and for the externally procured service part for the service confirmation were defined: SPRM (PurchReq ServicePart) for the service order and SPRC (PurchReq ServicePart) for the service confirmation. Condition type PMP0 (Manual Gross Price) (see step 1) was maintained in the configuration of both item categories. Item category SPRM (PurchReq ServicePart) for the service order has also been marked as relevant for confirmation and relevant for costing. The item category used for the externally procured part in a service confirmation (SPRC (PurchReq ServicePart)) has also been configured as relevant for costing.

   In Customizing, navigate to: SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Define Item Categories.

4. Item category determination for both item categories has also been defined for all required combinations of fields.

   In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Define Item Category Determination.

5. Copying control has been set up for the item category SPRM (PurchReq ServicePart), which is used in the service order, similar to the settings for item category SRVM (Service Part).

   In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Copying Control for Business Transactions→Define Copying Control for Item Categories.

6. Item category SPRM (PurchReq ServicePart) for the service order has been configured to lead to item category SPRC (PurchReq ServicePart) being determined in the service confirmation.

   In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Copying Control for Business Transactions→Define Item Category Determination when Copying.

7. The transaction type and item category for which the purchase requisition scenario (that is, an externally procured service part) is valid must also be defined. For item category SPRM (PurchReq ServicePart) this has been set to PREQ Purchase Requisition.

   In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Transactions→Settings for Service Transactions→Integration→Logistics Integration→Define Logistics Scenario for the Procurement of Materials and Services.

8. The item category for the service confirmation (SPRC) has also been mapped to an SAP S/4HANA Sales item category to be used in the background when creating a billing document request (BDR). A BDR is created when the confirmation is released for billing. For example, for transaction type SRVC (Service Confirmation), item category SPRC (PurchReq ServicePart) has been mapped to SAP S/4HANA Sales item category CS01 (Service Item eBDR).

   In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Basic Functions→Billing→Assign Service Transaction Types to Billing Document Request Types.

In releases older than release 2023 of SAP S/4HANA, external procurement for a service order was only supported for standard service parts, not for services created with material type SERV. These services use the so-called lean services functionality of SAP S/4HANA. Procuring these services externally required the use of a customer enhancement. With release 2023 this changed.

The functionality Advance Shipment enables the shipment of service parts to a service technician or to a customer before the actual repair starts. An advance shipment is typically used when service parts need to be shipped to a customer location in advance, because the service part is too bulky to be carried in the van of a technician. Based on the goods receipt or the planned delivery date at the customer location, the technician can then perform a repair using the service part that was shipped in advance.

Shipment of service parts is done by using a service order with a sales order. The use of sales orders allows customer consignment stock to be created. As a result of this, parts that are actually required for the repair can be invoiced after the consumption of these parts has been posted.

Advance Shipment distinguishes the following two scenarios:

• The service part is already available in stock in a warehouse.
• The service part is not yet available in stock and must be procured from a supplier.

If the service part is already available in stock in a warehouse and the service part item in the service order is released, a reservation and a sales order are automatically created. An ATP (Available-to-Promise) check can be executed from within the service parts item list of the service order.

An outbound delivery can be created from the sales order. After picking and posting of the goods issue, the service part is transferred to customer consignment stock within the plant, and the reservation is updated during the goods issue process. The reservation is set to Completed after the final goods issue. The outbound delivery and the goods movement posting are added to the transaction history of the sales order and the service order, along with the delivery status and the quantity update.

After the service technician confirms the use of the service part with a service confirmation, the final goods issue out of the customer consignment stock to the customer is posted, including the material consumption.

If the service part is not available in stock, it can be procured via a purchase requisition or a purchase order created from the service order item. Additionally, a sales order is created and used as the basis for creating the outbound delivery.

When the goods receipt for the purchase order is posted, the service part is received into sales order stock (special stock type E), so that no other process can use the part. The confirmation control key of the purchase order item determines whether or not an inbound delivery needs to be created.

The rest of the process is identical to the processing of a service part from stock. The procurement process documents (like the purchase order) are added to the transaction history of the service order, along with the delivery status and quantity update.

For use in a service order (object type BUS2000146 – Service Material Item), the following item categories are available in Customizing (Menu path Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Define Item Categories):

• SRVU - Adv. Shipment of Procured Srv. Parts
• SRVV - Adv. Shipment of Srv. Parts from Stock

For the service confirmation (object type BUS2000142 – Service Material Confirmation Item), the following item categories are available:

• SVCU - Adv. Shipment of Procured Srv. Parts
• SVCV - Adv. Shipment of Srv. Parts from Stock

You can use the advance shipment item categories, since they have been assigned (in the item category determination) to transaction types SRVO (service order) and SRVC (service confirmation) as manual alternative item categories (menu path: Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Define Item Category Determination).

The following settings have also been maintained:

• Define Copying Control for Item Categories (menu path: Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Copying Control for Business Transactions→Define Copying Control for Item Categories).
• Define Item Category Determination when Copying (menu path: Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Copying Control for Business Transactions→Define Item Category Determination when Copying).

The table shows the determination of the logistics scenario for the service order (menu path: Service→Transactions→Settings for Service Transactions→Integration→Logistics Integration→Organizational Management (Legacy)→Define Logistics Scenario for the Procurement of Materials and Services).

The confirmation process is the same for both scenarios. Once the repair has been completed, the service technician enters the confirmation details in the system. This is followed by the goods issue for the service part used.

From a configuration point of view, logistics scenario C - Customer Consignment is determined for an SRVC confirmation using item category SVCU. This ensures that the goods issue is posted out of customer consignment stock.

The service confirmation can only confirm a service part that has already been delivered via the outbound delivery of the sales order. If the quantity in the confirmation exceeds the delivery quantity, a warning message is triggered when the confirmation is created or changed. If the confirmation is set to Completed, an error message is issued and the status automatically resets to open.

Besides the configuration options mentioned above, various configuration settings in Sales and Distribution are also necessary. An example is the configuration of sales document type SRVO. Another example is the definition of the sales item categories SRVU (Srv Part Proc&Ship) and SRVV (Srv Part Adv. Ship).

The availability check can be used in SAP S/4HANA Service for sales items.

The following are the required steps to configure the availability check for sales items in a service scenario:

1. Activate the availability check for the relevant schedule line categories in Customizing for SAP S/4HANA Sales.

   In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Sales→Sales Documents→Schedule Lines→Define Schedule Line Categories.

2. Define a key for an ATP profile that is then assigned to the relevant service item category. The name of the ATP profile needs to be a numeric value.

   In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Basic Functions→Availability Check→Define ATP Profile and SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Basic Functions→Availability Check→Assign ATP Profile to Item Category.

3. Start transaction FIBF to activate the ATP check, and then follow the following menu path: Settings→Identification→SAP Applications. In the table Application Indicator, set the application CRMATP to Active.

Since release 2023 of SAP S/4HANA, you can initiate a stock transfer from a service part item of a service order or repair order, for example from a central storage location to a van stock storage location of a service employee. When the required service parts are not available in the executing service employee's storage location, a stock transfer process can be triggered to transfer the required stock to the storage location of the service employee.

The following prerequisites and settings in Customizing for Service are relevant for this specific scenario:

• Make sure you assign a role based on the standard SAP role SAP_BR_SHIPPING_SPECIALIST to your user(s) involved in (testing or executing) this scenario.
• In Customizing, create a storage location representing your van via Enterprise Structure→Definition→Materials Management→Maintain storage location.

• You need to map a purchase requisition or a purchase order to the logistics sub-scenario 03 Stock Transfer Item.

  If you use Organizational Management (legacy), you do this via Service→Transactions→Settings for Service Transactions→Integration→Logistics Integration→Organizational Management (Legacy)→Define Logistics Scenario for Procurement of Materials and Services.

  If you use the Enterprise Organizational Model, you set this up in Customizing under: Service→Transactions→Settings for Service Transactions→Integration→Logistics Integration→Enterprise Organizational Management→Define Logistics Scenario for Procurement of Materials and Services

• You need to specify which purchasing document type (create a new one if needed, like ZUD StockTranspOrderDel in our training system) is to be used for a combination of service transaction type and item category for logistics sub-scenario 03 Stock Transfer Item.

  You do this via Service→Transactions→Settings for Service Transactions→Integration→Logistics Integration→Enterprise Organizational Management→Set Purchasing Document Types for Service Transaction Type and Item Category.

• If you use the Enterprise Organizational Model, you specify the relevant employee-specific plant and storage location via Service→Transactions→Settings for Service Transactions→Integration→Logistics Integration→Enterprise Organizational Management→Assign Plant and Storage Location to Service Employee and Country/Region. You specify the relevant supplying plant and storage location via Service→Transactions→Settings for Service Transactions→Integration→Logistics Integration→Enterprise Organizational Management→Assign Plant and Storage Location to Country/Region.

  If you use Organizational Management (Legacy), you specify the supplying plant and storage location and the employee-specific plant and storage location via Service→Transactions→Settings for Service Transactions→Integration→Logistics Integration→Organizational Management (Legacy)→Assign Plant and Storage Location to Service Organizational Units.

• A logistics scenario can be assigned to an item category determined in a service order. You can use it to trigger the creation of a reservation or the external procurement of a material and/or service for an order item.
• For service (and repair) confirmations, the way that material withdrawals are posted needs to be configured. These withdrawals can be posted out of plant/storage location normal stock or they can be posted out of (technician or customer) consignment stock. Again, the logistics scenario indicates what scenario is required. It is assigned to the transaction type of the service confirmation and the item category (in combination with a service organization and responsible service organizational unit).
• Services (with material type SERV) are procured externally and can then be entered in the system using the lean services functionality (that is, using a service entry sheet).
• The functionality Advance Shipment enables the shipment of service parts to a service technician or to a customer before the actual repair starts. Standard settings are available for these scenarios.
• You can initiate a stock transfer from a service part item of a service order or repair order, for example from a central storage location to a van stock storage location of a service employee. When the required service parts are not available in the executing service employee's storage location, a stock transfer process can be triggered to transfer the required stock to the storage location of the service employee.