Track & Trace

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to monitoring Events.

Execution Tracking

You use this function to determine whether the end user can manually report the execution of transportation processes managed by TM, or not. For example, the end user reports that an event has happened such as a freight order has arrived at a destination.

Execution Tracking reports the tracking of the following TM business documents:

Freight Units
Freight Orders and Freight Bookings
Transportation Units

Features:

No Execution Tracking: With this option selected, there is no tracking of executions. This is the default option.
Execution Tracking: With this option you allow execution tracking without an external event management system. That is, the system automatically starts the tracking of executions reported manually from transportation processes managed by TM. The data this creates is stored in the TM database.
Execution Tracking with External Event Management; With this option you allow execution tracking with an external event management system. The system stores the data from the tracking of executions in the TM database, but it can also send it to an external event management system. This option requires the connection of an external event management system, such as SAP Event Management. The use of SAP Event Management means that an end user can use its simple in-built interfaces to report actual events, such as a freight order has arrived. Further, the time that those actual events occurred can be compared with the time they were expected to occur. In addition, SAP Event Management allows events that are related but unexpected to be reported. Together this means that for any tracked item a database record is always available including its last known event. From that you can know whether that item is on track, late or whether an unexpected has happened to it. You can also use rule-based processing in-built into SAP Event Management to trigger automatic follow up activities.

You can see and change the current settings for execution tracking in Customizing. The path in Customizing depends on the type of TM business document as follows:

For freight orders, make the settings in Customizing for Transportation Management under Freight Order Management Freight Order Define Freight Orders Types. Then you select the Details button and under Execution Settings, select an option from the field Execution Tracking Relevance.
For freight bookings, make the settings in Customizing for Transportation Management under Freight Order Management Freight Booking Define Freight Booking Types. Then you select the Details button and under Execution Settings, select an option from the field Execution Tracking Relevance.
For transportation units, make the settings in Customizing for Transportation Management under Freight Order Management Transportation Unit Define Transportation Unit Types. Then you select the Details button and under Execution Settings, select an option from the field Execution Tracking Relevance.
For freight units, make the settings in Customizing for Transportation Management under Freight Order Management Planning Freight Unit Define Freight Unit Types. Then you select the Details button and under Execution Settings, select an option from the field Execution Tracking Relevance.

Event Management

Visibility Across Business Partners and IT Environments.

Nowadays, supply chains are global and complex. End-to-end supply chain visibility is one of the key factors in efficient supply chain operation and control. SAP Event Management is the only application needed to provide this visibility, since it is available to all partners, including customers. SAP Event Management can also work with multiple SAP and non-SAP applications.

As companies expand their suite of IT products to handle more complex scenarios, they often have to add systems to their ERP environment. This makes it difficult for business users and management to gain a complete view of end-to-end processes and monitor potential service issues. Therefore, it is imperative to have a tool that can incorporate information from several systems and provide insight into how order fulfillment is progressing.

SAP Event Management makes processes, assets, and performance visible across the entire supply chain. Extensive tracking and tracing functions allow process monitoring, automated exception resolution, proactive alerting, as well as extensive reporting in a single solution.

The event management system is designed to work with several SAP ERP & S4 HANA instances, if necessary. It can communicate with SAP CRM, where sales orders can be received, and this communication is processed back to the customer to support order fulfillment. SAP IBP can be responsible for creating the replenishment plan. SAP ERP or SAP Manufacturing Execution can be responsible for communication and tracking progress on the shop floor. SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) can be responsible for the picking and packing as part of the logistics execution.

Event Management in SAP TM

SAP Event Management offers visibility processes to monitor transportation execution in connection with SAP TM. The transportation execution visibility processes enable users in roles such as transportation dispatcher, shipper, or ordering party, to track and monitor planned events or to report an actual event.

Tracking and tracing is provided for the following business document types in SAP TM:

Freight unit
Freight order
Freight booking
Transportation unit
Resource
Instruction execution for standard operating procedures

In each case, the goal is to manage by exception, reduce time to action, and spend less time fire-fighting.

Event Management Process

Monitor, notify, analyze, and adjust - these are the four cornerstones of SAP Event Management, and they contribute in providing an adaptive solution. The monitoring process collects data from the various source systems. Notifications can be set up to be triggered, with alerts sent to the parties responsible if a process deviates from its anticipated course. Based on the alerts, the appropriate parties can then simulate adjustments and make any necessary changes. Finally, in relation to analytics, SAP Event Management can be tied into the SAP BW environment to support transportation management reviews.

Creating Event Handlers and Expected Events in TM.

In the integration between SAP TM and SAP EM, two different interfaces and functions are used, as follows:

Creation and update of the Event Handler with all expected events and other critical fields such as parameter and tracking IDs.
Sending or reporting of events from the SAP TM system, for example, loading or unloading events from freight unit or freight order.

To be able to create event handlers in SAP TM, you must configure the application object types (AOTs). From the AOTs, the extractors are created. These extractors send the data to SAP EM and create SAP EM event handlers.

Content of Application Object Types

Application Object Types contain the following:

Expected events, with planned dates and times
Tracking IDs that uniquely identify the trackable object or business document, for example, a freight order
Information and system parameters that contain information about the object

Content of Extractors

The extractors contain the following:

A freight order
A freight booking
A freight unit
A transportation unit
Other objects

An event handler represents a business document (for example, freight order, freight unit, or transportation unit) or a business process (for example, within a Transportation Execution) that is relevant to tracking or monitoring functions. SAP EM creates an event handler for each object. The event handler contains all of the information necessary to track this application object. It contains this information in a form that is independent of its origin, so that SAP EM can map and track business processes in a uniform way.

The event handler information makes it possible to enable the monitoring of events that are reported to SAP EM for an application object, and to check if the actual events occur in line with the expected events. In SAP TM, event types are used to send or report events to SAP EM.

GTT

The aim of SAP Logistics Business Network, global track and trace option is to capture, process, and store tracking information about tracked processes and objects. Then, it allows business users to get real-time transparency of the execution of those processes. They can query any tracked process and display its retrieved data from end to end.

Further, SAP Logistics Business Network, global track and trace option can use rule-based triggering to automatically detect when certain predefined conditions occur such as delay or damage to goods. The rules can also be used to trigger follow-up activities such as sending e-mails to users or updating back-end systems.

SAP Logistics Business Network, global track and trace option is a cloud service. The service is an optional package that you can select as part of the SAP Logistics Business Network solution.

Features:

1. A cloud-based track and trace service to capture, process, and store messages with tracking information about business processes.

2. A cloud-based service that allows connected cloud apps to trace those business processes by retrieving tracking information.

3. Tools for an administrator to define and model the business processes to be tracked and their related events and properties. He or she can also configure business rules used by the event-to-action engine to process and evaluate received event messages and to trigger automated follow up actions.

4. Tools for an administrator to replicate master data (business partner, location, and product) from connected back-end systems.

5. Tools for an administrator to manage onboarding, configuration, and setup.

6. Apps for a business user, for example, to query any tracked process or object and display it from end-to\u0002end, including to:

display its milestones with planned and actual date/times
display details of its processes
report planned and unplanned events
visualize related locations on a geographical map

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