Creating Handling Units

A handling unit (HU) is a logistic unit consisting of packaging materials and goods (materials). Typically, a company does not move individual pieces of different materials, rather, it moves quantities of materials grouped together as packages. You can depict this situation in the SAP System using Handling Unit Management.

When you use Handling Unit Management, the system tracks the entire HU rather than individual materials. The HU is the common unit for material and information flow. A business transaction for a HU implies corresponding business transactions in the background for the materials and packaging materials it contains. In this way, one business transaction entry takes the place of several individual material-movement entries.

You can use handling units and can pass them to partners throughout the supply chain. Handling units have a single identification number that uniquely identifies the handling unit across the various processes through which it moves. Using handling units in a cross-system logistics chain usually requires an identification number that is unique worldwide. You therefore have the option of assigning a Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) number to each handling unit.

Packaging materials are intended to enclose or hold together the materials that are to be transported. The packaging materials and the goods material together comprise the handling unit, as we have seen.

The material that is to be packed can be packed into or onto the packaging material. The packaging material can also be a load carrier, such as a pallet. The most important packaging materials include crates, boxes, containers, wire baskets, and pallets.

You must maintain the material master data for each packaging material you want to use. When creating material master records for packaging materials, enter either material type, VERP (packaging), or a customer-specific material type that you have already defined in Customizing.

When a delivery includes handling unit items, the freight units are adjusted accordingly. All product items that have been packaged into one handling unit are included in one freight unit; they are not split across several freight units. In this way, it is ensured that parts of a handling unit are not assigned to different freight orders during transportation planning.

If, for example, separate freight units were built per product initially, and these products are consolidated into one handling unit, the separate freight units are merged into one freight unit.

There is not necessarily a one-to-one relationship between handling units and freight units. One freight unit can contain several handling units. If desired, freight unit building can be set up to create one freight unit per handling unit.