Processing Goods for Shipping

The sales order process can contain various single activities, for example:

• Pre-sales
• Order processing
• Availability check
• Picking
• Packing and shipping
• Billing and payment

Every sales activity has an associated sales document. The assigned status shows the stage in the sales process that a sales order has reached.

Sales and Distribution is integrated with other application components in ERP such as Production (Material Requirement Planning, Manufacturing), Material Management, and Financial Accounting and Controlling.

Also, sales and distribution processing interfaces with other SAP Business Suite solutions such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM). This is achieved using the applications Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO) and Extended Warehouse Management (EWM).

To document and control activities, various documents map the individual steps.

The outbound delivery order is the warehouse request for the goods issue processes. It defines the work list for SAP EWM and is the basis for the execution of picking activities. The warehouse request is used to create warehouse tasks. An outbound delivery order contains all the data that is required for triggering and monitoring the complete outbound delivery process. The process starts with the first planning activities for the outbound delivery order and continues until the finished goods have been loaded and sent. Use the outbound delivery order to do one of the following:

• Preview the planning of pending warehouse activities
• Execute the actions required to create a delivery

When the outbound delivery order is created and saved, the following steps are executed:

• Mapping of delivery data from ERP onto the SAP EWM delivery data

• Data enrichment using data from SAP EWM customizing

• Determination of a warehouse process type (which controls warehouse task processing in SAP EWM)

• Wave assignment (depending on customizing)

It is also possible to perform the following:

• Determine the source storage bin (Rough Bin Determination)
• Determine the door and the staging area
• Determine a route

Warehouse tasks are used to execute good movements in the warehouse, and these movements may be physical or just stock changes.

Warehouse tasks are needed for:

• Picking

• Putaway

• Internal movements

• Posting changes

• Goods receipt postings

• Goods issue postings

The warehouse task is a document that tells the warehouse worker what to do, for example, move x pallets of product y to storage bin abc.

In a putaway or picking process or for posting changes, the basis for the warehouse task is the warehouse request.

For each warehouse request item, the warehouse task is created either manually or automatically by the Post Processing Framework (PPF).

In cases where warehouse stock must be transferred from one bin to another, it is possible to create a warehouse task without any reference document.

When the warehouse task is executed, the warehouse task must be confirmed. During confirmation, the warehouse worker confirms that the correct quantity of the correct product arrived at the correct destination bin.

If a product is moved from a source bin, from where picking was done, to the destination bin, from where goods issue will happen, in a single step, the associated document is a Product Warehouse Task. It contains the required information, for example the Warehouse Process Type (WPT) to use, the source bin, and the destination bin. That is a simple case. The situation can be more complex, for example, it may be necessary to pack the goods in a pick handling unit (HU) before moving the goods to the destination bin. In this case a combination of product and HU warehouse tasks is used for the complete movement. The HU warehouse task contains the same information as the product warehouse task, but it is used for packed products and when movements are done with several process steps.

Warehouse tasks are grouped (or bundled) in a warehouse order. The warehouse order represents an executable work package that a warehouse employee should complete within a specific time frame. It contains one or more warehouse tasks or physical inventory items.

Warehouse tasks are created when products are received, issued, moved, or counted. Multiple warehouse tasks can be grouped together into warehouse orders and SAP EWM makes them available for processing. For example, in the goods receipt process, warehouse tasks are created to move the products into the warehouse and to their destination storage bins. SAP EWM groups these tasks together, according to warehouse order creation rules, to form warehouse orders.

Warehouse Order Creation

Warehouse orders are created as follows:

1. Warehouse tasks are grouped together according to the activity area in which they are sorted using predefined rules.
2. For each activity area, one or more warehouse order creation rules are defined.
3. The warehouse order creation rules are applied until each warehouse task is assigned to one warehouse order. Filters and limits are used as necessary.
4. If rules cannot be used, an SAP-supplied standard rule is applied.

When the materials are picked and are at the goods issue zone, you can post the goods issue.

Alternatively, it is possible to trigger a goods issue by processing a transportation unit or a vehicle.

For the goods issue, another SAP EWM document is created – the outbound delivery.

The SAP EWM outbound delivery sends information about the goods issue posting back to ERP. From this, the inventory management document and associated financial documents are created.

A partial delivery in an SAP EWM outbound delivery means that it is not possible to deliver the complete quantity specified on the outbound delivery order. For example, this could be due to low stock levels.

In the case where a partial delivery is necessary, a delivery split is used.