Defining Master Data

There are different models for organizing stocks for production in SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM)s:

• Two SAP EWM-managed storage locations in one warehouse

  The system manages the stock for the production separately from the other stocks. This increases the transparency at storage-bin level in the SAP EWM system, and at storage location level in the SAP ERP system. When staging the products, the SAP EWM system executes a posting change by changing the stock type. In the SAP ERP system, this is a stock transfer between the storage locations.

• One SAP EWM-managed storage location

  The production stocks are only managed in SAP EWM, and are, therefore, transparent in the SAP EWM system only. When staging the products, the system does not execute a posting change.

• MM-IM Managed storage location

  The product stocks are not managed in the SAP EWM system; they are managed in the SAP ERP system at MM-IM storage location level. Staging is an outbound delivery from an SAP EWM perspective, and, from an SAP ERP perspective, a posting change to a storage location outside of the SAPE WM system.

• Two SAP EWM-managed storage locations in two warehouses

  The production stocks are managed in the EWM system in another warehouse number. The staging takes place in a two-step posting change, as follows:

  • Outbound delivery from the sending EWM warehouse

  • Inbound delivery to the receiving EWM warehouse

The first two models are supported by the delivery-based integration and the advanced production integration. Only with the delivery-based integration is it possible to work with a storage location that is not SAP EWM managed, or that has its own EWM warehouse.

The production supply area (PSA) is an area on the shop floor where products are staged or withdrawn. To stage products for a production order, information about where to bring products must be available. For production orders in the SAP ERP system, the PSA contains this information.

The PSA is always created in the ERP system. You can then create the PSA manually in the EWM system and do a mapping between these two; or you can replicate the PSA from the ERP to the EWM system, which takes care of the mapping in the same step. The name being for the PSA in EWM during the replication is controlled by the BAdI /SCWM/EX_ERP_PSA_NAME. There is a sample BAdI implementation available, /SCWM/CL_DEF_PSA_NAME. This sample implementation can be used to generate the PSA name by concatenating the PSA name in ERP, a '/' sign and the plant from the ERP system.

In SAP S/4HANA embedded EWM, the PSA from ERP is automatically copied to EWM (since SAP S/4HANA 1909) - if the assigned storage location is connected to the EWM warehouse number.

A PSA usually contains one or more storage bins where you can stage the products of a production order. For this reason, the SAP EWM system needs information about the PSAs to determine the correct storage bin for staging the products. The assignment of the bins to the PSA is done in EWM. One PSA can have multiple storage bins and one storage bin can be used by multiple PSAs (which is not recommended).

Usually, the production needs components in different ways. Certain components are required only rarely, and only for specific production orders. Others are needed for more than one production order on most days, so it is picked only once, if possible, in the warehouse. For other components, a similar quantity is used every day. Using control cycles, you define the way the different components are staged.

The different staging indicators in the control cycles used for SAP EWM are as follows:

Pick Parts

Using pick parts, you trigger material staging from the warehouse to production based only on the production order. You stage the quantity of the material requested in the production order with a direct reference to the production order. This is only relevant for delivery-based production integration.

Release Order Parts

This is for material that you request from the warehouse to production for several orders. The quantity is not predefined; you request the quantity of a release order part manually. This is only relevant for delivery-based production integration.

Crate Parts

This is material stored in crates or other standard containers. You request this from the warehouse for production, independent of existing production orders. Crate part staging for SAP EWM-managed supply warehouses is defined in the PSA in SAP EWM. Crate parts can be used for the advanced production integration and for the delivery-based production supply, but only for inside one warehouse.

EWM Staging

This staging indicator is specifically for the advanced production integration. In EWM, you decide whether to use "single-order staging" (which corresponds to pick parts), or "cross-order staging" (which is similar to release order parts).

The assignment of the storage bins for staging is done in SAP EWM in something similar to a Control Cycle. A bin is assigned to a combination of party entitled to dispose / PSA and product or product group (or none, if it is generic). Depending on the type of staging, several control parameters are also assigned. When using SAP S/4HANA embedded EWM, you can maintain the data directly in the ERP control cycle respectively navigate directly from the ERP control cycle to the EWM control cycle.