Automating and Optimizing Production Steps

You can use this component to integrate the SAP Manufacturing Execution (SAP ME) system directly into your existing SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) application, giving you flexible, automated support for processing various goods movements.

Staging

If you've integrated your SAP S/4HANA system with a manufacturing execution system (MES), you can use MES-driven staging to create detailed plans for fulfilling staging requirements for a manufacturing order. The plans are represented by a document from the MES, the staging request, which is mapped to a warehouse request of the internal stock transfer type in Extended Warehouse Management (EWM).

EWM uses a staging report to check the capacity of the bin at the production supply area (PSA) and to create reasonable numbers of staging warehouse tasks. These staging warehouse tasks can be organized, for example, by applying process-oriented storage control (POSC) or waves.

With MES controlled staging it is also possible to assign multiple storage bins to the PSA. This lets you store stock separately and supply it to different resources or different production process steps in a work center.

The staging process is transparent from beginning to end. It's possible to see the status of the staging process in both EWM and the MES. For example, you can see whether a staging request is being planned or has already been executed, or what quantity of a component is requested, in-transit, or staged.

Dynamic staging is the supply of components to production supply areas after a MES replans the manufacturing activities by reallocating operations to different production resources.

Work-in-process (WIP) products can be generated in the middle of producing a finished product in different manufacturing operations and therefore need to be handled differently in a warehouse, for example, to be stored in different storage areas. To let EWM know that the products are relevant to WIP, you need to define a material type specifically for the WIP products.

To do this, when creating the material type, select the Only EWM Stock checkbox in Customizing for Logistics - General → Material Master → Basic Settings → Material Types → Define Attributes of Material Types.

For example, you can create a material type for your WIP products with the reference to the material type IWIP.

A WIP number is a unique identifier for an unfinished item that is generated from an operation in a manufacturing execution system (MES). You can use a WIP number to identify the WIP stock in processes such as goods receipt and staging for WIP.