Objectives
With SAP S/4HANA, there are various ways to model the execution process. This depends on the complexity of your warehouse processes. SAP offers solutions for warehouse execution, from simple (none) warehouse processes to full-scale warehouse setups. All of them are integrated via the delivery to SAP Transportation Management.
The most straightforward way to model a process for transport execution is without a dedicated warehouse setup. Therefore, the transportation demand represents the delivery in logistics execution. This leads to a freight unit that can be planned on a freight order, and the transportation execution can be started.
Note that Handling Unit Management (HUM) is optional and could be used to create deliveries with handling units or take care of the items themselves, for example, if you want to model a lean process and do not have to take care of which item is shipped on what load carrier system-wise.
For small to medium warehouse setups, there is an option available called Stockroom Management. Stockroom Management is integrated directly into the LE Delivery, and the warehouse transportation orders are triggered as a subsequent task to the LE predecessor documents.
Stockroom Management is a specific offering for installed base customers to continue running their light warehouse management implementation in the context of SAP S/4HANA. The license is included in the SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management component.
The main reason for creating the Stockroom Management offering is to allow existing LE-WM customers to keep these warehouses untouched, which do not benefit immediately from moving to embedded EWM. Stock room management is the ECC warehouse management component (LE-WM) without capabilities supporting more complex warehouses. It is relevant for small warehouses with manual operations (storage bin management).
: No innovations are planned in stockroom management, and extended warehouse management remains the strategic product.
Hint
SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) is designed to fulfill the requirements of complex warehouse setups, including requirements such as automated guided vehicles (AGVs), complex conveyor techniques, and high turn-over.
There are two ways to integrate TM and EWM:
| Integration Method | Basic License | Advanced License |
|---|---|---|
| Based on Freight Orders - Advanced Shipping and Receiving (ASR) |  | |
| Based on Transportation Units - Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) | |
The process based on advanced shipping and receiving (integration based on freight orders, starts with the creation of the LE delivery, which is propagated to EWM (to create an outbound delivery order) and TM (to create a freight unit). Depending on whether the process is transportation-driven or warehouse-driven, one of the documents will be blocked until the other application has finished its process.
There is also an advanced integration between SAP EWM and TM that requires an advanced license. In this scenario, you use more planning capabilities by creating deliveries already on a plan made based on sales orders in TM and handing over a load plan from your TMS system to the WMS system for execution. Therefore, the transportation unit is needed in SAP EWM. The transportation unit in this scenario is created based on the Freight Order in TM.
Hint
In TM, you can plan your transportation activities based on an outbound delivery and send your freight orders to SAP EWM. In SAP EWM, you can carry out the steps relating to the warehouse, such as loading. Because the two systems are directly integrated, TM informs you that the truck in SAP EWM has been loaded and whether there are any discrepancies, such as quantity deviations.
The main steps of an outbound process based on the classical TM-EWM integration based on transportation units are described as follows. The description assumes that there is only one transportation stop. If your freight order comprises several transportation stops, the process is repeated for each stop if the stop contains loading locations relevant to SAP EWM. Note, however, that multiple pickup and multiple delivery scenarios are not supported:
The objective of Advanced Shipping and Receiving is to ensure suppliers and customers can access the same data in their systems, using standardized data structures and facilitating communication through EDI messages. One of the essential EDI messages is the advanced shipping notification (ASN), which provides detailed information about upcoming shipments sent by the supplier. Another crucial message is the bordero, which assists in managing transportation-related documentation and is usually sent by the carrier. Using both information, the ASN from the supplier and the bordero from the carrier, the customer has everything he needs to facilitate an efficient goods receipt process.
Integrating TM and EWM into SAP S/4HANA has improved efficiency and streamlined operations. With Advanced Shipping and Receiving (ASR), it is possible to embed warehouse management functionalities, allowing for seamless maintenance of warehouse requests and handling units within the freight order. Importantly, this integration eliminates data redundancies between the old EWM transportation unit and the transportation management freight order.
A freight order replication service achieves synchronization between shipping and receiving and extended warehouse management in the standalone version. This service ensures that the code line remains the same while providing a partial view of the freight order in the Extended Warehouse Management instance, specific to each warehouse.
One significant advantage of ASR is the ability to load and unload across multiple warehouses. This means you can integrate loading and unloading processes with EWM, stockroom management systems, and IM-managed warehouses on the same truck. This consolidation of operations results in faster processing times and reduces the need for multiple transactions across different warehouses.
Advanced Shipping and Receiving functionality also improves integration with business partners. Full EDI support for consignment and bordero, using globally-recognized standards, such as the global DESADV and IFTSTA, is supported. This ensures a smooth flow of information throughout the transportation process, covering every level of truck and shipment. As a result, error handling becomes more efficient, and the need for full mapping between different systems is minimized. Another noteworthy feature is the support for multi-pick, multi-drop scenarios. Creating separate business objects for inbound and outbound processes is no longer required. Instead, you can have a single freight order with multiple stops, allowing loading and unloading at the same location. This optimization improves transport capacity utilization, lowers costs, and enhances efficiency.
Two new objects have been introduced to facilitate these advanced shipping and receiving capabilities. The consignment represents a group of freight or deliveries with the same source and destination locations. On the other hand, the loading point serves as a shared master data object for both EWM and non-EWM warehouses. It enables grouping doors within a warehouse or across different warehouse types, such as EWM warehouses and stockroom management or IM-based warehouses.
The consignment, in particular, serves as the basis for the communication between suppliers and customers, allowing for better alignment and collaboration throughout the logistics process. Importantly, the freight order serves as the object to be sent by the carrier to the customer, with the respective consignment references. With that, the supplier, customer, and carrier systems have a full data structure.
What does the transportation-driven process look like based on deliveries? The starting point of the process is a sales order, or SD scheduling agreement creation, and the outbound delivery creation.
The outbound delivery order is initially blocked for execution until the entire transportation planning is done on the TM side. This can be done with the transportation cockpit, as well as with the optimizer. With the transportation planning, the consignment order is created. However, the consignment order is only created as a local consignment order because only after the complete transportation planning and warehouse execution is the consignment order extracted.
With the status "Ready for Warehousing" set, the outbound delivery order in EWM is unblocked for execution. With that, picking, packing, and staging can start. After setting the "Ready for Shipping" status, the actual package information is sent to the TM freight unit and freight order.
From this point, truck check-in can be done at the shipping point. The truck can be docked to the door at the loading point. The EWM functionality with the RF loading can start. After Loading Finished is set, an outbound delivery order could split. In that case, or at the latest, the automatic consignment order creation must happen.
With the triggering of the goods issue, the warehouse stock goods issue is posted or performed, and there is an update to the freight unit, freight order, and the consignment.
The ASN can be sent based on the consignment order, which is also the same in the DESADV message. The next process step is that the bill of lading can be printed. The truck can depart from the door at the loading point, report checkout at the shipping point, and send the freight order information to the carrier, which then sends the freight order information with the consignment references to the customer so that the customer has the complete information, the complete data structure.
Detailed setup guides are available for the configuration of ASR scenarios via SAP notes:
Watch the simulation Execute an Integrated Warehouse and Transportation Process to learn how (extended) warehouse management and transportation management are integrated into an end-to-end process flow.
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