Transportation Management (TM) in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition
Transportation management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition offers five scope items in the SAP Process Navigator. The core transportation processes are included in the External Transportation Planning, Manual Transportation Planning, Transportation Execution, and Freight Settlement scope items.
These scope items support your company's transportation planning, execution, and monitoring in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. The sales-order-based, purchase-order-based or stock-transport-order-based transportation demand (freight unit) is built considering transportation constraints. It is then planned internally in a transportation cockpit or sent to a decentralized TM system for planning. In the latter case, the planning result (freight order) is received in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition from the decentralized TM system. The charges for transporting the cargo are calculated based on rates maintained in a released freight agreement.
Delivery creation is triggered from the freight order, which is based on the consolidation information. Afterwards the freight order is executed and corresponding statuses are registered in the freight documents. Freight costs are broken down in the freight order. The aggregated freight costs of the order are distributed to the delivery item level based on its gross weight. Upon check-out (in outbound processes) or check-in (in inbound processes), freight orders can be confirmed for accrual posting.
After the confirmation of a freight order for posting, the system automatically posts the freight costs to Financial Accounting for accruals. During the posting process, freight orders can be monitored for any errors during the posting process to resolve them. The invoice received from the carrier is finally verified against the costs calculated in the freight order.
The SAP Process Navigator contains the following solution processes for transportation management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition:
- External transportation planning (6W1)
- Manual transportation planning (6W2)
- Transportation execution (6W3)
- Freight settlement (6W4)
- Determination of geocoordinates, distances and durations (46P)
Process flow diagrams and test scripts for these best practices can be reviewed and downloaded from the SAP Process Navigator.
- Navigate to the list of solution processes on the SAP Signavio Process Navigator website. Use the URL SAP Process Navigator and choose Solution Process. You can now see a list of all available solution processes.
Note
Log on to SAP for ME if needed.
- Using the Search in SAP Signavio Process Navigator field (in the top right corner of the screen), search for solution process 6W2.
- In the resulting list, select the entry for the current (i.e. the most recent) version of the solution process Manual Transportation Planning (6W2) for solution scenario SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. You can now see the details for the solution process.
- Choose Accelerators.
- Choose (for example) Test script to download the test script. Look for any other options/documents available.
Furthermore, it offers the following master data scripts:
- Create freight agreement (3TL)
- Create carrier master (4DE)
- Manage locations (7E9)
Master data scripts can also be reviewed and downloaded from the SAP Process Navigator.
- Navigate to the list of solution processes on the SAP Signavio Process Navigator website. Use the URL SAP Process Navigator.
Note
Log on to SAP for ME if needed.
- Navigate to the Accelerators tab.
- Choose Implementation.
- Choose Create Your Own Master Data.
- Enter (for example) ID or Description of the master data script.
Determination of Geocoordinates, Distances and Durations (46P) is a supporting scope item. This scope item allows you to determine geocoordinates for locations, as well as distances and durations for pairs of locations within Transportation Management. This scope item delivers the necessary settings and information to activate the integration between SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and SAP HANA spatial services running on the SAP Business Technology Platform. For more information, see SAP note 3058573 - Integration Note: SAP HANA Spatial Services / SAP Transportation Management.
A master data script Create Carrier Master (4DE) supports you in the creation of business partners with role Carrier in order to enable you to subcontract freight orders to carriers.
Furthermore, a master data script Create Freight Agreements (3TL) supports you in the creation of freight agreements in order to automatically calculate transportation charges and support freight settlement with contracted carriers.
The master data script Manage Locations (7E9) explains how to create locations with different location types (ports, airports) and how to assign UN/LOCODE or (IATA) airport codes to these locations.
The scope items relating to transportation management are defined as non-standard scope items. That means, they are not included in the standard content, but need to be activated explicitly. However, they are not license-dependent, which means that they do not require a separate license agreement. Note, that for most localizations, only scope items 6W1, 6W2, 6W3, and 6W4 are available as described in the introduction lesson.
Configuration Activities
Technically, the configuration can be done in SAP Central Business Configuration (CBC).
To review the configuration of your solution, you can check the configuration activities there. They are categorized into the following areas:
- Master Data for Transportation Management
- Logistics Integration for Transportation Management
- Freight Order Management
- Freight Cost Calculation
- Freight Cost Settlement
Master Data for Transportation Management
In the area of master data for transportation management, there are twelve configuration activities available, which are optional. The configuration activities in this area relate to the following elements:
- Definition of equipment groups and equipment types
- Definition of material freight groups
- Definition of standard alpha codes
- Definition of airport codes and UN/LOCODE
- Definition and activation of numbering schemes and content for commodity codes
- Definition of location calendars
- Definition of charge types
- Definition of dimensional weight profiles
Logistics Integration for Transportation Management
In the area of logistics integration for transportation management, there are seven potential configuration activities:
- Define transportation-relevance of sales documents
This is probably the most important configuration step. In this configuration step, you can specify whether sales documents are relevant for transportation by assigning a control key. Criteria for the assignment of the control key are as follows:
- Sales organization
- Distribution channel
- Division
- Sales document type
- Shipping condition
The control key determines whether freight units are created for sales documents and the corresponding outbound deliveries. When you create a sales document that is transportation-relevant, the system assigns the control key to the sales document and to all relevant documents in the document flow, for example, the outbound delivery. This is a fixed parameter that can not be changed subsequently in the sales document.
In addition to the control key, a logistics integration profile is determined for the sales document.
Follow the demonstration on how to access this configuration step and define transportation relevance for sales documents. Note, that the shipping conditions are used to differentiate, whether a sales order will be relevant for external transportation planning (shipping condition 05) or internal transportation planning (shipping condition 07).
Note
Shipping condition 05 is the shipping condition that is delivered as standard best practice customizing for use of transportation management. It is used for internal transportation planning as well as external transportation planning depending on which scope items you have activated in your tenant. In your project you have to define how you want to use a specific shipping condition as part of this configuration to define transportation relevance of sales documents.
Watch the simulation Business Process Configuration to learn more about the system-related activities.
- Define Transportation-Relevance of Purchasing Documents and Delivery Documents
Similar to the previous configuration step, you can specify in these configuration activities whether purchasing documents and delivery documents are relevant for transportation by assigning a control key.
In addition to the control key, a logistics integration profile is determined for the purchasing and delivery document.
- Define Logistics Integration Profile
For each logistics integration profile, you can define whether you want to plan based on requested or confirmed quantities, and how freight unit building should be done. How freight units are created is controlled by freight unit building rules, which you define in the Manage Freight Unit Building Rules app. The relevant freight unit building rule to be used is either defined here in the logistics integration profile directly, or retrieved via a condition that is assigned to the logistics integration profile.
- Assign SD/MM Text Types to TM Text Types for SO/PO, and Assign Logictics Execution Text Types to TM Text Types for Deliveries
- Define Blocks Based on Delivery Blocks
Freight Order Management
In the area of freight order management, there are six configuration activities available, which are optional. The configuration activities in this area relate to the definition of Unit of Measure relevance for normalized load quantities and alternative normalized load quantities and their conversion. A normalized load quantity is for example the number of pallets. Normalized load quantities are used to describe the capacity of vehicle or container resources, if standard quantities like gross weight or gross volume are inadequate dimensions to measure the capacity and capacity consumption. Think about transporting bottles in cases. For this type of products, it is difficult to define how much gross weight of product or how much gross volume of product fits into a truck, but it is easy to express this number in pallet counts.
Other configuration activities in this area relate to:
- Maintenance of Text Schemas
- Definition of Number Range Intervals for Freight Order Management
- Definition of Business Transaction Document Type Codes and Item Type Codes
Transportation Basic Functions
In the area of transportation basic functions, there are two configuration activities available, which are optional. The configuration activities in this area relate to the definition of Unit of Measure relevance for normalized load quantities and alternative normalized load quantities and their conversion. A normalized load quantity is for example the number of pallets. Normalized load quantities are used to describe the capacity of vehicle or container resources, if standard quantities like gross weight or gross volume are inadequate dimensions to measure the capacity and capacity consumption. Think about transporting bottles in cases. For this type of products, it is difficult to define how much gross weight of product or how much gross volume of product fits into a truck, but it is easy to express this number in pallet counts.
Freight Cost Calculation
In the area of freight cost calculation, there are two configuration activities. These allow you to define charges profiles, and calculation profiles.
Freight Cost Settlement
In the area of freight cost settlement there are two configuration activities. These allow you to assign the default plant for company codes and assign MM integration settings for charge types.
Extensibility
You can enhance the solution with custom fields and custom logic using a no-code/low-code approach. Enhancing business documents with own fields does not require programming. You can enhance freight units, freight orders, and freight bookings on header, item and stage level. Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) are used with low code to add custom logic. The custom logic allows you to perform custom checks, set field properties, set or change values on custom fields. Furthermore, APIs are available to access data from outside the system. You can use APIs to get access to document information, to interact with the system and to subscribe to business events. For freight orders and freight bookings APIs are available for creation, reading, updating and deletion. For freight units there are APIs to read and update. You can subscribe to business events for freight orders, freight bookings, and freight units.