Introducing Transportation Management

In transportation management (TM), different business processes are defined by their starting points and planning methods. Here’s a simplified guide:

Starting Points:

• Outbound processes begin with a sales order.
• Inbound processes start with a purchase order.
• Intracompany processes begin with a stock transport order.

Planning methods can be done with either:

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition
• Decentralized TM systems, including third-party systems or SAP S/4HANA TM system with scope item 4OZ.

Each transportation process kicks off with a transportation demand, known as a freight unit. These units come from documents like sales orders, sales scheduling agreements, purchase orders, or stock transport orders. During planning, freight units are assigned to transportation orders, which can be either:

• Freight orders for road or rail transport.
• Freight bookings for air or sea transport.

Planning can be executed in three ways:

1. Directly within SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Planning using this method is called manual transportation planning.
2. With an external SAP S/4HANA TM system.
3. Using a third-party transportation management system.

The image below shows where each of these methods fits into the TM process.

Before transportation execution can begin, deliveries are created based on transportation orders. These orders refer to the initiating documents: sales orders, purchase orders, and stock transport orders.

Transportation orders also track the status of the transportation process, including:

• Loading
• Departure
• Arrival
• Unloading

Transportation orders form the basis for calculating freight costs based on contracts with external carriers. These contracts, known as freight agreements, detail the freight rates. The freight costs are then settled with the carriers and recorded in financial accounting.

The scope of available items in transportation management depends on the localization. These scope items are defined by the specific process steps they cover, shown in the following image.

Starting with the 2308 release of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, four scope items are available for the above process steps, summarized in the following table.