Configuring External Transportation Planning

The key difference between external transportation planning (scope item 6W1) and manual planning (scope item 6W2) is, that transportation planning is done in an external transportation management/planning system and NOT in the transportation cockpit in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

Therefore, interfaces are required between SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and the external planning system. These interfaces are defined in communication scenario SAP_COM_0414. The table Web Services for Order-Based Transportation Consolidation Integration lists the process steps for which web services are offered along with its technical names.

1. Replicate freight unit

   This is an outbound web service, that is sent when a freight unit (relevant for external transportation planning) is created or updated, in order to replicate the freight unit to the external TM system. This ensures that the freight unit in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and in the external TM system have the same state.

2. Replicate freight order (transportation planning)

   This is an inbound web service. If a freight order is created or updated in the external TM system, it shall be replicated to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. This ensures that the freight order in the external TM system and in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition have the same state.

3. Replicate freight order (subcontracting)

   This is also an inbound service. If a freight order is subcontracted in the external TM system, it shall be replicated to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. This ensures that the freight order in the external TM system and in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition have the same state (including information related to subcontracting such as carrier, subcontracting confirmation status, freight costs). This step may update the planning result that was created with the previous step.

   Note

   You should not update the freight order directly in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition during the transportation planning and subcontracting phases, particularly process steps (1) to (3) because a subsequent replication of the freight order from the external TM system with web service TransportationOrderGenericRequest_In could overwrite these updates.

4. Replicate freight order (logistics execution)

   This is again an outbound service. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition is the leading system for logistics execution. Therefore, as soon as the execution of the freight order starts (that is, the execution status changes to In Execution) the control of the freight order transitions from the external TM system to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Consequently, the replication of a freight order from the external TM system with business scope External Planning is not accepted any more by SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Instead, changes in the freight order in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition are always replicated to the external TM system when the freight order execution status is updated. This ensures that the freight order in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and in the external TM system have the same state.

5. Replicate freight order events (logistics execution)

   This is an inbound service, that can be used during the execution of a freight order. If freight order execution events (such as Arrived at final destination are created in the external TM system, they shall be replicated to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. This ensures that the freight order in the external TM system and in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition have the same state related to execution events. This web service shall be used only if all execution events are maintained in an external TM system first and shall then be replicated to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. If single execution events shall be received in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition from different business partners, you should rather use web service TransportationEventBulkNotification_In.

6. Create supplier invoice

   This is an inbound service, that a carrier can use to send an invoice for freight charges to you.

The external TM system can be a third-party TM system or an SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition system. In the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, scope item 4OZ (Planning of Extrernal Transportation Requirements) is required.

It is not only sufficient to exchange transactional data (freight units, freight orders) between SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and the external TM system, but also master data needs to be harmonized. Required master data on both sides are business partners, locations and products. These objects are replicated between SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and the external TM system using the data replication framework (DRF). Replication of master data via DRF requires first the definition of filter criteria (e.g. which business partners are relevant for replication) and second the actual replication. Master data replication is defined with scope item 1RO (Master Data Integration) and requires communication arrangements SAP_COM_0008 (Communication Arrangement for Business Partner, Customer and Supplier Integration) and SAP_COM_0009 (Communication Arrangements for Product Integration).