Introducing Transportation Management

The different business processes that are available in the area of transportation management are characterized by their starting point (sales order for an outbound process, purchase order for an inbound process, stock transport order for an intra-company process) and how the planning tasks are going to be accomplished. Planning can be done within SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition or using a de-central transportation management planning system (either using third-party TMS or using an SAP S/4HANA TM system with scope item 4OZ).

Each transportation process starts with a transportation demand, which is called freight unit. The freight units originate from their predecessor documents, which can be sales orders, sales scheduling agreements, purchase orders or stock transport orders. In the planning process the freight units are assigned to transportation orders (either freight orders for road or rail transport, or freight bookings for air and sea transport). As indicated in the figure below, the planning process can be performed (1) with a third party transportation management system, (2) with an external SAP S/4HANA TM system or (3) within SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition itself.

Prior to transportation execution, deliveries with reference to the initiating documents (sales orders, purchase orders, stock transport orders) are created based on transportation orders. The transportation orders also register the execution status of the transportation process (loading, departure, arrival, unloading). Furthermore, the transportation orders are the basis for freight cost calculation. Freight costs are calculated based on contracts with external carriers. These contracts are called freight agreements in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and include the detailed freight rates. The freight costs are settled with the carriers and posted to financial accounting.

The available scope items in the domain of transportation management depend on the localization. For all localizations except for BR (Brazil), PL (Poland), and RU (Russia), the available scope items are defined by process step scope, whereas for these localizations the available scope items can be characterized by the way how planning is achieved (either external or internal), which transportation modes are used (road, rail, ocean, or air) and what type of process (outbound, inbound, stock transport) they support.

For all localizations except for BR (Brazil), PL (Poland), and RU (Russia), there are four scope items available for the different process steps transportation planning (6W1 for external planning and 6W2 for planning within SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition), transportation execution (6W3) and freight settlement (6W4). From release 2308 of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition these scope items replace the scope items that have been available before (and will remain available BR, PL, and RU).

For localizations BR, PL, and RU, there are fourteen scope items available that can be characterized by the way how planning is achieved (either external or internal), which transportation modes are used (road, rail, ocean, or air) and what type of process (outbound, inbound, stock transport) they support.