Configuring Basic Settings in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, Warehouse Management

SAP S/4HANA Cloud provides many features to support the business of your company. Some of these features require settings in the configuration environment of SAP S/4HANA Cloud to be fully utilized for your company. Manage Your Solution or SAP Central Business Configuration is used as a configuration environment of SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

You have two options to configure the warehouse-specific settings during your implementation project. You can use the product-specific configuration phase in the CBC tenant to customize the necessary activities and deploy them to the customizing tenant. Usually the customizing client is also the client that the end users are working in. After activating the relevant scope items and setting up the organizational structure, you carry out the configuration activities directly in the CBC tenant. The CBC tenant is mapped to the customizing tenant to transfer the configuration data.

Be advised that the exercises for the configuration activities are using this approach as the system setup in CBC is not part of this training.

Alternatively you can also work directly in the customizing tenant and make the configuration settings in this client.

In the Product-Specific Configuration phase, all partner line of business (LoB) configuration experts can log into SAP Central Business Configuration and enter the configuration values gathered during their respective Fit-to-Standard workshops. This also includes the area of Warehouse Management (WM). The available configuration activities are based on the active scope (business processes) and country/region selections. Configuration activities may vary by country, because not all business processes are available in all countries/regions.

When viewing the Configuration Activities tab, the Status column is set to Open by default. As an LoB configuration expert, you manually select the dropdown menu and set it to Completed once you have finished entering all configuration values for that activity. This is a method of communicating to the rest of your team members that configuration values for that specific activity have been entered and are finalized.

The Go-live Relevance column differentiates between three configuration activity types:

• Mandatory: must be configured. For example, organizational structure.
• Recommended: default content exists that a customer can use, but many will need to change the standard content or add their own content. For example, Chart of Accounts or Pricing.
• Optional: default content exists and most customers don't need to change the standard information. For example, Delivery Block Reasons.

The appImplementation Activities supports you in the Customizing tenant to carry out the required configuration activities for your line of business.

The app shows the customizing/configuration tree for all LoBs and allows you to maintain the required configuration for your Line of Business, for example Warehouse Management.

The following section gives you an overview of the most important configuration options available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Warehouse Management.

A warehouse complex is mapped as a warehouse number, which you can use to identify the warehouse complex. An essential factor for defining a warehouse number is the physical location. A warehouse number summarizes storage types and storage bins that are organized and managed together.

All operations in warehouse management, such as putaway or stock removal of products, are always executed within a warehouse number.

The warehouse used in the training environment is 1050. Therefore, the definition of additional warehouse numbers is not required in our Learning System Access (LSA) landscape.

After having defined your warehouse number you have to assign warehouse numbers from Logistics Execution, which have three digits, to the warehouse numbers in Warehouse Management, which have four digits. You can assign more than one warehouse number from Logistics Execution to the same warehouse number in Warehouse Management.

The warehouse number from Logistics Execution assigned to the warehouse 1050 is the number 105. No changes are required to run the training exercises. This step has already been maintained.

To create the link between Inventory Management in the SAP Logistics Execution (LE) system and SAP Warehouse Management, you maintain certain configuration settings in the SAP LE system. These settings allow the system to determine warehouse management relevancy based on the plant and storage location information in source documents such as inbound and outbound delivery documents. These settings are also used to determine the SAP WM warehouse used for processing. The following figure illustrates the basic organizational relationships in a plant-storage location assignment that were established through the configuration settings:

In a warehouse that manages stock of one plant and one storage location, you define one availability group, which represents the plant and storage location, and assign it to all stock types of the warehouse.

If your warehouse manages stock in several storage locations, you need an availability group for each storage location.

If you keep stock in the goods receipt zone separate from stock in final bins in terms of availability, you define two availability groups, each representing one storage location. You assign each availability group to a set of stock types. In the goods receipt zone, you manage stock in stock types of one availability group. In final storage types, you manage stock in stock types of the other availability group. When you confirm putaway warehouse tasks, the system automatically posts the stock from the stock type of one availability group to the corresponding stock type of the other availability group.

If you keep stock in production supply areas separate from stock in final bins, you also define an availability group, a set of stock types, and a storage location for the production supply areas.

In the training environment used, only one availability group is sufficient, as there is only one storage location managed in the internal warehouse.

You can use stock types to distinguish between stock that is unrestricted, blocked, or in quality inspection. An availability group must be assigned to a stock type and is used to manage the stock of a certain stock type in a specific storage location. If you want to assign multiple storage locations to a single warehouse, you must create several availability groups for use in the corresponding stock type for the storage locations.

The following standard settings are already prepared for your use:

• Availability group 001
• Stock types:
  • F Unrestricted Use
  • Q Quality Inspection
  • B Blocked
• S Scrapping

If you want to manage stock for multiple storage locations in the same warehouse, you must define more stock types in your warehouse. For this purpose, you must first create extra availability groups in the configuration activity Define Availability Group.

After you have created the stock types, you must configure the mapping between storage locations and the warehouse using the configuration activity Map Storage Locations to the Warehouse.

Optionally, you can assign a stock type to a stock type group for putaway or to a stock type group for stock removal. For this purpose, you must first define stock type groups in the configuration activity Define Stock Type Groups before you can assign the group to the stock type. In a later step, you can use the stock type groups in your putaway and stock removal strategies.

You also have to define basic process control data at warehouse level that includes the controlling parameter for internal processes.

You define controlling parameters for the following processes:

• Replenishment: Definition of the default stock type to be replenished, and the control parameter to use the general replenishment process
• Physical Inventory: Definition of the default stock type to be used for physical inventory
• Others: Warehouse process types to be used in various processes, for example, a default warehouse process type at warehouse level that is to be used for repacking.

Here you define the standard weight unit, volume unit, currency, and factory calendar to be used in the warehouse.

Although the warehouse is already delivered with a rather simple warehouse structure, it is possible and in most of the times mandatory to extend the structure to your own needs. Therefore, you can create storage types, storage areas, storage bins and so on. The following section describes each object and its major configuration setting in detail.

The warehouse structure in warehouse management is divided hierarchically and consists of the following elements:

• Warehouse number: The warehouse number is a four-character code that represents a single warehouse or warehouse complex.
• Storage Type: A storage type represents a physical storage area in an individual warehouse. The technical, spatial, and organization characteristics are set in the customizing settings.
• Storage section: Each storage type can be divided into one or more storage sections. Storage bins with specific common attributes, such as storage bins for fast moving items that are close to the goods issue zone, are assigned to one storage section.
• Storage Bin: In each storage type you have one or several storage bins. The coordinates of the storage bin indicate the exact position in the warehouse in which products can be stored.
• Activity area: An activity area is a logical grouping of storage bins. It can refer to a storage type, or it can represent a group of bins from several storage types. You can either assign storage bins manually to the activity areas, or if there is a 1:1 relationship between storage type and activity area, you can have the system generate the activity area and the assignment.

A storage type is a four-character code that can represent various physical and logical areas within and outside the physical warehouse. The storage type is a physical or logical subdivision of a warehouse complex, which is characterized by its warehouse technologies, space required, organizational form, or function. A storage type consists of one or more storage sections and bins. The role code in the storage type customizing indicates the usage of the storage type within the warehouse.

The storage type can be used in the following roles:

• Standard Storage Type: A standard storage type represents a physical area in the warehouse where products are stored according to a set of spatial and material handling strategies. SAP has preconfigured a number of standard storage types for different putaway rules. To make it easier for the user, several templates exists that correspond to certain business processes and putaway strategies like Fixed Bin Storage, Bulk Storage and General Storage.
• Staging Area Group: In this role, a storage type represents one or more staging areas in the warehouse. In staging areas you temporary keep products after you have unloaded a truck or before you load a truck.
• Work Center: A storage type with the Work Center role represents a physical area within the warehouse where certain processes take place such as deconsolidation, inspection, packing, or value-added-service processing.
• Work Center in Staging Area Group: This role is assigned to a storage type to represent a work center within a material staging area. This is for example used in the kit-to-stock process.
• Production Supply: The production supply role represents storage bins that are assigned to a production supply area (PSA), and used for material staging.

When accessing the detailed data, it is possible to make all types of changes to the putaway control, stock removal control, and the goods movement control in general. For example, you can define in the Putaway Rules if you allow or forbid the addition to existing stock in a bin or how mixed storage is handled in the warehouse.

For standard storage types, the system automatically creates indicators for putaway and stock removal that can be used in the material/product master for the warehouse to define this storage type as target or source storage type.

In SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, warehouse management a storage section is an organizational subdivision of a storage type that is represented by a four-character code. Storage sections contain storage bins that have similar attributes for putaway, such as heavy parts, bulky parts, hazardous materials, fast-moving items, or slow-moving items.

You can use storage sections during the determination of the bin for putaway. The definition of storage sections in a standard storage type is only required if you plan to use the storage section search in the storage type. But storage sections are also used to structure a storage type with roles like Work Center. Storage sections are required for storage types with the Staging Area Group role. The actual staging area is always a storage section inside such a storage type.

The smallest spatial unit in a physical warehouse is a storage bin. Storage bins represent the exact storage position of a product. A storage bin can be referred to as a coordinate (not to be confused with the geo-coordinate of the bin, which is also available in SAP Extended Warehouse Management) because the address of a storage bin is often derived from a coordinate system. For example, the coordinate 01-02-03 could be a storage bin in aisle 01, stack 02, and level 03. In SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, warehouse management the bin coordinate is up to 18 characters in length and must be unique within the warehouse.

Storage bins are located within a storage type. The storage type represents a physical area in the warehouse, and controls how products are placed in and removed from the storage bins that are assigned to the storage type. The storage type may also be divided into storage sections due to the handling and/or storage requirements of the products. Therefore, in Warehouse Management, the system represents the location of a product in a warehouse movement as a combination of the storage type, storage section, and bin.

Storage Bin Data

To each storage bin, you assign the warehouse number in which the storage bin is located, and a storage type. Note that the bin coordinate assigned to a storage bin must be unique within the warehouse.

You can also define further attributes for a storage bin:

• Storage bin type: used to indicate relative size of bin and/or actual bin dimensions
• Storage section
• Bin access type: used to control how the bin is accessed by resources
• Verification: used to store the bin coordinate-related data used in RF scanning or for Pick-by-voice to verify that the correct bin is being accessed
• Geo-coordinates of storage bin: used by SAP S/4HANA Cloud Warehouse Management (WM) to compute distances between the bins in goods movements
• Capacity checking attributes (max weight, volume, total capacity): used to control the amount of product assigned to a bin

In the configuration, you define the storage bin coordinate structure by assigning, first of all, a unique identifier to represent each of the following components of the bin coordinate:

• Aisle
• Stack
• Level
• Bin subdivision
• Bin depth

You then use these identifiers to create a template to generate the storage bin master record automatically. Only when using the identifiers properly, the aisle/stack/level information in the bin is correctly filed. The storage bin generation structure is shown in the following figure:

With the field template you define which parts of the bin name are:

• N - numeric character
• A - alphabetic letter
• C - Constant characters (this includes also spaces)

The field Structure is for the preceding identifiers.

Bin x/ y/ z coordinates

The geo-coordinates of the bins are used to calculate the travel distances of resources and are an important part of the overall time calculation in warehouse orders. Defining the coordinates requires some effort, particularly for first-time users. It is important to note that both the coordinates and the aisle/stack/level information, as specified by the identifiers, cannot be updated through mass maintenance transactions. Instead, this information is automatically and accurately entered through the generation of bins using a template. When utilizing the upload function for bins, this information can also be included. However, defining the geo-coordinates in a spreadsheet is not necessarily easier.

The coordinate of the bin is always a corner of the bin. The alignment describes how the bin is oriented around this corner. In the standard we assume that the coordinate is always the lower left corner of the bin. In that case the alignment is zero.

Staging areas are used for the interim storage of goods in the warehouse. They are usually located close to the doors of the warehouse. Here, the products are stored after unloading or before loading and where the goods receipt or goods issue posting is done.

An activity area represents a logical subdivision of the warehouse that groups storage bins based on defined warehouse activities.

Every movement or process you do in the warehouse has an activity. Examples for activities are:

• Putaway
• Picking
• Physical Inventors

With the activity area and the assigned activity you control the size or volume of a warehouse order respectively the area in which a resource will work in the warehouse.

You define activity areas and assign them to storage bins. The assignment can be very broad, just by using the storage type, or more detailed, by using the aisle / stack / level information in the bin. An activity area can include just a small part of a storage type, but it can also stretch over more than one storage type.

In the picture below you see one storage type with several activity areas. The activity area AA10 is assigned to the complete storage type. It is used for putaway and for express picking. In addition there are five smaller activity areas, which are only used for standard picking. That would mean that for putaway or for express picking resources could go to several bins in the different aisles, each processing one warehouse order. For standard picking one resource would process only tasks, which are in the one aisle, while another resource could work in parallel in the same or in another aisle.

In addition to assigning bins to an activity area, you also assign a bin sorting sequence for each required activity. This sorting can be used to control the sequence of accessing the bins for a given process such as picking.

The bin sorting must be performed anytime there is an addition, change, or deletion to the storage bin master data or related activity areas.

A work center is a designated physical unit within a warehouse where specific activities, such as packing, are carried out. Each work center is structurally linked to a storage type and a storage bin within that storage type. The storage type associated with a work center must have either the storage type role of Work Center (E) or Work Center in Staging Area (I).

Multiple work centers can be configured for each storage type within the system. It is possible to assign the same inbound and/or outbound section to several work centers.

To create a work center, you must configure both the system settings and master data in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, warehouse management. This setup goes beyond merely creating the storage type that represents the work center.

Currently SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Warehouse Management (WM) only supports work centers for packing activities.

The work center layout, which also includes a Transaction Type does control, which activity can be done in the work center. The work center layout also controls what areas, tab pages in these areas, and icons are shown on the screen.

The following figure shows an example of a work center storage type structure:

It is worth noting the following:

• Work center PAC1 represents a work center that has no inbound section and no outbound section.
• Work centers PAC2 and PAC3 represent work centers that have an inbound section but no outbound section.
• Work centers PAC4 and PAC5 represent work centers that have an inbound section and an outbound section.

An inbound section is utilized when multiple work centers are available, but the specific work center cannot be determined directly. This scenario typically arises because work centers do not have capacity constraints, meaning the workload cannot be regulated for each work center. In such cases, work centers share an inbound section, and the system directs products or handling units (HUs) to the bin within this inbound section. Subsequently, you can move the HU from the inbound section to the appropriate work center using a drag-and-drop interface at the work center.

The outbound section is beneficial for managing HUs that have been processed but have not yet been transferred to the next storage type. By moving these HUs to the bin in the outbound section, it is clear that they are no longer relevant for the current work center.

A wave is a grouping of warehouse request items to control warehouse activities, for example, picking, or posting changes. These groupings are then processed together in subsequent processes, for example, the transfer of all warehouse request items assigned to a wave at a certain point in time to warehouse task creation. The warehouse tasks created are then forwarded to warehouse order creation.

To be able to use waves in your warehouse, you must carry out the following activities in your configuration environment:

• You can define the number range intervals for waves in the configuration activity Define Number Range Intervals for Waves.
• You can define wave types in the configuration activity Maintain Wave Types and then assign the wave types to a wave or to a wave template. Wave types enable specific monitoring in the Warehouse Management Monitor
• You can define wave categories in the configuration activity Maintain Wave Categories and then assign the wave categories to a wave or to a wave template. You can use wave categories as a filter for warehouse order creation rules
• You define the wave capacity profile with capacity limits that aren't to be exceeded by waves of a specific wave template option in the configuration activity Maintain Wave Capacity Profiles.
• You define settings for a wave simulation in the configuration activity Define Wave Simulation Settings.