Understanding SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, Warehouse Management

Warehouse Management allows you to configure your warehouse in order to map system data to the physical premises in an intuitive way. This gives you an overview of the physical warehouse and the total quantity of each product in the warehouse. You can also always see exactly where a specific product is, at any time, in your warehouse.

You define:

• Warehouse identification number.
• Storage types (based on predefined templates)
• Units of measure, and the number ranges to be used
• Tolerances for posting differences in physical inventory
• Storage bins

You can manage the product quantities in different stock categories on the following levels:

• At storage bin level
• On staging areas for receiving, shipping, and production supply
• In handling units

You can store and manage batch-managed products in your warehouse. You can also upload your stock from a file during your warehouse set-up.

A handling unit is a physical unit with a unique identification number consisting of packaging materials (load carriers or packing material) and the goods contained in it. It is always a combination of products and packaging materials. All the information contained in the product items (for example batch information), is retained in the handling unit and is available as long as it is used in the warehouse.

When a truck arrives at the warehouse, the driver takes the delivery note to the office. If you want to compare the delivery in the system with the delivery note and change the delivery in case of differences, you can use the Change Inbound Deliveries SAP Fiori app. With this app, you can change the delivery quantity, delete delivery items, enter batch information, create or change handling units, and post goods receipts.

You can also add items to the delivery based on a purchase order for an open delivery, for example, if some of the goods that have been delivered belong to a different order of the following entities:

• Vendors
• Production
• Other parts of your company
• Customer returns that have been returned to another storage location

You can create and confirm putaway tasks for the putaway of the products.

Quality management is integrated into warehousing as an optional step in inbound processing. By performing quality inspections during goods receipt, you can inspect the products which have been delivered from production or external suppliers before the putaway in the warehouse takes place. You can also record usage decisions for partial lots, when, for example, only some of the stock items in the inspection lot are of good quality.

You can pick products and send them out of your warehouse for the following scenarios:

• Send ordered product to external customers, or internal customers, such as other plants
• Supply products to production
• Return products to vendors
• Supply products to internal consumers, for example, a cost center

You can post goods issue for the delivered products.

With the Run Outbound Process SAP Fiori app, warehouse clerks can monitor the outbound process based on outbound deliveries. In the overview screen, you have all relevant information about the deliveries that are planned for one day or several days. With this information, you can create tasks to trigger the picking process. You can also post goods issue.

Internal Warehouse Management allows for tracking and organizing the movement of stock within the warehouse. It allows you to:

• Plan, create and confirm tasks for moving products to different areas inside the warehouse
• Perform ad-hoc internal warehouse movements from the warehouse monitor
• Repack stock in the warehouse, for example, splitting a pallet into two pallets or adding a product to another pallet
• Change stock attributes, for example, by posting free stock into quality stock or blocked stock

You can plan, conduct and confirm regular counts of actual product quantities in the warehouse and compare the physical stock to the data in the system. For example, cycle counting or a scheduled yearly count. Following the count, you can update the data for the stock in the case of differences between the quantity of physical stock and the quantity in the system.

You can use the warehouse monitor to keep constantly up-to-date as to the current situation in the warehouse, and to initiate appropriate responses to situations that arise.

The warehouse management monitor gives you full transparency about the following attributes of your warehouse:

• Warehouse activities
• Stock and bins
• Executed movements
• Planned movements
• Inbound deliveries
• Outbound deliveries
• Products in the warehouse

The warehouse monitor also contains alert monitoring capabilities, which highlight actual and potential, problematic situations in the warehouse.

Output management is an essential part of the new functionality. Warehouse management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud offers predefined print forms for handling unit labels, shipping handling unit labels, pick lists, putaway lists, warehouse task lists, and loading lists.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Warehouse Management offers an overview of key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to your warehouse operations, for example, the total number of open warehouse tasks to be processed on the current date. On the overview page, you can see different types of KPI cards. As a warehouse clerk, these cards help you to better manage and process your daily tasks.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud supports an integration scenario for logistics execution processes with an external warehouse management on-premise system, that is, SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) as of Release 9.5 Feature Pack 02. Some of the key features of this integration are as follows:

You can use this feature to transfer warehouse-relevant master data (for example, material, customer, and supplier) from the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system to your external warehouse management system.

This feature supports the inbound process from procurement, stock transport orders, or from customer returns. When you create a goods receipt in your external warehouse management system the data is transferred to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system for further processing.

This feature supports the goods issue from a sales process, or from a stock transport order processes. You can create a delivery in your SAP S/4HANA Cloud system and transfer it to your external warehouse management system for further processing.

This feature supports the delivery-based production process.

You can create an outbound delivery from production in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. The outbound delivery is transferred to your external warehouse management system for further processing.

When you create a goods receipt in your external warehouse management system, the data is transferred to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system for further processing.

Typically, workers in the warehouse use external devices like scanners to carry out their daily tasks. SAP EWM for SAP S/4HANA Cloud offers APIs to connect such devices to your system landscape. This improves the efficiency of mobile execution for warehousing activities.

The Resource Management in Warehousing (3W0) scope item allows you to use interfaces (APIs) for the development of customer-specific apps for warehouse task processing on mobile devices. In addition, it enables you to manage your warehouse resources, such as a user or equipment that executes work in the warehouse. A resource is mandatory to process warehouse orders and tasks with the APIs.

• Increase the efficiency of warehouse processes
• Enable customers to manage warehouse resources
• Optimize workload for a dedicated warehouse resource
• Reduce additional work caused by paperwork

• Use Resource Management for mobile warehouse execution
• Integrate with mobile warehouse task processing
• Implement customer-specific apps for mobile warehouse execution for instance via the SAP Mobile Development Kit

• Process Warehouse Tasks
• Warehouse Resources
• Warehouse Outbound Delivery Order
• Warehouse Physical Inventory
• Warehouse Storage Bin
• Warehouse

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, Warehouse Management offers several preconfigured business scenarios that are also used as the basis for the lessons and exercises in the course. If you want to access process flow diagrams and additional information for these scenarios, you can use the SAP Signavio Process Navigator for this purpose.

You find links to the corresponding scenario in the SAP Signavio Process Navigator in most of the lessons of this course.

SAP Signavio Process Navigator is a free service that is integrated into SAP for Me to provide access to SAP solution scenarios that are also the basis of this training, such as Warehouse Inbound Processing or Warehouse Outbound Processing, respective solution processes, contextual process information such as applications, integrations, and implemented solution capabilities.

SAP Signavio Process Navigator provides flow diagrams for solution values and solution processes detailing solution activities, test scripts, setup instructions, and other implementation information. Information available in SAP Signavio Process Navigator is structured based on SAP’s Enterprise Architecture methodology. It provides a consumer-grade experience with a modern and intuitive user interface (UI).

To access the SAP Signavio Process Navigator, follow four simple steps:

• Log on to SAP for Me
• Select Services & Support
• Click on tab ALM
• Click on tile SAP Signavio Process Navigator

Alternatively you can also use this direct link to the SAP Process Navigator.

In the SAP Signavio Process Navigator, choose Solution Scenario → By Category → Enterprise Resource Planning → SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition to access all scenarios.

Then, choose the Solution Process → Line of Business → Supply Chain → Warehousing to display all items related to Warehouse Management. You can then click on an item of your interest.