Logistics, which until just a few years ago was considered an operational tool and an object of isolated rationalization efforts, is now considered an essential element of strategic corporate leadership. Supply chain management (SCM) is the observation and administration of logistics processes along the entire value chain, which includes suppliers, customers and end consumers.
Purpose of This Project
Within this context, there is hardly a corporate function that has grown in importance in recent years as much as logistics. The books are designed to provide an easy-to-understand yet well-validated look at the relevant process chains and be a useful source of information for everyone – from IT experts with only basic knowledge of business-related issues, to employees in logistics departments who are not yet familiar with SAP terms and applications.
Whom Do These Books Address?
SAP-Beginners
Some components, mainly technical, and functional areas (e.g. removal, maintenance and service management) are not covered. We've made sure to explain business questions and their SAP-specific solutions, as well as technical terms, and illustrate their relationships.
Ambitious Users
Managers and IT-Decision-Makers
Operational Significance of Logistics
- Supplementary Logistics Services
- Customer-Oriented Logistics
- Definition of “Logistics” for This Book
- Differentiation from Materials Management
- Functional Classification of Logistics
- Classic Logistics Core Areas
- Expansion of the Traditional Core Areas
- Objective: As Comprehensive a Portrayal As Possible
- Related Literature in the Appendix
- Logistics Functional Areas
- Procurement Markets
- Sales Markets
There you will find information about all the books or sources we have cited or referred to. Transfer of the materials to inventory, their quality inspection and inventory management are part of warehouse logistics and inventory management.
Structure of This Book
- Transport Logistics
- Warehouse Logistics and Inventory Management
- Trade Formalities
- Controlling and Reporting
- Overview of Volume 1
- Appendix
Once the materials have left the warehouse, a goods release is booked to update stock values and inventory management. Chapter 3, “Warehouse Logistics and Inventory Management,” describes warehouse logistics as a link between internal and external logistics systems.
Thanks
The first volume of this Procurement, Production and Distribution Logistics series provides a detailed look at the components and functions of SAP Business Suite and SAP NetWeaver as they relate to logistics. It begins with an explanation of master data and the organizational structures used in the logistics components of SAP Business Suite.
The Fundamentals of Transport Logistics
- Business Significance
- Transportation from the Shipper View
- Transportation from the View of the Logistics
- Shipper and Service Provider Hybrids
Logistics service provider is a collective term for carriers and freight forwarders. Consolidation of goods from different buyers gives the logistics service provider the possibility of profit optimization.
SAP Systems and Applications
Subprocesses and Components of SAP Transportation
The sales order (see Volume 1, Chapter 6, "Distribution Logistics") represents the starting point for a shipper's outbound shipping requirements. SAP TM is a complete solution for processing transport processes as a provider or shipper of logistics services.
Transportation Processing Scenarios and Their Integration
Traditional transportation processing with additions (SAP APO Transportation Planning and Service Provider Selection). Sender solution with service provider reference (SAP TM in combination with SAP ERP Distribution Logistics).
Master Data in Transport Logistics
- Customers and Vendors in SAP ERP
- Plants, Storage Locations, Shipping Points and Loading
- Business Partners in SAP SCM
- Materials in SAP ERP
- Products in SAP SCM
- Transportation Network and Transport Equipment
- Transportation Network and Resources in SAP SCM
- Organizational Data in SAP ERP and in SAP SCM
These employees are users in SAP TM for Internet collaboration in the transportation bidding process. Figure 2.16 shows a comparison of these organizational structures with respect to transportation in SAP ERP and SAP TM.
Transportation Management with SAP ERP
- Types of Transportation Processing
- Shipment Documents
- Transport Packaging
- Important Functions in the Shipment Document
- List Processing and Planning Functions
- Freight Cost Calculation
In the Partner view of the shipping document, you can maintain further business partners, such as customs agents, clearing agencies or packaging service providers. To determine a target price, you can use the freight cost estimation function, which you can access from the shipment overview screen.
Transportation Planning with SAP APO
Transportation Optimization with SAP APO (TP/VS)
Collaborative transportation planning with service providers allows you to share information regarding the expected volume of transportation. Through the collaboration portal, you can provide service providers with short-term and long-term planning data about your transportation needs so that they can prepare enough transportation capacity.
Documents and Transportation Optimization
Scenarios with APO Transportation Planning
Routing Guide (dynamic routing) is a planning tool that allows you to carry out the entire transport planning task, including an integrated availability check directly during data entry. Dynamic routing can also be used as a simulation directly in the context of APO transport planning.
Transportation Management with SAP TM
Document and Process Overview
Documents and business objects in SAP TM are oriented towards efficient, service-oriented and distributed transport management. This is why SAP TM does not only include a shipping document, as for example in SAP ERP, but rather several application-oriented objects, each of which serves a specific purpose in the field of shipping processing.
Cross-Divisional Functions
A booking agent in a call center in Hamburg only has full access to sea freight orders sent from Germany. An import officer in a Singapore office only has access to freight orders arriving in Singapore via airfreight and loading and interim wagons in Singapore by truck.
Business Objects and Functions Illustrated
Contacted service providers can submit offers for the processing of pre-wagon transports via the cooperation portal. Like the pre-shipment process, the import planner can order further transportation using an in-transit shipping request.
Order Management
For categorizing a shipment request into different order types (such as sea freight, air freight, and regular truck) and assigning to organizational units (such as a sales organization or sales office). The desired recommendation can be selected from the transport proposals presented and stored in the transport stages of the shipment request.
Transportation Planning and Optimization
Shipment order generation creates shipment orders for each trip and their cargo units that can be forwarded to the service provider. On the first booking day, the capacity situation is not yet serious; all freight units resulting from orders can be transported as desired.
Booking Freight Space
Confirmation of a booking order can be made electronically by the service provider or by one of your employees. You can then assign freight units as transport demand to the booking requisition as transport capacity.
Subcontracting
The cost view in the shipment order shows the billing items invoiced by the transportation service provider. Once the service provider is selected, you can calculate the freight purchase price in the shipment order as you did in the shipment request.
Transportation Charge Management
In the case of a shipment request, a customer freight invoice request is generated and forwarded directly to SAP ERP, where it leads to an invoice document. In the case of a shipping order, a request for a freight invoice from the service provider is generated for settlement.
Integration with SAP Event Management
This is initially transferred to SAP ERP to build up reserves for the expected service provider invoice. Based on this, the data is integrated into Financial Accounting and incoming invoice verification is subsequently performed.
Summary
The latter statement contains a grain of truth, as inventories (raw materials and materials, semi-finished and finished products) and storage buildings incur costs. The functional processing of all movements of goods that result in inventory changes, in addition to improving cost efficiency by reducing costs, is the primary task of warehouse logistics control and inventory maintenance software.
The Fundamentals of Warehouse Logistics
Management-Related Significance
From a business and management point of view, the warehouse equipment of such a "structural unit" takes up space and ties up fixed assets. Ensuring the ability to deliver is therefore often achieved by maintaining a higher inventory level and consequently higher capital commitment.
Systems and Applications
Today, inventory management tasks are considerably more complex and depend on the support of an intelligent IT system. Warehouse management is performed either with integration to SAP ERP or decentralized, either on the basis of an ERP system (SAP LES) or using SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), a SAP SCM component.
Organizational Structures and Master Data
The warehouse numberAirport is identified as a decentralized warehouse and linked to an SAP EWM warehouse number. To achieve this, SAP EWM is seamlessly integrated with SAP ERP's Stock Management.
Inventory Management
Goods Movement
Stock valuation is done based on the valuation price at the issuing plant. Here, too, the stock transfer is first carried out with a stock transport order in the receiving plant.
Inventory Valuation
In accounting views, the material owner determines whether, for example, different partial stocks of a material should be valued differently (split valuation) and what price will be used for valuation. The actual valuation, that is, the valuation price of the material, is based on the price control settings in the material master.
Special Stock and Special Procurement Forms
The withdrawal and consumption of consignment material takes place via a goods issue from the freely usable consignment stock of the seller. To ensure an exact allocation of the receipt of the finished product and the consumption of components from the supplier's consignment stock, the goods receipt is performed with reference to the order.
Handling Units
In addition to the unique identification number, information in the header also includes the packaging material used, the total weight and dimensions of the handling unit, and the history. Handling units can be created manually or automatically upon receipt of goods or in the packing zone of the warehouse.
Warehouse Management with WM
Warehouse Structure and Integration
Goods receipts that occur in a storage location administered by WM automatically generate a posting to the storage bin of the assigned interim storage type. The intermediate storage type in this case is usually the goods receiving area from which the goods are posted in a second step to a storage bin in the warehouse.
Inbound Delivery
Deliveries to be placed in stock can be selected and form the reference for the generation of the transfer order (see Fig.3.22). A transfer order for the transfer requirement can be created manually or automatically by the system.
Transfer Order and Quantity Deviations
With the fixed storage bin strategy, the system selects a storage bin based on the bin to which a material has been directly assigned in the material master. This search strategy, where the system suggests the next empty storage container for disposal, is often used for high rack and shelf storage.
Goods Issue
Figure 3.34 shows the log of a bin search for the transfer order used in the previous example. Using the fixed bin strategy, the system determines the storage bin using the fixed bin stored in the material master.
Warehouse-Internal Processes
The expiration date or expiration date of the material is stored in the master record of the material. In case of major deviations, a re-count can be requested so that the system issues a new inventory document.
Warehouse Management with SAP EWM
System Integration
In this chapter, for our illustrations and processes, we assume that the EWM system is linked to an ERP system and tight integration of the existing standard interfaces has been established. Figure 3.37 illustrates the technical process connection of the SCM-based EWM systems to SAP ERP.
Warehouse Organization and Stock Movement
Automatic generation of warehouse orders allows optimal control of the material flow in the warehouse. Graphical representation is based on the bin coordinates in the bin master data.
Goods Receipt
In the first step, EWM uses the storage type lookup sequence to determine the storage type of the target storage bin for each delivered item. From a storage control point of view, deconsolidation – an intermediate step in the distribution of delivered HUs – is performed using an intermediate storage type.
Warehouse-Internal Processes
Warehouse The tasks for warehouse transfer to the optimal containers can be consolidated in waves. The destination storage container for these storage tasks corresponds to the kitting work center.
Goods Issue
For a transfer initiated in ERP, an outgoing delivery is generated in ERP and replicated in EWM. When the transfer posting is posted in EWM, the goods issue for outbound delivery is posted in ERP and the inventory attributes are adjusted accordingly.
Cross-Warehouse Functions
Summary
The Basics
Process Risks
SAP Applications for Logistics Processing According
Foreign Trade Processing with SAP ERP
Master Data and Integration
Legal Control
Preference Determination
Documentary Payments
Communication/Printing
Periodic Declarations
Governance, Risk and Compliance with SAP BusinessObjects
General Process and Integration in SAP ERP
Compliance Management: Sanctioned Party List Check
Compliance Management: Import/Export Control
Customs Management
Risk Management
Summary
SAP Event Management (SAP EM)
Basic Characteristics of SAP EM
Application Interface
Event Handlers and Event Messages
Event Handling
Information Input and Output
Data Entry for Event Messages
Web Interface
Standard Processes in Event Management
Auto-ID Infrastructure and Object Event Repository
Basics of RFID and EPC Technology
Auto-ID Infrastructure
Object Event Repository
Reporting and Determining Key Performance Indicators
SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse
The Information System in SAP ERP
The SCOR Data Model
Reports and Dashboards: Examples
Data Extraction from SAP Logistics Applications
Summary
