SAP Extended Warehouse Management Introduction

[Omar_Ossama]

EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) manages your warehouse stocks, but to a more deeper level. In the normal inventory management process in the materials management module, quantities and stocks are managed to the storage location level. In EWM, it is processing various goods movements and stocks in more detailed level in the system to the storage bin level. You can apply physical goods movements, and you can organize, control and monitor these goods movement through the EWM system.

EWM Structure:

EWM Structure Details:

Warehouse Number: It is highest level in the warehouse structure. It can manage the entire the warehouse structure.

Storage Type: It is the individual warehouse facilities, where the products are stored.

Storage Section: The Storage types are divided into storage sections. Storage bins with common attributes belong to one storage section. It is something like a way of grouping. 

Storage Bin: It informs you the exact position of the material, where you can store your products.

Quant: It is the quantity of the materials in the storage bin. It is used for inventory management of a product in the storage bin.

There is also another terminology called Activity Area. It can refer to a storage bin, or a group of concatenated bins from several storage types. Storage bins can be assigned manually to activity areas. 

Storage Bin level the can manage all the stocks. Every storage bin is mapped in the system, where you can track all the stock movements in details. You can know exactly, where a specific product is located in the warehouse. It like having a very low level view of your stock in the warehouse from the smallest storage unit going upwards to viewing the entire warehouse. In EWM for sure you can process all the normal goods movement processes such as goods receipts, goods issues, stock transfers and automatic replenishment.

Physical Inventory in the EWM is where you compare between the actual stock existing in your warehouse with the data in the EWM system. You start by entering the physical inventory differences, and checking if there is any differences between the actual stock and the system to start monitoring your stock levels. Physical Inventory in EWM is at the Warehouse Management Level. It can be performed based on the storage bins. EWM contains a difference monitor available with tolerance groups to define maximum values for posting differences for each user. EWM gives a feature of having an overview of all goods movements and warehouse stocks.

Understanding the Organizational structure is from the fundamentals of any SAP module. Let's check more details regarding the Org. Structure of EWM:

For Warehouse Number:

You can manage warehouse number to handle several storage facilities, which together form the complete warehouse structure. It means warehouse number can be used independently for managing the entire warehouse structure.

Example of the facilities in the Warehouse structure:

● Goods receipt area
● Goods issue area
● Hall with high rack shelves
● Bulk storage area
● Activity areas of category Picking with Fixed Bins

For Storage Type:

It is considered a storage zone, which you define for the warehouse number in the EWM. It can be considered as a physical subdivision within the warehouse. It consist of one or more storage bins. 

Examples of the Physical Storage Types:

● Bulk storage area
● General storage area
● High rack storage area
● Fixed bin storage area
● Rack storage area

For Storage Section:

It is a subdivision of storage type, which group together storage bins with similar attributes for the putaway process. For high rack storage area, there are two types of bins low bins and high bins. It can be divided into two storage sections for slow and fast moving items.

For Storage Bin:

It is the smallest unit in the warehouse, which represents the exact position where the product can be located in the warehouse. There are attributes in the warehouse for the storage bin such as maximum weight, capacity and storage bin type of small or large pallets.

For Quant:

System manages different batches of a product as quants. Quantity can be increased and decreased through goods movements. Quantity of a quant can increase by adding stock to the existing stock. It can only be created and deleted using movements.

Quant record consists of:

● Quant identification
● Number
● Batch number
● Stock category type
● Stock category
● Stock usage

For Activity Area:

It is section of the warehouse, that groups storage bins based on warehouse activities. Activity areas can include putaway, picking and inventory. It consists of one or more storage bins.

Storage Bins can be defined using the following attributes:

● Aisle
● Stack
● Level

Talking about some operations like the Inbound delivery, Outbound delivery and Scrapping Process.

For Inbound Delivery:

The inbound delivery process starts with goods receipt and the arrival of the goods to the yard and transferring the goods to the final putaway in the stock. Transferring also can be for production and an outbound delivery.

Some actions can be done in the inbound delivery such as:

● Registering the delivery in the yard
● Unloading the delivery
● Canceling the “unloading of the delivery”
● Placing the delivery into stock (putaway)
● Canceling the “delivery putaway”
● Adjusting the delivery quantity to the quantity posted in the goods receipt (in case of overdelivery or under delivery.
● Adjusting the delivery quantity and the transferred quantity
In this case, the delivery quantity is adjusted to the quantity posted in the goods receipt.
The quantity in the inbound delivery notification is also adjusted and a new inbound
delivery is created.
● Posting a goods movement
● Canceling a goods movement
● Creating items
● Deleting items

For Outbound Delivery:

This process starts with the first planning activities for the outbound delivery and continues until the finished goods have been loaded and sent to the recipient.

Actions related to an Outbound Delivery:

● Creating an outbound delivery.
● Picking the delivery
● Canceling the “delivery picking”
● Loading the delivery
● Canceling the “delivery loading”
● Setting the status Leave Yard
● Adjusting the delivery quantity to the picked quantity
● Posting a goods movement
● Canceling a goods movement
● Creating items
● Deleting items

For Scrapping:

Scrapping within the warehouse, if a product is to be disposed of from the warehouse (for example, defective or obsolete product). Scrapping can be within a returns process. Scrapped products from different storage bins are moved to scrapping handling units. It is considered as an internal stock movements. The scrapped quantity is scrapped to a blocked stock. Goods issue can be used for the scrapping handling unit. EWM can perform the Goods Issue with generating the Outbound delivery document.

There are some another concepts in the EWM such as:

● Door
● Staging Area
● Work Center

For Door:

It is where the goods arrive at or leave the warehouse. To control putaway and stock removal processes in your warehouse, you can define doors and staging areas within a warehouse number. 

Door has various Functions:
● Inbound
● Outbound
● Inbound and outbound

For Staging Area:

Staging area is used to organize the flow of goods in the warehouse. They are located closed to the doors. They can be used for different purposes. For Goods receipt, which is Interim storage of unloaded goods until they are put away. Also for Goods issue, which is Interim storage of picked goods until they are loaded.

For Work Center:

It is the unit in the warehouse, where you perform activities such as packing, distributing
and weighing.

Work center can be used in the following processes:

● Packing for all general repacking transactions
● Deconsolidation: a feature that allows you to break down large inbound shipments into smaller units or individual items for more efficient storage and processing.
● Counting
● Quality Inspection

This article was an introduction for the organizational structure of the EWM from the highest level to the quant with more details. It also addressed main operations from a simple perspectives such as Inbound, Outbound and Scrapping. There are also three additional concepts in the EWM, which are door, staging area and work center.