Warehouse Order Creation Rule (WOCR) and its application in the real world

[prasan_desi]

Implementing Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) is a multifaceted process that goes beyond mere system configuration. It is not just about making the system work but to make the system compliment the physical way of work. And we do know that the customization we do should always be a blend of configuration in the system that will also be a practical solution - fit for business.

And in this blog, I would like to share such a case where I had to customize the system to work the way client would like to perform pick – for both sales and production. This is the 1st half of a 2 Part article. This Part explains the business case and configuration and the 2nd part showcases the same with an example in the system.

Among the list of configuration nodes, this blog will concentrate on Warehouse Order Creation Rule (WOCR) and the way that I used it to fit client’s requirement. This blog is not about WOCR configuration or about the various WOCR configuration sub nodes. This blog, however, is a case study of a requirement in the Warehouse, the constraints in place and the best possible solution that was provided, which was around WOCR and the way it complemented the enhancement I did in the RF.

Scenario – 1:

It was a 3 Warehouse implementation. All 3 Warehouses were designed different structurally, however, the pick process was common across all three. They perform picking in such a way that they always follow a sequence in the way that an operator goes during a pick. But one may think of sort sequence as an answer to this but there were other complications attached to this. Among many is the automated storage and retrieval solution. The automated storage carousal is completely integrated with SAP, where all WT related details are communicated via RFC. With this constraint in place, the question is about how to split the place of work (executed by different set of people) across the automated carousal machine and other high rack and open floor areas of pick to achieve the pick sequence that client expects?

Scenario – 2:

During Sales Pick, the items are picked from their bins and moved to the packing area. Once the packing activities are done, they would like a WT to be created automatically to move the items from Packing to the Staging Area. Additionally, they want the WT to be confirmed immediately in the background. In short, they would like to move the item from packing to staging area once the packing activities are completed whilst they move the items physically without any system input for that movement - they are physically the same area. How can this be achieved?

Scenario – 3:

On one hand, there is a constraint as mentioned in Scenario – 2, but on the other hand to add up to this, the pick path for Sales Order is different than the ones for Production. For Sales Order OBD, the item should take the path of Source Bin --> Pack --> GI Staging Area. However, for Production the item should take the path of Source Bin --> Staging Area --> Consumption. The question is about how to handle both Sales and Production pick but have the system create WT automatically only for Sales and not for production pick?

Scenario – 4:

Warehouses have safety regulations to follow. Among many is a restriction during pick from a high rack. 2 warehouse operators driving forklifts cannot work in the same aisle at any given point of time. They were expecting a solution where they would like the warehouse operator to choose the aisle of work in case the warehouse task proposed to pick is in the same aisle that has another forklift in operation already.

With each area having a dedicated set of people picking items, it should be designed the same way in EWM as well. As mentioned before, it's not just bin sort that solves the issue, but using Activity Area. I have split each area of Pick as Activity Area in SAP.

As it can be noticed below (and can be cross linked to the flowchart) – Each area of pick is an Activity Area (AA), let's concentrate on 2 sets of AA, 1 for High Racks – Raw Materials and Finished Goods and 1 for Carousels – Raw Materials and Finished Goods, to make things easier to understand. This will now form the base for the overall solution in question. Scenario – 1 is now addressed.

Though would not like to get into the details, there are other dependent configurations that should be taken care –

1. If bin structures are configured, Storage Bins should be mapped to the Activity Area. If not, as part of Master Data load, during Bin Sort upload, get the Storage Bins mapped to its respective Activity Areas.
2. Defining the Sort Sequence for Activity Area for each Activity.
3. Under the Internal Warehouse Process node, the Physical Inventory Areas configured should be mapped to the new Activity Areas that are configured, else PI won’t work as expected.

Now that SAP knows the area of pick, this still doesn’t solve the constraint where the behaviour of Sales Pick to be different from that of Production Pick, where a Sales Pick needs a Pick HU whereas the Production Pick doesn’t. To address this, I have used WOCR.

For Sales, which needs Pick HU creation, has 2 sub scenarios to be considered – One, pick from carousel and the other for all the High Racks. All the items from carousel, that does not have any human involvement, requires Pick HU to be created automatically and assigned. Additionally, the WTs for any item to be picked from carousel should be created automatically via PPF but for the other areas, it shouldn’t.

Let’s split this up further:

• Customizations performed in SPRO for WOCR –

• Defining Sort Rule

I have used the basic and standard Sort Rules in place – PIPA – Pick Path. For each Warehouse Order that is being created, the pick should be based on the bin sort sequence that’s in place.

• Defining Limit Values

I have not used any Filters, didn’t find a need for their way of work and the solution in place. I have used Limit though. This is something that is imperative to achieve one of the other Scenarios, which I will explain further down in the article.

• Defining Packing Profile

Packing Profile definition is very important when there is a need for Pick HU generation. This config will determine if the HUs are to be created and if the WTs should be assigned to the HUs that are generated. The Packing Profile is in turn assigned to the WOCR. This way the Packing Profile finds a link between WO and the Pick HU generation.

Assuming that PackSpec related configurations are already in place, to make the Pick HU work, as part of Master Data setup, create one PackSpec with the configured Packing Profile and Condition Type as 0BDL. This will be common for each SC Unit level.

• Defining WOCR

Once all the subcomponents are configured, it should all now be grouped to form one WOCR. As noticed in the screenshot below, I have created 3 WOCRs, 1 for Production (highlighted in red) and 2 for Sales (highlighted in green). I will not need multiple WOCRs for Production Pick as I don’t have the need to create a Pick HU for these items. However, that’s not the case for Sales. I need Pick HU generated automatically for carousel picks (via enhancement which is explained later), which shouldn’t have Packing Profile assigned, whereas, in case of high rack pick, pick HU should be generated manually via RF which needs a Packing Profile assignment to WOCR.

• Defining WOCR search sequence based on AA

This is a key config to complement the overall solution. It is in this node that we couple AA with WOCR. Please see the flowchart again to understand this config’s presence in the overall process flow.

I have done this config for the combination of AA <-> WOCR <-> Activity “PICK” as its only for Sales and not for Production, which uses STCH as the Activity.

Now for Sales, we have the above Search Sequence of AA. However, for Production, since we won’t need such a search, I have made it a direct selection by maintaining the WOCR in the Production Pick’s WPT, as we know, values in WPT takes the highest precedence compared to any other related configuration.

This concludes all the SPRO customizations to achieve the target solution.

• Enhancements performed-

The intended solution is still not achievable without the below enhancements that I had to put in place.

• Creating WT via PPF based on AA.

Since carousel pick is automatic and the high rack pick (due to certain business decisions) needs a manual WO creation via RF (a custom solution), I had to create WT automatic via PPF just for items to be picked from carousel and stop PPF for WT creation for items picked from other areas.

I am not going to explain the logic written but just give you an idea if any such requirement may rise in your projects. To achieve this, I have used a couple of Badi -  SCWM/EX_DLV_TOWHR_CREA_PPF --> to simulate the WT creation in order to identify the AA that will be used when WT gets created and use that value in Badi /SCWM/EX_CORE_CR_ABORT --> to stop WT creation for certain lines that are not of carousel's AA but to allow the lines that are for the AA of carousel.

• Creating auto Pick HU when auto picked from carousel.

For the items picked from carousel, that are for Sales Pick, after each pick from the machine, the item should be packed in an HU automatically and subsequently confirm the WT.

High level flow: Create an empty HU --> Pack the items into that HU --> Save the HU to commit into the DB --> Update the WT with this HU.

Interface used to perform the above activity is /SCWM/IF_PACK_BAS. For the first step, CREATE_HU method is used, follow by SAVE method to save the HU. Until this, only am empty HU is created. Now the item in the WT should be packed in it and for that, PACK_HU method is used as both the source and destination HU followed by the SAVE method to write in the DB. Once the HU is created and the item is assigned, the WT now needs an update with this new HU as the destination HU. When this is done, system packs the item and moves this HU to the destination Bin, which is the Packing Bin in case of Sales Pick.

With all the above SPRO customizations and enhancements, we have addressed Scenario – 2.

Scenario – 3 is closely related to 2.

To move the items from packing area to the staging area automatically by creating a WT without a user involvement, we will need the system to understand the path that it needs to take. This can be addressed only using POSC. Basic rule of POSC / LOSC is that the item involved should be in an HU, which we achieved already.

As noticed in the screenshot below, for the Storage Process YOBD (for High Racks) and YOBK (for carousels), which I’ve assigned to WOCR, will be triggered and the path will be chosen.

One can easily miss the minute difference between the two. For carousel pick, I would have unchecked the auto WT creation for the Pack step. The reason being, for the carousel pick, I would have packed in a HU (via enhancement) and automatically moved to the packing bin automatically. But in case of high rack, system is creating the Pick HU in a temporary bin and by standard creates a HU WT to move it to the Packing bin.

The second check box with OB02 indicates that the subsequent WT can be created automatically one the Pack activity is complete.

I have tweaked the WPT that gets triggered for OB03 to create and confirm WT automatically. When this is done, a WT gets created at the end of Pack, which immediately gets confirmed due to the WPT setting.

This concludes the solution provided for Scenario – 3.

The last scenario where the users have a safety restriction on using an aisle if there is a forklift in operation, warrants the need to have a selection option in the RF to choose the aisle of work. To have this addressed, I need to again play around with the WOCR. The WOCR, should be configured in such a way that it creates WO by grouping together the WTs that are from a specific aisle. To do this I leveraged the “Limit” configuration. Here, SAP has provided an option with a list of fields that one can use to limit the WO creation. I used the Bin Access Type field in this case as my client does not use it elsewhere in their process. Related configuration is seen in the screenshots above. 

Sample cycle with all the above configurations and enhancements in place is explained in the Part – 2 of this blog.