Activity Area in Extended Warehouse Management

[kannanchokkanathan1]

Hi Everyone,

Introduction:

This is my first SAP blog here I try to give some insights into the activity area, activities, and sort sequence which is used in the warehouse process.

Activity:

Before talking about the activity area, let’s discuss “activity” first.

An activity is a kind of goods movement inside the warehouse.

Below are the examples of activities that generally occur in the warehouse

• Perform putaway


• Perform picking


• Perform physical inventory


• Perform replenishment

In EWM, this activity is uniquely assigned to a warehouse process category.

Warehouse process category:

The warehouse process category is used to classify activities. The following are permitted values for the warehouse process category for activities, we cannot edit or create a new warehouse process category.

• Putaway


• Stock removal


• Internal stock transfer


• Physical Inventory


• Posting change


• Cross-line stock putaway

We can define the activities as per the business requirement, again it could be just a name change since only standard warehouse process categories are available.

IMG-SCM Extended warehouse management-Master Data-Activity areas- Activities- Define Activities

Define Activity

Activity Area:

Activity area is the logical area that is used to separate our warehouse into logical subdivision units. Warehouse workers operate different kinds of activities in these logical units such as putaway and picking.

Activity area containing one or multiple storage bins from the same storage type or different storage types. We can define the assigned storage bins using the following attributes:

• Aisle


• Stack


• Level


• Bin subdivision


• Depth


• Information about the storage type


• Any assigned deconsolidation groups

Activity-dependent storage bin sorting can be maintained in the activity area (like Put away, picking ) this storage bin sorting helps to optimize the warehouse task execution.

Storage bin sorting allows us to customize our own path through the different storage types in order to set up the fastest and most efficient way to process warehouse tasks.

Example:1

If the business wants to have some sort of crisscross route through the different aisles of the storage types

crisscross route

Example: 2

If the business wants to have the serpentine route,

serpentine route

We can set up the different storage bins sorting for different activities such as,

• Put away – Crisscross route


• Picking – Serpentine route


• Physical inventory – some other paths as per business

Activity Area-based Bin sorting

Structure of activity area:

The activity area can be a single storage type, a combination of multiple storage types, or multiple storage bins from different storage types.

If the business requires, each storage type as an activity area based on the activities (picking, putaway,.) then we have the following report that helps to create.

/SCWM/R_AREA_LGTYP_CREATE - Generate Activity Area from Storage Type

Report to create Activity area based on storage type

And we can create an activity area based on the combination of storage bins, ex: For the picking activity, we can use the serpentine route (which is used for fast-moving materials) that will get when we assign the multiple bins from the different storage types.

IMG-SCM EWM- Master Data- Activity Areas- Define Activity Area

Define Activity Area

Fast-moving activity area

Assign storage bins to the Activity area:

If the business wants the activity area based on the storage bins from the same or different storage type, then assign the storage bins against the activity area.

IMG-SCM EWM-Master data- Activity Areas- Assign Storage Bins to Activity Areas

Create Activity Area with bins

Define Sort Sequence for Activity Area

We can sort these storage bins into any sequence we want and assign as many activities to them as we require.

Storage bin sorting can be carried out based on the activity (picking, putaway…) and storage type in the activity area.

Below is the configuration to set up the sort sequence method for the activity area.

IMG- Extended Warehouse Management - Master Data - Activity Areas- Define Sort Sequence for Activity Area

Sort sequence for storage bins

And the following screen, we can see how the sorting can be executed,

T code: /SCWM/SBST (cannot captured in TR)

Create Bin sorting

Simulation of Bin sorting

Success message

To check the sorted storage bin in the table, go to /SCWM/LAGPS

Bin sorting table

When activity areas are used and storage bins are sorted, we need to re-execute if the storage bins are,

• Added


• Deleted


• Changed

Conclusion:

I hope this blog explains the activity area concept in EWM clearly with the required configuration and business process.

Please share your comments and feedback in the comment section, I am expecting the comments for improving my knowledge, many thanks. Please follow my profile for upcoming blogs.

 

Regards,

Kannan Chokkanathan