Automatic E-Mail Alert when Exception in EWM MFS is fired

[SimonSch]

Introduction

Like in normal storage types also exceptions for example "Destination bin is occupied" will raise up in automatic storage type. The goal is always to have an plan B to react to such situations so that the automated material handling equipment never stops. SAP offers out of the box functions to automatically solve those error situation as an sample determining a new destination bin.
But how does the leading team of the warehouse monitor the exception (Someone needs to check the blocked bin) ? 
In SAP, it is possible to generate an alert in case of an exception; I will show you how to send the alert  automatically by e-mail in the following blog. 

First of all we wanna have a look at the anoying manual way.

History of Exception Codes

A most common scenario is to monitor a log of the exceptions which were used.

To use it, you need to activate the history for each exception code. Afterwards you can manual monitor them inside the warehouse managment monitor.

However, you have to open the monitor actively. Not the best way- We wanna have an automatic email notification when an error occurs. Therefore we use the Alert object inside EWM.

Prerequisite

• Number Range for object /SCMB/AID created
• Configured STMP messaging (Tx. SCOT)
• Automatic execution of SOST Entries (Report RSCONN01)

Creating alerts

One way to create an alert is to maintain an alert typ as a follow-up action within an exception code

Executing the exception will now create an Alert inside SAP. For MFS Alerts they will saved in  database /SCWM/ALERT2521.

Inside SAP EWM there are also other possibilites to create an alert without an exception. We will focus based on exception inside this blog.

 

Alert Monitor

The alerts can be viewed via the alert monitor /SAPAPO/AMON1

Creation of an alert profil

To display the entries, an "alert profile" must be created. The alert profile restricts which types of alerts, e.g. EWM MFS alerts, you want to select

After creating the profil you can press the "Determine Alerts" button to show the alerts.

 

Setup Alert Notification Profil

To send the Alert via an E-Mail we need to create a "Alert Notification Profil". The profiles aer used to define what is selected and via which message channel, e.g. email, to which recipient the alerts are to be sent.

Open transaction /SCMB/ANOT_PROF_ADM an create a new profile.

General Profile Settings

There two differten mechanism you have to chosse.

• Pull Mechanism
  You should select pull mechanism if you want to send the e-mail in period. Therefore you have to shedule a job for report /SCMB/ANOTPULL
• Push Mechnism
  If you want to directly create the email after the exception is occured you have to setup an profile with Push Mechanism

We gonna create a "Push Profil".

The "Valid from" specification basically restricts the creation date from which alerts are taken into account.

Recipient Determination

Recipient-Type:

• User
  You can select an SAP-User and the mail behind this user will be taken as the recipient
• Channel
  You can set up any e-mail for an example an collective address like warehouse@xyz.de

 

Alert Selection

Now we define which alerts exactly we want to select. Therefore we add the application AEWM an our created "alert profil" the steps before.

 

Send Mechanism

The Messaging profile controls which information will added to the mail. We use the standard Profile "SAP_EWM".

As Message Channel we use EMAILID to receive an E-Mail. Other possible would also be sending a SMS.

Now we are ready to send directly EWM MFS Alerts via E-Mail if an exception occurs.

Activate Immediate Notifcation

To activate the immediate Notification we need to change the configuration of the follow-on action for the exception code.

Testing the exception

For easy testing we use the "Test Configuration of Exception Codes" img-activity inside the Tx. SPRO.

Select the correct business context and exception step and insert the test data.

Select the exception you like to test and execute the test.

 

Result

After executing the exception code, a send request inside the SAPconnect (Tx. SOST) will be created.

After the RSCONN01 job has processed the SOST entries, you will receive an e-mail.

 

 

Conclusion

The Alert Monitoring is a powerful  SAP standard mechanism to easily receive mails if there is an unplanded situation inside the material flow system. There are many more possibilities than those shown here. For example, you can also select the receiver depending on the time. Of course sending an E-Mail based on alerts inside EWM can be used outside the MFS. For an example monitoring the capacity of an storage type.