Configuring Product Vs Truck Incompatibility in SAP TM – Road Outbound Scenario

[ramyasrii]

Business Scenario:

Product and truck type incompatibility in the supply chain refers to situations where certain products cannot be transported together or in specific types of trucks due to various constraints. This incompatibility can arise from factors such as safety regulations, product characteristics, and logistical requirements

Key Factors Leading to Incompatibility

1. Safety Regulations: Certain products, especially hazardous materials, have strict regulations regarding their transportation. For example, flammable liquids cannot be transported with oxidizing agents due to the risk of explosion 
2. Product Characteristics: Some products have unique characteristics that necessitate specific transportation conditions. For instance, perishable goods like fruits and vegetables require refrigerated trucks, while heavy machinery might need flatbed trucks.
3. Logistical Requirements: Different products may have varying loading and unloading requirements. For example, some products might need to be loaded from the side, while others from the back, which can limit the types of trucks that can be used.

Importance of Managing Incompatibility

1. Efficiency: Properly managing product and truck type incompatibility ensures that the right products are transported in the right trucks, optimizing the use of resources and reducing delays 
2. Safety: Ensuring that incompatible products are not transported together minimizes the risk of accidents and ensures compliance with safety regulations 
3. Cost Savings: By avoiding the use of inappropriate trucks, companies can reduce the risk of damage to products, which can lead to significant cost savings in terms of replacements and insurance claims 
4. Customer Satisfaction: Efficient and safe transportation of products ensures timely deliveries and maintains product quality, leading to higher customer satisfaction 

SAP Solution

SAP TM provides a robust solution to handle product and truck type incompatibilities during transportation planning. By defining business rules that prevent certain products from being assigned to incompatible vehicle types, SAP TM ensures compliance with safety, regulatory, and logistical constraints. These incompatibilities are enforced at the Freight Order level, where Freight Units (FUs) carrying restricted products are checked against truck resources. The system uses condition-based logic to recognize and block invalid FU–truck pairings during both manual and automated planning. This ensures safe, efficient, and rule-compliant execution of road outbound logistics.

Step 1: Create Conditions for Product and Truck Incompatibility

In Fiori, go to “Create Condition” and define two separate conditions — one for products and one for trucks.

1. Create the Product Condition:
   Define a condition that identifies the products that should be restricted from certain trucks.
2. Create the Truck Condition:
   Define a second condition to identify the truck or vehicle type to which the product should not be assigned.     

Step 2: Create the Incompatibility Definition

In the “Create Incompatibility” app:

• Incompatibility Area: Automatic planning and Manual planning
• Incompatibility Type: Freight Unit – Vehicle Resource
• Condition: Assign the one created in Step 1

This setup tells SAP TM that any Freight Unit carrying a product matching the condition should not be assigned to incompatible trucks.

Creating Product vs. Truck Incompatibility

Step 3: Create the Incompatibility Settings

Navigate to “Create Incompatibility Settings” Assign the incompatibility from Step 2

Defining Incompatibility Settings for Product vs. Resource

Step 4: Assign to Planning Profile

In the Planning Profile used for (Freight Order creation), assign this incompatibility settings:

• Go to “Planning Profile”
• Assign incompatibility settings.                Assigning Incompatibility Setting in Planning Profile

Step 5: Assign to Transportation cockpit

• Go to cockpit Assign incompatibility settings.
  

Step 6: Testing the Incompatibility

Create a Sales Order in the ERP system containing the product that matches the Product Condition you configured earlier. Once the order is saved, SAP TM will automatically create Freight Units (FUs) based on the Freight Unit Building Rule.

Simulate Incompatibility

Go to the “Incompatibility” simulate function in SAP TM and test the following:

• Select the created Freight Unit (with the restricted product)
• Select a truck resource that matches the Truck Condition (i.e., the incompatible truck) 
• Expected Result: The system will return an incompatibility message, indicating that the selected Freight Unit and truck cannot be planned together due to the active incompatibility settings. 

Evaluating Incompatibility in Both Manual and Optimized Planning

Manual Planning

In the Transportation Cockpit, when a Freight Unit (FU) containing a restricted product is manually assigned to an incompatible truck:

• The system displays a warning message indicating the incompatibility.

  

Optimizer-Based Planning

• Open the Transportation Cockpit.

• Select the Freight Unit for automatic planning.

• Run the optimizer

1. If only incompatible trucks are available:
The system does not create a Freight Order, as it respects the incompatibility rule.

2. If compatible trucks are available:
The optimizer bypasses the incompatible trucks and selects a valid resource, successfully generating the Freight Order.

Conclusion:

Addressing product and truck type incompatibility within the supply chain is crucial for optimizing efficiency, ensuring safety, and enhancing customer satisfaction. By leveraging SAP's advanced logistics solutions, businesses can effectively manage these incompatibilities, streamline their operations, and reduce costs.

This blog covered how to configure Product vs. Truck incompatibility in SAP TM to enforce safety and compliance during transport planning. In SAP, incompatibility can be assigned even for the manual planning scenarios and simulation of the incompatibility is a great tool to troubleshoot the results of incompatibility.

Embracing these technologies not only mitigates risks but also positions companies to meet the dynamic demands of the market with agility and precision. As the supply chain landscape continues to evolve, proactive management of transportation logistics will remain a key differentiator for successful enterprises.

[karthikeyan3991]

Hello @ramyasrii

Thank you for the blog. If I have 10-15 products which should not be transported in 10 different trucks, is there any easy way to set this incompatibility instead of defining incompatibility definition for each combination?

Regards,

Karthik

[ramyasrii]

Hi@ karthikeyan3991

Yes, you can use Transportation Groups to group similar products and Vehicle Types or Vehicle Groups for trucks.