Two steps staging for production in a single EWM storage location ?

[oboudry]

Hi Everyone,

We are using SAP S/4 HANA 1909- Embedded EWM with Basic warehouse management license, and trying to improve the material staging for production orders, and wondering how to best implement it.

What we would like to setup is a staging for all orders from the high rack storage type to a workcentre location where we could then split HUs and do a second step staging for a single order.

The reason for the two phases is that we can't split HUs in the high rack area, so we need to bring full pallets to an intermediate area where we can split them and prepare appropriate quantities for a single order.

We do subcontracting for our customers, and the single order constraint comes from the need to be able to reconcile consumption to the order, and clearly identify consumption, waste, returns, samples.

We would like to be able to manage the requirements for the intermediate store so we can maintain material for a defined production horizon of a few days.

I found reference to similar processes for distant warehouses working with outbound and inbound deliveries, but am wondering, as we want to implement this within a single EWM storage location, if there is a simpler way to perform that two way staging and intermediate storing.

Thanks,

Olivier.

[j_blohm · Accepted solution]

Hi oboudry,

I doubt you will be able to make this work with new production integration based on PMR, as its whole concept does not match your requirement. The only option there would be to use cross-order staging, which is not what you want, but comes at least close.

If you use delivery-based production integration, you can achieve the thing you want with 2-step waves. However then, you would need to activate advanced and retrieve licenses.

Another, more creative option would be to use order-based replenishment to move the goods to the intermediate area and then perform the picking from there. That's an option that shouldn't be dismissed too quickly.

What's always possible however is to develop the requirement based on a custom scheduler program.

Best regards,

Jonas

[lgiesecke · Accepted solution]

Hi Olivier, I am facing a very similar issue as you did in 2021. It would be great to hear how you ended up and if you found a working solution going the PMR way? Would be great if you could share your experience!

@oboudry 

[oboudry]

Hi Jonas,

Thanks for the quick reply, and for the interesting approaches.

I'm not familiar with order based replenishment but will look into it. If I understand it well, I would assign fixed bins to products in my intermediate area, and setup order based replenishment rules to ensure these bins are always filled with sufficient stock levels, right ?

Best regards,

Olivier.

[j_blohm]

Hi Olivier,

Yes, that's the gist of it. As I said, it might appear to be a funny approach for this particular requirement ...

Well yea, you will have to activate rough bin determination, so that the delivery items have a corresponding rough bin that can be used for the replenishment. That's where the fixed bins help, as otherwise - if the bin is currently empty - no proper rough bin in the intermediate area will be determined.

Also, depending on the space in your area, you will have to clear the stock from the picking area eventually. Expect no support from standard for this.

Best regards,

Jonas