Auto Packing with Nested Handling Units in Inbound Delivery – SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud

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Automatic Packing with Nested Handling Units in Inbound Delivery – SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud

• Nested Handling Units (HUs) mean packing one Handling Unit inside another Handling Unit.
• For example, cartons packed into a pallet, where each carton and the pallet have their own HU number.

Step 1: Maintain Packaging Material Types. The menu path is shown in the screenshot below.

Note: I have created 2 Packaging Material types:

• Pallet
• Carton

Step 2: Define Material group for Packaging Materials

• Created Packing Material groups for Pallet and Carton.

Step 3: Define Allowed Packaging Materials

• Map the Packing Material Type with the Packing Material Group

• Note - For Nested HUs, it is mandatory to cross-map Packing Material Types with Packing Material Groups.

This means:

• Carton groups must allow pallet types, and
• Pallet groups must allow carton types,
• so that inner HUs can be packed into outer HUs without errors.

Step 4: Assign Number Range intervals to Packaging Material Type

• Assign a number range to the created Packing Material Types for the respective plant and storage location.

Step 5: Created packing materials in MM01 using Material Type VERP and assign the relevant Packing Material Group and Pack. Material Type in the “Matl Grp Pack. Matls, Packing Material type” fields under the Basic Data view/Sales: General Plant data. Additionally, assign the appropriate HU Type and also created SFG Material.

In this scenario, two packing materials are created:

• CARTONBOX with Packing Material Type CARTON
• PALLET1 with Packing Material Type PALLET
• 42 with SFG type.

Step 6:  Create Packing Instructions using T-Code: POP1

• Please note that the Handling Unit (HU) number is generated only for the Load Carrier maintained in a Packaging Instruction.
• As a result, to generate HUs for both cartons and pallets, each must be defined as a Load Carrier. Since a Packaging Instruction can contain only one Load Carrier, separate Packaging Instructions are required for cartons and pallets.
• Based on this approach, the following Packaging Instructions have been created:

• Created Packing Instruction “AutoPack”, added Components for Cotton Box.

 

• Maintain check profile.

• Check and save.

• A separate Packaging Instruction is created for the pallet by adding the PALLET material as Item Category “P” and the AUTOPACK packaging instruction as Item Category “I”. Maintain the required quantities, then check and save.

Step 7: For automatic determination of the Packaging Instruction, create a condition record using T-code POF1.

• Select “RCPT” standard for Inbound delivery.

• Assign the SFG material and the ‘PALLET’ Packaging Instruction in the determination record.

Step 8:  Enable Auto Packing in Delivery Types

• Selected Standard “EL” delivery type for Inbound delivery
• Enabled “Automatic Packing” and save

The above are the configuration steps. The functional flow is explained below.

• Created PO by selecting Confirmation key.

• Create the inbound delivery, select the line item, and click ‘Auto Packing’. The system automatically packs the material.

In this scenario, Material 42 – SFG Material is maintained.

• Each Carton Box is defined to carry 25 KG of SFG material.
• Multiple Carton Boxes are then packed into a Pallet, where one pallet contains 4 carton boxes.
• A Purchase Order is created for 100 KG of 42 SFG material.

During Inbound Delivery Auto Packing, the system performs the packing automatically as follows:

• 100 KG of SFG material is packed into 4 Carton HUs (25 KG each).
• These 4 Carton HUs are nested and packed into 1 Pallet HU.

This demonstrates Nested Handling Unit (HU) auto packing, where inner Carton HUs are packed into an outer Pallet HU, and each level is assigned its own HU number automatically by the system.