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Jörg_Michaelis
Advisor
Advisor
42,736
In my previous blog post, I covered some of the highlights delivered with SAP Extended Warehouse Management in SAP S/4HANA 2020 FPS01, released on February 24th 2021. One of the biggest features of this release, is the new TM-EWM integration, that we refer to as “Advanced Shipping and Receiving (Adv SR)”, which comes with a direct integration and no need to use transportation unit (TU) anymore.

Advanced Shipping and Receiving simplifies communication between the Transportation Management (TM), Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), Stock Room Management (STRM), Inventory Management and Physical Inventory (MM-IM), and Logistics Execution (LE) application components embedded in SAP S/4HANA. The new simplified SAP TM and SAP EWM Integration supports mixed and multi-warehouse scenarios within one single freight order (FO). It helps users coordinate the process steps from arrival of trucks at the gate to the final goods receipt in the warehouse. A truck that has posted arrival at checkpoint can carry out both loading and unloading activities at a location, or it can deliver goods from several warehouses at the same location. Information moves freely between the components and allows you to gain insights into the status of the products during the process.


Figure 1. Advanced Shipping and Receiving process overview


Motivation & Scope

With Advanced Shipping & Receiving we reduce a lot of the redundancy in business objects and data. In the previous integration, SAP EWM Shipping & Receiving objects like TU activity were not always synchronized with SAP TM, which led to complexity of process steps. Now, SAP TM and SAP EWM in SAP S/4HANA use one object for logistics processes, the Freight Order of SAP TM. By this redundancy reduction, we now also have harmonized inbound and outbound processes with one cargo view and status (e.g. loading, unloading, goods movement, etc.).


Figure 2. Comparison between the old and new SAP TM – SAP EWM integration


With the new Adv SR we also deliver robust change management functionalities for smart error prevention and handling (via incomplete document processing, easy to use application for issue analysis and error resolution). This enables users earlier error detections and faster resolution times. Furthermore, it also reduces the usage of queuing across applications, thanks to direct updates between SAP TM and SAP EWM in SAP S/4HANA.


Figure 3. App Freight Order Status View


Data harmonization is another key objective of the new simplified integration. By optimizing the UI and creating one view for SAP TM & SAP EWM, we harmonized the inbound and outbound processes and the user interface for all systems. This creates a consistent user experience, which requires less training effort for end users, as well as reduces the probability of user or system errors.

Functionality

The Advanced Shipping and Receiving process is based on the SAP TM freight order (FO) and doesn’t use the SAP EWM transportation unit (TU) or the EWM vehicle. Along with the elimination of the TU, Adv SR adds two new objects.
The first one is the Consignment In Transportation Management (TM), a consignment order represents a business document that you can use to group several transportation requirements based on certain criteria, such as the same source and destination location, the same delivery date/time, and the same business partner. A consignment order serves as an important basis for the communication between the partners that are involved in a business process. For example, as a supplier you can communicate to your ordering party which products you will deliver to a certain destination on a specific delivery date. The consignment order receives an ID that serves as a reference for the business partners. The second new object is the Loading / Unloading point, which is passed from SAP TM via LE to SAP EWM. A loading / unloading point represents a group of doors. The same master data object is used for EWM and non-EWM warehouses. Several loading points can belong to one warehouse, and one loading point can belong to an EWM and non-EWM warehouse.

The FO can contain both EWM-managed and IM-managed storage locations, for example at a production location, and the two storage locations can share a loading / unloading point.

With these additions to the new simplified integration between SAP TM & SAP EWM, the system enables new features and improved processes:

  • Multi-pick / multi-drop – with Adv SR the same truck can unload and load at the same location during a multi-stop route while using only one business object. This enables better usage of transport capacities, reduces overall transportation costs and lowers the CO2 footprint.



Figure 4. Multi-pick / multi-drop scenario




  • Cross warehouse loading / unloading – with Adv SR it is now possible to load / unload stock from IM and EWM managed warehouses unto the same truck, thanks to the possibility of assigning different warehouse systems into one loading point. This speeds up the processing time.



Figure 5. Cross warehouse loading / unloading scenario




  • Easier integration with business partners – Adv SR has full EDI support for consignment and bordero-automatic creation of entire truck loads including shipment. Since, only one document is shared with all parties, there are no more issues on updates or synchronization of data with different documents. With regards to error handling, if the message contains errors (such as master data inconsistency, reference errors, etc.) the process is not cancelled (as before). Instead, a business object will be created with the missing information, and the user can manually (in case of spelling issues) or with automatic resolve functionality (in case of reference issues) fix / correct the document.



Figure 6. Integration with business partners


Conclusion

To summarize, with Advanced Shipping & Receiving you will benefit from a seamless integration between companies, simplified processes and increased business productivity, which will lead to smarter and smoother logistics processes.

FIND OUT MORE!

For a quick overview of the functionality and benefits of using Advanced Shipping and Receiving, check out our video:
https://sapvideoa35699dc5.hana.ondemand.com/?entry_id=1_fyvxr6pl

For a more in-depth discussion on the benefits of using Advanced Shipping and Receiving you can listen to the latest Digital Supply Chain podcast from Tom Raftery:
https://www.digitalsupplychainpodcast.com/354320/8075792-advanced-shipping-and-receiving-a-chat-with...

For a recap of the SAP S/4HANA 2020 FPS01 features delivered in SAP EWM, please check our “SAP Extended Warehouse Management – Scope of the 2020 FPS01 Release” document.

For the features delivered in SAP TM, please check our documentation and a blog post „SAP S/4HANA Transportation Management 2020 Development Overview – FPS1 | SAP Blogs

For more details and technical information on this new release, you can visit our “What’s New” viewer on help.sap.com.

For more information about SAP Extended Warehouse Management and SAP Transportation Management, please follow us on social media, our YouTube channel or our community pages:

SAP Community:

https://www.sap.com/community/topics/extended-warehouse-management.html

SAP Transportation Management | SAP Community

SAP Digital Supply Chain Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCELmE2CEAkcwqpBLnuZHufA

EWM LinkedIn Community:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1952257/

TM LinkedIn Community

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/3107838/

Release information and restrictions of embedded EWM on SAP S/4HANA 2020 and S/4HANA 2020 FPS01:
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2938306

SAP S/4HANA 2020 Supply Chain for Transportation Management - Release information

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2952651

Release information and restrictions of Decentralized EWM on SAP S/4HANA 2020 and S/4HANA 2020 FPS01:

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2938308

For a complete list of Q&A from the EWM community, please access this link:
https://answers.sap.com/tags/01200615320800000705

For a complete list of Q&A from the TM community, please access this link:

https://answers.sap.com/tags/01200615320800000686

In case you do not find your specific question there, feel free to post your question via the following form:
SAP EWM: https://answers.sap.com/questions/ask.html?primaryTagId=01200615320800000705

SAP TM: https://answers.sap.com/questions/ask.html?primaryTagId=01200615320800000686

 
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