The 2021 SAP Extended Warehouse Management Advent Calendar

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We have reached the closing month of 2021, and it has been quite the challenging year. So, in order to lighten the mood and lift up some spirits, the SAP EWM Product Management team has decided to try out something new this year by creating our very own virtual SAP EWM Advent Calendar.

For those not familiar with the calendar, it is a Christmas tradition originating in Germany, which counts down the days until Christmas beginning with December 1st. Normally, these calendars contain sweets or other small gifts and trinkets, which are hidden behind the calendar doors representing a day. As this is a virtual calendar, we will be sharing daily various content that we did not manage to share during the year as well as content you might have missed during the initial publishing.

We will be updating this article with a new paragraph each day up until December 24th, so you can bookmark this page until then for easier access to the daily updates.

DAY 1: Welcome to the Podcasts

To start off the calendar, today we would like to share with you a wonderful podcast initiative from Andreas Rupp and Matthias Nater, who work as solution advisors for digital supply chain.
The Extended Warehouse Management Podcast series offers interesting information and facts about intralogistics with SAP EWM. In each episode they talk about various topics such as the question "When was SAP EWM developed and how and why?" where they also share additional information for each topic linked to the Podcast.

For the SAP DSC Logistics experts out there, there is also the long running SAP Transportation Management podcast. In each episode of the podcast, the hosts and guests, made up of various SAP TM developers in Walldorf, talk about various aspects of SAP TM, from very specific topics such as functionalities and features, to broader ones, such as how development is being done while working from home.

If you want to sink your teeth deeper, SAP TM also has a “Black Belt” edition of the podcast, where topic are presented at a very detailed level, diving deep into specific aspects, sometimes down to the field level.

We hope you enjoy listening to these podcasts as much as we enjoy making them.

Just to recap, on Day 1 of the SAP EWM advent calendar we shared:

1. The Extended Warehouse Management Podcast


2. The SAP Transportation Management Podcast


3. The SAP TM Podcast – Black Belt Edition

 

DAY 2: SAP S/4HANA Cloud Recap 2021

Before we move to newer or lesser know SAP EWM updates and content, I would like to recap what we already shared over the year with regards to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Warehouse Management. Over the year 2021, we further expanded the scope of our cloud solution across all warehouse processes. Some of the highlights to mention are the new extensibility options for more putaway and stock removal strategy flexibility, Mobile Warehouse with 30+ RF transactions, new packing apps, nested Handling Unit support, additional APIs, and much more.

For an overview of what came in each release, as well as for the detailed “What’s New” presentations we provide, I will list below the article links.

1. SAP® Warehouse Management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2102 Development Overview


2. SAP® Warehouse Management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2105 Development Overview


3. SAP® Warehouse Management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2108 Development Overview


4. SAP® Warehouse Management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2111 Development Overview

If you are interested in more Digital Supply Chain topics, there is a blog series by Gerhard Welker where he provides an overview of innovations in SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Supply Chain in each release. As an example, here is the link for the most recent release of SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2111.

 

DAY 3: Sound Support for the “Pick by Cart” Fiori App

Today we want to share something that might have flown under your radar. We have two new SAP Notes which help users implement sound notification for the “Pick by Cart” Fiori App. This App is used in SAP EWM to pick multiple orders with a pick cart in a single trip through the warehouse. The usage of this App improves picking efficiency and reduces operational costs and human error.

The implementation of sound notifications is meant to further increase picking efficiency, and this is done in two steps via these notes:

1. Note 3107927 “Pick by Cart app: Sound Support” – this note describes how to implement the BAdI “Notification Sounds for Messages” (/SCWM/EX_PKODLV_MSG_AUDIO). You can use this BAdI to retrieve the audio URIs of the notification sounds for your messages. This is for the back end.


2. Note 3108189 “Pick by Cart: Sound Support for UI Downport” – this note is for the front end and with it, you can add the audio control to the UI to play different types of sounds in the picking process.

The sound notifications for messages are supported in the “Pick by Cart” Fiori App for releases: SAP S/4HANA 1909, 2020, 2021.

 

DAY 4: Release Information and Restrictions for SAP EWM in SAP S/4HANA 2021

Today we’d like to quickly share two SAP Notes that we have mentioned in our blog articles in the past, but we think they deserve a proper spotlight. The release information and restriction notes for Embedded EWM and Decentralized EWM on SAP S/4HANA provide conceptual and functional comparisons between the deployments of the latest versions for SAP EWM as well as comparison to SAP EWM 9.5.

1. Note 3080846 “SAP S/4HANA 2021: Release information and restrictions for EWM in SAP S/4HANA” – this SAP Note contains release information and restrictions when using embedded SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) in SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 2021 FPS00.


2. Note 3080907 “Release information and restrictions of Decentralized EWM on SAP S/4HANA 2021” – This SAP Note contains release information and restrictions when using SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) on a separate decentralized SAP S/4HANA system, on-premise edition 2021 FPS00.

SAP recommends to study carefully the list of differences between the deployment options of SAP EWM on SAP S/4HANA 2021 and SAP EWM 9.5 when deciding for the product version to be used for a new EWM implementation project. The notes on hand and the document "EWM Deployment Differences" (also found as an attachment in each note) provide information on feature parity gaps. In addition SAP recommends to check the SAP Note 1606493 „SAP EWM Deployment Options Best Practices“. In general the recommendation is to start new projects only on the SAP S/4HANA stack as this is the future platform for SAP Extended Warehouse Management and is planned to receive innovations with future releases.

 

DAY 5: Application Specific SAP Extended Warehouse Management Checks in SAP EarlyWatch Alert

Beginning of March 2021, the SAP EarlyWatch Alert service was enhanced to reflect application checks for SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM).

This new functionality was initiated via collaboration between the SAP Mission Control Center, SAP Extended Warehouses Management (EWM) experts, and SAP Customer Success targeting all SAP EWM customers who send data to SAP.

The automated service analyses the essential administrative services of the customer systems, alerts on any critical situations and offers recommendations & solutions to improve performance and stability.

To find a more detailed description of this tool, which checks are already released to the customers as well as links to other fundamental readings and information sources regarding this tool, I recommend the “Introduction of application specific Extended Warehouse Management Checks in SAP EarlyWatch Alert” article by Rozyta Mary.

 

DAY 6: SAP Extended Warehouse Management in SAP S/4HANA 2021 – Recap

Today we would like to start off the week with a recap of the On-Premise yearly release for SAP Extended Warehouse Management in SAP S/4HANA 2021. In this year’s release we invested in stronger integration, especially in the process flow between production and warehousing. Aside from this, over the year we have constantly worked on enhancing usability and user experience, brought many often-requested features, as well as quality of life enhancements that make our warehousing solution more intuitive and easier to use. In the article published by Head of Logistics Product Management, Jörg Michaelis, we talked about the areas of our investments for this release as well as some of the highlights in each area. The article you can find in the link below:

SAP Extended Warehouse Management in SAP S/4HANA 2021 – What’s New

In the article we also provide the “What’s New” slide deck we create for each release. In case you are interested directly in the slide deck, you can find it by clicking on this link.

 

DAY 7: SAP Warehouse Insights – The Cloud-based Planning Tool to Optimize Your Warehouse

We want to share another blast from the not-too-distant past that might have flown under your radar this year. In August of this year, we have released SAP Warehouse Insights 2108, and it was one of our most comprehensive and innovative releases since the initial release of SAP Warehouse Insights. While there were quite a few updates brought to SAP WI, I would like to highlight here the IoT integration. You can now integrate SAP Warehouse Insights with an IoT service to receive real-time information about resources in you warehouse. Based on the IoT integration, the following new features are available now in the “Resource Indoor Positioning” App:

• Visualize the real-time location of resources.


• Monitor the status of resources.


• Show geofences on the visual layout and receive geofence alerts.

A more detailed breakdown of features you can find in the article we published earlier this year – “SAP® Warehouse Insights 2108 Overview”. In the article you can also find the latest version of our SAP Warehouse Insights scope document, which features a description of the full range of functionalities currently available in the solution. For easier access, and in case you want to dive right into the details, you can find it by clicking on this link.

 

DAY 8: The Enhanced Support Assistance for SAP EWM

Today we move the spotlight on another great support tool to help you face issues with your Extended Warehouse Management solution. Appropriately, the tool is called Support Assistant, and we have reviewed the content of the tool for EWM and enriched it with more new knowledge and a friendlier user interface and structure.

Support Assistant for EWM is now offering much more answers and guided help in many areas, especially for issues in Warehouse Order Processing and Document Flow.

With this Next-Generation Support approach from SAP you can profit on improved customer support, anytime, anywhere, leveraging the latest technology and tools to speed up time to answers and provide a delightful experience.

To read more about the enhancement of the Support Assistant, be sure to check out this article by Anke Genis “Enriched version of Extended Warehouse Management Incident Creation with Support Assistant”.

To test it out yourselves, and access the Support Assistant, simply visit the SAP ONE Support Launchpad and start the incident creation process. Select the product for which you want to report an incident and the support assistant window pops up on the right-hand side of the screen.

 

DAY 9: How to Add a Bit of Flavour to Your Mobile RF Screens

Today I am excited to share with you something we haven’t shared yet this year. With the SAP S/4HANA 2021 release, we introduced SAP GUI for HTML for browser-based radio frequency (RF) devices. With the SAP GUI you can modernize the look and feel of RF screens. You can now have an SAP Fiori-like design without the need to use ITSmobile. SAP GUI for HTML renders the ABAP Dynpros created in the RF framework directly in the browser on the RF device. With SAP GUI for HTML, you can also use SAP Screen Personas to personalize RF screens.

Simplified Architecture

SAP Screen Personas is a personalization engine for Dynpro and Web Dynpro applications. You can use SAP Screen Personas to personalize and transform the user interface of SAP applications according to specific business needs. You can create role-specific screens (called flavors) that are managed by a central administrator. If required, you can also allow users to create their own personalized look and feel for applications or transactions. Transactions can have more than one flavor, with each screen looking differently if desired. You can also use SAP Screen Personas to create scripts that automate processes within a transaction.

Example: Changing Color and Font Size

The following guide describes how you can set up SAP Screen Personas flavors for mobile RF devices working on SAP GUI for HTML.

“SAP Screen Personas for Mobile RF Devices in Extended Warehouse Management in SAP S/4HANA - How-To G...”

Also, you can find it as the latest entry in our list of “How-To guides for EWM as part of S/4HANA”. Feel free to check any of the other guides in this list, some of which we have featured previously, such as the guide on how to configure distribution equipment in EWM.

 

DAY 10: The EWM Check Monitor

As today happens to fall on a Friday, I believe that most of you would like a quick and easy read before closing off. So, I will share with you something else that might have gotten overlooked this past year, and that is the SAP EWM Check Monitor. The SAP EWM Check Monitor (CHM) is a tool to help identification and correction of data inconsistencies in customer systems. Checks are organized in a hierarchy of check categories – groups – checks. The hierarchy is built upon defined major SAP EWM application areas. Currently a set of standard checks and corrective functions have been implemented by SAP. The checks can be run in ad-hoc manner, but the real advantage of the tool is its high level of customization, that allows users to define specific types of checks that they would perform most often or schedule them at specific times or intervals. The SAP EWM Check Monitor wiki provides guidelines on how to set-up these customizations, and the advantages they bring.

 

DAY 11: BAdI to Map Non-harmonized Material Numbers

In some cases, it may happen that customers are using decentral EWM on SAP S/4HANA on the latest on-premise release, which is connected to multiple enterprise management systems with non-harmonized material numbers (e.g. ERP1: MAT1, ERP2: MAT1) that represent different products in the warehouse. Users want to be able to clearly identify the product in the warehouse when document communication for the material takes place between an ERP System and SAP EWM, e.g. an Inbound Delivery is created. Therefore, it is necessary to use different material numbers in EWM for the non-harmonized material numbers in ERP. These material numbers must be correctly mapped during transactional processing (inbound and outbound) in EWM.

To do this mapping, we have released a SAP Note which explains the issue and solution in more detail as well as provides instructions on how to implement the corrections attached to the note. You can find the note in the following Launchpad Support link:

“3105304 [OP2021FPS1] – BAdI for mapping non-harmonized material numbers (EWM decentral)”

The note will add two new BAdIs which can be used to implement an individual mapping for the non-harmonized material numbers. If implemented, the new BAdIs will be called during transactional processing in EWM, whenever the external material number needs to be mapped to the internal material number in EWM (BAdI /SCWM/EX_DEC_MATNR_MAP_INB_S4) or vice versa (BAdI /SCWM/EX_DEC_MATNR_MAP_OUTB_S4). The mapping performed in the BAdI implementation will overwrite the original mapping.

 

DAY 12: Automatic Creation of Warehouse Product When Creating Products

Today I would like to briefly talk about SAP Note 3081583 which provides a custom specific solution using business transaction events (BTEs) for the automatic creation of warehouse products in EWM in SAP S/4HANA.

Whenever a product is created, a specific event (BTE with event key 00001250 "MATERIAL MASTER DATA: Post") is triggered. Subsequently, a specific function module is registered for this BTW 00001250. In this function module coding is executed to create the warehouse product data.

For further information on BTE and material master see help.sap.com page on “Enhancements Using Business Transaction Events (Material Master)".

Based on the customer use case there can be different requirements for the creation of the warehouse product data. Some examples could be:

• Should the warehouse product be created for all warehouses in the system or only for some warehouses?


• Should only the warehouse product itself be created or should also certain attributes be filled?


• In case of a decentralized EWM: Are there multiple ERP systems connected that transfer their products? If yes, should the warehouse products only be created for the warehouses of the corresponding ERP?

In this solution one specific example behavior is provided. Customers can create their own function module and adopt the example logic.

Please check the SAP Note 3081583 “Automatic Creation of Warehouse Product when creating Products” for further details.

 

DAY 13: The Essential Decentralized EWM on SAP S/4HANA Guides

Today I would like to bring your attention two guides for using Decentralized EWM on SAP S/4HANA: “The Integration of SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA with decentralized EWM in S/4HANA”  how-to guide, and the guide to “Migrate from Business Suite EWM to Decentralized EWM on S/4HANA”.

The Integration how-to guide describes the detailed configuration for integrating SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA with a decentralized Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) based on SAP S/4HANA 1909 and up. It has recently received its fifth official release, since 2019, with the current updates adding more information on Master Data Governance, Dependencies and Serialization of Master Data Distribution, how to create BATMAS IDoc automatically, as well as a few other additions of supporting notes and minor changes.

The other notable document we wanted to highlight is the How-To guide on migration from Business Suite EWM to Decentralized EWM on SAP S/4HANA. This document is intended for customers and consultants who plan to migrate a running warehouse from Business Suite EWM (e.g. SAP EWM Version 9,5) to decentral EWM on SAP S/4HANA. As there are conceptual differences between Business Suite EWM and S/4HANA based EWM, it is not only a technical upgrade but a migration.

As there are several functional and conceptual differences between Business Suite EWM 9.5 and the new decentral EWM on SAP S/4HANA, this migration guide helps to tackle these differences by first identifying them, and then providing some guidance on how to handle them. This second guide is tightly coupled with the integration guide that is mentioned above. The migration guide and the tools mentioned within it are intended for Business Suite EWM starting with release 7.0 or higher as a source, and a decentral EWM on S/4HANA 1909 and onward as destination system.

The migration guide can be found as an attachment to SAP Note 2976757 – “SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit: Central Note for Transfer Data Directly from SAP System - SAP EWM to..., which offers further guidance for the customer’s migration journey.

We hope these documents, and guidance you will find within, will support you in ensuring a smooth customer migration experience. These guides are being periodically updated to reflect any developments coming with new releases, so be sure to keep an eye out for those.

 

DAY 14: Preview of The SAP Warehouse Operator App

Today I would like to share with you something from our planned roadmap. As a Warehouse Operator, you want one mobile solution that supports all your daily tasks ranging from unloading to picking, packing & shipping. Such an App must optimize business processes & workflows to minimize unnecessary user interaction steps by leveraging the latest on-device technologies like computer vision, contextual awareness & indoor navigation.

Our vision is to deliver an easy-to-use mobile experience for people working within the Supply Chain to help them become more efficient when performing all their daily tasks by unleashing native device capabilities like Computer Vision, Indoor Wayfinding, Augmented Reality, Contextual Awareness & On-Device Intelligence unlike single purpose hardware solutions.

To find out more about the planned scope for this App, I recommend you read through the “SAP Warehouse Operator App – Planned Scope” document.  There we provide more details on planned capabilities, high-level architecture, and business value.

 

DAY 15: A SAP Note to Improve Performance During Warehouse Task Confirmation

Today I want to put the spotlight on two SAP Notes that might be lesser known but are highly useful. I am taking of the SAP Notes that improve performance during Warehouse Task confirmation to a bin with a large number of unpacked stocks.

The symptom that users sometimes might experience happens when they use a bin in which many unpacked stocks exist ("black box" scenario). When users confirm a pick warehouse task (without a destination HU) to this storage bin, they experience very long runtimes.

If you confirm several warehouse tasks in parallel to this bin, processing cannot take place in parallel. The warehouse tasks must be processed sequentially. To do this, the EWM standard system sets an exclusive database lock on the table /SCWM/HUHDR (internally, each storage bin is mapped as a HU, that is, the table is locked with HUIDENT = storage bin locked). As a result, all parallel processes must wait for this database lock. You can observe this in transaction SM50: There are waiting processes in the report /SCWM/SAPLHU_TO_UPD with the action "Direct Read" on the table /SCWM/HUHDR or /SCWM/LAGP.

Implementing the correction instructions from SAP Note 2524109 “Performance during WT confirmation to bin with a large number of unpacked stocks” improves the performance during confirmation. Thus, the time in which the exclusive lock on the table /SCWM/HUHDR must be held is reduced.

There is a follow-up Note which needs to be implemented as well. After implementing SAP Note 2524109, data in the Available Quantity is no longer filled from the physical stock entries. This happens even if the Check Monitor check for Available Quantity is used. So we recommend you immediately implement the corrections described in SAP Note 3127733 “Wrong data in Available Quantity”.

 

DAY 16: The Material Flow System Blog Series

Last year we shared a blog series about the Material Flow System Component of SAP Extended Warehouse Management. We want to re-share it as part of the EWM Advent Calendar as it provides a quick introduction to the topic as well as addresses experienced professionals. The blogs in the series deal with different aspects of MFS. They explain standard settings along with enhancement possibilities. Moreover, recommendations as well as do’s and don’ts are covered. Please note that these blogs are not intended to replace a classical training or experienced consultants by any means. By being published as blogs it is up to the reader to decide where to start studying and where to take a deep dive. The blog series covers various topics. As a beginner it makes sense to consume them in sequence. For professionals a quick pick of a focus topic is possible, too.

Available MFS topics are:

• Communication to PLCs


• Customizing and master data related to communications


• Receiving and processing of telegrams


• Sending telegrams


• Reliable communication

For a high level description of SAP Material Flow System, its capabilities and some select customer examples, please check out our overview document “SAP Material Flow System - Warehouse Automation with SAP Extended Warehouse Management”.

 

DAY 17: Sneak Preview: SAP EWM in SAP S/4HANA 2021 FPS01

In today’s Advent Calendar reveal we want to end the work week on something a bit more special. Our first big product release in 2022 will be the Feature Pack 1 release for SAP S/4HANA 2021. So, with that occasion, we want to offer a quick glimpse into the planned scope for this release.
With this release we plan to further enhance the integration between SAP EWM and SAP TM via the new Advanced Shipping and Receiving, continue to improve the user experience, focus on continuous improvements and TCO reduction, and more.

I will keep today’s paragraph brief, but be sure to check out our Planned Scope document by accessing the following link:

SAP Extended Warehouse Management in SAP S/4HANA OP 2021 FPS01 – Planned Scope

 

DAY 18 & DAY 19: More SAP Notes in the Spotlight

As this is the last weekend before Christmas, I would like to share two more useful SAP Notes before we head into the final week of the calendar.

The first Note is useful for when you want to decode bar codes in EWM RF transactions which are not supported in EWM standard setup. For example, you want to use a bar code which uses data identifier described in ANSI MH10.8.2 standard reference. Instead of creating your own decoding function module and changing a lot of Mobile Data Entry customizing entries, we wanted to offer another possibility to implement your own logic without the need of new customizing or modification of standard coding.

That is why we provide SAP Note 3096657 “BadI /SCWM/EX_BARC_DECODE”. This Business Add-In (BAdI) is used in the Extended Warehouse Management (SCM-EWM) component. You can use this BAdI to implement your own decoding logic, for example, bar codes that use different data identifiers than GS1-128 bar codes.

The other SAP Note to highlight is SAP Note 3065431 “Missing Document Flow upon Warehouse Task Confirmation and Quality Inspection”. Upon warehouse task confirmation with reference to a delivery, the corresponding deliveries are not updated with the necessary document flow entries. For example, it can happen in the following cases:

• After the confirmation of a warehouse task referring to an inbound delivery, the following document flow entries are missing:
  
  
  
  • PWA (Put Away)
  
  
  • PC (Posting Change)
  
  
  
  


• After the confirmation of a warehouse task referring to an inbound delivery or outbound delivery order for cross-docking, the following document flow entry is missing:
  
  
  
  • CDA (Cross-Docking)
  
  
  
  


• After the confirmation of a warehouse task for an outbound delivery order, the following document flow entry is missing:
  
  
  
  • PCA (Picking)
  
  
  
  


• Upon usage decision via transaction QA11 Record Usage Decision with follow up action for scrapping on stocks with inbound delivery reference, the system creates an automatically confirmed warehouse task to the scrap zone. For this warehouse task, the following document flow entries are missing:
  
  
  
  • PWA (Put Away)
  
  
  • PC (Posting Change)
  
  
  
  

Because of the missing document flow entries, subsequent process steps may fail depending on the scenario. So, in case of an outbound scenario, subsequent goods issue will fail due to the missing picking completion. This error only occurs if the warehouse task confirmation is done in applications outside the /SCWM/ namespace. To remedy this error we strongly recommend implementing the correction instructions attached to SAP Note 3065431 “Missing Document Flow upon Warehouse Task Confirmation and Quality Inspection”.

 

DAY 20: The Video Libraries of SAP DSC

As we are in the final stretch of this year’s EWM Advent Calendar, I would like to point out that there is still a wide range of content available for you to explore. One such example is the “SAP Digital Supply Chain” YouTube channel. In it, you can find a long list of informational videos covering topics from R&D/Engineering, Supply Chain Planning, Digital Manufacturing, Supply Chain Logistics and Asset Management. In our playlist there are customer videos where they share their experiences with SAP software, product release updates and features, as well as promotional and educational videos from SAP.

Most of the videos deliver short and concise bursts of information that serves as a window into a larger topic. As a very nice (and personal favourite) example, I recommend this video showcasing how Bechtle introduced robotics into their logistic processes.

Aside from this channel there are many more video showcases out there about SAP Digital Supply Chain, and more specifically SAP EWM. We compiled this short list of various examples of implementations you can find on YouTube, but there are a lot more to discover.

 

DAY 21: The Supply Chain Logistics Compendium

In continuing yesterday’s trend, I want to share with you one more great source of SAP DSC Logistics (and by extent SAP EWM) content, and that is the Supply Chain Logistics Compendium. It is an SAP e-book on digital logistics and order fulfillment, that serves as a compilation of value collateral, customer success stories, business transformation studies, solution videos, brochures, and press articles.

The intention with this e-book is to provide a single digital experience. We also hope you gain a fresh sense of enthusiasm using this e-book, which is updated regularly. More than ever, making innovation adoption an empowering experience for our customers is our mission. We look forward to our continued collaboration and to receiving your valuable feedback and suggestions.

To peruse the Compendium at your leisure please access this link, and feel free to bookmark it for future reference.

 

DAY 22: SAP Consulting Digital Supply Chain: Solutions Spotlight

Before we close out this year’s calendar, I would like to shift the spotlight to the wonderful work our colleagues in SAP Consulting are doing for SAP Extended Warehouse Management. Over the past two years, we have published multiple articles highlighting some of their latest and best solutions, so today I would like to list those articles, and through that, hopefully, spread some more awareness of the solutions and services provided by SAP Consulting Digital Supply Chain.

• The Shopfloor Simplification App significantly streamlines and guides the worker along logistic processes in production. Workers need only to be familiar with the App in order to accomplish their daily tasks and reporting, as well as organizing the staging processes. To find out more, please read our article on the Shopfloor Simplification App.


• Warehouses require intuitive and easy-to-use user interfaces to support warehouse employees in their daily operations. Especially often re-occurring tasks benefit from an excellent user experience. In addition, the UI should be responsive to support not only workstation operations but also offer to complete the task on a mobile device. Since some customers have special requirements and processes, the UIs must be easy to extend. To find out more how SAP Consulting provides such user interfaces, you can access our article on SimpleFioris@EWM.


• In recent years, the use of robots in the warehouse has become more present from year to year. Today, already quite a few companies have practically experienced the many added values associated with the use of warehouse robots and autonomous AGVs, and it is clear that the future in the warehouse is becoming more autonomous and digital. To see how SAP Consulting Digital Supply Chain supports the digital transformation, be sure to check our article on Simple Robotics.


• Real-time locating systems (RTLS) are gaining more relevance for industrial usage as more solutions are ready for the market. Due to insufficient signal reception conventional, satellite-based solutions cannot determine positions for objects within buildings. Therefore, intralogistics processes can benefit from the ongoing trend of digitalization by leveraging the potentials of RTLS. You can read more on how to boost business processes directly in SAP’s warehouse management system with the integration of RTLS into SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), in our article on Real-Time Locating System for SAP Extended Warehouse Management.


• Out-of-stock materials that are requested for replenishment or production staging can badly affect a smooth business flow. Therefore, a seamless integration of products from goods receipt directly to the location where they are needed – so called pre-allocated stock – can reduce unnecessary waiting times. Furthermore, a system-automated creation of the pre-allocated stock requirement can reduce the manual maintenance efforts and the workforce can focus on what really matters. The linked article presents more details on the enhancement service Missing Parts for SAP EWM.

 

DAY 23: Twas the Content Before Christmas

As we are close to the end of the calendar, I would like to share some more SAP Notes and content we had in mind to add to this calendar but couldn’t get to them yet. First, I will start with the SAP Notes.

Until recently, it was not possible to scan a 1- or 2-dimension barcode of a Global Transport Label (GTL) in the work centre transactions /SCWM/PACK, /SCWM/DCONS, /SCWM/QINSP_S4 and /SCWM/VAS . The data identifier in a scanned GTL barcode is not cut-off and thus the unique package ID was not available as HU identifier for further processing at the work centres in EWM. Additionally, it was not possible to decode a 1-dimension GTL barcode in EWM RFUI's.

By implementing SAP Note 3105299 “Enable Scanning of GTL - Barcodes in Work Centers and RFUIs”, scanning of 1-dimension barcodes in the work centre transactions and RFUIs will be enabled. For extraction of unique package identifier for GTL barcodes with less than 21 characters, a customer BAdI ("/SCWM/EX_BARC_ADJUST_HUIDENT") will be provided together with an example implementation. Furthermore, the scanning of 2-dimension GTL barcodes will be enabled in the work centres as well.

In the same direction, by implementing the correction instructions in SAP Note 3110698 “Enable Scanning of GTL-Barcodes in Pack Work Center” it is now also possible to scan a 1- or 2-dimension barcode of a GTL in the tabs “Repack HU” and “Repack Product” when navigating to the pack work centre via transaction /SCWM/PRDI or app Change Inbound Deliveries. Please note that the previous Note is a prerequisite for this one, as it is the one enabling the scanning of GTL barcodes.

The last SAP Note I want to share for this season is one that addresses the following scenario: you want to create a client-copy or a system-copy that contains a client with Extended Warehouse Management (EWM). This may be EWM embedded in SAP S/4HANA or a decentralized EWM system based on SAP S/4HANA. When doing this, you can adjust the parameters of the system landscape, such as the logical system. However, you should not change the business system key, as it is stored in EWM tables. This guidance can no longer be followed if other components such as Transportation Management are used in the same client, because the business system key must be changed to match the entry in the System Landscape Directory.

That is why SAP Note 3099337 “EWM: Change Business System Key after Client Copy” provides a transaction that allows you to change the business system key in EWM tables. This ensures that the business system key is consistent in the new client across all applications. The same function can be used to change other business system keys in EWM tables as well, such as the ERP business system key in a decentralized EWM system. We hope the use of this Note will help users accelerate the setup of additional test and/or quality systems.

Before we close off today’s content, I also want to share one final blast-from-the-past. The integration between production and warehousing is an important pillar for us, and one we continuously work on. And the two fundamental processes of this integration are receiving from production and staging to production. That is why we have dedicated a separate blog post for each process in the past, where we talk about the process steps and the various scenarios.

The first article, “Receiving from Production in SAP Extended Warehouse Management – Overview” presents the overall process of receiving the produced materials from a manufacturing order and then doing the put away of received goods in the Extended Warehouse Management system. Linked inside the article is also a comprehensive slide deck on the topic, so if you want to get deeper insights, be sure to check it out as well.

The second article, “Staging to Production in SAP Extended Warehouse Management – Overview” covers the supply to production side of things. Staging to production refers to the overall process of picking the requested raw materials or components and supplying them to production with guidance from the Extended Warehouse Management system. As with the first article, we have linked a slide deck which covers more details on the topic, so feel free to check that one out as well.

And as a tradition, I want to end today’s share by reminding that if you want more details and technical information on our new releases, you can visit our “What’s New” viewer on help.sap.com. Or, if you want more information on upcoming developments, please visit our Roadmap Explorer.

 

DAY 24: HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!!!!


We have reached the end of this year’s advent calendar, and what a year it has been. In 2021, we all have faced again a lot of challenges and difficulties in our private life as well as in our day-to-day work. The travel and office disruptions have once again derailed some of our planned activities this year.

And while the road to recovery is still ahead, I would like to proudly thank our great development teams for their tireless work and dedication. Thanks to their efforts, we have not slowed down in delivering enhancements that all our customers can appreciate.

I also want to thank you, our dear customers and partners, for your continued support, and for providing the feedback and encouragement we needed to push forward.

This year marks our first attempt at such a calendar, but we don’t plan to make it our last. Despite the amount of content we shared, I am certain there is a lot more that could be said and shown about SAP EWM, and even more so about SAP DSC Logistics. This served as a good foundation from which we can only build up on the content and style of such initiatives. Please do not hesitate to leave your feedback and let us know what you would like to see more of in the future of such projects.

And to close off, I want to acknowledge one last time the great SAP EWM development and product management teams. This is as much a celebration of them as it is of SAP EWM. My only regret when writing this paragraph is that I don’t have enough screen (or pictures) to fit all of them into one picture, but please know, it wasn’t for a lack of trying. For in the end, the greatest spotlight belongs to each and everyone of you.

To you dear readers, I wish you a peaceful and restful holiday season ahead, and may the New Year bring you more prosperity, wisdom, joy and as logistic experts, ever increasing efficiencies.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE, AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!