Today I would like to share with you an overview of SAP Extended Warehouse Management in SAP S/4HANA 2020 FPS01, released on February 24th 2021. It expands on the already large scope of the mainline release with more improvements in the area of integration, decentral SAP EWM, RF functionality and others. One of the biggest features of this release though is the new TM-EWM integration that we refer to as “Advanced Shipping and Receiving (Adv. SR)” which does not leverage anymore the transportation unit and leverages the TM freight order for EWM operations. We will have a deeper look into this topic in a later blog post, but for today I would like to highlight our other key features and enhancements part of this release. And we begin with the developments in the area of Integration.
INTEGRATION
Synchronous Goods Receipt (GR) for External Procurement via MIGO
I would like to begin with the improved integration between EWM and ERP. The synchronous goods receipt postings for external procurement are already available in Warehouse Management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Edition (CE) since the 2011 release. This enhancement was done to allow for synchronous updates of stock between MM-IM and embedded EWM in SAP S/4HANA, as well as eliminate hanging queues between ERP components of SAP S/4HANA and embedded EWM in SAP S/4HANA. Furthermore, it reduces the number of documents since there are no inbound deliveries needed for GR from external procurement. Another advantage of this enhanced integration is the ability to mix GR for MM-IM and EWM storage locations in one posting, as well as mix GR into warehouse stock and to consumption (e.g. cost center). Also, error messages from EWM are now shown to users posting GR in transaction MIGO.
This new feature supports standard purchase orders, scheduling agreements, purchase orders referencing value- or quantity contracts, stock transfer orders as well as subcontracting purchase orders including GI posting of the components. In addition to the GR posting also cancellations of GR documents are supported in transaction MIGO. The automatic creation of of handling units is supported as well as the GR of serialized products and you can optionally configure the automatic putaway warehouse task creation. In addition to the process integration, we also did a user interface integration: the EWM document number is displayed in MIGO as well as MB51 and allows navigating directly to the EWM goods movement document and warehouse task in the warehouse monitor.
This integration is available for embedded EWM in SAP S/4HANA 2020 FPS1 as well as Warehouse Management in SAP S/4HANA CE 2011, but it is not supported in the decentralized deployment of EWM due to system boundaries.
Enhancements to QM Integration: Follow-Up Actions
In the SAP S/4HANA 2020 release for EWM, we added two new follow-up actions when specifying accounting objects in quality usage decisions. Users can specify if an object is ‘Scrapped to cost center’ or is posted to ‘Sample consumption’. The example below illustrates how posting an object to scrap would look like in the system. At the time of the SAP S/4HANA 2020 release, this enhancement was available only for the embedded version. Now with the SAP S/4HANA 2020 Feature Pack 1 release we also made it available for decentral SAP EWM.
Early Quantity Updates to LE-Delivery
A final highlight in the area of Integration i would like to mention is the early quantity updates to LE-Delivery. Whereas previously we would only adjust the quantities in the LE-Delivery with the goods issue posting, we offer now the possibility to notify the LE-Delivery earlier – before the actual goods issue posting – about quantity updates.
DECENTRAL EWM
Immediate Batch Replication
Let’s continue with the enhancements in the area of decentral EWM.
With this enhancement, we aim to provide consistency and better data quality between SAP ERP and SAP EWM to avoid, for example, usage of blocked batches in SAP EWM. Specifically, there were a few requirements for immediate batch replication that we cover. For example, we now enable immediate distribution of newly created or changed batches from ECC to EWM based on ALE standard messages. This is supported for all batch levels available in ECC. Also, batches with or without classification are supported.
The new solution is based on standard mechanisms and tools of the ALE framework and does not make use of change pointers in order not to interfere with existing customer scenarios.
The trigger of the distribution of batch changes or creation is independent of the used UI. This means for example that the distribution is triggered in any case a change on the database happens, e.g. when changing a batch via MSC2N, creating a batch in the inbound delivery via VL31N or changing a batch from a BAPI such as BAPI_BATCH_SAVE_REPLICA.
The solution does not have any impact on the existing ECC runtime. Therefore, the solution is provided in an SAP internal BAdI on ECC side. This implementation does not increase the overall runtime on ECC side when changing or creating a batch significantly as the EWM logic is decoupled.
The immediate batch replication enhancement is provided via SAP Note 2983820.
Create and Change Local Batch in Decentral EWM on SAP S/4HANA
A feature that has been requested by many customers is the local batch creation in EWM that allows warehouse clerks to create or change a batch in decentral EWM on SAP S/4HANA. Potential use cases could be during physical inventory, for examples when a product with batch is found that is not in the system, or when a batch is needed after a posting change. Additionally, this new features enables the warehouse clerk to change characteristic values of a batch directly in decentral EWM. With the 2020 FPS1 release the existing batch master data transactions MSC1N and MSC2N can be used in decentral SAP S4HANA EWM. The changes will be replicated to the ERP backend systems without restrictions.
This feature is delivered via SAP Note 2987398.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SAP S/4HANA 2020 FPS01 RELEASE
RF Screens with Touch Enablement
Before this release, in SAP EWM standard RF transactions, the following standard function codes are only available as function keys but not as pushbuttons:
- Clear input field value (‘CLEAR’) – F6
- Return to previous step (‘BACK’) – F7
- Display value list of actual field (‘LIST’) – F8
- Display message on separate screen (‘FULLMS’) – F9
On devices without hardware function keys, these function codes either must be triggered via a software keypad or by entering the corresponding value in the shortcut field on the RF device. Both possibilities are not user-friendly and decrease the performance of the RF user.
Now however SAP EWM has the ability to assign these standard function keys as pushbuttons, with the ability to switch these on and off. There are four standard variants of push button arrangements on screen, with the ability to implement different push button arrangements via BAdI. With this SAP EWM now can better support devices which don’t have buttons to trigger screen actions.
Alongside this enhancement, we also provide new configuration on presentation device level to determine the position of the standard push buttons. With this the Function Key name is automatically removed (e.g. instead of „F10 Print“ the button is now called „Print“).
Last I would like to mention that this functionality is also available for the SAP S/4HANA 2020 release via SAP Note 2957972.
Vendor Consignment Stock in Production
Some materials are received and put-away as vendor-owned consignment stock. Based on legal requirements and contractual agreements the stock must be posted to own stock before it is consumed in production. With this new release, users can set-up the system to automatically post the consignment stock to own stock based on selection criteria configured in the report /SCWM/R_STOCK_TYPE_CHANGE.
You can either set-up the posting to take place after the consignment stock reaches a dedicated storage type (e.g. a storage type of a production supply area) or after a dedicated amount of time after Goods Receipt, depending on contractual obligations with the vendor.
This feature is available for both embedded and decentral EWM in SAP S/4HANA 2020 FPS01.
Extensibility of the EWM Product Master Data
With this feature we enable the central SAP S/4HANA extensibility framework for EWM master data, namely the EWM warehouse product in order to reduce the total cost of implementation. It allows you to add custom fields for storage type data and warehouse data to the master data or your warehouse products (transaction /SCWM/MAT1 – app “Maintain Products – Warehouse Data”).
Custom fields can be added in the Fiori app “Custom Fields and Logic”. Once published, you can change and display them e.g. in transaction /SCWM/MAT1 and the warehouse monitor.
FIND OUT MORE!
There are more topics in this release that may be worth your attention, such as KANBAN enhancements, or a list of new migration objects available with the SAP S/4HANA 2020 FPS01, and you can read about them and the topics we covered above in our “SAP Extended Warehouse Management – Scope of the 2020 FPS01 Release” document.
As mentioned in the introduction, one of the biggest features of this release is the new TM-EWM integration also known as Advanced Shipping and Receiving (ASR). This is an important topic which will be discussed in-depth in a separate blog post, so stay tuned. If would like to already have a view of what is ASR, we have it as a topic in the above-mentioned overview document.
For more details and technical information on this new release, you can visit our “What’s New” viewer on help.sap.com.