SAP® Extended Warehouse Management 2020 Development Overview, Part 1 – Improved User Experience

We are now in the final quarter of 2020, which has so far proven to be a challenging year for all of us, but thanks to a strong and dedicated team, we have not slowed down in delivering enhancements that all our customers can appreciate. And our greatest delivery yet is the SAP S/4HANA 2020 release for EWM. With this release we brought many often-requested features, as well as quality of life enhancements that make our warehousing solution more intuitive and easier to use. Before we go into the details, I would like to personally thank the teams who worked tirelessly to bring this release, as well as our customers who provided the feedback and encouragement we needed to push forward.

Over the year we have constantly worked on enhancing usability and user experience, as well as offering new functions and scenarios, so that our customers have new, easier and more efficient tools at their disposal to fit their needs and improve resource utilization, minimize inventory costs and maximize service levels through fulfilment acceleration and inbound-outbound processes coordination. We also strengthened our integration to provide a seamless process flow between production and warehousing.

In order to best cover the features and enhancements this release brings, we will publish a 4-part series of blogs, each covering a specific topic of enhancements. These topics are:

1. Improved User Experience
2. Enhanced Integration
3. Innovation capabilities
4. Simplification and best practices

Today, in our first part, we provide a run-down of what kind of enhancements we’ll bring to our customers’ user experience.

New SAP Fiori App: Process Warehouse Tasks

With this new App, users can now confirm all kind of warehouse tasks in one single app (e.g. putaway, stock removal, replenishment warehouse tasks). Just as with our other “Process Warehouse Tasks” Fiori Apps, which were for individual processes, with this new consolidated app you can do mass confirmation of tasks, and it also allows processing of exceptions. Furthermore, users can now process HU warehouse tasks in addition to product warehouse tasks with all Fiori Apps for warehouse task processing, including the new Fiori App “Process Warehouse Tasks”.

Enhancement to SAP Fiori App: Count Physical Inventory

We have enhanced the Fiori App for counting to provide more flexibility in the counting process. Users can now select the ‘partially counted’ status for warehouse orders. This means that warehouse workers can partially save the inventory count for physical inventory counting documents in case the counting cannot be completed in one run. The system can also propose a “Checked” status after entering a new count value or after flagging the bin as empty. In addition, the App now also supports manually “checking” of single items.

Enhancements to SAP Fiori App: Pack Outbound Deliveries

We improved the user experience for the “Pack Outbound Deliveries” App to increase productivity. If the source side has no more unpacked items and all shipping HU(s) are closed, the cursor switches to the field ‚Reference Number‘. This allows the user to start packing for the next outbound delivery without leaving the app. Before the 2020 release, the cursor would automatically position in the field ‚Product/ Access Code‘.

Enhancements to SAP Fiori App: Process e-Commerce Returns

For the “Process e-Commerce Returns” App we now made it possible to process the returns based on the LE-delivery batch, which before was only possible based on the original sales order. The process for the returns has thus been simplified, where first the returned product and batch are calculated in ERP, after which an inbound delivery is created in EWM and the returned products are sent to ERP for return order creation. Please note that this enhancement is available only for decentral EWM on SAP S/4HANA.

Enhancement of Warehouse KPIs Fiori App

A substantial update to the “Warehouse KPIs” Fiori App is the ability to drill down in individual KPI tiles in order to get a more detailed overview. We created a smart business drill-down page based on KPI card navigation from the “Warehouse KPIs” overview page. Currently the KPI tiles available for drill-down are:

• Outbound Delivery Order KPI
• Warehouse Task KPI (except KPIs for picking / putaway warehouse task)
• Warehouse Order KPI

We plan to add more drill-down features in subsequent releases.

New & Enhanced APIs

For the On-Premise release of EWM we now made available the following APIs for external developers and external applications:

• Read and update EWM outbound delivery orders
• Read and update EWM handling units
• Read EWM inbound deliveries
• Read and count physical inventory documents
• Input help (F4) for storage bins
• Input help (F4) for warehouse number

We also enhanced the following:

• Create, Read, Update and Delete warehouse resources
• Read and Update warehouse tasks and warehouse orders

Please note that these APIs were developed for S/4HANA Cloud, but by implementing a BAdI they can be used in on-premise too (see SAP note 2790112).

Improved RF Screen Formats & Logging Capability

Finally, for User Experience, I would like to highlight the improvements we made for the RF Framework. Within the RF Framework we wanted to make it possible to protocol user actions (value input or function key pressing), raised messages and entered exception codes (e.g. DIFF, SPLT, NEXT, SKIP, etc.) without the need of a modification in EWM standard coding. We provided a Monitor node to view logged RF events, a switch to activate logging, and a report to delete events. This node cannot only be used to monitor error messages but also to identify repeated verification issues or identify a potentially wrong transaction flow or usage.

Furthermore, we have modernized the RFUI screens. In order to reduce the total cost of implementation for RF screens, we deliver with the 2020 release besides standard RF screens in landscape mode also RF screens in portrait mode. We provide the portrait mode for all 329 RF screens with new template screens in Format 15×26 (lines x columns). Please have a look at SAP note 2968096 for the new CSS style sheet.

Thanks to Author Joerg Michaelis 

SAP® Extended Warehouse Management 2020 Development Overview, Part 2 – Enhanced Integration

In our previous blog of the 4-part series covering the enhancements brought to SAP EWM by the SAP S/4HANA 2020 release we presented a detailed overview of the improvements we made in the area of User Experience. With this blog, I want to go over what is probably the biggest part of our release: the enhanced Integration. While the main focus was on various production related improvements and innovations, we also enhanced the integration to Quality Management, Serial Number handling and more.

Synchronous Goods Movements from Manufacturing to EWM

Now with synchronous goods movement from Manufacturing to EWM, all updates will be synchronized between the warehouse management and inventory management systems. Through this improvement, users can experience better stock synchronization, avoid monitoring of asynchronous processes and queues, reduce documentation (no inbound and outbound deliveries) and mix consumption from MM-IM and EWM storage locations in one posting.

It is important to note that while this feature was available in the 1909 release, it was only for repetitive manufacturing. Now with S/4HANA 2020 SAP EWM supports the following processes:

• Confirmations (GR / GI) using discrete and process manufacturing (for repetitive available since 1909)
  • Transactions CO11N, CO15, COR6N, CORK and others
  • Synchronous backflush using PMR (for cross order- and single order parts)
  • Batch determination in EWM for component backflush (REM & PP)
  • Co- and by-products
  • Automatic putaway WT creation
  • Re-processing with COGI
• Confirmations with HUs (transaction MFHU)
• Goods receipts for HUs from production (transaction COWBHUWE)
• GR and GI for order / reservation with transaction MIGO
• Document-neutral and document-specific reversals
• Kanban for in-house production strategies ‘working with production orders’
• PP confirmation BAPIs and APIs
• MM-IM BAPI_GOODSMVT_CREATE and BAPI_GOODSMVT_CANCEL

We have also included several options to control automatic creation of putaway tasks, as shown in the picture below.

Additionally, we integrated the UI between MM-IM material document display in MIGO and EWM. For that we added a new tab ‘Warehouse Management’ in MIGO on item level to support synchronous posting for:

• GR and GI for order
• GI for reservation
• Cancel and return delivery for material document
• GR for summarized JIT call

This new tab offers visibility of receiving / consumption bin, EWM material document and EWM putaway task. Furthermore, you can directly navigate from this tab to the EWM warehouse monitor to show material document or putaway tasks.

We are only scratching the surface with this blog, but you can find more details in the “SAP Extended Warehouse Management – scope of 2020 release” document linked here and at the end of this article. One final important point to mention is that this feature is available only for the embedded SAP Extended Warehouse Management on SAP S/4HANA version.

Stock Transfer Kanban Improvements

We also made three improvements in the area of Kanban, available only for the embedded SAP EWM version. Firstly, we made it very intuitive to reverse the Kanban status from FULL to EMPTY in case of user error. EWM warehouse tasks as well as the goods movement shall be reversed. The reverse from FULL to EMPTY process will automatically post stock back into EWM storage locations, put stock back into source storage bin, and re-create warehouse tasks to replenish Kanban. With this enhancement users will save time and reduce errors that can occur during the manual reversal process.

A second improvement for Kanban is the new default exception code we added for setting Kanban FULL with a difference in quantity. Before the 2020 release, it was not possible to enter differences in the “Set KANBAN Container Status” Fiori App but an error message was raised. Now when entering differences for stock transfer with EWM warehouse task, a default exception code is set in the background. This exception code can be customized in the warehouse process type.

Lastly for Kanban, we have added the Inventory Management material document and GM document to the Kanban information display. By double clicking on the document numbers you can navigate forward to each option. This will make navigation and troubleshooting more intuitive.

Enhancements to Quality Management

There are also three enhancements we made in the area of Quality Management. The first and biggest is the integration to QM defects and notification. With this new solution we want to capture defects for products in EWM managed warehouses or production supply areas (PSA), do stock assignments and follow-up actions triggering stock postings for one or multiple materials, all in EWM. Stock that needs inspection can be posted to “Blocked” or “Quality stock”, and after investigation warehouse workers post the stock to ‘free available stock’, ‘scrap to cost center’, ‘return delivery’ or ‘move stock’. Please note that this solution is available only for EWM embedded version.

Another improvement in QM integration is the addition of two new follow-up actions when specifying accounting objects in quality usage decisions. Now 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. Currently this enhancement is for the embedded EWM version, but we plan to make it available for Decentral SAP EWM on S/4HANA with the Feature Pack 1 release of 2020.

One final enhancement to mention in the area of QM integration is the integration of QM in the production part approval process for first article inspections. First article inspections are controlled in the quality info record by maintaining the corresponding purchase order item for first article delivery. This makes communication between manufacturers and suppliers easier and more efficient.

Enhancements to Serial Number Management

For Serial Numbers we have added a new customizing option that enables harmonized serialization on client and plant level. Harmonized Serial Number Profile includes ERP as well as EWM serialization. The harmonized serial number profile brings ERP and EWM settings together in one profile thereby making it possible to validate the profile in advance before using it. Users will notice that a lot of redundancy will be avoided thanks to this harmonization, as well as the ability to decide on entitled level whether a product should be serialized or not.

Aside from harmonization users can also repair serial number profiles via a new monitor method to delete serialization settings stored in the EWM warehouse product and maintain new profiles. This serial number repair is only possible when no open warehouse tasks, open delivery items or warehouse stock exists.

Accounting Information in Ad-Hoc Goods Movements

A minor but no less significant improvement is the enhancement of the transaction /SCWM/ADGI Post Unplanned Goods Issue. Now with transaction /SCWM/ADGI users can post goods movement for the consumption, scrapping and sampling processes. The account assignment can be changed for a single item when a partial goods issue is posted. For warehouse documents posted with transaction /SCWM/ADGI the account assignment can be displayed in the warehouse monitor.

JIT Supply to Production – Stock Transfer for JIT Call

Finally, I would like to present what is arguably the biggest integration topic of this release, Just-in-Time (JIT) supply to production. The integration with this new solution covers the internal replenishment process for JIT in production supply for the automotive industry. Warehouse workers can now transfer stock from EWM managed storage locations to EWM managed production supply areas (PSA) to accurately and timely supply the production line. The lightweight warehouse request ‘internal stock transfer’ acts as an interface between JIT and warehouse order processing. Please note that this solution is provided for the embedded EWM version only.

The JIT supply to production process in EWM includes the following functions:

• Creation of stock transfer for JIT followed by an immediate automatic warehouse task creation in EWM, a manual warehouse task creation in EWM or a warehouse task creation via wave management in EWM
• Change management from the JIT call to the stock transfer for JIT call
• Process and quantity updates from EWM to JIT during warehouse order processing
• Monitoring with the EWM warehouse management monitor
• An enhancement concept with new BAdIs

Just as with the synchronous goods movement enhancements, there are a lot more details to cover for this topic, so I again highly encourage you to check the “SAP Extended Warehouse Management – scope of 2020 release” .

FIND OUT MORE!

There are more minor integration topics that may be worth your attention, such as the global transport label support (GTL) for handling unit management, and you can read about them and the topics we covered above in our “SAP Extended Warehouse Management – Scope of the 2020 Release” document in the following link:
https://dam.sap.com/mac/embed/public/pdf/v/mzWrXsc.htm

Thanks to Author Joerg Michaelis

October 14, 2020

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SAP® Extended Warehouse Management 2020 Development Overview, Part 3 – Innovations

After a short break, i would like to continue with the development overview of the 2020 release. In our previous blog in the series, we highlighted the work we have done in the area of integration. Today, I would like to focus on the innovations we have done for SAP EWM, which complement warehouse operations with enhanced analytics, enhance the distribution equipment process introduced with 1909 and, leverage the S/4HANA Attachment Services for EWM objects and more. Read below to get a complete overview of our investments in the area of innovations.

Enhancement of Warehouse KPI Fiori App

We have improved the “Warehouse KPI” Fiori App with a smart business drill-down feature for KPI card navigation in the overview page. With the 2020 release the drill-down function is available for the following warehouse KPIs:

• Outbound Delivery Order KPI
• Warehouse Task KPI (except KPIs for picking / putaway warehouse tasks)
• Warehouse Order KPI

By clicking on a graphical statistic in a KPI card a new drill-down window opens. The drill-down displays for example the list of warehouse orders included in the KPI, their status, activity area and other relevant information.

New Core Data Service (CDS) Views

The enhancement of the “Warehouse KPI” Fiori App is not the only work done in the area of analytics. We added new CDS views for Inbound Delivery and Waves enhanced the one for Warehouse Tasks:

• CDS view for Inbound Delivery C_EWM_InboundDeliveryItemQ with the following measures:
  • Number of Inbound Delivery Items
  • Number of Inbound Deliveries
  • Gross Weight of Inbound Delivery Items
  • Net Weight of Inbound Delivery Items
  • Volume of Inbound Delivery Items
  • Product Quantity
  • Unloading Duration Time (In Minutes)
  • Putaway Duration Time (In Minutes)
  • Wait in Yard Duration (In Minutes)
  • Goods Receipt Duration (In Minutes)
• CDS view for Waves C_EWM_WarehouseWaveQ with the following measures:
  • Number of Waves
  • Number of Wave Items
  • Cutoff date and time of waves
  • Release date and time of waves
• CDS view for Warehouse Tasks C_EWM_WarehouseTaskQ was enhanced with the following measures:
  • Number of Waves
  • Number of Wave Items

Attachment Services for EWM Objects

Attachment services is a feature we have made available in the Cloud since the SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2002 release (available since February 2020), and now we brought it to On-Premise as well. With this feature, warehouse operators can attach pictures and documents to inbound deliveries, outbound delivery orders and Transportation Units for documentation purposes. We have enhanced the respective Fiori Apps to manage and display the attachments.

We also created a new archiving object where users can store old attachments for future references. Furthermore, we enhanced the warehouse monitor to allow the display and management of attachments relevant to inbound, outbound deliveries and Transportation units. This feature allows for more detailed documentation and collection of visual confirmation that inbound or outbound deliveries as well as transportation units were handled correctly.

Distribution Equipment Process Enhancements

For the distribution equipment process introduced with S/4HANA 1909 it is now possible to confirm picking with handling unit positions via the desktop App “Confirm Warehouse Tasks” in addition to the already available confirmation via RF. Moreover  the RF picking was enhanced with two exception codes: The first is the new exception code SKWO, which will allow skipping warehouse orders – not only in the context of distribution equipment but also in any other RF picking process. The second is the existing exception code NEXT. By using this exception code in the RF transaction screen, users can add another rack / pick HU in case the previous rack / pick HU is already full.

Further in the area of distribution equipment we now allow users to create HUs containing HU positions to represent a mobile rack in their master data. For that we enhanced the transaction /SCWM/RACKTYPE with a change log for the master data maintenance, and we enhanced the transaction /SCWM/RACK_GEN to enable generation of HUs containing HU positions based on multiple external IDs and display them according to a hierarchical structure.

Missing/Urgent Parts Handling in Receiving

Often it happens in a warehouse that goods are coming in that are urgently needed e.g. for the production process. We have added a new process by which warehouse workers can pre-allocate stock to cover urgent demands as soon as the material is available again.

When an inbound delivery arrives at the warehouse, the system checks the received products against the required missing stock. In case the received products are needed e.g. in the production supply area, normal putaway is bypassed and the stock is routed directly to the production supply area. During putaway warehouse task creation / cancellation / confirmation, the quantity for the pre-allocated stock entry is updated and if completely fulfilled, the entry is deleted. We added a new node in the warehouse monitor where users can manage pre-allocated stock.

New and Enhanced APIs

And finally, I want to mention the enhanced and new APIs we have made available for SAP EWM on-premise with this release. The new APIs we added are:

• Read and update EWM outbound delivery orders
• Read EWM handling units
• Read EWM inbound deliveries
• Read and count physical inventory documents
• Input help (F4) for storage bins
• Input help (F4) for warehouse number

In parallel we also enhanced the following APIs:

• Create, Read, Update and Delete warehouse resources
• Read and Update warehouse tasks and warehouse orders

Please note that these APIs were developed for S/4HANA Cloud but by implementing a BAdI they can be used in the on-premise version (see SAP note 2790112).

FIND OUT MORE!

For a more detailed coverage of the above mentioned enhancements and features as well as other updates covered by the 2020 release, please read our “SAP Extended Warehouse Management – Scope of the 2020 Release” document in the following link:
https://dam.sap.com/mac/embed/public/pdf/v/mzWrXsc.htm

Thanks to Author Joerg Michaelis

November 6, 2020

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SAP® Extended Warehouse Management 2020 Development Overview, Part 4 – Simplification

In the previous blog post in our S/4HANA 2020 series we talked about the innovative enhancements we brought to SAP EWM in the SAP S/4HANA 2020 release. Today I would like to present the fourth and final part in our series covering the various enhancements and tools meant to further simplify the usage of our solution. I will talk about the new migration objects to migrate from Business Suite EWM to decentral EWM on SAP S/4HANA, the improved ALE master data distribution, some warehouse monitor improvements, RF modernization and more.

Migration from Business Suite EWM to EWM on S/4HANA

In the SAP S/4HANA 2019 release we shipped the first migration objects (warehouse products, storage bins, bin sorting, fixed bins and stocks) for the migration scenario  „SAP EWM to Decentralized EWM on SAP S/4HANA“ in the S/4HANA migration cockpit. With this release we continued to increase the list of available migration objects with the following objects:

• EWM resources
• Work center settings
• Production supply settings
• Physical inventory settings
• Material flow system settings
• Settings in the area of ‘application log’
• Shipping & receiving Settings

As an attachment to SAP note 2976757 you will find a guide that leads you through the process of the migration. Additionally, the existing report for distributing packaging specifications has been enhanced to enable migration of packaging specifications.

Improvement of Master Data Distribution with Application Linking and Embedding (ALE)

Continuing in the area of decentral EWM , we made some improvements to how Master Data is distributed with ALE. This has been done to reduce the TCI by avoiding implementation of BAdIs and to reduce TCO by reducing data traffic between systems and simplified operations. To cover the full list of improvements please refer to the following table:

Enhancements to RF Picking – Skip Warehouse Order (SKWO)

We already lightly touched upon the exception code SKWO when discussing enhancements made for the distribution equipment process in EWM. Today I would like to elaborate on this more in the context of RF picking. SKWO is a new exception code for RF system-guided picking and system-guided by queue. By using this code, the system automatically proposes the next warehouse order (WO) according to the usual selection criteria. As soon as the WO is executed, the previously skipped WOs are proposed to the worker again. Skipping WOs is only possible before confirming the first warehouse task of an order. Please note that Skipping WOs shall not be possible in combination with pick, pack and pass as well as pick by voice.

New Monitor Method to Assign Warehouse Requests to Waves

We further simplified wave management via new methods in the warehouse monitor. Now users can assign a warehouse request to an existing wave, set up an automatic assignment of new requests to existing waves or create a new wave to which the new requests can be assigned. Currently this functionality is available for outbound delivery order items and for stock transfer for JIT calls. This will make it easier to handle ad-hoc assignments.

New BAdI to Override Capacity Check During Wave Assignment

To override capacity checks during wave assignments we have created BAdI /SCWM/EX_WAVE_CAPA. For waves that have a wave capacity profile, the BAdI is called in the following situations:

• When a wave is created
• When items are assigned or reassigned to existing waves
• As a precheck during automatic wave assignment
• When changes are made to the attributes of a wave

The BAdI is called after the execution of the standard capacity check and allows users to override the results. Users can allow further items to be assigned to the target wave, even though the capacity is exceeded. Or they can reject the wave assignment, even though the capacity is sufficient. In addition, log messages can be added to the wave assignment log. The BAdI can be found here: EWM IMG > Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) for Extended Warehouse Management  Goods > Issue Process > Wave Management > Capacity Check for Waves.

Further Round-ups & Simplifications

To round up today’s topic, I would like to mention some other smaller improvements we made. First, we added a new ‘flexible’ order split criterion. This has been done by adding a new field to customizing table /SCWM/TWCRLIMIT where users can specify a field out of the task structure to act as split criterion. This can be combined with other limits in the warehouse order creation limit. As soon as any defined limit is reached, the WO will be split. Second, we added a new BAdI to prevent calling the Post Processing Framework (PPF) for a handling unit. The BAdI is e.g. to be used in case an HU is processed but no printing of HU documents must be triggered. This will improve system performance by limiting unnecessary calls to the PPF. Last but not least, there is a new BAdI to determine the consolidation group for stock transfer based on warehouse process type and delivery priority. This is available for warehouse requests of type stock transfer including stock transfer for JIT calls.

FIND OUT MORE!

With this final blog we finish our recap of the 2020 release, but there are still more details to discover, which you can find in our “SAP Extended Warehouse Management – Scope of the 2020 Release” document in the following link:
https://dam.sap.com/mac/embed/public/pdf/v/mzWrXsc.htm