The SAP Transportation add-on consists of the follow modules: - Customer Freight Invoicing (FCX) - Railcar Tracking - On-site Railcar Event Management (OSEM) - Distance Determination Service (DDS) - Routing Guide - Rail Fleet Management The Routing Guide module is part of the Freight Cost Extension (FCX). This solution uses the pricing condition technique for routing sales order, purchase orders, deliveries and shipments. This solution does not interfere with the standard Route Determination functionality, but provides more flexibility of combining multiple fields for determining a route. The fields are assigned to tables. The Routing Guide uses routes created using transaction 0VTC. You assign the access sequence of the tables to the condition type. For those familiar with pricing condition you should understand the concept. The Routing Guide allows you to determine the Routing option. There are 3 options: 1. Alternation - Alternation allows the system to alternate which route is chosen based upon the allocation defined for each route. 2. Low cost preferred carrier - the system will attempt to simulate freight charges for each of the proposed routes 3. Preferred carrier – preferred carrier for that route By using option number 2 you can compare multiple carriers to a five digit zip code and select the lowest cost carrier. This is an excellent alternative to a carrier optimization solution. You do not have this functionality using standard R/3 Route Determination. Freight costing configuration must be completed in order to use Routing option number 2. The Routing Guide also tracks historic data and identifies non-compliance carriers. If you are looking for a more advanced Route Determination solution, I would suggest looking into the Routing Guide functionality. This solution will allow you to create you own strategy when is comes to determining a route.
