Skip to Content
Author's profile photo Marcus Zahn

Monday Knowledge Snippet (MKS) – 02 Can I do Transportation Management in the wild?

In the wild meaning between oil rigs, in the forest or desert. Actually anywhere where there is not really an address available. Hmm, gotta think about that.

Scenario must allow a flexible creation of Locations somewhere to create a fixed master data setup (oil rigs) or a complete dynamic setup (moving base in the desert) . Okay, that should work as only the country field of the address is mandatory. The identification of the Location (for example when entering an order) could work with a meaningful name. But where to get the coordinate from? Well, for each Location a call to the geo-coding is executed and as this is done in a customer specific implementation, a ‘wild’ coordinate could be determined here using specific Location attributes. The coordinate could even come from a GPS to track a mobile command center. Also it is probably a good idea to use the Geo-Map component here, which would allow to visualize the ‘wild’ or even capture the coordinate from there.

Okay, now we got ‘wild’ locations with accurate coordinates. How do we connect them to enable planning? And how to determine distance between them? Again, depends on the scenario. Maybe between oil rigs its fine to use schedules (includes connection and fixed distance / duration). For the dynamic scenario using Transportation Lanes we need to find a way to catch the ‘wild’ locations. Don’t want to create a Lane for each Location – Location combination. But Transportation Zones only work dynamically using postal codes (we don’t have one!!!) or regions. But couldn’t we use regions?!?!?! Okay, the basic idea behind regions is to match somehow states. But in general you can maintain there (NetWeaver customizing) whatever you like. So why not map our desert / forest areas into regions and assign the right one when creating the Location. Again, great scenario for the Geo-Map.

For the distance determination the standard rules apply: Starting point is always straight line, which of course does not match reallity very good. But we can handle this in a specific implementation and improve the distance quality. Probably hard to find a good data source. Needs to be evaluated carefully.

Having the master data setup, SAP TM should from now on work fine in all scenarios. Not a complete check list though, still open points to further consider.

You can also follow: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Monday-Knowledge-Snippet-MKS-02-3107838.S.108028050?qid=6f8d2ee5-df56-4624-8e62-a5823209a921&goback=%2Egmp_3107838

MKS02_Oil_Rig_Schedule.jpg

Assigned Tags

      3 Comments
      You must be Logged on to comment or reply to a post.
      Author's profile photo vikas chhabra
      vikas chhabra

      Hello Marcus,

      I follow your threads religiously and they are big help.

      How can we use Wild Card Postal Codes in below two places:

      1. Postal Code Transportation Zones:

      Business Scenario: Some countries have non-numeric Postal Codes and you can not maintain From and To Postal Code range. System supports Postal Code to be entered as Wild Card (XY1*) in Transportation Zone but does not respect them during charge calculation.

      2. Postal Code Range in Rate Table:

      There are standard Calculation Bases for Source/Destination Postal Code Range but these do not allow maintaining values like Source Postal Code Range (90100-90199) to Destination Postal Code Range (63100-63199). I am unable to understand the use of these 2 calculation bases since they do not accept range. May be I will try Postal Code Calculation Base and will try to enter wild card here.

      Not sure if you are right person to comment on this 2nd query which is related to TCM, but first one is especially for you.

      Thanks and Best Regards,

      Vikas Chhabra

      Author's profile photo Marcus Zahn
      Marcus Zahn
      Blog Post Author

      Hi,

      could you post your question as question and not a commet? Otherwise nobody will find it when searching for it. As soons as you have done this, I will answer. 😉

      Marcus

      Author's profile photo vikas chhabra
      vikas chhabra

      Hello Marcus,

      Fair enough. I posted as a question and here is the thread. Your comment and suggestions are welcome and awaited. 🙂

      Wild Card Postal Codes in Transportation Zones and Postal Code Range in TCM

      Thanks and Best Regards,

      Vikas Chhabra