Monday Knowledge Snippet (MKS) – 11 TM 9.0 Sustainability Factors

Following up on my posting ‘Make the World run Greener with SAP TM!’ and the discussion about the differences between TM 8.0 / 8.1 and 9.0, I want to spend todays MKS on the new sustainability feature coming with SAP TM 9.0.

It looks like legal regulations regarding sustainability indicators (carbon dioxide, fuel consumption, …) are picking up speed almost worldwide. Just last week I read an article about new EU regulations forcing transportation companies to report their emissions following DIN16258. I think there are similar laws coming up in Australia, Canada and other countries.

My personal vision for SAP TM is to enable functions is 3 steps:

1. Report (to be compliant with legal regulations)
2. Support manual planners to make greener decisions
3. Optimize

Starting with SAP TM 9.0, it is now possible to define distance related sustainability factors covering in standard carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption. These factors can then be used on transportation mode level (ocean, sea, land) for overview functions, or more detailed on means of transport level. So for each stage of an transportation order sustainability information is available and can in standard be used in the SAP TM BI. The information is not stored on Business Object level, but can dynamically be determined when required (for example for print documents).

Sustainability Factor definition

Assignment to Transportation Mode

Assignment to Means of Transport

Test Report /SCMB/TEST_DIST_EMISSIONS

For customer specific requirements / enhancements there is a BAdI available (for example for emission distribution on stage level). See /SCMB/ES_DIST_EMISSION_CALC.

So for step 1 I can see that we are on our way. As standards are just starting to form and still are different from country to country, there is just a stable ancor in SAP TM 9.0 to build on for the future. For me it was important to establish something that covers already basic requirements in a world wide scope, but is not too specific.

Next possible steps I see:
– Integrate the determined sustainability indicators in the planning result screen (Imagine 2 transportation options having silimar cost: Why not let the planner know that one solution is greener?)
– Use the sustainability factors in automatic planning
– Communication Framework between different TMs (integrate the sustainability indicators of the subcontractors) via standard messages
– Sustainability indicator tracing down to product level

Looking back the last year, I have to say that this topic is pretty hard to establish. Lots of uncertainty, no clear answers from customers, no real commitment to the goals. So a lot of the further improvements will depend on the usage of the available TM 9.0 feature. So if you think this is important, let us know and keep pushing for it