What-if analysis of 2 storage location in one EWM ...

shailesh_mishra5 · ‎11-20-2018

Purpose:

The aim of this blog it to understand why it required to have at-least 2 storage location in one warehouse, the flexibility of having this set up and its integration to ERP ATP(Availability check) concept.

Conceptualization:

SAP has given usage of 2 storage locations as ROD( Received on Dock) and AFS(Available for Sale). The purpose of having 2 storage locations is that Shipping(Outbound delivery) and receiving(Inbound delivery) processes can be conducted from 2 separate storage locations.

ROD implies storage location where GR can be posted

AFS implies storage location where GI can be posted

SAP EWM doesnt work with storage location, inventory in EWM is stored at LIME(Logistics Inventory Management Engine) which uses Stock types. The attribute of storage location AFS & ROD is called Availability group in EWM, 002 & 001.

Stock types in EWM have 3 components, availability group which is assigned to ERP storage location, location-independent stock type and Stock role. I will cover this topics in latter part of this blog.

As a thumb rule Number of Storage location in ERP= Number of Availability group in EWM(N:N ratio)

Lets understand this concept in detail.

Understand EWM warehouse as a Circle having GR Zone, GI Zone and Final storage Bin. The GR zone is having ROD as storage location and Final storage Bin & GI zone has AFS storage location.

Inbound will be done by ROD sloc and Outbound will be done by AFS sloc.

Generally GR Zone is considered as ‘’Received on Dock storage location’’ in ERP because these stocks are not final Stock, technically not a ‘’Pickable Stock’’. The reason I am saying this is not pickable stock because, these stocks may undergo Quality inspection, counting or deconsolidation if required.

ATP Impact Analysis:

The reason why SAP is using ROD/ AFS is to manifest the integration of availability check in the ERP. With the separation an ERP user can see which material is not just physically in the warehouse but available for a sales process - in contrast to stock that is still in goods receipt processing

We know ATP is carried out in 4 levels( Plant, storage location, Batch, Batch+ Storage location).

If the Storage location determination is active for the delivery item category(Usually TAN for Outbound) in 0VLP, system will determine a storage location during delivery creation in ERP based on customization of OVL3.

Note: ATP check is performed for all the relevant storage levels. If there is a storage location determination, the system will check ATP quantities on the selected storage location as well. If there is no available quantity on the selected storage location, error message VL150 (and VL367) will be raised

Inbound process:

Create a PO with Sloc 0001-ROD. Create an inbound delivery. Since Inbound delivery item category has Storage location required, 0001(ROD) is fetched in Inbound delivery.

Conduct GR, Inbound delivery is distributed to EWM and inbound delivery notification is generated due to PPF action in EWM. The storage location in inbound delivery in ERP is 0001(ROD) which becomes Stock type F1 in EWM inbound delivery.

How EWM delivery documents fetches F1 stock type corresponding to ERP storage location ROD?

F1--Unrestricted use in Putaway. This is not a usable stock.

LIME configuration from SCM basis:

Stock type F1 in EWM is assigned to Availability group 001.

Further Availability group is assigned to ERP storage location. So the handshaking of ERP storage location is done to Availability group in EWM which is assigned to Stock Types.

EWM Inbound delivery has F1 stock type now which is not ready for customer order. The stock is lying in GR zone which has storage location ROD(0001) in ERP delivery document.

Imagine a situation now

Sales order=100 Pcs,

Stock in ERP MMBE

AFS= 50 PCS,

ROD=50 PCS

Now, create delivery against Sales order VL01N, ERP delivery will be created of only 50 pcs, because Storage location AFS is part of ATP, and only 50 pcs will be committed in delivery. ROD stock will not be the part of ATP, so stock of 50 pcs will be untouched.

EWM will create Warehouse task for 50 pcs only.

Now, Create and Confirm a Warehouse task against this Inbound delivery in EWM.

Stock type in EWM changes from F1 to F2

Storage location in ERP changes from ROD to AFS due to transfer posting by 411 movement type

How does Flip of Stock type and storage location happen automatically?

The final storage type where Product is putaway should have below settings to trigger spin of Stock type and storage location change in ERP

Note:In GR zone, Availability group will be 001 and Mandatory setting will not be set.

ATP Impact Analysis with 1 storage location as AFS.

In a warehouse linked to one plant and one storage location, we usually define one availability group(002),and assign it to all stock types of the warehouse.

With 1 storage location, Shipping and receiving is conducted.

Imagine, a circle is an EWM warehouse where GR Zone, GI Zone and Final storage bin are covered with 1 storage location only.

Example: Assume a situation

Sales order =100 pcs

Stock MMBE(AFS)= 100 PCS

Create delivery in ERP VL01N, 100 PCS will be delivered. Since there is only one storage location , so storage location determination will happen for single sloc and hence entire quantity will be committed.

But there may be cases when only 10 pcs is in Final destination Bin and 90 pcs is still lying in GR Production Zone which is still not putawayed to final BIN. So, EWM will create only 10 pcs of Warehouse task because GR Zones( Interim Zones) are not part of storage type search sequence during outbound process.

Note:-Also, in case of 1 storage location if system is configured to send Goods receipt message in EWM not immediately but with below 3 options, stock can be consumed from EWM but not from ERP. This can create stock inconsistency.

Extended Warehouse Management -> Interfaces -> ERP Integration -> General Settings -> Set Control Parameters for ERP Version Control - Goods receipt Mode

In this setup, EWM delays the goods receipt message sending to ERP, so the stock in the goods receipt message will get available in ERP only at a later point in time. On the other hand the stock in EWM can be processed - putaway can be done easily, resulting in a posting change on the delivery - or the already available stock in EWM can be picked for an outbound delivery and the goods issue can be posted for this.

It is also possible, that the stock is consumed on EWM side via cross docking process. As the confirmation message of goods receipt is not posted in ERP, the stock is not available in ERP side. This causes the deficit error.

So for stock sync up, it is advised to have 2 storage locations ROD and AFS is above setting is done.

Organizational Model for Production Supply

If a warehouse is connected to Production, we may think to additionally create Production storage location other than ROD and AFS. This storage location can be EWM managed or IM manged, that is up to the business.

In case of additional production storage location, you need to have additional Availability group 003 and stock types in EWM.

SAP has provided below

If you use a separate production storage location, it is advised to use Storage type 1000 for Production supply area.

Storage type 1000 for separate production storage locations in SAP ERP (with availability group 003)

However, with a single storage location acting as AFS and Availability group 002 can be used in a warehouse integrated to Production.

In this case, it is advised to use storage type 1005 as Production supply area.

Storage type 1005 for non-separate production storage locations in SAP ERP (with availability group 002)

Decision to keep Production storage location as EWM Managed or IM managed.

It purely depends on business and their requirement whether they want Production storage location to be EWM managed or IM managed.

However, I deeply investigated on this topic to have production storage location better to be IM managed or EWM managed.

If Warehouse is integrated to production which produces same product over the period of time, same routing sequence, then it is a Repetitive Manufacturing business, and you need to have a separate Production storage location and that must be IM Managed to support consumption of parts from this IM storage location. Also, when it is required to conduct staging of ''Release order parts, the destination storage location must be IM managed. From EWM administered storage location , final confirmation can be posted of FG material through MFBF.

2. If business wants to implement Inhouse Kanban production, then for in-house-production strategies for Kanban with planned orders or cost collectors, then only the finished product can be stored at EWM-managed storage locations. In production, the components can only be withdrawn from MM-IM-managed storage locations.

Hence topic ends here. I would appreciate if any corrections or improvement is requirement to make this blog more useful.

References:

https://help.sap.com/saphelp_ewm94/helpdata/en/b1/fa39091ff843ec9520553932a1357f/frameset.htm

https://help.sap.com/saphelp_ewm94/helpdata/en/97/e2ff13b2ac4870985398054353c15c/content.htm?loaded_...

Regards

Shailesh Mishra