Personal Insights
Capability of Package Building in Freight order in embedded Transportation Management (TM) in S/4HANA 1909 Release
Package building (PB) is a functionality to bundle products in specific packages based on specific constraints like orientation, possibility to group or place one above another, maximum weight / volume / height, overhang etc. Utilization of truck depends very much on how the products have been packaged. Marcus Zahn (of SAP TM development) has posted excellent blogs on PB explaining its capabilities in links like
Prior to S/4HANA 1909 release, PB was possible only in Freight unit (FU) in embedded Transportation management (TM). PB is now possible also in capacity document like Freight order (FO) in embedded TM in S/4HANA 1909 release. My present blog is to describe the capability of PB in FO and some insights & observations on SAP’s roadmap / direction with packaging in TM and EWM.
Consider a simple scenario in which products FG05 (with weight 5 KG each) and FG09 (with weight 9 KG each) can be grouped in a package PB_PAL_01 with maximum weight of 50 KG and product FG10 (with weight 10 KG each) in a package PB_PAL_02 (with no grouping) also with a maximum weight of 50 KG. Each of the package (PB_PAL_01 and PB_PAL_02) weighs 10 KG. Below image shows that system has proposed 2 packages – PB_PAL_01 for 4 pieces of FG05 and 2 pieces of FG09 and PB_PAL_02 for 4 pieces of FG10 with PB triggered at FO level.
This PB at FO will immensly help in effective utilization of truck capacity and reduction of freight cost.
Settings (configurations and master data) required for PB in FO is depicted in below image. PB profile must be assigned in planning profile and FO type should ‘Enable package building’.
Now, like to highlight some of the observations w.r.t PB as stated below.
- Scenario considered in this blog (as shown in first image) is very simple. However, complex scenarios can be modelled (to meet the specific business requirements) with PB as is evident from the settings in PB profile in below image. PB profile is configured in Transportation management (TM) at IMG path IMG->Transportation management->Planning->Package building->Define package building profile. PB profile can also be defined for Extended warehouse management (EWM) as in IMG path IMG->SCM Extended warehouse management->Extended warehouse management->Goods issue process->Package building->Define package building profile. Notice a difference in settings as in S/4HANA 1909 release as shown in below image. Also, note that the settings in PB profile in EWM (of S/4HANA 1909 release) are same with the TM PB Profile as in Marcus Zahn’s blog (of 2015) as stated in the beginning of this blog.
- EWM also provides excellent ‘Cartonization’ capability as detailed in my blog in link https://blogs.sap.com/2019/06/06/functionality-of-cartonization-with-extended-warehouse-management-ewm/ which is based on EWM’s ‘Packaging specification’. However, this PB functionality is not dependent on ‘Packaging specification’.
- Embedded TM and embedded EWM can now be directly integrated as in my blog in link https://blogs.sap.com/2018/03/14/direct-integration-between-embedded-ewm-tm-in-s4hana-improving-overall-efficiency-of-suply-chain/. As of S/4HANA 1909 release, packages planned in TM do not get transferred to EWM. However, as per SAP’s roadmap, integration for Package building and Load planning is expected in 2020 release of S/4HANA and that will help warehouse personnel to pack the products (as planned in TM), improve the efficiency of warehouse and utilization of truck capacity.
- There are also several limitations between EWM and TM integration as stated in note 1984252. Expect these limitations will be eliminated in upcoming releases of S/4HANA.
This blog is based on my personal observation and insights. Will appreciate your feedback / comments.
Thanks Mrinal for such a great detail . Are there options to build package based on customer specific or customer/location (say shipping point/depot) specific ?
Hi Rajib,
Thanks .
Yes , packages can be built specific to customer (Business partner) and Location (Shipping point) with values as maintained in 'Package type assignment ' as in below image.
With regards,
Mrinal
Thanks Mrinal.
Hi Mrinal
Thanks a lot for sharing this information. If you have Freight units being triggered from the sales order, does the functionality provide any prompts to the customer service to see if the customer has ordered enough to make it into a Full truck load ? In some businesses, the need is to be able to specify by customer / route ( especially long haul routes ), that the order created is a full truck load and the customer service can get an information of possible shortfall when taking the order from the customer OR block the order if the need is for a full container / truck load and the order does not have enough on it to make it into a full pallet and a full shipment. This especially become intricate if you have multiple orders that can be grouped together ( either from same customer / different customers, but for same day shipment and for the same route).
Would appreciate your views
Regards
Rohit Zalani
Hi Rohit,
Yes, package information can also be obtained with FU created from sales order . There is also a report /scmb/test_pb which provides the packaging information for relevant materials and quantities.Embedded TM also now has a concept of 'Normalized quantity' or loading meter which can also indicate the proportion of a truck filled by the packages. I will soon write a blog on Normalized quantity.
With regards,
Mrinal
Hi Rohit,
You may also refer blog https://blogs.sap.com/2020/01/14/new-product-allocation-pal-features-in-advanced-atp-aatp-of-s-4hana-1909-release/ on similar context.
Regards,
Mrinal
Nice to know about the availability of PB functionality in Freight order as well. Thanks !
I believe that PB in FO was available also for earlier release than 1909. Also current integration with EWM seems to be more advanced than described in blog. TM planned packages can be send and created in EWM as PSHU. As mentioned load optimization details like stacking, are not transferred, but packing structure for packages should be available for warehouse.
Yes, PB was available prior to 1909 release, but only in FU. With 1909 release, it is now available with FO too.
I was not aware of the creation of PSHU in EWM from PB in TM . Thanks , good information. Need to test it.
I have 1809 in front of me, see active PB button in FO (not FU) and tested it many times before. I am sure that it not came with new S4 release.
OK, Thanks for the update . Then , I missed this in 1809 release. Do you also see PB profile in planning profile as in below image in 1809 release.
Regards,
Mrinal
Yes, PB profile is available in planning profile and additionally FO type allows to activate PB button for UI.
FO type
planning profile
Ok , thanks Marcin !!
Hi Mrinal,
Thank you for this excellent information. I have a doubt, is it completely necessary to have delivery-base planning to trigger PB in a FO? Or if I have order-base planning is possible also?
Thanks!
Hi Cristina,
Possible with order based planning also. Moreover , Proposal for PB can be obtained also with report /SCMB/TEST_PB without creating sales order or delivery.
With regards,
Mrinal
Hi Mrinal,
Great info, thanks!
My question here is, while Package Building in FO, does the optimizer consider the FO stages/Drop sequence?
To be more specific, while it is building mixed customer pallets where each customer has less than a pallet load, is the PBO able to consider consecutive customer stops of the FO and try to consolidate them onto same pallet?
If so, is this a standard behavior(like LIFO in Load Planning) or do we need a config/enhancement for this?