EWM – Physical Inventory PI_UPLOAD transaction

In this article, I will explain how to use /SCWM/PI_UPLOAD transaction.

The motivation to discuss this topic was a real life scenario: a customer did an annual physical inventory count outside SAP using excel spreadsheets and the challenge was to update this in SAP EWM. The first option proposed was to use /SCWM/PI_COUNTLIST – Create Phys. Inventory Count in List, but this was far from the best solution.

Prerequisites *

• You have defined the physical inventory areas in Customizing for SCM Basis. Furthermore, you have made the settings for the low-stock physical inventory or zero-stock physical inventory and the putaway physical inventory, as required.
  For more information, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) under SCM Basis ® Physical Inventory ® Basic Settings ® Define Physical Inventory Area.
• You have made the required settings in Customizing for EWM. If you want to use cycle counting, for example, you have set the Cycle Counting indicator under Configure Cycle Counting.
  For more information, see the IMG under Extended Warehouse Management ® Internal Warehouse Processes ® Physical Inventory.

* Source
https://help.sap.com/viewer/9832125c23154a179bfa1784cdc9577a/1909.001/en-US/4cb4e7d54c1f1921e10000000a15822b.html

First things first

• Since in this example we are creating storage bin positions physical inventory documents, verifying if there are previous PI documents with status Active or Count is crucial.
• Check batch managed products in MARA-XCHPF
• Check split valuation product in MBEW-BWTTY
• Check all products unit of measures

Configuration (specific):

IMG > SCM Extended Warehouse Management > Extended Warehouse Management > Internal Warehouse Processes > Physical Inventory > Physical-Inventory-Area-Specific Settings > Define Physical Inventory Area

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Scenario 1: one storage bin with one product without handling unit

Storage bin RK01-02-05-07 stocks: 2100 EA of product KIPL-MAT-021

For each storage bin, at least two lines of data should exist in the spreadsheet depending on how many products exists to be counted – a HEADER and an ITEM line:

TCode: /SCWM/PI_UPLOAD

Hint: in my experience just .csv worked

In order to create the new PI document with count results, you need to select the header line and press the option Create.

TCode: /SCWM/PI_PROCESS

Once the PI document was created with status Counted, you just need to Post to finish the PI process.

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Scenario 2: one storage bin with several products without handling unit

* Several columns are hidden

TCode: /SCWM/PI_UPLOAD

TCode: /SCWM/PI_PROCESS

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Scenario 3: one storage bin with one product with handling unit

TCode: /SCWM/PI_UPLOAD

TCode: /SCWM/PI_PROCESS

As expected, there are two line items for product with handling units

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Scenario 4: one storage bin with several products with handling units

* Several columns are hidden

TCode: /SCWM/PI_UPLOAD

TCode: /SCWM/PI_PROCESS

Lessons learned:

• Before start, you should assure that all physical inventory settings are correct and working properly. Remember that when you have count differences, the Difference Analyzer (transaction /SCWM/DIFF_ANALYZER) should be used in order to correct differences between EWM and S/4.
• The products should match exactly how they look in /SCWM/MAT1 – i.e. material 532 could be presented as 000000000000000532.
• Batches should follow the same material rules regarding left zeros.
• If you want to upload several storage bins count for bins with a unique product, two lines for each record should be populated. And when you have handling units, three lines for each record.
• Be careful with the unit of measure – CUNI should be correct for your UoM
• Using .xls did not work for me, just .csv

Conclusion

The transaction /SCWM/PI_UPLOAD is an awesome tool to create physical inventory documents with count results and upload them to the system. Although working properly, the error handling sometimes is not so clear. When uploading the file usually shows red, yellow and green signal as messages. After pressing the Create button to finish the upload process the system issue fuzzy messages like “Program: /LIME/SAPLPI_CORE//LIME/LPI_COREPII line: 1048”.

I hope you like this blog and be valuable for our EWM community.

References:

C.K. Reddy, 2019: SCM Extended Warehouse Management – Configuration Guide with Process Flows

https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1507702