Should I migrate from LE-WM to Stock Room Management?

With an advent of new age ERP platform S/4 HANA, most of the customers get a conundrum of whether the migration to new S/4 HANA version should be accompanied with the replacement of classical LE-WM implementation by the new WMS solution offered in the form of embedded EWM on S/4 HANA or even Decentralized EWM version on S/4 HANA.

I have provided below a simplified decision flow which could help in order to arrive at a high level direction or the roadmap.

As per SAP Note 2577428, LE-WM is in a compatibility mode and mustn’t be used beyond 2025 in SAP S/4HANA. The compatibility scope in S/4 HANA is only till end of year 2025, after that customers would have to go for the choice between basic Warehouse Management via embedded EWM or using the Stock Room Management functionalities. Or even going for decentralized version of EWM on S/4 HANA.

So, the immediate recommendation for a small, simple and low complex warehouse running on current ECC LE-WM would be, to go for the Stock Room Management. It is a new offering in the context of SAP S/4HANA beyond 2025 & is not in a compatibility mode since it’s inherent part of S/4 HANA Enterprise Management license itself.

But Is it ideal to go for Stock Room Management in S/4 HANA, just because you are currently running your warehouse on classical LE-WM? – The answer is clear “No”

One should carefully evaluate once again the warehouse key business parameters, requirements, long term business plan and also take conscious decision based on how to get best ROI from their investment of migrating to new age S/4 HANA release. SAP recommends an evaluation of the functionality, as Warehouse Management systems are often highly enhanced and customized systems.

The key factor is a long term vision and not near-sighted decision. In the long term horizon, SAP’s strategic product for WMS is embedded EWM or decentral EWM on S/4 HANA.

Although Stock Room covers basic warehouse management features but it does not cover the whole compatibility scope of Warehouse Management.

Following table shows the key comparison between LE-WM and Stock Room Management.

SAP provided scope check, if the Stock Room Management covers the functionalities implemented in the legacy ECC based LE-WM solution

It’s quite a known fact that typically WM solutions are highly customized and contains lot of new enhancements added due to in-house developed solutions.

Hence it must be checked if the functionality that is implemented in the current production system is covered by Stock Room Management or whether you are using functionality beyond its scope.

SAP recommends to perform the Scope Compliance Check for Stock Room Management by running the report in your current production system like ECC, in order to identify whether the current implementation is using the scope that is not included in the SAP license of Stock Room Management. 

As per note 2882809 – Scope Compliance Check for Stock Room Management, after the note is Implemented, you can execute the Compliance Check Report  STOCKROOM_COMPLIANCE_CHECK in the production system for the warehouse(s) to be migrated to S/4 HANA.

If the current classical system is compliant with the scope of Stock Room Management then customer can use the existing setup beyond 2025 with Stock Room Management.

Other Important Considerations before choosing WM compatibility mode or Stock Room Management as a replacement of Classical LE-WM in S/4 HANA

1. As per note 288116, SAP is not planning to invest in Stock Room management, strategic product for SAP is EWM.
2. Future Innovations for the warehouse capabilities will be delivered by SAP only for EWM component of S/4 HANA.
3. Stock Room Management is part of the SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management license itself
4. Stock Room Management uses the same data model as that of classical WM.
5. As per note 2270211, WM is still part of S/4HANA but in a compatibility mode – also see SAP Notes 2269324. With the compatibility mode SAP allows customers to migrate their existing solutions smoothly into S/4HANA.
6. As per note 2577428, SAP also restricts the usage of components which are in a compatibility mode till 31.12.2025, refer to SAP Note 2269324 for details.
7. Stock Room Management reuses major parts of LE-WM and can be used beyond 2025.

Key Sources & References:

1. Blog from Marco Wahler- https://blogs.sap.com/2019/06/27/s4hana-stock-room-management/
2. 2881166 – FAQ : Stock Room Management
3. 2882809 – Scope Compliance Check for Stock Room Management
4. Chapter 2.13.3.2 Stock Room Management of the Feature Scope Description of SAP S/4HANA 1909 (You can find the link to the Feature Scope Description of SAP S/4HANA 1909 in the Product Documentation section of the page http://help.sap.com/s4hana_op_1909)
5. Note 2577428 – Road map for LE-WM in SAP S/4HANA
6. 2270211-  – S4TWL – Warehouse Management (WM)