Personal Insights
Capability of Multi drop with sequential Load planning in Transportation management of S/4HANA
Many industries specially Logistic retail, Pharma / food distribution companies deliver goods to multiple customers in a single trip and they need system support for transportation planning to optimize distribution to
- Multiple customers in a area / zone
- Loading of package (pallet) sequentially
Transportation management ( TM ) of S/4HANA provides these capabilities and my present blog is to describe these desired features in TM with S/4HANA.
Let us consider that the truck from warehouse (W) will first deliver to customer (A) , then (B) and then (C). System should be able to plan for 3 stages and propose pallets to be loaded in LIFO (Last in , first out) sequence i.e Pallets for last customer C to be loaded first , then B and then A as shown in below image .
Transportation management (TM ) in S/4HANA achieves these requirements . Transportation planning can be done so that the freight order (an object or transaction document in TM for shipment) in TM can have 3 stages (i.e W – A , A – B , B – C) as shown in below image. Freight order also shows the planner departure and arrival times at the respective locations.
SAP TM also has the capability to depict these locations in a map for better visibility of Transportation planner as shown in below image.
Now, in the scenario considered, Customer A has 3 pallets to be delivered, 1 pallet for B and 2 pallets for C . SAP TM shows them in 3 different colours as depicted in below image prior to the load planning.
During Load planning in TM , SAP TM places them in LIFO (Last in, first out) sequence as shown in below image with due consideration for load balancing of the truck.
These images are from embedded TM of S/4HANA 1909 release. However, these functionalities are also present in stand alone TM.
This blog is based on my personal tests , observation and insights. Will appreciate your feedback / comments.
Informative. I believe you are talking about 'Milk Run' scenarios here. For Milk Run, simultaneous delivery and pick up can be scheduled for same customer in S/4 1709 onwards...
Hi Milan,
Thanks . Scenarios considered here are outbound , but very similar to Milkrun (used for inbound for fetching milk from different vendors to dairy). Yes, these features are available from 1709.
Regards,
Mrinal
Hi MKR,
Thank you for this blog. Is there a rule for LIFO loading that we must define at load planning settings level or it is the default behavior without need of rules definition?
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Youssef
Hi Youssef,
Thanks . LIFO is the default rule . If LIFO is not desired, then it can be deactivated.
Regards,
Mrinal
Hi MKR,
In our firm we're delivering Oils whether this LIFO option will suit for our business.
Hi Srinivas,
How the oil is stored ? Are those stored in barrels and then loaded to truck ? In that case , LIFO can still be applied .
Also, Default LIFO can be deactivated , if that does not fit the requirement. SAP has provided several 'Loading rules' which can be applied specific to your / Oil requirement.
Regards,
Mrinal
Hello MKR, We have this requirement from one of our Pulp & Industry client. In order to achieve this in To-Be solution, I have defined Transshipment locations (e.g. B) and assigned it to source location (Plant A) so that after optimizer run, system splits the FO in 2 stages. First Stage from Plant A to B (Transshipment location) and then final stage from Transshipment location B to final destination C.
Strangely, when I plan the FO (optimizer planning), system is splitting the FU in 2 and creating 2 FOR's as well.
Any heads-up why system is not creating 1 FO with 2 stages ?
Your suggestions are appreciable !
Br.
Parveen -
Great blog.
I see that the loading sequence is determined by the LIFO principle. Is this loading sequence also communicated to EWM? How will the loading be done there, as you cannot load per FO...
Hello MKR,
Thanks for this Multi Drop Scenario concept and information.
However, I have questions regarding the optimum route determination while creating Freight Order. In the Same example, the plant location is W, and delivering goods to three customers A, B, and C. How does the system determine which is the optimum route for the multidrop scenario and build stages accordingly.
I assume you have created an intra-zone that includes all these four locations.
How the system determined the distance and duration between each possible connection, for example, the distance between W to A, A to B, A to C, B to C, etc..
I am aware that with Interzone lane you can fix the distance and duration, but this is more theoretical and to a certain extent hypothetical.
Do we need GIS integrated for actual distance and duration calculation for this? Since in real life scenarios its not possible to maintain distance and duration for all possible combination.
Thanks
Vaibhav Bansod
Hello MKR,
Thanks for this Multi Drop Scenario concept and information.
However, I have questions regarding the optimum route determination while creating Freight Order. In the Same example, the plant location is W, and delivering goods to three customers A, B, and C. How does the system determine which is the optimum route for the multidrop scenario and build stages accordingly.
I assume you have created an intra-zone that includes all these four locations.
How the system determined the distance and duration between each possible connection, for example, the distance between W to A, A to B, A to C, B to C, etc..
I am aware that with Interzone lane you can fix the distance and duration, but this is more theoretical and to a certain extent hypothetical.
Do we need GIS integrated for actual distance and duration calculation for this? Since in real-life scenarios, it's not possible to maintain distance and duration for all possible combinations.
Thanks
Vaibhav Bansod