SAP Extended Warehouse Management versus SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management. Key criteria to make the decision.

[alexey_karmazin]

This Blog post will give you an overview of criteria, which can be considered to make decision between basic warehouse offerings available in SAP S/4HANA on-premise.

 

Background information:

• After converting from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA on-premise LE-WM component can be used for a restricted time period as the part of compatibility scope. Through "Compatibility Scope Matrix", SAP provides a limited use right to SAP S/4HANA on-premise customers to run certain classic SAP ERP solutions on their SAP S/4HANA installation. The actual information related to compatibility scope matrix can be found in SAP note: 2269324 - Compatibility Scope Matrix for SAP S/4HANA on-premise.


• In SAP S/4HANA on-premise following Warehouse Management offerings are available:
  
  
  
  • Basic Warehousing:
    
    
    
    • Option 1: SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management
    
    
    • Option 2: SAP Extended Warehouse Management (usage mode of “Basic Warehouse Management” included in SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management)
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Advanced Warehousing: SAP Extended Warehouse Management (usage mode “Extended Warehouse Management”)
  
  
  
  

 

SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management – component of SAP S/4HANA on-premise. This component uses the same data mode as LE-WM. Nevertheless, compared to LE-WM SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management has functional restrictions. This means, that certain functions, which were available in LE-WM will be not available in SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management. There is no special implementation guide for SAP S/4HANA Stock room management, therefore Warehouse Management (LE-WM) implementation guide applies. For further information, please, check SAP note: 2881166 - FAQ : Stock Room Management

 

SAP Extended Warehouse Management – strategic SAP solution to manage warehouse management processes. Solution can be used for warehouses with different level of complexity form basic processes to advanced processes. Also, solution has proven in projects to support various types of warehouses Production Warehouses, Distribution Centers, Service Parts Warehouses, Cross Dock / Transit warehouses, etc.

 

To choose between basic warehouse offering in SAP S/4HANA on-premise following criteria can be considered:

• System Landscape. When it comes to the target system landscape it important to check, if warehouse management solution will be used in the de-central mode or not. For example, if it is required to connect warehouse management solution to several ERP system. In this case, SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management cannot be used as decentral WM (WM-DWM) is not part of SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management.


• Company software strategy.
  
  
  
  • Back to standard. SAP Extended Warehouse Management was introduced for first time in 2006 and since then it has ~13 releases. During each release SAP Extended Warehouse Management received new functions. Today SAP Extended Warehouse Management is best in class warehouse management solution. SAP Extended Warehouse Management can be interesting for customers who did bunch of developments in LE-WM module. Each functional GAP from former implementation can be analyzed against availability in SAP Extended Warehouse Management standard. This point may be beneficial for customers, who decided to re-design their processes and go back-to standard.
  
  
  • Usage of single software product to run warehouse management processes. For customers who have warehouses with different complexity in the landscape or planning to have additional warehouses in the future, it may beneficial to consider SAP Extended Warehouse Management as the single software product to run warehouses. Usage of the same software product allows to simply IT support process and managing of the global template program.
  
  
  • Expectations for product functional improvements. SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management is not a strategic product, therefore SAP is not planning to invest in this product by providing more features, enhancing integration capabilities, introducing SAP Fiori apps, etc. For the reference see SAP note: 2881166 - FAQ : Stock Room Management
  
  
  
  


• Functional Requirements.
  
  
  
  • Warehouse Processes. SAP Extended Warehouse Management and SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management have different set of basic functionalities. The information related to functional scope available via link (chapters: 2.12.3.1 Basic Warehouse Management, 2.12.3.2 Stock Room Management).
  
  
  
  

SAP Extended Warehouse Management	SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management
Inventory Management (including catch weight) Working with Handling Units Inbound Processing (incl. multistep putaway process) Outbound Processing Internal Warehouse Movements Connecting to External Warehouse Control Systems Physical Inventory Warehouse Management Monitor Analytics (CDS views & KPI reporting) Resource Management Quality Management Production Integration	Inventory Management Inbound Processing Outbound Processing Mobile Execution Internal Warehouse Movements Physical Inventory Reporting (limited basic reporting)

 

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  • SAP Warehouse Management (LE-WM) processes, which is currently in use. Processes, which are set up in the existing system implementation need to be checked, if processes are compliant with SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management. For further information refer to SAP note: 2882809 - Scope Compliance Check for Stock Room Management
  
  
  • Integration with transportation planning. Logistics Execution Transportation (LE-TRA) is not the target architecture within SAP S/4HANA anymore. The main functions of LE-TRA will be replaced with Basic Shipping functionality of SAP S/4HANA Supply Chain for Transportation Management. If in the future, it will be required to integrated warehouse management solution with transportation planning functionality SAP Extended Warehouse Management can be switched to advanced usage mode. For SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management it will be not possible to integrate with basic shipping functionality. For reference see SAP note: 2270199 - S4TWL - Transportation (LE-TRA)
  
  
  • Reporting. SAP Extended Warehouse Management is much more flexible compared to SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management when it comes to reporting possibilities. SAP Extended Warehouse Management has a tool, which is called Warehouse Management Monitor. This tool has following possibilities:
    
    
    
    • Set of standard reports covering all process areas of Extended Warehouse Management.
    
    
    • Possibility to use drill down functions. Example, navigation to delivery object.
    
    
    • Possibility to use monitor methods. Example, execution of posting changes.
    
    
    • Possibility to extend standard application content with own content, create own monitor methods. For details check following link.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Integration with external systems. Warehouse Control Unit Interface (LSR) is not part of SAP S/4HANA Stock Room Management. For SAP Extended Warehouse Management functionality “Connecting to External Warehouse Control Systems” is part of the basic offering.
  
  
  
  


• Roadmap
  
  
  
  • Functions on the roadmap. SAP Extended Warehouse Management continues to improve. There are functions, which are planned on the roadmap. For example, integration with Plant Maintenance. Information related to the roadmap available via link.
  
  
  • Customer influence program. There is possibility to influence SAP product roadmap based on the customer requests. The idea of program is following customer can submit improvement request. Improvement requests can be voted by other customers. If improvement request receives certain amount of votes, there is the possibility, that it will be added to the roadmap. Information related customer influence program is available via link.
  
  
  
  

 

Conclusion:

• This blog post gives you an information, which can be used to choose warehouse management offering available in SAP S/4HANA on-premise.