We are now in the final quarter of 2020, which has so far proven to be a challenging year for all of us, but thanks to a strong and dedicated team, we have not slowed down in delivering enhancements that all our customers can appreciate. And our greatest delivery yet is the SAP S/4HANA 2020 release for EWM. With this release we brought many often-requested features, as well as quality of life enhancements that make our warehousing solution more intuitive and easier to use. Before we go into the details, I would like to personally thank the teams who worked tirelessly to bring this release, as well as our customers who provided the feedback and encouragement we needed to push forward.
Over the year we have constantly worked on enhancing usability and user experience, as well as offering new functions and scenarios, so that our customers have new, easier and more efficient tools at their disposal to fit their needs and improve resource utilization, minimize inventory costs and maximize service levels through fulfilment acceleration and inbound-outbound processes coordination. We also strengthened our integration to provide a seamless process flow between production and warehousing.
In order to best cover the features and enhancements this release brings, we will publish a 4-part series of blogs, each covering a specific topic of enhancements. These topics are:
Today, in our first part, we provide a run-down of what kind of enhancements we’ll bring to our customers’ user experience.
New SAP Fiori App: Process Warehouse Tasks
With this new App, users can now confirm all kind of warehouse tasks in one single app (e.g. putaway, stock removal, replenishment warehouse tasks). Just as with our other “Process Warehouse Tasks” Fiori Apps, which were for individual processes, with this new consolidated app you can do mass confirmation of tasks, and it also allows processing of exceptions. Furthermore, users can now process HU warehouse tasks in addition to product warehouse tasks with all Fiori Apps for warehouse task processing, including the new Fiori App “Process Warehouse Tasks”.
Enhancement to SAP Fiori App: Count Physical Inventory
We have enhanced the Fiori App for counting to provide more flexibility in the counting process. Users can now select the ‘partially counted’ status for warehouse orders. This means that warehouse workers can partially save the inventory count for physical inventory counting documents in case the counting cannot be completed in one run. The system can also propose a “Checked” status after entering a new count value or after flagging the bin as empty. In addition, the App now also supports manually “checking” of single items.
Enhancements to SAP Fiori App: Pack Outbound Deliveries
We improved the user experience for the “Pack Outbound Deliveries” App to increase productivity. If the source side has no more unpacked items and all shipping HU(s) are closed, the cursor switches to the field ‚Reference Number‘. This allows the user to start packing for the next outbound delivery without leaving the app. Before the 2020 release, the cursor would automatically position in the field ‚Product/ Access Code‘.
Enhancements to SAP Fiori App: Process e-Commerce Returns
For the “Process e-Commerce Returns” App we now made it possible to process the returns based on the LE-delivery batch, which before was only possible based on the original sales order. The process for the returns has thus been simplified, where first the returned product and batch are calculated in ERP, after which an inbound delivery is created in EWM and the returned products are sent to ERP for return order creation. Please note that this enhancement is available only for decentral EWM on SAP S/4HANA.
Enhancement of Warehouse KPIs Fiori App
A substantial update to the “Warehouse KPIs” Fiori App is the ability to drill down in individual KPI tiles in order to get a more detailed overview. We created a smart business drill-down page based on KPI card navigation from the “Warehouse KPIs” overview page. Currently the KPI tiles available for drill-down are:
We plan to add more drill-down features in subsequent releases.
New & Enhanced APIs
For the On-Premise release of EWM we now made available the following APIs for external developers and external applications:
We also enhanced the following:
Please note that these APIs were developed for S/4HANA Cloud, but by implementing a BAdI they can be used in on-premise too (see SAP note 2790112).
Improved RF Screen Formats & Logging Capability
Finally, for User Experience, I would like to highlight the improvements we made for the RF Framework. Within the RF Framework we wanted to make it possible to protocol user actions (value input or function key pressing), raised messages and entered exception codes (e.g. DIFF, SPLT, NEXT, SKIP, etc.) without the need of a modification in EWM standard coding. We provided a Monitor node to view logged RF events, a switch to activate logging, and a report to delete events. This node cannot only be used to monitor error messages but also to identify repeated verification issues or identify a potentially wrong transaction flow or usage.
Furthermore, we have modernized the RFUI screens. In order to reduce the total cost of implementation for RF screens, we deliver with the 2020 release besides standard RF screens in landscape mode also RF screens in portrait mode. We provide the portrait mode for all 329 RF screens with new template screens in Format 15x26 (lines x columns). Please have a look at SAP note 2968096 for the new CSS style sheet.
FIND OUT MORE!
We will continue to highlight the latest and greatest of our 2020 release, so please stay tuned for more. Links will be added to this article as the other parts in our 4-part series will be published.
For more information about SAP Extended Warehouse Management, please follow us on social media, our YouTube channel or our community pages:
SAP EWM Community:
https://www.sap.com/community/topics/extended-warehouse-management.html
SAP Digital Supply Chain Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCELmE2CEAkcwqpBLnuZHufA
EWM LinkedIn Community:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1952257/
Release information and restrictions of embedded EWM on SAP S/4HANA 2020:
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2938306
Release information and restrictions of Decentralized EWM on SAP S/4HANA 2020:
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2938308
For a complete list of Q&A from the EWM community, please access this link:
https://answers.sap.com/tags/01200615320800000705
In case you do not find your specific question there, feel free to post your question via the following form:
https://answers.sap.com/questions/ask.html?primaryTagId=01200615320800000705
Over the year we have constantly worked on enhancing usability and user experience, as well as offering new functions and scenarios, so that our customers have new, easier and more efficient tools at their disposal to fit their needs and improve resource utilization, minimize inventory costs and maximize service levels through fulfilment acceleration and inbound-outbound processes coordination. We also strengthened our integration to provide a seamless process flow between production and warehousing.
In order to best cover the features and enhancements this release brings, we will publish a 4-part series of blogs, each covering a specific topic of enhancements. These topics are:
- Improved User Experience
- Enhanced Integration
- Innovation capabilities
- Simplification and best practices
Today, in our first part, we provide a run-down of what kind of enhancements we’ll bring to our customers’ user experience.
New SAP Fiori App: Process Warehouse Tasks
With this new App, users can now confirm all kind of warehouse tasks in one single app (e.g. putaway, stock removal, replenishment warehouse tasks). Just as with our other “Process Warehouse Tasks” Fiori Apps, which were for individual processes, with this new consolidated app you can do mass confirmation of tasks, and it also allows processing of exceptions. Furthermore, users can now process HU warehouse tasks in addition to product warehouse tasks with all Fiori Apps for warehouse task processing, including the new Fiori App “Process Warehouse Tasks”.
Enhancement to SAP Fiori App: Count Physical Inventory
We have enhanced the Fiori App for counting to provide more flexibility in the counting process. Users can now select the ‘partially counted’ status for warehouse orders. This means that warehouse workers can partially save the inventory count for physical inventory counting documents in case the counting cannot be completed in one run. The system can also propose a “Checked” status after entering a new count value or after flagging the bin as empty. In addition, the App now also supports manually “checking” of single items.
Enhancements to SAP Fiori App: Pack Outbound Deliveries
We improved the user experience for the “Pack Outbound Deliveries” App to increase productivity. If the source side has no more unpacked items and all shipping HU(s) are closed, the cursor switches to the field ‚Reference Number‘. This allows the user to start packing for the next outbound delivery without leaving the app. Before the 2020 release, the cursor would automatically position in the field ‚Product/ Access Code‘.
Enhancements to SAP Fiori App: Process e-Commerce Returns
For the “Process e-Commerce Returns” App we now made it possible to process the returns based on the LE-delivery batch, which before was only possible based on the original sales order. The process for the returns has thus been simplified, where first the returned product and batch are calculated in ERP, after which an inbound delivery is created in EWM and the returned products are sent to ERP for return order creation. Please note that this enhancement is available only for decentral EWM on SAP S/4HANA.
Enhancement of Warehouse KPIs Fiori App
A substantial update to the “Warehouse KPIs” Fiori App is the ability to drill down in individual KPI tiles in order to get a more detailed overview. We created a smart business drill-down page based on KPI card navigation from the “Warehouse KPIs” overview page. Currently the KPI tiles available for drill-down are:
- Outbound Delivery Order KPI
- Warehouse Task KPI (except KPIs for picking / putaway warehouse task)
- Warehouse Order KPI
We plan to add more drill-down features in subsequent releases.
New & Enhanced APIs
For the On-Premise release of EWM we now made available the following APIs for external developers and external applications:
- Read and update EWM outbound delivery orders
- Read and update EWM handling units
- Read EWM inbound deliveries
- Read and count physical inventory documents
- Input help (F4) for storage bins
- Input help (F4) for warehouse number
We also enhanced the following:
- Create, Read, Update and Delete warehouse resources
- Read and Update warehouse tasks and warehouse orders
Please note that these APIs were developed for S/4HANA Cloud, but by implementing a BAdI they can be used in on-premise too (see SAP note 2790112).
Improved RF Screen Formats & Logging Capability
Finally, for User Experience, I would like to highlight the improvements we made for the RF Framework. Within the RF Framework we wanted to make it possible to protocol user actions (value input or function key pressing), raised messages and entered exception codes (e.g. DIFF, SPLT, NEXT, SKIP, etc.) without the need of a modification in EWM standard coding. We provided a Monitor node to view logged RF events, a switch to activate logging, and a report to delete events. This node cannot only be used to monitor error messages but also to identify repeated verification issues or identify a potentially wrong transaction flow or usage.
Furthermore, we have modernized the RFUI screens. In order to reduce the total cost of implementation for RF screens, we deliver with the 2020 release besides standard RF screens in landscape mode also RF screens in portrait mode. We provide the portrait mode for all 329 RF screens with new template screens in Format 15x26 (lines x columns). Please have a look at SAP note 2968096 for the new CSS style sheet.
FIND OUT MORE!
We will continue to highlight the latest and greatest of our 2020 release, so please stay tuned for more. Links will be added to this article as the other parts in our 4-part series will be published.
For more information about SAP Extended Warehouse Management, please follow us on social media, our YouTube channel or our community pages:
SAP EWM Community:
https://www.sap.com/community/topics/extended-warehouse-management.html
SAP Digital Supply Chain Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCELmE2CEAkcwqpBLnuZHufA
EWM LinkedIn Community:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1952257/
Release information and restrictions of embedded EWM on SAP S/4HANA 2020:
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2938306
Release information and restrictions of Decentralized EWM on SAP S/4HANA 2020:
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2938308
For a complete list of Q&A from the EWM community, please access this link:
https://answers.sap.com/tags/01200615320800000705
In case you do not find your specific question there, feel free to post your question via the following form:
https://answers.sap.com/questions/ask.html?primaryTagId=01200615320800000705
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