Capability of Optimizer planning without Transportation lane in S/4HANA 2020 release

SAP Transportation management ( TM ) provides the option to plan manually or automatically. TM optimizer is required for automatic planning. Till S/4HANA 1909 release, Transportation lane (TL) is mandatory for planning with TM optimizer. S/4HANA 2020 release has provided the option of automatic planning with Optimizer without TL. My present blog is to discuss on ‘Optimizer or automatic planning without TL in S/4HANA’ as introduced in S/4HANA 2020 release.

TL is a master data in TM to connect the source and destination with a means of transport. Below image shows a TL connecting source location SP_1010 and destination location 0010100001 with Means of transport MoT 0001, 0002 and Z002.

Now, I have created a delivery 80001796 which has created a freight unit 4100003587 with source as SP_1010 and destination 0010100008 as shown in below image.

There is no TL between source SP_1010 and destination 0010100008. Will now try to plan freight unit 4100003587 with trucks (resources with MoT 0001) through optimizer as shown below image. Optimizer could not plan and displayed message “None of the transportation demands can be planned, Message no. /SCMTMS/PLN_OPT_APP300”.

Optimizer could not plan for that FU with selected resources with MoT  0001 as “ There is no valid transportation lane, ..” as is explained in the optimizer explanation tool and it was expected as there is no TL for the corresponding source and destination.

Now, when the resource or truck with means of transport Z005 is selected for optimizer planning, then the optimizer is able to plan and create a freight order as displayed in below image.

Reason for the optimizer to be able to plan the same FU for resource with MoT Z005 is that the MoT Z005 is flagged with “ No TLs required” as shown in below image. This is a new customizing introduced in S/4HANA 2020 release.

This new feature of enabling Optimizer planning without TL will

• reduce the requirement of requisite master data to a considerable extent
• enable to connect every relevant source and destination location / zone
• simplify transportation network definition

My blog is based on my tests, observations, insights in S/4HANA 2020 release. Will appreciate your feedback , comments .