Introduction
SAP Transportation Management, order to cash for container shipping liners provides numerous functionalities dedicated to help ocean liners to run their business better. In this blog series, you will learn how Equipment Availability Check works with Transportation Resource Plan product.
Business Background
You may be requested by your ordering party to provide the requisite empty containers in addition to transporting goods. And there are several depots around the shipper location, however you don’t know which depot has enough empty containers based on your requirement.
SAP Transportation Resource Planning has detail information of empty container’s supply and demand at each depot.
Integration between SAP Container Shipping Liners (CSL) and SAP Transportation Resource Planning helps to get suitable depot for booking with proper configurations. Here I will walk through the Equipment Availability Check logic and configurations in both sides.
EAC logic in CSL
EAC returns three kinds of results: complete match, alternative and no match. And for alternative solution there are three possible cases: alternative location, alternative date and equipment substitution.
Let’s use below scenarios to go through complete match, alternative and no match cases:
There are 3 depots (CNSHA-DEP1, CNSHA-DEP2 and CNSHA-DEP3) in Shanghai City (CNSHA), Also there are 2 depots (CNNGB-DEP1, CNNGB-DEP2) in Ningbo City (CNNGB).
Request pick up location is specific scenario: You want to request 11 40ST empty containers at location CNSHA-DEP1 on 21-01-2022 UTC+8
Request pick up location is city scenario: You want to request 11 40ST empty containers at location CNSHA on 21-01-2022 UTC+8
Note that the following information is only for demonstration purpose.
Complete match:
CSL only returns successful message if required equipments are completed matched.
1. Request pick up location is specific scenario: request 11 40ST at CNSHA-DEP1 ON 21-02-2022.
There are two check steps, first check the available equipment on CNSHA-DEP1 location if there are no sufficient resources then go to step2 check the available equipment on CNSHA city.
Check Step1: Complete match on location level as below, there are sufficient containers at the location CNSHA-DEP1 on 21-01-2022
| Location | Equipment Type | Available Containers |
| 21-01-2022 | ||
| CNSHA | 40ST | 1 |
| CNSHA-DEP1 | 40ST | 13 |
| CNSHA-DEP2 | 40ST | 1 |
| CNSHA-DEP3 | 40ST | 1 |
Check Step2: there are sufficient containers at the city CNSHA on 21-01-2022.
Available equipment on city level = city available equipment + locations under the city level = 1(CNSHA) + 8(CNSHA-DEP1) + 1(CNSHA-DEP2) + 2(CNSHA-DEP3) = 12 > required equipment 11
| Location | Equipment Type | Available Containers |
| 21-01-2022 | ||
| CNSHA | 40ST | 1 |
| CNSHA-DEP1 | 40ST | 8 |
| CNSHA-DEP2 | 40ST | 1 |
| CNSHA-DEP3 | 40ST | 2 |
2. Request pick up location is city scenario: request 11 40ST at CNSHA ON 21-02-2022.
There is only one check step, check the available equipment on CNSHA city.
Check Step: Complete match on city level as below, there are sufficient containers at the city CNSHA on 21-01-2022
Available equipment on city level = city available equipment + locations under the city level = 1(CNSHA) + 8(CNSHA-DEP1) + 1(CNSHA-DEP2) + 2(CNSHA-DEP3) = 12 > required equipment 11
| Location | Equipment Type | Available Containers |
| 21-01-2022 | ||
| CNSHA | 40ST | 1 |
| CNSHA-DEP1 | 40ST | 8 |
| CNSHA-DEP2 | 40ST | 1 |
| CNSHA-DEP3 | 40ST | 2 |
Prerequisite:
The Business Add-In implementation /TMCSL/EHI_O2C_EAC_B is active in Customizing: Container Shipping Liners > Order to Cash > Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) > Voyage Suggestion Framework > BAdI: Retrieval of EAC Equipment Proposals
The valid location types for the empty container pickup have been defined in Customizing: Container Shipping Liners > Order to Cash > Booking and Documentation > Booking > Basic Settings > Define Valid Empty Provisioning Location Type.
The default location hierarchy ID for EAC has been maintained in Customizing: Container Shipping Liners > Order to Cash > Booking and Documentation > Booking > Basic Settings > Maintain Default Location Hierarchy ID for EAC.
The CNSHA-DEP1, CNSHA-DEP2 and CNSHA-DEP3 maintained as child of CNSHA in location hierarchy. The CNNGB-DEP1 and CNNGB-DEP2 maintained as child node of CNNGB in the same location hierarchy.
Alternative Date:
CSL raise popup window like below ‘Figure 1’ with alternative date information as well as with alternative location and equipment substitution for user to make decision.
Alternative date case only checks the available equipment in future on same location/city and equipment type. And the customizing (Container Shipping Liners > Order to Cash > Booking and Documentation > Booking > Basic Settings > Maintain Global Time Period for EAC) is used to set the maximum days after requested date based on resource category for checking.
Figure 1
1. Request pick up location is specific scenario: request 11 40ST at CNSHA-DEP1 ON 21-02-2022. There are below check steps after complete match check for remain unmatched equipment. First check the alternative date on location level (Check Step1), if there is no sufficient equipment, then check the alternative date on city level (Check Step2)
Check Step1: Alternative date on location level as below: there are sufficient equipment for remain unmatched equipment = request 11– matched 1 on CNSHA-DEP1 = 10 < 13 at the location CNSHA-DEP1 on 28-01-2022.
Note: Actually, system check the equipment day by day after required date, for example, here we firstly check 22-01-2022, then 23-01-2022…. Until we find a day which has sufficient resources or the date beyond the maximum checking days.
| Location | Equipment Type | Available Equipment | |
| 21-01-2022 | 28-01-2022 | ||
| CNSHA | 40ST | 1 | 1 |
| CNSHA-DEP1 | 40ST | 1 | 13 |
| CNSHA-DEP2 | 40ST | 1 | 1 |
| CNSHA-DEP3 | 40ST | 1 | 1 |
Check Step2: Alternative date on city level as below: there are sufficient for remain unmatched equipment at the city CNSHA on 28-01-2022
Available equipment on city level = city available equipment + locations under the city level = 1(CNSHA) + 5(CNSHA-DEP1) + 4(CNSHA-DEP2) + 2(CNSHA-DEP3) = 12 > remain unmatched equipment 10
| Location | Equipment Type | Available Containers | |
| 21-01-2022 | 28-01-2022 | ||
| CNSHA | 40ST | 1 | 1 |
| CNSHA-DEP1 | 40ST | 1 | 5 |
| CNSHA-DEP2 | 40ST | 1 | 4 |
| CNSHA-DEP3 | 40ST | 1 | 2 |
2. Request pick up location is city scenario: request 11 40ST at CNSHA ON 21-02-2022.
There is only one check step after complete match check which is checking the alternative date on city level
Check Step: Alternative date on city level as below: there are sufficient for remain unmatched equipment at the city CNSHA on 28-01-2022
Available equipment on city level = city available equipment + locations under the city level = 1(CNSHA) + 5(CNSHA-DEP1) + 4(CNSHA-DEP2) + 2(CNSHA-DEP3) = 12 > remain unmatched equipment 10
| Location | Equipment Type | Available Containers | |
| 21-01-2022 | 28-01-2022 | ||
| CNSHA | 40ST | 1 | 1 |
| CNSHA-DEP1 | 40ST | 1 | 5 |
| CNSHA-DEP2 | 40ST | 1 | 4 |
| CNSHA-DEP3 | 40ST | 1 | 2 |
Conclusion
So far, we introduced how the equipment availability check works for completed match and alternative date; in next blog post I will introduce how the alternative location and equipment substitution works as well as configurations on SAP Transportation Resource Planning.
Please provide feedback or thoughts in the comment section, thanks for your reading.
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