In the warehouse, preallocated stock is products that are urgently needed for goods issue but aren’t available in the warehouse. It is possible that this kind of product is involved in new inbound deliveries. You can save effort by skipping the unnecessary putaway and moving the products directly to the interim storage area of goods issue. We call this process as pre-allocated stock (PAS) process.
Different warehouses could have very different inbound processes. Here are some examples of the inbound processes in the warehouse. And we’d like to explain how pre-allocated stock could work with these processes.
For example, right now product PROD-M01 is required on the production supply area bins. In pre-allocated stock, one entry is maintained by the warehouse clerk who is responsible for product supply area (PSA) bin PSA-T100. Now, a new inbound delivery with product PROD-M01 is created for goods receiving, and the following situations may occur.
The inbound delivery product is not packed
If the product in the inbound delivery is not packed and the user triggers the putaway actions, in the standard inbound delivery process, the product will be directly put away to the final storage bin based on the setting in related warehouse process type on the inbound delivery item.
And now a pre-allocated entry is maintained, so the related product will be used to fulfill this requirement and the system will try to move it to destination bin PSA-T100.
Here two situations may happen.
For example, here is the entry in PAS. 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PSA-T100.
One inbound delivery is created and there is only 4 EA of PROD-M01 in the inbound delivery item.
In this case, when putaway warehouse task creation is triggered only 1 product warehouse task (WT) will be created for this inbound delivery item in the default standard logic.
For example, here is the entry in PAS. 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PSA-T100.
One inbound delivery is created and there is 20 EA of PROD-M01 in the inbound delivery item.
In this case, when putaway warehouse task creation is triggered, in the standard logic of PAS, 2 warehouse tasks will be created. 12 EA of the product will be used to fulfil the PAS requirement. The other 8 EA of the product will follow the standard putaway logic based on the warehouse process type (WPT) in the inbound delivery item.
Note 1: Stock-Specific Unit of Measure (SUoM)
It is possible that the UoM (units of measure) in the PAS entry is maintained as SUoM for this product. In this case, only the product in inbound delivery item with the same SUoM or product in inbound delivery item that contains only base UoM (BUoM) will be accepted by PAS.
For example, in PAS, the following entry is maintained. CAR is defined as SUoM. 1 CAR is equal to 4 EA for PROD-M01.
One inbound delivery is created. If the alternative UoM in this inbound delivery item is also CAR or the BUoM, this product could be used to fulfill the PAS entry. Otherwise, this inbound delivery will ignore PAS requirement and follow normal putaway strategy.
This SUoM rule will be used for both packed and unpacked products.
If the product in the inbound delivery is packed into a handling unit (HU), one or multiple products could be packed into one HU.
Basically, for this inbound with HU case, the rule-based process control with deconsolidation step is recommended, especially when you want to split the products or product quantity in this HU, to fulfill the requirement of pre-allocated stock and the rest quantity should follow the standard putaway strategy. You can find more details in the following content of this chapter.
By default, the HU inherits the storage process of the WPT with the last packed product. For example, in inbound delivery there are 2 items below:
If PROD-S01 and PROD-M01 are packed into HU_1 and PROD-M01 is packed in the end, storage process on HU_1 will be updated as IP02. And after packing, you could also manually adjust the storage process on the HU. When you trigger the WT creation for this HU in inbound process, the storage process on this HU will be respected for warehouse task creation.
Under this condition, different possible situations are explained below as you trigger the putaway actions for the HU, in case there is PAS entry maintained in the system.
1. The storage process on HU is empty
It is possible that the WPT on inbound delivery item is not related to process-oriented storage control (POSC). Now the storage process on the HU is empty and you haven’t changed it.
The behavior of the packed product in this inbound delivery is the same as mentioned in the previous chapter for unpacked product. It means that the system will try to fulfill the PAS entry first, and the other product quantity will follow the WPT in inbound delivery item to put away products to destination storage bin directly.
Note : Flag ‘Select HU w/o Storage Process’ active for WPT
If you always want to move the entire HU, you can activate this flag, which leads to an HU WT for the full quantity to be moved to the PAS bin.
For example, if only 12 EA of the product is required by pre-allocated stock for storage bin PSA-T100, but there is 20 EA of the product packed in the HU - HU_1, the following HU WT will be created to move the whole HU.
2. The storage process on HU is maintained
This storage process on the HU could be inherited from WPT of inbound delivery item or you can manually add the storage process on the HU.
With this storage process, it defines where an HU is to be moved to. It is possible that the HU will be moved to a work center and the related product will be put-awayed to a final bin later.
For the storage process, the deconsolidation step is very important. In pre-allocated stock, the product split feature is mainly designed based on deconsolidation step in this storage process.
2.1 Deconsolidation step is contained in the process
If deconsolidation is defined as one of the process steps, different situations may occur:
2.1.1 Product quantity in inbound delivery item is less than the PAS requirement
For example, here is the entry in PAS. 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PSA-T100.
One inbound delivery is created and there is only 4 EA of the product in the inbound delivery item. 4 EA of product is packed in one handling unit HU_1.
In this case, the full quantity of this inbound delivery item will be used to fulfil the PAS requirement. The following warehouse tasks will be created when the WT generation is triggered.
You can see one HU warehouse task is created to move the HU. At the same time, one inactive product warehouse task is created and the storage bin in PAS entry is maintained as the destination bin.
Note 1: Inactive product warehouse task
In this process, the inactive product warehouse task will always be created at the very beginning during the first HU WT creation. The related product WT creation setting on storage process step will be ignored.
This rule will be followed by all the POSC related WPT if this product is used to fulfill the PAS requirement.
Note 2: Rules-based storage process
It is possible that rules-based is enabled for the storage process as below.
Now the inbound delivery product quantity is smaller than the PAS required quantity. In this case, as this product quantity needs to be fully moved to PAS destination bin based on the rule-based setting. There is no need for deconsolidation, so the product will be directly moved to the PAS bin and an active product WT will be created as below:
Note 3: Mixed products in the HU
It is also possible that various products are packed in the same HU, and only one of the products is required by PAS.
For example, in pre-allocated stock, 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by bin PSA-T100. At same time, 4 EA of PROD-M01 and 10 EA of PROD-S01 are packed into the same HU- HU_1 in the inbound delivery. The following warehouse tasks will be created when the WT creation is triggered for HU_1.
2.1.2 Product quantity in inbound delivery item is more than the PAS requirement
For example, 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PSA-T100.
An inbound delivery is created and there is 20 EA of the product in the inbound delivery item and the 20 EA of the product is packed in one handling unit - HU_1.
In this case, 12 EA of products in this inbound delivery item will be used to fulfill the PAS requirement, and the others should be put away to the final bin. The following warehouse tasks will be created when the WT creation is triggered by you or by the system.
Note 1: Nested HU
It is possible that the process step on Top HU - HU_1 contains the deconsolidation step, and the product is packed in the nested HU - HU_1_1. The previous 2 processes still work, and of course in the inactive product warehouse task, this nested HU is used.
Note 2: Mixed products in the same HU
It is also possible that various products are packed in the same HU, and only one of the products is required by PAS. In this case, apart from the active HU warehouse task, different inactive product warehouse tasks will be created when WT creation is triggered.
For example, in pre-allocated stock 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by bin PSA-T100. At the same time, the 20 EA of PROD-M01 and 10 EA of PROD-S01 are packed into the same HU - HU_1 in the inbound delivery. The following warehouse tasks will be created when the WT creation is triggered for HU_1.
2.2 Deconsolidation Step is not contained in the process
It is possible that in this storage process on the HU, deconsolidation is not defined as one of the steps. In standard logic, split of the products in this HU will not happen no matter if the product quantity in this HU is more or less than the quantity required by PAS.
For example, here is the entry in PAS. 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PSA-T100.
The handling unit HU_1 contains 20 EA of PROD-M01. The following warehouse tasks will be generated when the WT creation is triggered for HU_1.
Note 1: Mixed products in the same HU
It is possible that HU_1 contains 20 EA of PROD-M01 and 10 EA of PROD-S01. Though only 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PAS, the full quantity of PROD-M01 will be moved to destination bin PSA-T100. But the other products will be moved to the final bin. So, the following warehouse tasks will be created.
Here you can see if there is no deconsolidation in this process, in standard logic the product quantity will NOT be split. In this example, all the quantity of product PROD-M01 is moved to PSA. Therefore, it is recommended to always use a deconsolidation step if you want to split the product quantity in pre-allocated stock.
Business Add-In(BAdI) for WPT and storage process adjustment
In standard implementation, BAdI /SCWM/EX_PAS_DISTRIBUTE is provided. By using this BAdI, you can adjust the WPT and storage process for the product or HU, you can even define a new product quantity dispatch rule.
You can learn more about BAdI /SCWM/EX_PAS_DISTRIBUTE through the BAdI documentation, which you can find by clicking the document icon next to the BAdI definition in the system.
If the default storage process on HU does not contain the deconsolidation step, the product split will not be supported in standard logic. Of course, you can manually adjust the storage process on the HU to change the process. In standard implementation, one BAdI is provided to achieve the same result.
For example, if HU_1 contains 20 EA of PROD-M01 and 10 EA of PROD-S01. Even though only 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PAS, you can use this BAdI to assign one storage process of the new WPT with a deconsolidation step to HU_1. You can also change the quantity dispatch logic as below:
In summary,
If you still have questions please do not hesitate to write them in the comment area below. Thanks!
Additional Information
SAP Help Portal Process Preallocated Stock
SAP Help Portal Configuration for Preallocated Stock
SAP EWM Community
SAP Digital Supply Chain Channel
EWM LinkedIn Community
For a complete list of Q&A from the SAP EWM community
Different warehouses could have very different inbound processes. Here are some examples of the inbound processes in the warehouse. And we’d like to explain how pre-allocated stock could work with these processes.
For example, right now product PROD-M01 is required on the production supply area bins. In pre-allocated stock, one entry is maintained by the warehouse clerk who is responsible for product supply area (PSA) bin PSA-T100. Now, a new inbound delivery with product PROD-M01 is created for goods receiving, and the following situations may occur.
The inbound delivery product is not packed
If the product in the inbound delivery is not packed and the user triggers the putaway actions, in the standard inbound delivery process, the product will be directly put away to the final storage bin based on the setting in related warehouse process type on the inbound delivery item.
And now a pre-allocated entry is maintained, so the related product will be used to fulfill this requirement and the system will try to move it to destination bin PSA-T100.
Here two situations may happen.
- The product quantity in the inbound delivery item is less than the PAS requirement
For example, here is the entry in PAS. 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PSA-T100.
| Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| PROD-M01 | 12 EA | PSA-T100 |
One inbound delivery is created and there is only 4 EA of PROD-M01 in the inbound delivery item.
In this case, when putaway warehouse task creation is triggered only 1 product warehouse task (WT) will be created for this inbound delivery item in the default standard logic.
| WT | Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| WT1 | PROD-M01 | 4 EA | PSA-T100 |
- The product quantity in the inbound delivery item is higher than the PAS requirement
Fig 1. General process for unpacked product
For example, here is the entry in PAS. 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PSA-T100.
| Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| PROD-M01 | 12 EA | PSA-T100 |
One inbound delivery is created and there is 20 EA of PROD-M01 in the inbound delivery item.
In this case, when putaway warehouse task creation is triggered, in the standard logic of PAS, 2 warehouse tasks will be created. 12 EA of the product will be used to fulfil the PAS requirement. The other 8 EA of the product will follow the standard putaway logic based on the warehouse process type (WPT) in the inbound delivery item.
| WT | Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| WT1 | PROD-M01 | 12EA | PSA-T100 |
| WT2 | PROD-M01 | 8 EA | T010-01-01-A (By putaway strategy) |
Note 1: Stock-Specific Unit of Measure (SUoM)
It is possible that the UoM (units of measure) in the PAS entry is maintained as SUoM for this product. In this case, only the product in inbound delivery item with the same SUoM or product in inbound delivery item that contains only base UoM (BUoM) will be accepted by PAS.
For example, in PAS, the following entry is maintained. CAR is defined as SUoM. 1 CAR is equal to 4 EA for PROD-M01.
| Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| PROD-M01 | 1 CAR | PSA-T100 |
One inbound delivery is created. If the alternative UoM in this inbound delivery item is also CAR or the BUoM, this product could be used to fulfill the PAS entry. Otherwise, this inbound delivery will ignore PAS requirement and follow normal putaway strategy.
This SUoM rule will be used for both packed and unpacked products.
The inbound delivery product is packed into an HU
If the product in the inbound delivery is packed into a handling unit (HU), one or multiple products could be packed into one HU.
Basically, for this inbound with HU case, the rule-based process control with deconsolidation step is recommended, especially when you want to split the products or product quantity in this HU, to fulfill the requirement of pre-allocated stock and the rest quantity should follow the standard putaway strategy. You can find more details in the following content of this chapter.
By default, the HU inherits the storage process of the WPT with the last packed product. For example, in inbound delivery there are 2 items below:
| Inbound Delivery Item | Product | WPT on Inbound Delivery Item | Storage Process in WPT |
| 10 | PROD-S01 | S110 | IP01 |
| 20 | PROD-M01 | S111 | IP02 |
If PROD-S01 and PROD-M01 are packed into HU_1 and PROD-M01 is packed in the end, storage process on HU_1 will be updated as IP02. And after packing, you could also manually adjust the storage process on the HU. When you trigger the WT creation for this HU in inbound process, the storage process on this HU will be respected for warehouse task creation.
Under this condition, different possible situations are explained below as you trigger the putaway actions for the HU, in case there is PAS entry maintained in the system.
1. The storage process on HU is empty
It is possible that the WPT on inbound delivery item is not related to process-oriented storage control (POSC). Now the storage process on the HU is empty and you haven’t changed it.
The behavior of the packed product in this inbound delivery is the same as mentioned in the previous chapter for unpacked product. It means that the system will try to fulfill the PAS entry first, and the other product quantity will follow the WPT in inbound delivery item to put away products to destination storage bin directly.
Note : Flag ‘Select HU w/o Storage Process’ active for WPT
If you always want to move the entire HU, you can activate this flag, which leads to an HU WT for the full quantity to be moved to the PAS bin.
For example, if only 12 EA of the product is required by pre-allocated stock for storage bin PSA-T100, but there is 20 EA of the product packed in the HU - HU_1, the following HU WT will be created to move the whole HU.
| WT | HU WT | Status | HU | Destination Bin |
| WT1 | ✔ | Active | HU_1 | PSA-T100 |
2. The storage process on HU is maintained
This storage process on the HU could be inherited from WPT of inbound delivery item or you can manually add the storage process on the HU.
With this storage process, it defines where an HU is to be moved to. It is possible that the HU will be moved to a work center and the related product will be put-awayed to a final bin later.
For the storage process, the deconsolidation step is very important. In pre-allocated stock, the product split feature is mainly designed based on deconsolidation step in this storage process.
2.1 Deconsolidation step is contained in the process
If deconsolidation is defined as one of the process steps, different situations may occur:
2.1.1 Product quantity in inbound delivery item is less than the PAS requirement
For example, here is the entry in PAS. 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PSA-T100.
| Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| PROD-M01 | 12 EA | PSA-T100 |
One inbound delivery is created and there is only 4 EA of the product in the inbound delivery item. 4 EA of product is packed in one handling unit HU_1.
In this case, the full quantity of this inbound delivery item will be used to fulfil the PAS requirement. The following warehouse tasks will be created when the WT generation is triggered.
| WT | HU WT | Status | HU | Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| WT1 | ✔ | Active | HU_1 | WC01 (Work Center) | ||
| WT2 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-M01 | 4 EA | PSA-T100 |
You can see one HU warehouse task is created to move the HU. At the same time, one inactive product warehouse task is created and the storage bin in PAS entry is maintained as the destination bin.
Note 1: Inactive product warehouse task
In this process, the inactive product warehouse task will always be created at the very beginning during the first HU WT creation. The related product WT creation setting on storage process step will be ignored.
This rule will be followed by all the POSC related WPT if this product is used to fulfill the PAS requirement.
Note 2: Rules-based storage process
It is possible that rules-based is enabled for the storage process as below.
Now the inbound delivery product quantity is smaller than the PAS required quantity. In this case, as this product quantity needs to be fully moved to PAS destination bin based on the rule-based setting. There is no need for deconsolidation, so the product will be directly moved to the PAS bin and an active product WT will be created as below:
| WT | HU WT | Status | HU | Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| WT1 | Active | HU_1 | PROD-M01 | 4 EA | PSA-T100 |
Note 3: Mixed products in the HU
It is also possible that various products are packed in the same HU, and only one of the products is required by PAS.
For example, in pre-allocated stock, 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by bin PSA-T100. At same time, 4 EA of PROD-M01 and 10 EA of PROD-S01 are packed into the same HU- HU_1 in the inbound delivery. The following warehouse tasks will be created when the WT creation is triggered for HU_1.
| WT | HU WT | Status | HU | Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| WT1 | ✔ | Active | HU_1 | WC01 (Work Center) | ||
| WT2 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-M01 | 4 EA | PSA-T100 | |
| WT3 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-S01 | 10 EA | T051-01-01-B (By putaway strategy) |
2.1.2 Product quantity in inbound delivery item is more than the PAS requirement
Fig 2. Process for Deconsolidation
For example, 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PSA-T100.
| Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| PROD-M01 | 12 EA | PSA-T100 |
An inbound delivery is created and there is 20 EA of the product in the inbound delivery item and the 20 EA of the product is packed in one handling unit - HU_1.
In this case, 12 EA of products in this inbound delivery item will be used to fulfill the PAS requirement, and the others should be put away to the final bin. The following warehouse tasks will be created when the WT creation is triggered by you or by the system.
| WT | HU WT | Status | HU | Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| WT1 | ✔ | Active | HU_1 | WC01 (Work Center) | ||
| WT2 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-M01 | 12 EA | PSA-T100 | |
| WT3 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-M01 | 8 EA | T010-01-01 (By putaway strategy) |
Note 1: Nested HU
It is possible that the process step on Top HU - HU_1 contains the deconsolidation step, and the product is packed in the nested HU - HU_1_1. The previous 2 processes still work, and of course in the inactive product warehouse task, this nested HU is used.
Note 2: Mixed products in the same HU
It is also possible that various products are packed in the same HU, and only one of the products is required by PAS. In this case, apart from the active HU warehouse task, different inactive product warehouse tasks will be created when WT creation is triggered.
For example, in pre-allocated stock 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by bin PSA-T100. At the same time, the 20 EA of PROD-M01 and 10 EA of PROD-S01 are packed into the same HU - HU_1 in the inbound delivery. The following warehouse tasks will be created when the WT creation is triggered for HU_1.
| WT | HU WT | Status | HU | Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| WT1 | ✔ | Active | HU_1 | WC01 (Work Center) | ||
| WT2 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-M01 | 12 EA | PSA-T100 | |
| WT3 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-M01 | 8 EA | T010-01-01-A (By putaway strategy) | |
| WT4 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-S01 | 10 EA | T051-01-01-B (By putaway strategy) |
2.2 Deconsolidation Step is not contained in the process
It is possible that in this storage process on the HU, deconsolidation is not defined as one of the steps. In standard logic, split of the products in this HU will not happen no matter if the product quantity in this HU is more or less than the quantity required by PAS.
For example, here is the entry in PAS. 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PSA-T100.
| Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| PROD-M01 | 12 EA | PSA-T100 |
The handling unit HU_1 contains 20 EA of PROD-M01. The following warehouse tasks will be generated when the WT creation is triggered for HU_1.
| WT | HU WT | Status | HU | Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| WT1 | ✔ | Active | HU_1 | WP01 (Work Center) | ||
| WT2 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-M01 | 20 EA | PSA-T100 |
Note 1: Mixed products in the same HU
It is possible that HU_1 contains 20 EA of PROD-M01 and 10 EA of PROD-S01. Though only 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PAS, the full quantity of PROD-M01 will be moved to destination bin PSA-T100. But the other products will be moved to the final bin. So, the following warehouse tasks will be created.
| WT | HU WT | Status | HU | Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| WT1 | ✔ | Active | HU_1 | WP01 (Work Center) | ||
| WT2 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-M01 | 20 EA | PSA-T100 | |
| WT3 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-S01 | 10 EA | T051-01-01-B (By putaway strategy) |
Here you can see if there is no deconsolidation in this process, in standard logic the product quantity will NOT be split. In this example, all the quantity of product PROD-M01 is moved to PSA. Therefore, it is recommended to always use a deconsolidation step if you want to split the product quantity in pre-allocated stock.
Business Add-In(BAdI) for WPT and storage process adjustment
In standard implementation, BAdI /SCWM/EX_PAS_DISTRIBUTE is provided. By using this BAdI, you can adjust the WPT and storage process for the product or HU, you can even define a new product quantity dispatch rule.
You can learn more about BAdI /SCWM/EX_PAS_DISTRIBUTE through the BAdI documentation, which you can find by clicking the document icon next to the BAdI definition in the system.
If the default storage process on HU does not contain the deconsolidation step, the product split will not be supported in standard logic. Of course, you can manually adjust the storage process on the HU to change the process. In standard implementation, one BAdI is provided to achieve the same result.
For example, if HU_1 contains 20 EA of PROD-M01 and 10 EA of PROD-S01. Even though only 12 EA of PROD-M01 is required by PAS, you can use this BAdI to assign one storage process of the new WPT with a deconsolidation step to HU_1. You can also change the quantity dispatch logic as below:
| WT | HU WT | Status | HU | Product | Product Quantity | Destination Bin |
| WT1 | ✔ | Active | HU_1 | WC01 (Work Center) | ||
| WT2 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-M01 | 12 EA (BADI adjusted) | PSA-T100 | |
| WT3 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-M01 | 8 EA | T010-01-01-A (By putaway strategy) | |
| WT4 | Inactive | HU_1 | PROD-S01 | 10 EA | T051-01-01-B (By putaway strategy) |
In summary,
- For the products with the one-step putaway strategy, no matter whether the product is packed or not, the system could split the product quantity for the pre-allocated stock destination bin.
- For POSC-related process, rule-based process control with deconsolidation step is recommended.
- For special processes, you can use the BAdI interface for customizing to adjust the warehouse process type and product dispatch rule.
If you still have questions please do not hesitate to write them in the comment area below. Thanks!
Additional Information
SAP Help Portal Process Preallocated Stock
SAP Help Portal Configuration for Preallocated Stock
SAP EWM Community
SAP Digital Supply Chain Channel
EWM LinkedIn Community
For a complete list of Q&A from the SAP EWM community
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