Setting up pick by voice in EWM

[aurlienmermet]

Introduction

 

During a project, we had to study the implementation of the RF voice functionnality within SAP EWM. Throughout our research, we didn't find lots of documentation about it. Thus, i wrote this blog post in order to explain step by step how to implement a pick by voice solution in a SAP EWM environment.

First of all, it is important to define the RF voice limition within SAP EWM. RF voice functionnality comes naturally with the EWM core, however, important limitation are listed below :

• Pick by voice can only be used in a system guided environment for warehouse orders. This means only movement from bin A to bin B can be done. There is no possibility for packing or other functionnality.


• SAP EWM can control the “grammar”, e.g what the operator needs to say to confirm and what the system told to the operator. SAP EWM do not support voice recognition & collection. Dedicated software such as Lydia, Vocollect or others must be used.

The second limition is quite important. It means for our customer that they need to buy SAP EWM, RF devices and a middleware to collect voice.

 

setting-up pick by voice must follow below steps:

• Create internet service


• Create ICF service


• Create and publish dedicated HTML template


• Manage master data for radio-frequency processing

Create the internet service

In transaction SE80, an internet services is to be created:

enter the transaction name. For vocal pick, it is /SCWM/RFUI_PBV. Once saved, the internet service is created for the transaction:

 

Create ICF service

After creating the internet service, an ICF service is to be created. In transaction SICF, go to path default_host/sap/bc/gui/sap/its, select node ITS and clic on the wizard :

 

Below pop-up will appear, just clic on continue :

Then continue:

Select service and continue:

Name your service and continue:

Add the handler CL_HTTP_EXT_ITS:

 

And complete:

 

Add the package and save. The entry is added in the node :

 You need now to add properties to the service. To do so, double clic on it. On page Service data, clic on  GUI Configuration :

Add following entries:

 

Parameter Name	Value
~ITSMOBILE	1
~SOURCES	ZITS_MOB;itsmobile
~THEME	99
~TRANSACTION	/SCWM/RFUI
~ITSMOBILEMSGSOUND	1
~BGSOUND	1
~ITSMOBILESOUND	1

~SOURCES has to point toward the internet services created in SE80 at the first step.

Then, navigate to page Error Pages, tab Logon errors :

Make sure system logon is selected. On Logoff Page, select Redirect to URL and add URL /sap/public/bc/icf/logoff. This will make users completely disconnected from the system at RF log-off.

 

Create HTML template dedicated to pick by voice

Once the ICF services is created, HTML template must be generated for each dynpro used within the warehouse process. Template generation avoid dumps due to HTML template not found such has the one below:

Dynpro needs to be generated by function group. In EWM, only four function group contains vocal function:

/SCWM/RF_TMPL

/SCWM/RF_SSCR

/SCWM/RSRC_DYNPRO

/SCWM/RF_PBV

 

Vocal templates need to be generated with style MOBILEXV – Mobile device with speech input.

Generate vocal HTML template

/SCWM/RF_TMPL :


Generate template for dynpro 0011 only. To do so, open screen file, right clic on dynpro 0011, navigate to Additionnal functions  then Create HTML Template :

 

Select your internet service and your theme. For Generating style, be sure to select MOBILEXV Mobile device with speech input and clic on save :

You’ll have to repeat this operating for each and every dynpro. To speed up the process, you can do it for all dynpro in a function group. If your warehouse use both vocal and standard RF, you have to generate vocal HTML template only for the corresponding dynpro.

/SCWM/RF_SSCR :


For this function module, generate vocal HTML template only for dynpro 0011/ 00012:

 

/SCWM/RSRC_DYNPRO:

Here, generate vocal HTML template only for dynpro 0005 / 00011 / 0012 & 0013:

 

/SCWM/RF_PBV :


This function group is the only one dedicated to pick by voice, hence, you can select all dynpro and generate HTML templates for all.

Publish the internet service

Once all the HTML templates are created, you have to publish the internet service within ITS. In SE80, select internet service, enter your service. Right clic on it and navigate to publish complete service :

 

Below message indicates a successful creation. You can now proceed to the test of the service.

 

 

Test the ICF service

In order to test the ICF service, you need to get back to SICF transaction. Once in it, navigate to the service you have created, right clic on it and select test service:

Below pages will open in your default web browser. My apologies, the RF langage of the system is french :

You can notice some texts above. This text is the one of the vocal. You have now to enter resource and device profile wich are created just below.

Master data for Radio-frequency

 

In standard, EWM offers two different personalization profile :

- ** Standard Personalization

-*1 Pick-by-Voice

required presentation profile is to be assigned to the device. First, device needs to be created, then resource must be created and assigned to a user.

 

Create the mobile device

Tcode /SCWM/PRDVC is used to create devices profile used in the warehouse. There must be a device for pick by voice and a device for regular RF process. Corresponding display profile is to be assign to the device :

Create a ressource and assign it to a user

In order to be able to use the radio-frequency framework, ressources has to be created. You can then assign it to a user if you want to set default value.

You create and maintain ressources in tcode /SCWM/RSRC. You also assign default value to it. Here, default device YE01 is assign for voice pick.

In a second time, ressources can be assigned to a user. This is done in tcode /SCWM/USER. This tcode is used to assign default value to a user when he connects to the RF framework :

Use the RF framework in a vocal way

As explained in the introduction, SAP can conduct the way vocal pick works, but a software to read and collect vocal needs to be used. The way we found out in freeware is with opera brower and text to speech extension.

extension text to speech can be installed

 

once it is done, you can loggon to the environement :

once validated, there is only one menu in the RF framework :

 

Pick by voices works in a system guided logic. Thus, it will follow the WO assign to the queue of the ressource. To make vocal works, you can use text to speech functionnality on the screen by pressing ALT + higlight the zone you want to hear :

 

I hope this paper will be usefull to guide you with the PBV functionnnality. However, some part of this paper are no longer used in S/4 2021. The new EWM_MOBGUI added in S/4 2021 no longer requires HTML template.

 

Please do not hesitate to share feedback & comments.

 

NOTE : i'm working on a french environment, thus i didn't succed in putting the RF in english, if you have tips for that, it would be wonderfull.

 

Aurélien Mermet-Guyennet