Using standardized codes to find locations in SAP TM

Dear friends of SAP TM,

A user of a TM system, say a transportation manager or a dispatcher, regularly deals with locations. They’re a central part of transportation planning and are used in various TM documents like freight units, freight orders, freight bookings.

Sometimes, finding the right location can be a challenge when the user doesn’t know the technical name of a location. The identifier of a location has only 20 digits, leaving not too much room for meaningful names. And the location might have been generated or even a prefix or suffix has been used (as described in this blog post).

In all of that cases it’s of great help to assign standardized codes to a location. And this blog post now tells about the different codes that can be used in SAP S/4HANA.

Basically, the location master offers the possibility to assign the following four standardized codes to a location:

Those codes are in detail:

• Global Location Number (GLN): This is a standardized 13 digit location code which consists of a company specific base number, a freely chosen location identifier and a check digit.
• Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS): Numeric identifier assigned to a business entity.
• UN/LOCODE: Five digit code administrated by the United Nations. The first two digits are the country whereas the remaining three digits identify a particular location.
• IATA Code: The IATA airline code is administrated by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to identify airports with a three digit code.

Thereby, the UN/LOCODE and the IATA code can be maintained in customizing:

For using those codes to find locations, those are included in the search helps for the location.

As an example, see here the search help for the source location in a freight order:

I hope this helps you a bit in using the locations efficiently in SAP TM.

Any question or feedback is appreciated!

Best regards,

Michael