Personal Insights
How To Deactivate Storage Location In S/4 HANA
Introduction: To initiate, it’s worth considering how often clients have asked you to deactivate storage locations within a plant during your SAP career. This may have happened numerous times, prompting the following question: what’s the solution for deactivating them? Deleting the storage location after it’s been created isn’t the best because it can lead to database inconsistencies (Table: MARD has Material, Plant, and Storage Location combination). Therefore, one possible solution is to rename the storage location name as “DON’T USE,” which will make it clear to users that it’s no longer in use. After renaming it to “DON’T USE,” the storage location will still appear in the dropdown list, and the possibility that the user will create/extend materials to a storage location.
The configuration in S/4 HANA now allows for the deactivation of storage locations, a functionality not previously available in SAP. Note: This is performed on S4HANA ON PREMISE – 2021 Version.
Configuration:
| IMG Path | SPRO –> IMG –> Enterprise Structure –> Definition –> Materials Management –> Maintain storage location (T-code: OX09) |
Validity
As shown above, SAP has now introduced Validity Field with Dropdown Value as
- Blank – Valid. This means the entry is valid and is displayed in input help. The user can select this valid entry.
- E – No Longer Valid. The entry is invalid and is no longer displayed in input help.
- W – Deprecated. The entry will no longer be used in the future but is still displayed in input help. The system warns if the user selects this entry in input help.
Scenario 1: Change Validity from Blank to E – No Longer Valid
T-code: OX09
Configuration Change
Configuration Change
Configuration Change to E
Validity E
- Create New Material using T-code: MM01.
MM01 Validation
- If we tried to extend the material to the storage location using T-code: MMSC, then values don’t appear.
MMSC Validation
Scenario 2: Change Validity from Blank to W – Deprecated
T-code: OX09
Configuration Change
Configuration Change
Configuration Change to W
Validity W
- Create New Material using T-code: MM01.
MM01 Validation
MM01 Validation for SL
- If we try to extend the material to the storage location using T-code: MMSC, it will show a warning message.
MMSC Validation
Conclusion:
- With SAP S/4 HANA, we can now use validity functionality to control the storage location validity Vs. just using a description.
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This is the best news I've heard today ... We're working on our S/4 migration and I have tens of storage locations which should have never been created.
As you mentioned in the blog ...almost no one deletes storage locations in ECC due to master inconsistency issues. Wha's your recommendation if we're planning a brownfield implementation? It looks like it would be easier to just migrate what I have now and clean the SLOCs once we're in S/4
Does this make sense to you?
Thanks!
Hi Oscar,
Thank you for your feedback !! It makes sense to migrate and then use the validity "E."
On a side note: Wouldn't it be nice to have the same functionality for plants as well? I always run across clients' requirements where they say this plant is inactive or not being used anymore. I hope SAP does the same thing at the plant level.
Again, thank you for reading and providing comments !!
Regards,
Ravi.
It would be fantastic to have this in Plants !! I run into this issue EVERY single time. All SAP companies have plenty of objects mark with "Do Not Use". I'm currently going through a purchase organization merger and I will have no choice but to mark the old purchase organization as "Do not Use" just because I don't have the time to even research all of the potential data consistency issues!
Most folks are afraid to just delete stuff on config. I've seen folks who are afraid to even delete planner groups or purchasing groups !
Thank you for sharing. it will be helpful to have same functionality for plant as well.
Thanks Ravi for sharing. This is a good solution provided in s/4 HANA. This is much wanted solution by business users, which we met by changing description of sloc viz. donot use, but cannot restrict display in stock overview.
Keep exploring and sharing such good options made available by SAP. Thanks once again.
Yes it would be nice to have this functionality for plant too with date and with a reason. With this functionality, system should not all transactions from this plant. Today we have added field like deletion marker with date.and used BADIs/ Exits to restrict transactions when this marker is put for such plants in the table. It's a direct update thru transaction code.
Regards,
Casimer.
Casimer,
Thank you for your valuable feedback.
Regards,
Ravi.
I am Casimer Quadros,
Thanks Ravi for sharing. This is a good solution provided in s/4 HANA. This is much wanted solution by business users, which we met by changing description of sloc viz. donot use, but cannot restrict display in stock overview.
Keep exploring and sharing such good options made available by SAP. Thanks once again.
Yes it would be nice to have this functionality for plant too with date and with a reason. With this functionality, system should not all transactions from this plant. Today we have added field like deletion marker with date.and used BADIs/ Exits to restrict transactions when this marker is put for such plants in the table. It's a direct update thru transaction code.
Thanks Ravi for sharing. This is a good solution provided in s/4 HANA. This is much wanted solution by business users, which we met by changing description of sloc viz. donot use, but cannot restrict display in stock overview.
Keep exploring and sharing such good options made available by SAP. Thanks once again.
Yes it would be nice to have this functionality for plant too with date and with a reason. With this functionality, system should not all transactions from this plant. Today we have added field like deletion marker with date.and used BADIs/ Exits to restrict transactions when this marker is put for such plants in the table. It's a direct update thru transaction code.
Thank you for your feedback !! Yes, would love to have the same functionality for the plant. Much needed !!
Regards,
Ravi.
This is a very useful Post. Thanks Ravi for sharing the details
Thank you, Jyoti !! I hope you are doing well.
Regards,
Ravi.
Good stuff Ravi, thanks.
To take it further, I was briefly trying to find more info on this one in addition (KBAs and "what´s new viewer" from SAP directly), unfortunately no luck.
Was wondering what was the business case that lead to the feature (as there could be so many) before actually trying it out. The F1 help has no context, I wonder if the status could be changed if there are open transactional documents/stocks/dependent WM configetc... Maybe this feature goes into the line of material MM status like (full block vs block new POs but consume existing stock is still ok, that sort of stuff).
Any additional hands on feedback from the forum is appreciated.
And thanks again Ravi!
Hi Goncalo,
Thank you for reading and providing feedback. Yes, there is no KBA or help on SAP support. I discover this option while configuring the storage location for the client.
To your point, yes, it's allowing us to update validity even if we have open transactions (like open PO(s) or SO(s) or even having inventory). This is the same way as putting a deletion flag on the material master. SAP doesn't check if you have inventory or have open transaction(s) and allows you to put a deletion flag. This validity configuration is working almost the same. SAP expects you to perform those checks before updating the configuration.
I recommend going with Validity W - Deprecated because that's working like a warning message, so even if you have open transactions or inventory, it's ok. As soon as you go with validity - E, it's a hard stop. E is useful if you have validated no open transactions or inventory.
I hope this helps !!
Again thank you for reading and providing feedback.
Regards,
Ravi.
Thank you for sharing,this is very helpful functionality
Hi Ravi,
Thank you for sharing this great functionality!
But as per checking in our S4HANA ON PREMISE – 2020 Version, Validity column is not reflected.
Is there any KBAs/Snote to reflect this column?
Regards,
Angelie
Hi Angelie Gaco ,
Feel free to check my previous comment. I could also not find info in SAP for this functionality (the purpose actually).
It came in with 2021.
All the best,
Angelie,
Sorry, I don't have KBA. I discover this functionality. The article which I have published was tested in "S4HANA ON PREMISE 2021".
Regards,
Ravi.