SAP Warehouse Management

SAP WM enables a detailed mapping of your warehouse complex and all goods movements. Use this warehouse management system (WMS) to ensure that all logistics processes in your company run according to plan and efficiently.

SAP WM is a simple application for warehouse management of small and medium-sized warehouses that is widely used in practice and has been tried and tested for years. Take advantage of core functions such as bin-accurate inventory management, mapping of all warehouse movements, and optimized planning and monitoring. Business transactions triggered in other application components result in goods movements in your SAP WM managed warehouse. SAP Warehouse Management organizes, controls and monitors these movements. SAP WM will not be further developed and will not be maintained after 2027.

SAP WM functionalities

  • Mapping of the storage complex by means of storage complex number, storage types, storage sections, storage bins and quants.
  • Transfer of all storage facilities such as high-bay storage, block storage or fixed bin storage in different storage types
  • Division of the warehouse into different storage areas relevant for storage by means of certain storage bin characteristics
  • Allocation of storage bins with the same picking activities to picking areas for stock removal
  • The physical stock of the material is represented at the storage bin level via coordinates
  • Management of stocks of a particular material with the same characteristics in a storage bin by means of quant
     

Benefits: 

  • Representation of the logistic processes in the system
  • Your own organizational units such as warehouse number, storage types, storage sections and storage bins allow you to recreate the physical warehouse in your system in detail
  • With SAP WM, physical inventories can be managed at the level of the individual storage bin
  • Complete integration of inventory management (MM-IM) and SAP WM

Advantages:

  • High inventory transparency helps monitor stock levels and thus reduce storage costs
  • Tracking of stock movements, as the location of a material in the warehouse is known at all times
  • Reconciliation and correction of stocks in the SAP MM-IM as well as SAP WM by inventory procedures and stock differences
  • The following core logistics processes can be managed with SAP WM:
    • Goods receipts
    • Outgoing goods
    • Internal and external stock transfers
    • Material provisioning for production areas
    • Automatic replenishment
    • Hazardous materials management
    • Processing stock differences
  • WM interface to IM: Goods movements are triggered in IM and transferred to the WM-managed warehouse via transfer requirements and transfer orders
     

Benefits:

  • Individual implementation of all goods movements in your warehouse complex
  • Definition of putaway and retrieval strategies depending on individual inventory
  • Logical grouping of several material quantities as one storage unit
     

Advantages:

  • Storage strategies and storage units can be used to optimize storage capacities and material flows
  • Automatic determination of the optimal storage bins and picking locations for goods, based on the putaway and retrieval strategy as well as the material master
  • Optimization of warehouse complex utilization and increase of flexibility in goods handling and storage through storage units
  • The interface between SAP WM and production control enables direct staging of materials to the production supply areas (PVBs) from the warehouse
  • PVBs are located directly in the manufacturing area
  • The production worker himself requests the required material directly via the WM-PP interface

Benefits:

  • In PVBs, materials are staged directly at production storage bins for manufacturing
  • The PVBs group one or more workstations in the vicinity of the production storage bins, taking into account the material staging mode
     

Advantages:

  • Form and location of provisioning can be fine-tuned, i.e. individual components can be provided manually, order-related, cross-order or order-independent
  • In the event of changes to quantities or deadlines in the production order, the system can adjust the transfer requirement or create a new one.
  • Withdrawal of components can be retrograde, i.e. after completion of the production process in connection with confirmation of the order
  • Transport order processing can be coordinated and monitored via the Radio Frequency Monitor
  • A clear display of all goods movements and stock levels via the warehouse control station is made possible by the RF monitor
  • Functions of the warehouse control center:
    • Automatic storage operation monitoring
    • Automatic error indication and detection
    • Support with troubleshooting and analysis
       

Benefits:

  • Planning of workflows such as anticipatory load consideration for upcoming days or early intervention in case of critical warehouse processes
  • On-time stock movements
  • The warehouse control station provides an overview of:
    • Non-confirmed transfer orders
    • Open transport requirements
    • Open transfer orders
    • Critical deliveries
    • Negative inventories
    • Interface stocks without movement
    • Critical stocks in production supply
       

Advantages:

  • Planning and tracking of all goods movements
  • Monitoring, planning and optimization of work processes in the warehouse
  • Faster error detection, correction and root cause analysis
  • Radio Frequency (RF) connectivity for the use of mobile data collection devices in the warehouse is an integrated part of the SAP system
  • RF devices receive data directly from the SAP system and transmit it back again
  • With barcodes and RFID tags, additional information can be easily captured and verified
     

Benefits:

  • Control of the individual work steps of your warehouse employees simply and clearly with the help of RF devices
  • Direct access to RF transactions from the SAP menu or from mobile data capture devices
  • Generated information is immediately returned to the SAP database and is directly available to the RF user
     

Advantages:

  • Basis for efficient and cost-effective work in the warehouse
  • Reduction of media discontinuity and acceleration of processes by connecting application and human without paper
  • Increased efficiency due to the possibility of labeling or marking
  • Fast and error-free data transmission
  • Ensuring a high quality standard
  • Connection of external systems such as semi-automatic and fully automatic warehouses to SAP WM
  • Interface to third-party systems using a WM-LSR interface via automated warehouse systems such as:
    • Warehouse control computer (LSR)
    • Stacker guidance systems (SLS)
    • Decentralized warehouse management systems
  • Communication between the systems via the transactional Remote Function Call (tRFC).
     

Benefits:

The WMS-LSR interface includes the following communication operations:

  • Transfer of transfer orders from SAP WM to an external system
  • Creation of transfer orders reported by the external system in SAP WM
  • Confirmation of transfer orders reported as completed by the external system in SAP WM
  • Transfer release of collective processing (grouped transfer orders) from SAP WM to the external system
  • Movement of bearing units
  • Transfer of cancellation requests from SAP WM to a third-party system
  • Blocking of storage areas or alleys
  • Creation of transfer requirements reported in the external system in SAP WM
  • Cancellation of transfer orders not reported as completed in the external system in SAP WM
     

Advantages:

  • Customizable task distribution between SAP WM and a third-party system
  • A third-party system can take over further control or optimization tasks in addition to material flow control
  • Warehouse control computers are integrated into the SAP environment
  • Cost savings through defined and release-independent interfaces
  • The inventory is considered a prerequisite for proper bookkeeping and accounting
  • There is a comparison of the actual physical stocks of a fiscal year with the data kept in SAP WM
  • SAP WM masters various inventory procedures:
    • Perpetual inventory as of the balance sheet date
    • Permanente Inventur durch Einlagerung oder Auslagerung
    • Cycle Counting Inventory - place-by-place or quantity-by-quantity
    • Inventory sampling
  • It must be performed at least once for each storage bin to be considered complete
  • SAP WM is storage bin related
  • SAP MM-IM is material related

Benefits:

  • A perpetual inventory can be taken both at the time of putaway and at the time of retrieval from storage
  • The Cycle Counting Inventory can be performed place-by-place or quantity-by-quantity
  • Inventory sampling can be carried out in SAP MM-IM as well as in SAP WM
  • In general, an inventory can be performed for quants or storage bins
     

Advantages:

  • Inventory management accurate to storage location
  • Inventory data can be updated on storage bin level and on quants
  • Following the inventory, an inventory indicator is set for this storage bin, documenting the date and type of the inventory
  • All inventory differences are recorded via a difference interface to Inventory Management and cleared there

Your benefits

  • Reduction of storage costs
  • High transparency of the warehouse
  • Increase productivity
  • Inventory management at storage bin level
  • Optimization of warehouse processes through the use of mobile scanners
  • SAP WM can be partially continued under S/4HANA as Stock Room Management

We support you with our expertise in choosing an optimal warehouse solution and ensure that you can continue to use your SAP WM processes and in-house developments.

Sebastian Keilhacker, Senior Managing Consultant CONSILIO GmbH Contact the expert

Clients:

[Translate to English:] BMW

Our services

  • Analysis of your delivery, storage and dispatch processes
  • Selection of the appropriate system architecture and technology:
    • Stock Room Management
    • SAP EWM embedded
    • SAP EWM decentral
  • Implementation of different migration scenarios:
    • Migration of the SAP WM warehouse to a SAP EWM warehouse
    • Reconfiguration of a SAP EWM warehouse
    • SAP WM Transition to Stock Room Management
  • SAP S/4HANA Implementation and Transformation

Map warehouse complexes & goods movements in detail

Use SAP WM for warehouse management!

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