Authored by: Ashish Mallik

Traditional Sales Order Scheduling

One of the major challenge’s business faces at the time of entering sales order for a customer is not knowing the real time transit duration, material availability, availability of the resource, depart scheduling in case of ocean ships. Standard Sales order scheduling functionality which is available in LE-TRA was based on only static routes. ATP (Available to promise) / material availability date (MAD) was determined using static route scheduling in LE-TRA which means dates committed to customer is not so accurate.

SAP TM Scheduling

With SAP TM Scheduling functionality, at the time of order entry, CSR see accurate dates and times in the schedule lines, which includes transit time from realistic transportation lanes or dynamic call to service providers, inclusion of loading / unloading time and consideration of operating hours of both customer and warehouse/plant facility. CSR has enough information to take informed decision on whether the material can be provided to customer for the required date and if not negotiate with the customer on the phone for a possible delivery date.

Dates received during critical ATP situations; CSR will be able to better use of the resource.

It also considers non-availability of the resource, Incompatibilities, and departure schedule for ocean ships etc., in its scheduling.

Why TM Scheduling?

Not just to get the real time (synchronous) transit duration, TM scheduling also considers various other real time accepts which can influence in the calculation of the Loading or the delivery date.

Apart from calculating the Transit time, below are some constraints which TM Scheduling considers:

1. Time windows for loading and unloading activities.
2. Loading and unloading durations
3. Coupling and uncoupling durations
4. Absences and non-working times of the involved drivers
5. Downtimes and non-working times of the involved vehicle resources
6. Calendar resources as well as the calendars and capacities for the loading and unloading activities of handling resources.
7. Minimum and maximum goods wait times defined for transshipment locations.

This functionality helps the business to get the much clear visibility for planning the shipment and absorbs the later changes which might impacts the downstream causing the delay in the shipment execution cycle.

This wonderful functionality was provided by SAP only for Sales orders and not STOs which is a limitation in standard offerings.

Krypt offering: TM Scheduling Solution for Stock Transfer Orders

Currently In standard SAP, TM Scheduling functionality is only available at the sales order level. But same functionality can be extended to the other processes like Stock Transfer Order, which will help the business in streamlining the STO process to get the real time (synchronous) transit duration.

Existing TM scheduling can be leveraged to build this custom Solution for Stock Transport Orders

Same service i.e., TransportationRequestSUITESimulateRequestConfirmation_Out can be used to build this enhancement for scheduling.

You can connect services via SAP NetWeaver XI with SAP TM. Alternatively, you can use Web Services Reliable Messaging without SAP NetWeaver XI.

These functions are only available if you have SAP TM connected and you have activated the ERP-TMS: Order Integration (LOG_TM_ORD_INT) business function.

The ERP system expects the following standard dates when scheduling takes place in SAP TM:

• Delivery date
• Goods issue date
• Loading date
• Material availability date
• Transportation planning date

You can find these dates in the STO under delivery schedule tab at the line view of the item data.

How can Krypt help?

KRYPT as an SAP preferred partner has assisted in the success of global businesses – private & public, with integration & implementation of SAP TM, SAP GTS, SAP IBP & SAP EWM.

Are you looking for implementation of an altogether new solution or wish to automate your shipment process to help save shipping cost and improve on space usage? We offer Rapid Deployment Solution for SAP Transportation Management, tailored to meet your business needs – up & running within few weeks.

To know more about our products/services, please request a DEMO or do contact us.

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