SAP Transportation Management (TM) is a transportation and planning module used for freight order management. And in SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) 9.4 there is a direct connection between TM and EWM.
There are various integration scenarios for SAP TM and SAP EWM. One integration case is using TM for the planning and EWM for executing. Previously we wrote about another integration scenario, SAP TM and SAP EWM with Transit Warehousing.
The following reviews the functions available as well as the integration of Transportation Management with shipping and receiving.
Shipment
The shipment is the foundation for planning, executing, and monitoring the transportation of goods. Shipments are created both manually and automatically.
There are three types of shipments: Individual, Collective, and Transportation Chain. Each is defined by its relationship to other shipments.
An individual shipment includes one or more deliveries, and one point of departure, destination, and mode of transport.
A collective shipment includes one or more deliveries, multiple points of departure, multiple destinations and one mode of transport.
Transportation chains are useful when you are managing deliveries transported using several modes of transportation.
Freight Document
The freight document maps trips, pickups and stops as well as governing the load on a vehicle.
Statuses can be set within the freight document. For example, a freight document status of “Transportation Complete” would be set automatically for all the bills of lading contained in the freight document. These are then printed automatically. You can also print master bills of lading and freight lists from the freight document.
Like shipments, freight documents can be created manually and automatically.
Freight documents are automatically created when using an IDoc. Manual changes or changes using an IDoc are automatically transferred to the shipments based on the freight document. If the status is set to “Transportation Completed”, it is also set automatically for all shipments contained in the freight document.
If you are not connected to an external transportation planning system, you can create the freight document manually in TM. You can group multiple planned shipments that can be transported together.
By integrating TM with EWM, you enable bills of lading to be printed automatically when vehicles are being loaded.
Integration of Transportation Management with Shipping and Receiving
You can use shipping and receiving in inbound and outbound processes for planning and execution of warehouse activities. There are inbound/outbound processes that use only vehicles, transportation units, or both in EWM. Others require use of integration with shipments in SAP ERP, SAP TM, or both.
Shipping and Receiving offers features that integrate SAP EWM with SAP TM Freight Order Management. Through this integration, you can control the entire transportation process from the planning stage to the goods receipt at the customer location or your own plant.
