Storage locations (ROD & AFS) setup in EWM S4 Hana 1809

[hari_y11]

Hi All,

We are implementing S4Hana 1809 to the client.

Now are at deciding the customer enterprise structure.

From EWM standpoint, we need to map Plant and SLoc to Warehouse number(S4) and also Availability Group we need to setup

Now my question here is about storage location.

Customer wants 4 Locations 1. Managing FERT materials, 2. Managing ROH materials 3. Production Supply area, 4. Packaging Materials.

I know we can work with 1. ROD and AFS locations or 2. without ROD, only with AFS with F2 stock type.

Which is the best option to propose. Is there any challenge or drawback if we work with only AFS(F2 Stock type).

Before we propose I want know the differences/advantages or disadvantages of these to explain to the customer clearly.

Please help me to understand and the best possible option with reason.

Thanks,

[JuergenPitz]

Hi,

"Customer wants 4 Locations 1. Managing FERT materials, 2. Managing ROH materials 3. Production Supply area, 4. Packaging Materials."

OK. 4 Storage locations means 4 availability groups. Times 4 location independent stock types, so you require 16 EWM stock types.

"I know we can work with 1. ROD and AFS locations or 2. without ROD, only with AFS with F2 stock type."

No. You can work with as many storage locations you want or as you require.

"Which is the best option to propose. Is there any challenge or drawback if we work with only AFS(F2 Stock type)."

In case of 4 storage locations you don't work only with AFS. Because that is just one storage location. You would also probably NOT work with ROD / AFS, because that is a very specific scenario and the customer most probably does not require this for this warehouse. If it is required, you have to physically separate the stock for different destination storage locations in different storage types.

Brgds

Juergen

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[hari_y11]

Thanks Juergen for your reply and sorry for the late response.

I have little confusion and want to understand clearly.

Lets say we do Putaway in EWM, and we have only FERT materials and for now lets assume all materials are of stock type F2.

Process steps point of view, VL31N> /SCWM/PRDI> /SCWM/TODLV_I> /SCWM/TO_CONF> check the stock in S4 and EWM.

If we take the above example, in standard EWM, we work with both ROD and AFS, when the final putaway is completed, posting change will happen from F1 to F2 stock type and material will be moved from ROD to AFS location.

But I want to understand is there any specific situations or processes in EWM, where in we can work only with AFS without having ROD location. Please clarify, that would help me a lot to give clear explanation to customer.

Many thanks in advance.

Regards,

Hari.

[JuergenPitz]

"But I want to understand is there any specific situations or processes in EWM, where in we can work only with AFS without having ROD location."

The situation is if the customer don't want or need the ROD / AFS scenario.

OK, why does this scenario exist? Classic GR scenario: The material is received at the warehouse, you post GR. That means that in MMBE the material is available. But this is the only stock of the material you have. Now the sales guy can go, create a sales order, outbound delivery, and try to pick the goods. What will happen? Because the material is still in the GR zone (where we usually do not pick material (leaving CD aside) or is just on it's way into the warehouse, the transfer order (in WM) or warehouse task (in EWM) will not find stock and throws an error message.

That is where the storage location scenario comes in. You post GR on a ROD (Received on Dock) storage location, and once the material has arrived in it's final bin, you do a posting change into AFS (Available for sales). This way in MMBE you can see what material you have in a plant, but also what quantity is "available" from a warehouse perspective (OK, the end is not 100% true, because the material can be in some other kind of physical movement also also not be available in the warehouse, but this should always be a temporary situation).

This scenario is possible in WM (were very few customers do that (to my knowledge)) and it is simply always described as standard in EWM. Why? Because in WM you have just one movement from GR to final bin and in EWM we can have much more complex movements with POSC and LOSC. But of course you do not have to do it and there are enough scenarios where it is pure nonsense. The originally described scenario: your customer wants to separate different materials with various storage locations. OK. But then you would need at least a fifth one for the GR storage location (assuming that one is enough) and you would need to separate the stock for different storage locations in different storage types (because the target availability group (which is connected to the storage location) is in the storage type.

Brgds

Juergen

[prasan_desi]

Dear Juergen,

As a clarification, can we not assign the same Availability Group to all the 4 Storage Locations? If yes, then we will not need any additional stock types right? Please do correct me if am wrong.

Regards,

Prasanna

[JuergenPitz]

"can we not assign the same Availability Group to all the 4 Storage Locations"

Have you tried? Of course you can NOT. At least not in one warehouse. And of course you need additional stock types.

Brgds

Juergen

[petrzak]

Hello HariKrishna,

it very much depends on your client's business scenarios. But there are few generic topics like you would certainly need to generate inspection lot before your stock becomes AFS, or to clear the customs or for other legal or tax reporting issues (like bonded warehouse). Certainly you can't pick goods, which is undergoing putaway process either. But true - in general you want to make your stock available as quickly as possible.

Petr