Shipping: Best place to hold service method

[siowfong_chen]

Hi all,

We have a need to interface with FedEx station to get freight information so we need to pass basic information such as weight, number of packages, service method like FedEx Ground, FedEx Overnight, etc. Normally, I would consider using Shipping Condition to capture the service method. However, the problem we have is that there is a chance that the service method might change after the delivery is created and the goods packed. At that stage, we cannot change the shipping condition in the delivery. I have considered using route but this is not at the header level in the sales order.

So, I wonder whether anyone has similar requirement and how do you cater for the maintenance of service method in both sales order and delivery?

Thanks in advance for ideas given.

SF

[siowfong_chen · Accepted solution]

Use Special Processing indicator to capture the information required. Need to create a custom field in the customer master and bring it through to the sales order. This field is chosen because of the need to use Express Delivery Interface in SAP and this field is available as a standard field for mapping to service code.

[sez41]

If you're looking for a header field in delivery document which can be changed after the delivery is created, did you explore all the options in the delivery header, i.e. LIKP-VSART which comes to mind at first?

Had you been using that field already, guess a custom field might be necessary.

[siowfong_chen]

Thanks, I have looked into the fields on the delivery header and had considered shipping type. However, this field is not available on the customer master to be defaulted on the sales order for further changes. As such, I have discarded this option. We have now (almost( decided to use customer group to hold the shipping delivery information and then transfer this information onto a meta data field (related to Express Delivery interface solution) in the delivery document. We also need to do some enhancement to allow for match code search of this field so that changes can be made easily by the users.

[Jelena]

What would the field be used for exactly? Do you need to create any reports with it? Any validations?

We use Shipping Condition but it is just an FYI for the person who actually does shipping. It's printed on the pack list, so if it says "expedited shipping" then they know what method to use based on the customer's preference and other factors. We do feed tracking number and cost back to SAP but do not track what shipping method was actually used (no business need).

If you cannot use any standard fields then an obvious solution would be to create a custom field. But you'd need to think a bit more about the whole design here, including answering the questions above.

As a side note - there is some kind of special solution for FedEx integration with SAP and even special Transportation Management module, but I'm guessing you've done some Google search on this already.

[siowfong_chen]

Thanks for the response. Yes I have looked at the special solution mentioned for FedEx and also planning to use the Express Delivery Interface to hold some of the data which we can send to and capture info like tracking number. My issue is on process prior to interfacing to FedEx. I need to have a way of capturing the initial shipping method which may be changed in delivery if the warehouse decides that the shipping method needs to be changed due to reasons like size of packages etc. We do not need that the shipping method for reporting, just accurate enough to then be sent to FedEx for freight calculation. But I just could not find a standard field that would be available in both sales and delivery 😞

[Jelena]

The only standard field that I see available in both places and modifiable in delivery (header) is Shipping Type VBKD-VSART. We don't use it and I don't know for sure, so don't take this as an endorsement and make sure to test first. Other than that I'm afraid you'd have to add a custom field.