Intercompany Stock Transfer Order - vendor Returns - External WMS in receiving plant

[Markus]

We are using Intercompany stock transport orders ( NB purchase order type creating a delivery in the supplying plant and then an IC invoice, receipt via 101 in the receiving plant ).

For returns we use vendor returns functionality. A new PO item is entered with the flag 'Returns Item' checked. This generates a 161 movement on the receiving plant done via MIGO, and then the supplying plant processes in SD a returns delivery of type NCR.

All this works as expected.

Now one of our distribution centers ( the receiving plant ) will be using an external WMS system. We have therefore started to configure the system: Creating a WMS code, assigning it to the storage location, declaring the WMS as External, setting up the interface.

Wth this changed setup, the movement type 161 cannot be used anymore. When trying to post a 161 movement, the error "Posting with reference to pur. order only possible for integrated whse".

However the shipping data in the stock transport order is already filled with the returns delivery for the supplying plant, therefore I cannot use the vendor return with an outbound delivery in this case.

MBRL cannot be used, as MBRL creates deliverys with movement type 122. Or we want to return and receive a credit from the supplying plant, and not a replacement.

What is the standard SAP solution for this scenario?

[Markus · Accepted solution]

The anwser seems to be that there is no solution in standard SAP. We have therefore created a separate vendor, which is not linked to a plant and use this one instead of the stock transport order vendor.
Using the new vendor, SAP reacts like for an external vendor and a return delivery can be created with reference to the returns PO (VL10B). In the receiving side an RE document is created in SD.

The standard solution seems to be the business function "advanced returns management". Activating this one, a Returns delivery can be created on the returning plant and an inbound delivery on the "returned to" plant. We will explore this in the future.