Understanding SAP EWM in comparison with SAP WM

After long time, I am updating my blog in SAP category. Hope i could share this time with  a blog post on my understanding of SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) in comparison with SAP WM.

If you google it, you will get valuable EWM information on the Internet with articles from SAP, Catalyst and other Implementation partners. Now a day’s more consultants are taking EWM training in North America and Europe due to the demand of EWM projects. Being a SAP WM Consultant, I could see SAP EWM was designed the same SAP WM functionality with more flexibility in building the objects like Warehouse structure, picking, put away, HU, RF and so many. Of course EWM had lot of new business functionality added. I personally feel that eWM is a very Robust, Complex, Good WMS system better integrated with other components & interfaces having a new look and feel for everyone.

I am not going to share EWM functionality /Configurations, but sharing on how EWM was designed in comparison with SAP WM from a functional consultant prospective. Below are some I could understand……

A: SAP WM movement types are similar to EWM Warehouse Process type and this will determines any warehouse task creation with reference to document types.

B: SAP WM TO and line items are similar to Warehouse Order and Warehouse Tasks with lot of flexibility in splitting the picks/puts in a controlled manner through WO Rules.

C: Handling units’s are designed in EWM in such a way that you can have more flexibility for the products or resources having with or without tasks associated. HU types, groups and status profiles with storage type and bin association are new things in EWM.

D: Print/Outputs: SAP eWM printing concepts are completing different than SAP WM. Post Processing Framework (PPF) had the new term and PPF had same condition table concept with having Action profiles.

E: EWM Stock types are new designed linked to appropriate Storage location and are more flexible in associating with product. F1 and F2 for unrestricted.  B5 and B6 for Blocked, and S5 and S6 for Scrap.

New objects in Warehouse structure: Activity areas, Work Centers and Resources are new things from EWM Warehouse structure compare to SAP WM.

Activity areas: Activity areas groups’ storage bins together with regard to specific warehouse activity like put away, picking and physical inventory. This will be the deciding factor to combine certain warehouse tasks with Warehouse order to optimize the operations. Every storage bin will have sort sequence for pick and putaway with a combination of activity area, storage type and storage section. EWM generates warehouse orders for each activity area. When EWM generates warehouse tasks, it considers the activity area and copies attributes from this activity area, such as the deconsolidation group.

Work Center: The work center is a physical unit in the warehouse, in which you can perform warehouse activities such as packing, distribution, or weighing. This will be the key for a product or HU Warehouse task confirmation takes place in the work center.You can use the work center in the processes like Packing, Deconsolidation, Counting and Quality Inspection. You must assign each work center to a warehouse number, storage type, and storage bin. Note that you can only use storage types that have E, B I and C. You can configure more than one work center for each storage type in the system.

Resource: Resource is an entity representing a user or equipment, which can execute work in the warehouse. We can control resources to optimize the work by configuring Resource Type and Resource group. A resource type is a grouping of resources with similar technical or physical qualifications. A resource group is a grouping of resources for queue assignment purposes.

Warehouse Task: Every movement or work carries in Warehouse can be represented with WT. Document that uses Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) to execute goods movements. Logical or physical goods movements or even stock changes can be the basis for a warehouse task. These include Picks, Putaways, Internal goods movements, posting changes, Goods receipt postings, Goods issue postings. You can identify the type of the warehouse task from the warehouse process type in the warehouse task.

Warehouse Order: The warehouse order consists of warehouse tasks. Warehouse order creation: This function groups together warehouse tasks into warehouse orders, according to your settings in Customizing for warehouse orders (see Warehouse Order), and thus creates optimum work packages for you. For warehouse order creation, you define rules with their relevant criteria. Warehouse order creation is particularly suitable for optimizing processes for picking.
Example: EWM creates warehouse tasks for an outbound delivery with four delivery items. EWM uses warehouse order creation to assign the resulting four warehouse tasks to a new warehouse order. A warehouse employee receives this warehouse order as a work package to pick the items listed in the delivery.

Stock types

As I would like to add few more EWM stuff as and when I could able to do so… again these are very simple concepts in EWM we can explore in detail one by one. Till then have some Transaction codes that we use every day in EWM.

Links related to SCM topics

Integration Core Interface (CIF)

Integration of SAP ERP with SAP EWM

Additional ERP-EWM Integration topics