For many processes in the Warehouse Management system (WMS), you have the option of selecting foreground or background processing. Transactions that are processed in the foreground allow you to view each step and enter modifications to system defaults manually.

When you create a transfer order for putaway, if you carry out the process in the foreground, you must manually review and process information on several different screens. For example, if the transfer order contains 20 items, you would have to work through 24 separate screens.

If you elect to process a transaction in the background, the entire transaction is carried out in the system without the need for manual inputs by the user.

Advantages of background processing include:

• Some processes run more quickly in the system as background processes and intervention is unnecessary.
• Since some processing steps must not be accomplished manually, individual workload is reduced considerably.
• Detailed information can be skipped by using background processing. This spares the user unnecessary confusion.

There are several ways of influencing foreground and background processing in the WMS:

• During most transactions and processes, you can select foreground or background processing manually.
• Movement types: When creating movement types in Customizing, you can set a default value of H (foreground processing) or D (background processing) for all transactions using the movement type selected.