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Definition

The use of specialized software components is becoming increasingly important as a way to optimize planning of transportation requirements. The SAP System does not offer automated support for optimizing transportation planning, since the large number of different possible transportation processing procedures and optimization criteria require software that is tailored precisely to the customer’s needs.

The SD-TPS interface (described below) between SAP R/3 and one or more specialized, external Transportation Planning Systems (TPS) can be implemented in order to fulfill such specific customer needs in the transportation planning area.

Process Overview

In regular business transactions, you define a selection of deliveries to be planned for a certain shipment as you create shipments in R/3. This is, for the most part, a manual process.

If an external transportation planning system is used, one record of deliveries to be shipped is selected in R/3 and then sent via the interface to the planning system, where the deliveries are grouped into shipments according to certain optimization criteria. The shipments that were generated are confirmed in R/3 which in turn triggers generation of the shipment documents. In order for the shipment documents to be updated properly, master data (customer address or goods acceptance times, for example) must match in both systems.

Grouping and changing of shipments occur systematically in the transportation planning system. All further shipment processing activities (printing or reporting start of shipment, for example) are treated like regular document processing in the R/3 System.

Organizational Link

In R/3, the organizational link to an external transportation planning system is established by assigning it to a transportation planning point, which allows it to function as an external planning point. Exactly one transportation planning system can be assigned to each external transportation planning point. However, it is possible to assign one planning system to multiple transportation planning points if various MRP controllers need to work in the same system.

 

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Functions

The SD-TPS interface supports the following functions:

SAP to the transportation planning system:

Transfer of location master data

Transfer of deliveries to be planned

Transfer of status values for planned shipments

Transportation planning system to SAP:

Transfer of planned shipments

An exchange of error status regarding the logical correctness of the transferred documents also occurs between the two systems.

Partner Concept

In order to offer our customers a flexible, secure link to transportation planning systems, we will be working with selected partners. The different tasks will be delegated as follows:

As of Release 3.1, technical tools necessary for linking to an external computer (IDocs, ALE, RFC) will be included in the SAP standard. Application functions that illustrate common business procedures (transactions, standard IDocs, Customizing) and play a part in their corresponding processing in the SAP System will also be made available.

The partners are responsible for implementation of the processing logic from the point at which data leaves SAP R/3 until the point at which data enters SAP R/3. In other words, their responsibility includes correct interpretation of the R/3 data, planning shipments according to specifications, retransfer of the data in R/3 format and technical communications between computers. They are also the first contact customers have if errors occur during the communications process.

SAP plans to initiate a certification process for these partners which will verify that they fulfill the requirements for successfully linking an external system to SAP using the technology mentioned above. There are currently no plans to test the functions of the partners’ application software.

Technology

From a technical point of view, the interface is based on the transactional Remote Function Call (tRFC), which is basically a simplified procedure to make communications between two programs possible.

As opposed to synchronized Remote Function Call (sRFC), tRFC temporarily stores the data before it is sent, effectively separating application and communication functions.

SAP also offers a refined monitoring function for logical error analysis. When an error occurs, messages are also sent to one or more people. Follow-up posting is then possible from the inbox.

Certification Requirements

SAP will certify those partners who can demonstrate correct transfer and function for all IDoc links and successfully complete the test scenarios. The list of IDocs required for certification appears in the section describing IDocs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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