Packing Instruction (SAP Library - Goods Receipt Process for Inbound Deliveries)

Packing Instruction

Use

A packing instruction serves as a template for the creation of a handling unit. In a packing instruction, you define the materials and packaging materials to be packed in a handling unit.

This enables you to reproduce specific customer packaging requirements in the system. You can also automate the packing process by creating a proposal for a handling unit, based on a packing instruction.

Features

Materials
The packing instruction specifies which materials in which quantities are to be packed in one handling unit.

Multi-level packing instructions
The are two types of packing instructions: single-level, which describe only one packing level, and multi-level, which describe several packing levels ("nested" handling units). Multi-level packing instructions, therefore, contain subordinate packing instructions. If you want to create handling units with labels (identified HUs) for each packing level, you require one subordinate packing instruction per packing level.

Using one packing instruction for several materials
Many parts are packed in a similar way. If certain materials differ in only one characteristic (for example, color), having to maintain a packing instruction for each of them results in a considerable workload. Therefore, you can maintain a packing instruction in the material master which is used by several different materials. This reduces the amount of data to be maintained and also saves you a lot of time.

Dimensions, weight and volume
The dimensions, weight and volume of the handling unit are entered in the packing instruction. You can copy these entries to the HU proposal.

Caution The system copies the dimensions from the material master record and uses these values to calculate the weight and volume for the HU in the packing instruction. You now have the option of changing the calculated values. If you change the weight and volume data, the system copies them to the HU proposal as fixed values, without checking them. If you do not change the values, the system calculates the weight and volume entries for the HU proposal dynamically.

Documents and short texts
The packing instruction can be linked to documents in the Document Management System (DMS), enabling you to provide packing personnel with a detailed description of the packing procedure. Shorter descriptions can be entered as text items in the packing instruction.

Items not relevant for HU
Any item that you want to appear in the HU proposal but not in the final HU can be flagged as "Not relevant for HU". You use this flag, for example, when a material is only relevant for packing information and not for the HU itself, but its consumption must be mapped in the system.

User-defined fields
On the Administrative data tab page in the packing instruction, there are 5 user-defined fields, which also appear in the HU proposal and later in the HU. These fields are also included in the print program for the HU label, so that a certain value in a certain field triggers a certain action, for example, an asterisk on the printed label.

Multi-level packing instructions
There are two types of packing instructions: single-level, which describe only one packing level, and multi-level, which describe several packing levels ("nested" handling units). Multi-level packing instructions, therefore, contain subordinate packing instructions. If you want to create handling units with labels (identified HUs) for each packing level, you require one subordinate packing instruction per packing level.

Status management
You assign a packing status check profile to a packing instruction. In this check profile, you assign packing statuses to the possible ways in which an HU proposal can vary from the packing instruction. For each individual way that an HU proposal can vary from a packing instruction, you can define whether handling unit creation is permitted with this variance (variance from the target quantity, for example).