Serial Number 
Definition
Character string that is given to a product in addition to a product number in order to differentiate the individual piece from all the other pieces. The combination of product number and serial number is unique.
Use
You use serial numbers if you want to identify or trace single units in the warehouse. Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) only controls the serial numbers (as a movement date) until goods issue posting. You can also extract the serial number as textual information from the delivery document, meaning that further information is saved only by the ERP system.
If you use the data record for master data in the ERP system, you can carry out evaluations with the serial number history and check partner data, for example.
For more information about data records for master data, see Logistics ® Logistics General (LO) ® Logistics Basic Data (LO-MD) ® Administration of Serial Numbers (LO-MD-SN) ® Serial Number Master Record in the SAP Library under SAP Central Component.
For more information about serial numbers, see Using the Serial Number Requirement.
Structure
In EWM, you can specify a serial number with a maximum length of 30 characters. However, if you want to use data records for master data in the ERP system, the serial number in EWM can only have 18 characters. If necessary, you can use the Business Add-In (BAdI) Converting Serial Numbers ERP – EWM /SCWM/EX_ERP_SN for mapping the serial number between the ERP system and EWM. This also allows you to work with 30 digit serial numbers in EWM.
For more information about setting the maximum length of the serial number, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) for EWM under Master Data® Product ® Define Serial Number Profile ® Serial Number: Warehouse Number Settings.
You can find the partner data in the master record of the serial number in the ERP system. Here you can define, for example, which companies are responsible for the maintenance of the serialized product using arbitrary partner roles and partners with Customizing.
For more information about partner data, see Logistics ® Logistics General (LO) ® Logistics Basic Data (LO-MD) ® Serial Number Management (LO-MD-SN) ® Serial Number Master Record in the SAP Library under SAP ERP Central Component.
If you want EWM to automatically carry out mapping between your specified serial numbers and the serial numbers saved in the database, you can use the BAdI Converting Serial Numbers (/SCWM/EX_SER_DISPLAY). You can use this BAdI to determine your own conversion criteria. A restricting factor here is that the conversion criteria only influence the display, input and output of serial numbers and do not influence the saving of serial numbers. For more information, see the BAdI documentation.
Integration
If you want to use serial numbers, you must firstly determine a serial number profile for a product. You assign this serial number profile to the master record of the product. You can then use serial numbers.
For more information about the definition of serial number profiles, see the IMG for EWM under Master Data ® Product ® Define Serial Number Profiles.
Example
Company X manufactures solar panels. It produces three different types:
● Type A
● Type B
● Type C
A product master record exists in the company X’s system for each type produced. For checking purposes, the company wants to know which customer received which type and which serial number(s) was/were delivered to customers for the shipment of each individual solar panel.
To do so, you assign a serial number to every solar panel that is manufactured, which, together with the product number, identifies the product uniquely.
Object |
Product Number |
Serial Number |
Solar Panel 1 |
SP-A |
94-05-01 |
Solar Panel 2 |
SP-A |
94-05-02 |
Solar Panel 3 |
SP-B |
94-05-01 |
Solar Panel 4 |
SP-B |
94-05-02 |
Solar Panel 5 |
SP-C |
94-05-01 |