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External Transportation Planning Systems

In the following IMG activities you configure all system parameters that are necessary for installing communication between the SAP R/3 system and one or more external transportation planning systems.

When creating a shipment in the R/3 system for normal business processes (transaction VT01), the deliveries that are planned for the shipment are selected. This process is normally undertaken manually.

If you are using an external system for transportation planning a record is selected from the deliveries in the R/3 system that are to be transported and sent to the planning system over the interface. There the deliveries are combined according to certain optimization criteria. The shipments that have been created are confirmed in the R/3 system via the interface, which then leads to the creation of the shipment documents.

In order to update documents correctly you need to synchronize the master data between both systems (e.g. customer adddress, goods issue times).

Creating and changing shipments takes place in the transportation planning system. Any other processing steps for the shipment (such as printing papers, registering the start of the transportation) take place in normal document processing in the R/3 system.

Note

Communication with external transportation planning systems is realised by ALE technology, whereby the messages to be transmitted are sent using asynchronous RFC. The logical mapping of a system takes place over the transportation planning point and there must be a unique relationship between an external transportation planning system and a transportation planning point.

Activities

Execute the following activities in order to implement the communication with an external transportation planning system and to activate the transmission mechanism in the R/3 system:

1. Define a logical non-SAP system
Definition of external planning system
2. Define RFC destination
Definition of technical transmission path and destination for the communication.
3. Maintain mapping of non-SAP system to messages
Here the messages to be transmitted (e.g. transmit delivery or shipment) are mapped to the non-SAP system defined in this step.
4. Port definition
Determining the ALE port where the communication takes place.
5. Maintain partner profile
Determining ALE partner profile where technical ALE parameters are maintained for individual messages for the logical non-SAP system (partner).
6. Maintain transportation planning points for external systems
In this IMG activity an external transportation planning system is mapped to a transportation planning point.
7. Maintain material cumulation for routes
In this IMG activity you can define which of the delivery items should be sent to the transportation planning system. It is possible to send only shipment relevant items and to cumulate the items according to predefined freight codes.
8. Maintain planning restrictions for routes
If goods are to be sent beyond the planning area of an external system, you can use this IMG activity to define the planning borders and replacement procedures for departure or destination locations in individual routes.
9. Maintain message control for outbound deliveries
You can initiate the transmission of delivery documents to the external system using message control. In this IMG activity you can maintain the necesssary message types and procedures. You must define a separate message type for each external system.
10. Maintain change control for master data
Transmitting changed master data can take place automatically using change control (only for customer and vendor masters). This IMG activity allows you to activate change control.