Print Transfer Orders and Labels

Use

Transfer orders and labels are printed for the purpose of identifying and moving stock from one location to another in the warehousing complex, picking stock and making preparations for shipping activities.

Depending on the settings in Customizing, the system normally prints transfer orders automatically when they are created. However, you can manually print out a single transfer order or a group of transfer orders in various formats. For example, a forklift operator can use the printout to identify pallets that are to be moved into the warehouse.

If a transfer order causes the storage bin to be inventoried (continuous inventory method), the system indicates this on the transfer order document. The transfer order can then be treated as an inventory document.

When the system prints the transfer order, it uses the default report that is defined for the warehouse. The reports RLVSDR40 "Print Transfer Orders" and RLKOMM40 "Print Combined Pick List" are delivered with the Warehouse Management (WM) application component.

Prerequisites

Controlling the printing process

To define the codes that control printing in WM, you need to maintain data in several tables in the Warehouse Management section of Customizing. The tables control where, when and how transfer orders are printed. To make settings for the objects (tables or table views) that control the printing process, see Start of the navigation path Activities Next navigation step Define Print Control End of the navigation path in the Warehouse Management section of the Implementation Guide (IMG).

Print code

The system branches to the print report when it creates transfer orders. In Customizing for Warehouse Management, you assign the standard print report that is to be used for each warehouse number. Each transfer order has a specific movement type. In Customizing, you assign a print code to each WM movement type. Therefore, the system assigns a print code to each transfer order based on the movement type. When transfer orders are posted, the print code determines which and how many forms and/or labels will be printed and the spool code. As an additional function, for the combined list, the print code also determines the sort order of items within the printout.

Note Note

The sorting of TO items makes it possible to optimize the printing sequence. This pertains particularly to the TO items that can be sorted and picked from the same source bin. You can configure various sorting routines that exist in the standard system.

Since the processing time for transfer orders (TO) is dependent on the sequence of the TO items, you can switch off the sorting function for TO printing, if required.

End of the note.

Spool code

The Spool code determines the spool parameters, such as the number of copies and when the transfer orders are to be printed.

Depending on the source and destination storage types for the stock movement, you can overwrite the form names and spool parameters for each transfer item.

Collective processing

The system determines how to print combined pick lists based on a table entry in Customizing. For this task, the system branches to the RLKOMM40 "Print Combined Pick List" report. You can also enter a printing status in a table that instructs the system to print individual transfer orders (TOs). In this case, the system prints transfer orders normally.

With report RLKOMM40, you can print both combined pick lists and individual items. The advantage of printing single items with RLKOMM40 instead of RLVSDR40 lies in the capability to sort transfer order items for release as a group at a particular time.

Features

Transfer order printing

Printed transfer orders contain all the information necessary for carrying out stock movements. Standard information includes the source and destination storage types and bins, material number and description, quantity, bar code, the date the transfer order was printed and the transfer order number.

Depending upon how you configure the system in Customizing, several options are available in addition to the standard information:

  • You can print the personnel number and name for the entry of actual data in a transfer order.

  • You can print shipping information such as the address of the goods recipient (see system tables VBLKK, VBLKB and VEKP).

  • You can also print serial numbers if the transfer order is referenced to a delivery item that contains a serial number.

Caution Caution

The system prints all serial numbers for a delivery item even when the delivery item is picked with several transfer order items.

End of the caution.

  • You can print production data as long as the transfer order is referenced to a production order. For this task, the system reads the corresponding reservations from table RESB.

  • When you display transfer orders for groups, the sorting function of report RLKOMM40 dictates how pick lists are printed.

  • For picking, you can configure single lists and combined lists to break them down into their individual requirement quantities. (This pertains to the totals line and corresponding individual requirements in deliveries and transfer requirements.) For example, you can print duplicates of lists as necessary.

  • Additional requests from 2-step picking are taken into consideration.

  • Customer exits allow you to access options in the standard system without having to modify existing programs for the printer search function.

  • You can output printing information as an external sequential file.

Label printing

In addition to the transfer order documents, you can also print labels for individual transfer order items. The label-printing function is intended to support picking in the warehouse.

The following features for printing labels are available:

  • From the printing transaction itself, you can use options to select how the system is to print the labels. These include following options:

  • Rounding quantity in alternative unit of measure

  • Rounding quantity in base unit of measure

  • Quantity in alternative unit of measure and the rest in the base unit of measure

  • One label per transfer order item (the quantity on the label is in the alternative unit of measure)

Note Note

You can also print individual transfer order items manually for large quantities. (See the example under field help for the Large qty field on the WM transfer order print screen.) This makes it possible for you to reduce the number of labels used for transferring large quantities of material.

End of the note.

Example Example

For example, many customers pick with label lists in which pickers label each package, pallet or unit to be moved. These are then sent through a sorting system that combines the various delivery items. This makes it necessary (depending on the settings in Customizing) to decide whether to print a label based on the unit of measure, transfer order item or the required quantity (for 2-step picking).

End of the example.

  • Labels in the allocation step (2-step picking) also contain the group number.

  • You can print labels for the picking step (if necessary).

  • You can customize the printing of individual items, combined lists and labels.

Just as with the printing of transfer orders, before you print labels, you need to activate label printing in Customizing. See Start of the navigation path Activities Next navigation step Define Print Control End of the navigation path in the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Warehouse Management.

Printer determination

The system assigns a printer based on transfer order items (picked in a function module) according to the following hierarchy:

  1. Manual entries always take precedence.

  2. The printer is assigned based on the goods movement.

    1. The system checks first to see if a printer is assigned to a picking area.

    2. If there is no printer assigned to a picking area, the printer is copied from the source storage type table if it is selected in the goods movement.

  4. If printer assignment information is not found, the printer in the user’s master record is used.

  5. If the printer in the user master record is not maintained, the system defaults to LP01.

  6. For each warehouse number and selected printer, the system evaluates the printing of storage unit documents and labels from the printer-pool table. If no printers have been maintained in this table, the documents are printed on the transfer order printer (LP01).

The function module for printer determination is integrated in the transfer order creation function.

Storage unit documents

If Storage Unit Management is active in your system, you can also print storage unit documents. The SU documents that are available for automatic printing are listed in the Storage Unit Documents section.

Constraints

This function does not support any specific label printer. In other words, there are no printer-specific control codes for label printers. The system either prints in SAPScript format or issues output as a file.

Any additional print information that is not available in the standard system must be read in (or input using a scanner) using a customer exit.

You cannot print a separate document for a return item using the standard software. This can be done using a customer exit.

More Information

Printing Transfer Orders and Labels