Connecting a Fully Automated Warehouse as a Black Box (SAP Library

Connecting a Fully Automated Warehouse as a Black Box

Purpose

You have set up various storage types in your warehouse complex (warehouse number),which you manage with the Warehouse Management system (WMS). For one or more of these storage types, an external system executes all of the warehouse functions and thus takes over the entire warehouse management and warehouse control for this storage type.

The automated storage type is connected to the WMS as a black box. The WMS leaves the entire warehouse management and warehouse control in this storage type to the external system, since the storage type is highly automated and therefore requires immediate information about the current state of the warehouse equipment for the warehouse movements.

Recommendation

If you want to connect this kind of storage type to your warehouse, we recommend that you implement a system which combines warehouse controlling and warehouse management.

Since the automated storage type only represents a part of your warehouse complex, you can manage the overall warehouse complex (the warehouse number) with the WMS. The WMS distributes the individual putaway and stock removal activities amongst the various subordinate storage types. The WMS takes on the conventional functions in all of the storage types, which are not managed by the external system.

In the storage types, which are managed by the external system, the WMS takes on the following functions:

Managing the summarized stocks per material
Triggering and creating warehouse movements

On the other hand, the external system takes over the entire warehouse management and warehouse control within the storage type:

Determining the storage bins for the individual warehouse movements
Creating warehouse movements within the storage type
Carrying out the inventory
Controlling the conveyor equipment
Controlling the material flow
Optimizing the resources

Note

When you decide on the type of interface connection, take into account the scenario for connecting a fully-automated warehouse and the scenario for connecting an external warehouse management system as well.

Prerequisites

You have defined the automated area of your warehouse as a separate storage type in the WMS.

Either you define one fixed storage bin per material in this storage type, in order to be able to manage the stocks for each material in the storage type and control inventory activities,

Or you define several storage bins in the warehouse type, which do not correspond to the physical storage bins. In doing so, you allow addition to existing stock for this storage type, so that the system always fills one storage bin with one material. The system cumulates the stocks of a material in one storage bin. A new material always goes into a new storage bin.

Note

The storage bins that you created in the WMS for the individual materials have no significance for the external system.

Process Flow

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

The WMS communicates with other SAP application components for the entire warehouse number.

Putaway

You post the goods receipt of the goods in Inventory Management.

The WMS creates transfer orders for putaway on the basis of the corresponding transfer requirements. In doing so, the WMS defines the storage type in which the goods are to be put away.

If the storage type run by the external system is selected for the putaway, the WMS transfers the corresponding TO items to the external system using the message type WMTORD.

The external system identifies the goods to be put away either by the TO number and the TO items, or from the transmitted SU number.

If the WMS requires confirmation of the goods movement, the external system reports back to the WMS that the putaway has been executed using message type WMTOCO.

Stock Removal

The WMS creates a transfer order (TO) for the stock removal.

The WMS sends the external system all of the stock removal TOs that are relevant for the storage type managed by using message type WMTORD.

The external system decides from which storage bin the necessary materials are to be removed.

The external system confirms the stock removal to the WMS using the message type WMTOCO.

The WMS confirms the individual items in the transfer orders based in the confirmation data and the actual quantities from the external system.

Handling Differences

If differences occur in the storage type managed by the external system, either during an inventory or during operation, the external system reports these differences to the WMS via message type WMTOCO.

The WMS creates a transfer order on the basis of the differences transmitted by the external system, in order to post the differences to an interim record for differences.

See also:

Handling Differences

Note

The external system must not transmit all of the material movements within the storage type managed by the external system to the WMS, since the WMS only manages the summarized material for this storage type.