Kanban 

Use

As customer, you can use the SAP Supply Network Collaboration(SAP SNC) for kanban-driven external procurement. If you want to procure a specific quantity of a product from your supplier with whom you have arranged Kanban processing, send a Kanban request from your back-end system to SAP SNC by XML message. This kanban request corresponds to the kanban card of an empty kanban container.

On the Web user interface of SAP SNC, you and your supplier can monitor the kanbans. The kanban Web UI provides an overview of all kanbans of a kanban control cycle and provides information about the kanban status and quantities. In particular, the supplier sees the empty kanbans and can deliver accordingly.

If the supplier wants to inform you that he or she has sent you the requested Kanban quantity, he or she creates an ASN for the empty Kanban in SAP SNC, publishes it, and sends it to your back-end system. SAP SNC automatically updates the kanban status based on the ASN. If you have received the goods, you send the goods receipt (GR) information to SAP SNC by XML message. Based on this GR information, SAP SNC sets the kanban status to Full.

If you, the customer, want to inform a supplier of required quantities in advance, you can send a kanban forecast delivery schedule to SAP SNC from your back-end system. For suppliers, kanban forecast delivery schedules are purely informative. (The supplier, however, is committed to delivering these quantities if you order these quantities with kanban requests). In the standard system, the supplier cannot create ASNs for a kanban forecast delivery schedule.

Integration

There are special kanban alerts in SAP SNC for kanban processing. Using alert notifications SAP SNC can inform a supplier automatically if a new kanban request has arrived or if the supplier has not responded to an empty kanban within a specific response time with an ASN. SAP SNC can inform the supplier by e-mail or fax, for example. Therefore, the supplier only has to call kanban processing specifically if his or her intervention is required.

Prerequisites

You have set up the master data for supplier collaboration and for kanban processing in SAP SNC. You have the following possibilities to create the kanban-specific master data:

●      You can create the master data in the SAP SNC system.

●      If you use an SAP system as back-end system (from SAP R/3 4.6C or from SAP DI 4.6C2 in the case of automotive systems), you can transfer the kanban master data (control cycles or supply areas, for example) from the back-end system to SAP SNC. There you can update it regularly using a special report.

Features

XML Message in Kanban Processing

Kanban processing in SAP SNC uses various XML messages to receive kanban requests from the customer back-end system and for delivery processing with the customer back-end system. SAP NetWeaver (as of 2004s usage type Process Integration) maps the messages from the customer back-end system to the corresponding XML messages and vice versa.

An SAP customer back-end system sends and receives messages in IDoc format. In particular, the customer can use the kanban functions of the SAP back-end system to generate forecast delivery schedules or kanban requests, and send these as IDocs. SAP delivers standard XSLT mappings (see Example: Message Flow for Kanban) for message integration between SAP SNC and a SAP back-end system (SAP ECC 6.0 with industry extension DIMP or as of SAP 4.6C without DIMP).

To send kanban forecast delivery schedules from an SAP back-end system to SAP SNC you can only use the forecast delivery schedule IDocs DELFOR.DELFOR02 and DELINS.DELFOR01. The level of commitment of the schedule lines in a kanban forecast delivery schedule must be Preview (004). Do not use the JIT delivery schedule IDoc DELJIT.DELFOR02 in the kanban process with SAP SNC. SAP SNC would also map this IDoc to a kanban forecast delivery schedule. Since only one kanban forecast delivery schedule can be in SAP SNC, SAP SNC accepts the first that arrives, and rejects all further kanban forecast delivery schedules.

For more information about kanban in an SAP back-end system, see the documentation for mySAP ERP under the following paths:

●      SAP ERP Central Component ® Logistics Production Planning and Control ® PP – Kanban

●      SAP Discrete Industries and Mill Products ® SAP for Automotive ® Kanban: Enhancements for Automotive

Partner-Specific UIs and Functions

On the Web UI of SAP SNC, there is a customer-specific and a supplier-specific view for displaying and processing kanbans. Each view only contains the functions that correspond to the role of the respective business partner. The following Web UIs are available:

●      The kanban overview provides and overview of the kanban control cycles, of the kanban status and the kanban quantities.

●      The kanban details contain information about the kanbans of a control cycle that you have selected in the overview such as the kanban status or the number of the ASN that was last sent, for example. As supplier, you can set the status of a kanban to In Work or to In Transit in this screen area. The system generates an ASN automatically that it saves as a draft or publishes and sends to the customer. As customer, you can set a kanban that you have received to Full.

For more information, see Functions for Kanban Processing.

Visible Data

The Web UIs for kanbans use selection mode ODM_PO. The user of a business partner can see the following data:

●      A user of a supplier can see kanban requests in the supplier view in which this supplier is entered as the supplier.

●      A user of a customer can see kanban requests in the customer view in which this customer is entered as the customer.

The location names and product names of the location products from these kanban requests are available in input help, provided that the user authorization allows these locations and products to be displayed. (The input help also contains the product names and the location names of the location products from standard purchase orders, depending on user and business partner.)

ASN Processing

For an empty kanban, the supplier can manually create an ASN in SAP SNC or send it from his or her back-end system to SAP SNC. The ASN refers to the kanban request. Based on the ASN, SAP SNC automatically updates the kanban status: A kanban acquires the In Work status in SAP SNC if the supplier saves the ASN as a draft. It acquires the In Transit status if the supplier publishes the ASN and sends it to the customer.

To set a kanban to In Transit, the supplier must publish exactly one ASN in the required quantity for the kanban. The following is not possible:

●      Partial deliveries, that is, delivery in several partial quantities and with several ASNs

●      Underdelivery, that is, delivery of a quantity that is smaller than the requested kanban quantity

●      Overdelivery, that is, delivery of a quantity that is larger than the requested kanban quantity

If the customer sends a goods issue message to SAP SNC from his or her back-end system, SAP SNC updates the status of the kanban and the ASN. For more information, see Update ASNs.

A simplified ASN maintenance is available in SAP SNC kanban processing. However, the supplier can also use the Web UIs for standard ASN processing. This can include, for example, analyzing problems that occurred when creating the ASN, or manually or automatically packing ASN items of a draft ASN using the standard packing functions.

In kanban processing in SAP SNC, you do not use supplier confirmations.

Business Add-In (BAdI)

You can use the /SCA/KANBAN BAdI to modify kanban data or kanban processing in SAP SNC specifically to the customer, if required.

One-Time Kanban

In one-time kanban, product provision is not based on a predefined number of kanbans or a predefined kanban quantity. Instead, it is based on actual product consumption. The product is not continually provided and replenished at a supply area. It is only replenished when specifically requested. You must maintain separate control cycles for one-time kanban.

For more information about the process flow, see Process Flow for One-Time Kanban.

Activities

You call kanban processing on the Web application menu of SAP SNC under Kanban.