Transportation Service Provider Selection

Use

You can use the transportation service provider selection (TSP selection) to assign a suitable transportation service provider (TSP) to your shipments either manually or automatically. The aim is to find a TSP with the lowest costs.

Prerequisites

Basic Settings

You have defined transportation lanes in the master data and have thereby defined means of transport and TSPs. You have defined a transportation duration and a transportation distance for your means of transport and have set the Detld Planning indicator.

For more information, see TP/VS-Relevant Transportation Lane Settings .

Note Note

A separate transaction is available in the Transportation Planning/Vehicle Scheduling (TP/VS) component to define transportation lanes as part of the TSP selection. For more information, see Definition of Transportation Lanes .

End of the note.
Optimization Options

You use one or more of the following optimization options:

Detailed Settings

  • You have made additional settings in the optimization profile on the TSP Selection tab page. These are optional settings that are relevant to the automatic TSP selection only. To do this, on the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Start of the navigation path Advanced Planning and Optimization Next navigation step Transportation Planning/Vehicle Scheduling Next navigation step Environment Next navigation step Current Settings Next navigation step Transportation Optimization Next navigation step Define Optimization Profile. End of the navigation path

  • If you want to take into account external freight costs during the TSP selection, you must have made the following settings (for more information, see SAP Note 445118):

    • You have configured the transportation planning point in Customizing for the ERP system under Start of the navigation path Logistics Execution Next navigation step Transportation Next navigation step Interfaces Next navigation step Transportation Planning Point Determination End of the navigation path so that the system can determine the costs defined in the ERP system.

    • To determine shipping points, you have defined a default entry consisting of a plant and a shipping point in Customizing for your ERP system.

Upgrade Report

To be able to use data from TSP profiles that you defined in a previous release, you must execute an upgrade report.

For more information, see Upgrade of TSP Selection Parameters .

Features

In manual TSP selection , you assign the required TSP manually to your shipments. If you have configured the check against transportation allocations, the system takes into account transportation capacities (transportation allocations) that you have defined for the individual TSPs. If the system does not find any transportation allocations during the assignment, it assigns a TSP but does not assign quantities in the planning book.

A separate optimization is available for the automatic TSP selection . This determines a TSP while taking into account the chosen optimization options for all the shipments that you have chosen. If none of the TSPs are available, the system removes the relevant shipment from optimization.

Note Note

You can use Business Add-In (BAdI) Control Optimization for TSP Selection (/SAPAPO/VS_CS_SELECT), method OPT_CONTROL to deactivate the optimization for certain shipments.

End of the note.
Shipments with Multiple Stops

In the case of shipments with multiple stops, the system tries to find a direct transportation lane between the start and destination locations.

Example Example

A shipment goes from A via B and C to D.

The system determines the most concrete transportation lane (using the same technique as for strategy determination ) for each stage (A to B, B to C, and C to D). The result is a list of all possible TSPs for each stage. The system also uses strategy determination to determine the strategy for the main leg (direct connection from A to D). The result is a list of possible TSPs. The system now creates the intersection from all these lists. The result is no TSPs, one TSP, or multiple TSPs that can serve all the stages as well as the main stage. The consideration of stages and stops is used therefore as a filter.

If you have implemented the BAdI Control of Optimization for TSP Selection (/SAPAPO/VS_CS_SELECT) to use your own optimization logic, the system simply checks the TSPs for the stages and for the main stage.

The system first checks which TSPs cover all the stages of the shipment (A to B, B to C, and C to D). In a second step, the system chooses the TSP from those found in the first step with a direct transportation lane between A and D.

End of the example.

Activities

You are in the planning view in interactive planning and have selected one or more shipments in the shuffler (selection bar).

Choose Select Transportation Service Provider.

  • Automatic TSP selection

    Choose Automatic Assignment and then Execute .

  • Manual TSP selection

    Choose Manual Assignment and a TSP number, or choose SCAC and enter the Standard Alpha Carrier Code (SCAC) for the required TSP. Choose Execute .

More information about the shipments is displayed on the Details tab page. If multiple TSPs can be selected for a shipment during automatic TSP selection, you can display a TSP list, for example, on this tab page. You can use this list to establish why the system has assigned a certain TSP.

Background Processing

You can also plan automatic TSP selection as a background job. To do this, on the SAP Easy Access screen choose Start of the navigation path Transportation Planning/Vehicle Scheduling (TP/VS) Next navigation step Planning Next navigation step Planning in the Background Next navigation step Select Transportation Service Provider (TSP). End of the navigation path You must, however, schedule the TSP selection after the optimization run since the system may not find any shipments otherwise.