Application Transactions of the Interface 

The following sections describe the application transactions and programs with which the user can operate the functions for transmission in the direction from SAP ® forwarding agent.

Transmission of Planning Requests

Explicit Transmission by Application Transaction

Using the explicit transmission function, you can transmit to a forwarding agent a large number of deliveries that you can select using selection requirements also available in manual shipment processing (transaction VT01). Specifying the transportation planning point (planning system) and the processing type (outbound or inbound shipment) is obligatory.

 

At the moment, it is not possible to select outbound deliveries and inbound shipping notifications together with one selection run.

You can call up the transmission of planning requests by calling up the transaction VT62 or through the menu path Logistics Execution ® Transportation ® Transportation Planning ® Scheduling in Cooperation with Forwarding Agents ® Send Deliveries to Forwarding Agent.

Deliveries that were already transmitted once can only be transmitted to the same system again if the delivery has been changed and the output control is activated. If you do not want this block, then it can be switched off for direct transmission using a customer function. You can read more about these functions in the section SAP System Settings and Modification Concept or in the online help for the customer function.

Regular Transmission per Job

You can have deliveries transmitted regularly and automatically using certain selection criteria. This is appropriate, for example, if all shipments are to be planned overnight.

To do this, program RV56LFTPC should be included as a job. Parameters must include transportation planning point, shipment completion type, the deleted indicator for displaying the selection screen as well as a selection variant for program RV56LFSLC.

Fully Automatic Transmission

Fully automatic transmission of planning requests for generating deliveries is a special case. It should only be applied if a company wishes to plan all its deliveries with an external planning system in transportation but where only one planning system (in other words, one transportation planning point) is available. In this case the function can be activated via a special configuration of message control (more information in Procedure for Transmitting Planning Requests - Automatic Transmission). Depending on the message control configuration, the message transmission will either take place immediately after posting the delivery or in later collective processing.

 

Remov Removing Planning Requests

If deliveries are to be removed from the planning system because planning should be either carried out manually, using another system, or not at all, the following options are at your disposal.

Explicit Removal from Planning

Explicit removal from planning means taking a delivery out of a planning system without deleting the delivery in R/3. You can call up the exclusion of deliveries from planning by calling up the transaction VT69 or through the menu path Logistics Execution ® Transportation ® Transportation Planning ® Scheduling in Cooperation with Forwarding Agents ® Plan Deliveries from Freight Planning.

Once you have entered the delivery document number for the delivery to be removed, a list of all the planning systems that the delivery has been transmitted to will appear. You can select the system and start the process using Execute.

Automatic Removal from Planning by Deleting a Delivery

If a delivery is deleted in R/3, it is then automatically removed from planning in all the planning systems that it has already been transmitted to. This procedure needs no previous configuration.

Receipt of Planned Shipments

The receipt of planned shipments in R/3 takes place automatically via the ALE layer mechanisms. Some functions are available within inbound processing and further document processing which affect the transportation planning interface. You must also take into account other attributes that can be influenced by Customizing settings.

Deleting Shipments or Handling Units within a Shipment

Deleting handling units that have been created in a shipment or deleting a whole shipment is not possible in the transportation planning system if a handling unit is not empty, that is, if something has been packed into the shipping unit.

If materials have been packed manually into a handling unit in an externally-planned shipment document, they must first be manually unpacked before the planning system can delete the handling unit or the shipment.

 

Automatically Setting ‘Planned’ Status

‘Planned’ status is automatically set when the system receives an externally-planned shipment document. This happens regardless of whether a planned date has been transmitted to the incoming document or not.

If the planning date is transmitted from a forwarding agent, this is copied over to the planning date in the shipment document. If a planning date is not transmitted, the planning date in the R/3 document is set to the date of receipt of the external document.

 

Document Status

The document status must not be changed by the forwarding agent.

If the given status is reached or exceeded through manual setting in R/3 transportation processing, a message will be sent automatically to the forwarding agent to freeze the corresponding shipment document, whereby the shipment document must be set to Do not change in the planning system.

Modifiability of Externally-Planned Shipments

Changes that were made in R/3 are not transmitted to the forwarding agent to avoid possible inconsistencies in data.