Configuration Options (SAP Library - Transportation (LE-TRA))

Configuration Options

When configuring the transportation planning interface in R/3-Customizing, you can specify technical or functional parameters that determine how messages are sent to the planning system and which modifications should be carried out in the messages before transfer.

R/3 Customizing

SAP uses the word Customizing to describe the necessary table settings used to tailor the R/3 system to the user’s needs. For example, in Customizing you can:

Define key values and their attributes (shipment types, for example)
Maintain number ranges (shipment numbers, for example)
Create and maintain organizational units (transportation planning points, for example)
Configure procedures for sending documents (message control, for example)
Create procedures for modifying documents (route restrictions, for example)
Carry out other customer-specific system settings

The descriptions for Customizing settings are available in detail in the Implementation Guide in Online help. Particular specifications for setting the transportation planning interface can be found in IMG under Tools ® Customizing ® Implementation projects ® SAP Reference IMG ® Sales and distribution ® Transportation ® Interfaces ® External Transportation Planning Systems.

Planning Restrictions for Routes

In some planning situations, the whole transportation process is not determined by one transportation system for individual deliveries. In order to optimize the planning of domestic transportation (roads) for companies sending deliveries both at home and abroad, a planning system might be used where shipment documents can also be manually generated using R/3 transactions for transportation activities for overseas shipments (sea routes). In this case, the transportation planning system has to be notified that the destination location for planning is not the decisive factor for deliveries abroad, but that automated planning should take place for another location (e.g. departure harbor or border location). Similar situations arise for orders that are shipped from a shipping location outside the transportation planning system’s planning area and that should only have automatic subsequent leg planning carried out.

The planning restrictions are linked to the combination of transportation planning system (transportation planning point) and route. This way, you can define how a departure point or destination location substitution should be executed in the planning request for each related planning system and each delivery route separately.

Location substitution schemas are used for determining an alternative departure point or destination for planning. A substitution schema is made up of sequence of conditions that are checked one after the other until a valid substitute is found. Once an alternative location has been found, the time specifications for the location are also reset where possible.

The following conditions can be used in a substitution location procedure:

All the search strategies refer only to documents that are part of the delivery currently being processed. Locations that are used as departure and destination locations for the delivery in the existing shipments are those where the delivery is loaded or unloaded but not the absolute beginning or end of a shipment.

Condition	Time substitute	Location substituted with...
001	A, P	Departure location of earliest main leg shipment
002	A, P	Departure location of earliest preliminary leg shipment
003	A, P	Departure location of earliest subsequent leg shipment
004	F	Departure points in delivery route
050	A, P	Earliest departure location of any shipment
101	A, P	Destination location of latest main leg shipment
102	A, P	Destination location of latest preliminary leg shipment
103	A, P	Destination location of latest subsequent leg shipment
104	F	Destination points in delivery route
150	A, P	Latest destination location in any shipment
200	F	Fixed transportation connection points
999		User-specific substitution

If a substitution location is found, the system also tries to determine the connection scheduling for the departure or arrival time of the delivery at the substitution location (time substitute). This is done by using the following procedures:

Time substitute	Function
A	Substitute with actual transportation time (this takes priority due to precision, but may only be maintained in exceptional cases).
P	Substitute with planned times from shipment document.
F	Calculates new times based on delivery / GI date and the preliminary, main and subsequent leg times of the route specified in Customizing.

User-specific location substitution takes place using a customer function. You can read more about customer functions in SAP System Settings and Modifications or in the online help documentation.

Location and Time Substitution with Reference to Existing Shipments

Automatic connection scheduling for existing R/3 shipments can only take place properly if all important data has been maintained in R/3 shipment documents. The following data is absolutely necessary in the shipment document:

· Departure and destination location

· Planned departure and arrival time in shipment header

· Delivery assignment

If a connection to a collective shipment is planned, the following data must also be maintained:

· Shipment stages

· Delivery assignment to legs

· Departure and arrival times at shipment stages

If possible, you should also ensure that all address data is maintained for the locations involved.

Location Substitution for Subsequent Leg Planning

The Straße Deutschland (Roads - Germany) planning system is used for planning the subsequent legs in the delivery route ‘North America-Hamburg’, which means that the departure location for the delivery is in North America (i.e. outside the planning area) and must be substituted with a starting location suitable for planning purposes. The determination procedure would identify the following condition sequence, which is processed sequentially until a substitution location has been found:

End of the last main leg: if one or more main legs exist for the corresponding delivery, the destination location of the last main leg is used as the starting location for planning. The shipment end date becomes the shipment departure date.
End of delivery route: if it exists, the end point of the delivery is used as the starting point for planning. The departure time is determined using the delivery date and the specified subsequent leg time.
Predefined points: points defined in Customizing are used and a departure time is not determined.
No substitution takes place.

The following shows the four most relevant substitution procedures with their condition steps.

Automatic Preliminary Leg Planning: Connection to Departure Location in Existing Main Leg Shipment:

Step	Condition	Location substituted with...
001	001	Departure location of earliest main leg shipment
002	004	Departure points in delivery route
		No substitution of destination location

Automatic Subsequent Leg Planning: Connection to Destination Location in Existing Main Leg Shipment:

Step	Condition	Location substituted with...
001	101	Destination location of latest main leg shipment
002	104	Destination points in delivery route
		No substitution of departure location

Automatic Main Leg Planning: Connection to Destination Location in Existing Preliminary Leg Shipment:

Step	Condition	Location substituted with...
001	102	Destination location of latest preliminary leg shipment
002	004	Departure points in delivery route
		No substitution of departure location

Automatic Main Leg Planning: Connection to Departure Location in Existing Subsequent Leg Shipment:

Step	Condition	Location substituted with...
001	003	Departure location of earliest subsequent leg shipment
002	104	Destination points in delivery route
		No substitution of departure location

Material Cumulation

It is absolutely necessary to know all details about the materials/delivery items to be transported in order to plan shipments.

In certain circumstances, it is not always relevant whether two delivery items, 500 liters of red and 500 liters of green paint, for example, are to be transported. It is often enough to know that 1000 liters of paint have to be planned as shipment goods. The circumstances are similar in batch handling, where different batches of one material are divided among several delivery items.

Delivery items can be combined according to different criteria, in order to achieve a better overview or to reduce the amount of data that is to be transferred. This combination (cumulation) can take place separately for each combination of transportation planning point and route. However, it can also be carried out generally for an entire transportation planning point.

Cumulation of delivery items takes place in a transportation planning interface and is always related to deliveries, i.e. a cross-delivery cumulation is not available.

There are two options for creating planning requests for the cumulation of items in the current delivery:

Reduction of shipment-relevant items:

Activating this function results in:

- Combination of batch items in a header item per material

- Combination of product selection of a material in a header item

- Deletion of BOM items irrelevant to the shipment

Text and value items as well as automatically-generated packing items are not normally transferred.

Cumulation according to freight code:

A freight code set can be assigned to the combination of transportation planning point and route and the freight code can be defined together with the material freight group from the material master. The items of a delivery are combined according to freight codes and the type of material will only be represented by the freight type code in the output. The quantity is only available in weight and volume specifications and no longer as number of pieces, etc.

If both cumulation procedures are activated, the cumulation will first be carried out according to shipment-relevant items and then according to freight code.

You can implement a user specific cumulation by using a customer function. This customer function is carried out according to both the reduction of shipment-relevant items and freight class. You can read more about customer functions in SAP System Settings and Modifications or in the online help documentation.

Procedure for Transferring Planning Requests
Standard Transfer Procedure with Output Control

The standard transfer procedure is via output control. Other procedures should only be used in exceptional cases. Transfer with output control has the following attributes:

Blank transfer using transaction VT61 generates entries in output control, which are used for creating planning requests for the time planned in the output type and which are then transferred.
Transfer of planning requests based on changed deliveries takes place automatically.
Control mechanisms are available in output control.

The following settings allow you to set the standard transfer procedure for a planning system:

Create an output type for your planning system based on template ‘TPS0’. Don’t forget to maintain the processing program as well.
Set the required dispatch time.
Enter your new output type in the output procedure for the shipping outputs and set the condition to ‘40’ (delivery to external TPS).
Enter your output type in the transportation planning point assigned to the planning system.

If several planning systems are connected to your R/3 system, then you need a different message type for each planning system.

Direct Shipping without Output Control

Direct shipping should be used particularly if using output control will lead to a considerable decrease in performance, i.e. if a large number of deliveries have to be shipped. The structure of planning requests comes about in output control by reading individual documents into R/3 whereas in direct shipping, a mass transaction takes place.

Because of the missing connection to output control, the change controls are also deactivated for delivery documents. Deliveries are therefore not automatically retransferred once they have been changed. For a retransfer you must use transaction VT61, ensuring that the customer function for avoiding the transfer lock has been activated. You can read more about customer functions in SAP System Settings and Modifications or in the online help documentation.

In order to activate direct shipping, you must not:

Enter any output type in the transportation point.

Automatic Transfer

Automatic transfer only works with one transportation planning system where all deliveries are always shipped directly.

Automatic output control has the following attributes:

Posting a new delivery generates entries in output control, which are used for creating planning requests for the time planned in the output type and which are then transferred.
Transfer of planning requests based on changed deliveries takes place automatically.
Control mechanisms are available in output control.

The following settings allow you to set the standard transfer procedure for a planning system:

Create an output type for your planning system based on template ‘TPS0’. Don’t forget to maintain the processing program as well.
Set the required dispatch time.
Enter your new output type in the output procedure for the shipping outputs and leave the condition field blank.
Enter your output type in the transportation planning point assigned to the planning system.

In addition to the automatic planning system, you can also use other systems with standard transfer procedures.