Transportation and Delivery Scheduling (SAP Library

Transportation and Delivery Scheduling

During order entry, each schedule line for an item can contain a requested delivery deadline. The goods should arrive at the customer on this date. At the order processing stage, the system can automatically schedule when the essential shipping activities such as picking, loading and transporting must be started so that the requested delivery date can be kept.

The terms used in scheduling are defined below. You must distinguish between

times (time duration) needed to carry out certain activities
dates that are calculated on the basis of these times

Times

Values based on past experience of the shipping department are entered in the system in the form of transit times, loading times, pick/pack times, and transportation lead times:

The transit time is the time in days that is required to deliver goods from your premises to the customer location. It is defined for a route.

The loading time is the time in days that is required for loading a delivery item. It is determined from the shipping point, the route, and the loading group of the material.

The pick/pack time is the time in days that is required for allocating goods to a delivery as well as the time in days that is required for picking and packing. It is calculated using the shipping point, the route, and the weight group of the order item.

The transportation lead-time is the time in days that is needed to organize the shipping of the goods. This might include booking a ship and reserving a truck from a forwarding agent. It is defined for a route.

Note

If you have not maintained any working times in the shipping point, the unit for the time specification is the day (workday = 24 hours) with two decimal places

If you have maintained the working times in the shipping point, the unit for the time specification is hours, minutes, and seconds.

You can also enter the factory calendar of the forwarding agent for the route when you define the transit time. This factory calendar can be different from your company's calendar. For example, the forwarding agent might operate a 6-day-week.

You may only enter the transit time in days with two decimal places, even if you have maintained the working times in the shipping point.

The following figure shows the different times that are taken into account during delivery scheduling.

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

Deadlines

The following deadlines are of importance for delivery processing:

You must start picking and packing activities on the material availability deadline. This deadline must be selected early enough in advance so that the goods are ready by the given loading deadline.
The transportation scheduling deadline is the date on which you must start to organize the transportation of the goods. This deadline must be selected early enough to ensure that the means of transport is available by the loading deadline.
The loading deadline is the date on which the goods must be available for loading and on which all vehicles that are required to ship these goods must be ready for loading. After the time required for loading the goods (loading time) has expired, goods issue can be carried out.
The goods issue deadline is the date on which the goods leave the company in order to arrive punctually at the customer location.
The delivery deadline is the date on which the goods are to arrive at the customer location. The difference between the goods issue deadline and the delivery deadline is calculated from the transit time required for the route between the delivering plant and the customer.

The delivery deadline can be the customer's requested delivery deadline or the confirmed delivery date (that is, the earliest date on which you can deliver goods to the customer).

Data in the Sales Order

You will find the appropriate data in the sales order on the Item - Schedule Line - Shipping details screen. You call up this screen as follows:

On one of the overview screens in the order, select the item whose shipping data you want to look at. Then choose Item ® Schedule Lines ® Quantities/dates.
Place the cursor on the appropriate schedule line and choose Edit ® Detail Shipping.

Data in the Delivery

You will find important shipping data at header level in the delivery. For this purpose, choose Header ® Shipment-relev.info from a header or overview screen.

The material availability date can be different for each item. For example, this could be due to large quantities or complicated packaging. You will find this date at item level. Select the item for which you want to display the material availability deadline from the initial overview screen and then choose Item ® Item details. You will find the material availability deadline in the Picking section in the Mat.avail.date field.

In the sales order, the system can determine exactly at which time goods must become available, be loaded, and sent so that they arrive at the ship-to party location on the requested delivery deadline. The two different types of scheduling that are carried out are delivery scheduling and transportation scheduling.

Delivery Scheduling - Transportation Scheduling

All activities that must be carried out before the goods can be delivered to the customer are taken into account during delivery scheduling. This includes loading, picking, and packing. Delivery scheduling determines the material availability deadline and the loading deadline.

All deadlines that are used for preparing and carrying out the transportation of goods are taken into account during transportation scheduling. This includes the transit time and the transportation lead time that you need for ordering a foreign forwarding agent or for arranging a truck from the your company's truck fleet. The goods issue deadline and the transportation scheduling deadline are determined by transportation scheduling.

Scheduling Criteria

For each sales document type, you can define whether a delivery scheduling and/or a transportation scheduling will be carried out.

It is possible to specify by shipping point whether the system proposes loading time and pick/pack time for delivery scheduling. To determine these times, use the following criteria:

Shipping point

Processing may be carried out more quickly in one shipping point than another.

Shipping point, route, and weight and/or loading group

Since the route is required for determining the mode of transport, a delay in processing or quicker processing can be taken into account here. Weight can be important for determining pick/pack time, the loading group from the material master record for determining the loading time.

Shipping point, weight and/or loading group

If the route is not to be taken into account when the pick/pack time or loading time is determined, the shipping point and the weight become the only criteria used for determining the pick/pack time. The shipping point and the loading group become the criteria used for determining the loading time.

The transportation lead time and the transit time for transportation scheduling are determined using the route.

Note

Backward scheduling is always carried out for both delivery scheduling and transportation scheduling. If backward scheduling determines a material-availability deadline or transportation-scheduling deadline that lies in the past, the system automatically carries out forward scheduling to determine a delivery deadline that can be confirmed.

Backward Scheduling

The system first carries out backward scheduling from the requested delivery deadline:

Requested delivery deadline

./. minus transit time

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Goods issue deadline

Goods issue deadline

./. minus loading time

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Loading deadline

Based on the loading deadline, the system determines two further dates, the transportation planning deadline and the material availability deadline.

Loading deadline

./. minus transportation lead time

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Transportation scheduling deadline

Loading deadline

./. minus pick/pack time

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Material availability deadline

The earlier of these last two dates (material availability deadline and transportation scheduling deadline) determines when a schedule line becomes due for shipping.

Forward Scheduling

If backward scheduling determines a date in the past as the date on which a schedule line becomes due for shipping or if the material will not be available on the date calculated, the system automatically carries out forward scheduling to determine the earliest possible shipping deadline.

For example, starting from the current date, the system calculates the loading deadline, the goods issue deadline, and then the confirmed delivery date. It does this by adding together the shipping times mentioned above.

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

Rounding Rules for Data

If you have not maintained any working times, the system always rounds dates for scheduling up or down according to normal business practice. In addition to this, different buffer times can be determined for each shipping point and added to the loading time and the pick/pack time. This enables you to take into account possible delays in the shipping activities in advance.

Depending on the rounding rule you are using, the system may determine that loading scheduled according to the pick/pack time to be carried out in the afternoon will not be started until the following day. Thus, should picking and packing be held up, the truck is not kept waiting.

You can define the rounding period per shipping point in Customizing.

If you have maintained the working times, the scheduling is calculated exactly.