Generation of Delivery Items for Packaging Materials
Purpose
You can automatically generate separate delivery items with defined quantities for packaging materials. This is especially important if you:
- Manage packaging materials in Inventory Management
- Pick packaging materials in the warehouse
- Charge customers for packaging materials
- Make packaging materials available to customers as returnable packaging, which you also manage
Prerequisites
For this automatic generation to take place, you must make the following settings in the Implementation Guide (IMG):
- In the Logistics Execution ®
Shipping ®
Delivery section, use the
Define Item Category Determination in Deliveries activity to set up an item category assignment for the delivery type, an item category group for the packaging material, and make usage-indicator settings for
PACK
.
In the Logistics Execution ®
Shipping ®
Packing section, use the
Define Packaging Material Types activity to set the plant determination rule for packaging material types.
If the system recognizes the plant and the item category in the handling unit, it generates a delivery item for the packaging material automatically.
Process Flow
Maintain the corresponding
item category group for the packaging material in the material master record.
The system determines an item category according to the item category determination settings. For example, the system determines item category
HUPM
for item category group
VERP
in a sales order delivery.
Depending on the Customizing settings of the item category that was determined, the delivery item is relevant for picking, billing or stock and is transferred into the corresponding document (goods issue document or billing document, for example).

Processing of Returnable Packaging
The system processes returnable packaging (item category
TAL
) by automatically recording a posting change (into the customer's special stock, for instance) as it posts goods issue. These items are not transferred to billing documents. Subsequent processing of the returnable packaging occurs via sales order type
Ret. Packaging Pickup
(AT)
and completes the process with a
Returns delivery
(LR)
delivery type. If the customer is to keep the packaging materials, you can bill them to the customer by using the
Ret. Packaging Issue (RPI)
sales order type.
