Products such as tires, glass products, and drinks that come in large quantities and require a large amount of storage space are often stored in bulk storage. The advantages of bulk storage include:
· Reduced need for physical storage bins
· Fast access to the containers
· Clear structuring of the warehouse (into blocks and rows)
This strategy searches for storage bins in bulk storage.
The figure below shows bulk storage:
The most important features of bulk storage processing are:
· Freely-defined coordinate structure
When you define the storage bins in bulk storage, you do not have to take any technical prerequisites of the system into account. The warehouse is divided into blocks, which in turn are divided into individual rows.
· One storage bin per row
In practice, a row is selected as the sort characteristic in bulk storage. In the system, a row is created and managed as a storage bin. The storage bins (rows) are classified according to storage bin types.
For example, rows 2 and 3 in block A05 (illustrated in the above figure) can hold up to 16 pallets. However the 4th row can only hold a maximum of 12 pallets, due to a structural column in the row. You can enter this exception (reduced capacity of a row) when defining the block structure (see section “Prerequisites”).
· Different HU types
In bulk storage, you often manage different HU types with different dimensions, for example, standard pallets and industrial pallets with clip-on mounts. Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) supports the management of different HU types in bulk storage.
· Mixed storage
You do not put away HUs with different products in the same row. However, in general, all combinations of mixed storage are allowed in bulk storage. You can also define that all products in the storage bin must have the same batch.
· Automatic blocking per row
To optimize the putaway and stock removal processes in bulk storage, you can set a blocking indicator for each row separately.
· You have made the following settings for the storage type in Customizing for Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) under Master Data ® Define Storage Type:
¡ You have chosen the Bulk Storage value in the Storage Behavior field.
¡ You have chosen the Addition to Existing Stock/Empty Bin value in the Putaway Rules field.
¡ You have chosen the Addition to existing stock permitted value in the Addn.Stock Forbidden field.
¡ Do not activate the HU type check and do not choose a capacity check method. A capacity check and HU type check are not necessary in bulk storage because an internal check is carried out based on the block structure definition.
¡ Choose the required option in the Mixed Storage field. For more information about the permitted combinations, see the relevant field help.
· When defining the storage type control for this strategy, you must take into consideration the following indicators, among others, to control the putaway of products into bulk storage:
¡ Putaway blocking for row
¡ Time limit for blocking
For more information about these control options, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) for EWM under Goods Receipt Process ® Strategies ® Putaway Rules ® Putaway Behavior: Bulk Storage ® Storage Type Control for Bulk Storage.
For this strategy, you can enter bulk storage indicators together with a description. Using the bulk storage indicator, you define how you want to store a particular product in bulk storage. To do this, you enter the bulk storage indicator in the product master record and again in the bulk storage sectioning table when defining the structure of a block.
You can define various characteristics of bulk storage such as storage bin types, HU types, maximum number of stacks, and stacking height.
When you define storage bins for bulk storage you must enter a storage bin type.
In the product master record (in the Warehouse Management view), you can
· Define up to three HU types
· Set the bulk storage indicator
· Set the indicator allowing addition to existing stock