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Function documentationSAP Dock Appointment Scheduling

 

You can use SAP Dock Appointment Scheduling to plan vehicle arrivals in your warehouses efficiently, and to collaborate with the parties involved in an appointment.

Planning for the Warehouse

Planning of vehicle arrivals at the warehouse, and loading and unloading of the vehicles, is important for managing the efficient running of the warehouse, and for balancing the workload across the working day.

You can use SAP Dock Appointment Scheduling to schedule loading appointments for loading and unloading vehicles and to get an overview of the workload of a loading point for each day.

Planning for the Carrier

For a carrier, planning is important to reduce the amount of time when the vehicles are not available for use, for example, if they are waiting to be unloaded.

Carriers with access to the system can plan loading appointments for their own vehicles directly in the system, and update details of their loading appointments.

Standalone and Integrated Deployment Options

SAP Dock Appointment Scheduling can be deployed as follows:

  • As a standalone solution, allowing you to manage the loading appointments at your warehouse without any reference to SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM)

  • Integrated with a local SAP EWM system

Integration

SAP Dock Appointment Scheduling can be integrated with a local SAP EWM system. A loading appointment is related to a transportation unit (TU) activity or a vehicle activity in SAP EWM. The system exchanges the status changes of the loading appointment and its related TU activity between SAP Dock Appointment Scheduling and SAP EWM.

Outbound loading appointments in SAP Dock Appointment Scheduling can be monitored in SAP EWM using the shipping cockpit.

For more information, see Integration with SAP EWM.

Prerequisites

You have activated the business function EWM, Essential Foundation Functions (SCM_EWM_FND).

You have assigned the required roles. For more information, see Roles for Dock Appointment Scheduling.

You have assigned the correct applications and personal object worklist (POWL) type IDs to the roles that use the Process Appointments screen, as follows:

  • Enter transaction POWL_TYPER and assign the application /SCWM/DAS and POWL type ID /SCWM/DS_APP to the roles.

  • Enter transaction POWL_QUERYR and assign the application /SCWM/DAS and the default POWL query ID for /SCWM/DS_Q_TO_PROCESS to the roles.

Prerequisites for Standalone SAP Dock Appointment Scheduling

  • You have defined a number range for the appointment numbers in Customizing for Extended Warehouse Management under Start of the navigation path Dock Appointment Scheduling Next navigation step Define Number Range Intervals for Appointment Numbers End of the navigation path.

  • If you want to enter means of transport in the loading appointments, you have defined the different means of transport in Customizing for Extended Warehouse Management under Start of the navigation path Dock Appointment Scheduling Next navigation step Define Means of Transport End of the navigation path.

Prerequisites for Integrated SAP Dock Appointment Scheduling

  • You have defined the basic settings in SAP EWM in Customizing for Extended Warehouse Management under Master Data.

  • You have defined the means of transport in Customizing for Extended Warehouse Management under Start of the navigation path Cross-Process Settings Next navigation step Shipping and Receiving Next navigation step Dock Appointment Scheduling Next navigation step Define Means of Transport End of the navigation path.

  • You have created the link between the packaging material and the TU. See Setting Up the Creation of Vehicles and Transportation Units.

  • You have created the number range for the TU numbers in Customizing for Extended Warehouse Management under Start of the navigation path Cross Process Settings Next navigation step Shipping and Receiving Next navigation step Number Ranges Next navigation step Define Number Range Interval for Transportation Units End of the navigation path

    Note that the number range for the TU numbers must not be the same as the number range for the loading appointment numbers.

  • If you want to use vehicles in SAP EWM, you have defined the number range for the vehicle numbers in Customizing for Extended Warehouse Management under Start of the navigation path Cross-Process Settings Next navigation step Shipping and Receiving Next navigation step Number Ranges Next navigation step Define Number Range Interval for Vehicles End of the navigation path.

  • You have defined the number range for the shipping and receiving activities in Customizing for Extended Warehouse Management under Start of the navigation path Cross-Process Settings Next navigation step Shipping and Receiving Next navigation step Number Ranges Next navigation step Define Number Ranges for S&R Activities End of the navigation path.

  • You have created the number range for the appointment numbers in Customizing for Extended Warehouse Management under Start of the navigation path Cross Process Settings Next navigation step Shipping and Receiving Next navigation step Dock Appointment Scheduling Next navigation step Define Number Range Intervals for Appointment Numbers End of the navigation path

    Note that the number range for the TU numbers must not be the same as the number range for the loading appointment numbers.

  • If you allow carriers to plan their own appointments directly in the system, you have defined these carriers in the system (see Processing Business Partner Data).

Features

  • Docking Locations

    A docking location represents a group of loading points, such as a warehouse or distribution center. A docking location represents the geographical location of the loading points, and can be used to define attributes of the loading points that are fixed across the entire location, such as the address.

    If you use SAP Dock Appointment Scheduling integrated with SAP EWM, the docking location represents the SAP EWM warehouse in SAP Dock Appointment Scheduling. You can define if the loading points are integrated with SAP EWM in the docking location. The integration with SAP EWM must be identical for all the loading points belonging to the docking location and the docking location itself.

    For more information, see Docking Locations and Integration with SAP EWM.

  • Loading Points

    You plan loading appointments for vehicles based on loading points. A loading point represents a set of warehouse docks that are identical from the processing point of view, for example, loading or unloading. In reality, these docks could be docks, fuel dispensers, or any location where goods arrive at a warehouse or leave a warehouse. You can group the loading points of one geographical location into a docking location.

    If you use docking locations, the integration with SAP EWM must be identical for all the loading points belonging to the docking location and the docking location itself. If you do not use docking locations, you can define if the loading point is integrated with SAP EWM for each loading point individually. For more information, see Loading Points.

  • Loading Appointments

    You plan loading appointments for vehicles in collaboration with the carriers, and process the loading appointments in the system.

    As the loading appointment proceeds, the system records the time of each status change for later analysis.

    You can plan loading appointments with different durations for the same loading points.

    For more information, see Appointment Management.

  • Reference Documents

    You can attach multiple reference documents to the loading appointments in the system, and search for the loading appointment using the reference document number. This allows you to access extra information about the loading appointment. For example, if you attach a purchase order to the loading appointment, you can see how many handling units are in the delivery.

  • Automatic Determination of Loading Points

    The system can determine the loading point of a loading appointment automatically, based on properties of the loading appointment and loading points. For example, if you have a loading appointment for a delivery of frozen goods, and a designated loading point for frozen goods, the system can automatically determine that the loading appointment should be planned for the loading point for frozen goods.

    To activate this feature, you define loading point determinations under Start of the navigation path Dock Appointment Scheduling Next navigation step Settings Next navigation step Determine Loading Point End of the navigation path.

    In addition, you can implement the following Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) in Customizing for Extended Warehouse Management under Start of the navigation path Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) for Extended Warehouse Management Next navigation step Dock Appointment Scheduling End of the navigation path:

    • BAdI: Property for Loading Appointments

    • BAdI: Determination of Property

    If you implement the BAdIs, the system can use reference documents to determine the loading point for the loading appointment automatically. If you want to use automatic determination of a loading point from a reference document, we recommend that you use docking locations. The system assigns the loading appointment to one of the loading points assigned to the docking location.

  • Automatic Determination of Appointment Duration

    The system can determine the duration of a loading appointment automatically, based on the number of packages in the loading appointment, the duration per package, and the amount of offset time a vehicle needs at the dock for activities such as arriving at the dock. For example, for a specific loading point, you can define that unloading 1 package takes 2 minutes, and that you require an offset of 10 minutes for each loading appointment. Using these definitions, the system calculates 30 minutes for a loading appointment with 10 packages to unload.

    To activate this feature, you define the duration per package and the duration at dock offset in Customizing for Extended Warehouse Management under Start of the navigation path Dock Appointment Scheduling Next navigation step Settings Next navigation step Configure Appointment Duration Determination End of the navigation path.

    In addition, you can implement the following Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) in Customizing for Extended Warehouse Management under Start of the navigation path Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) for Extended Warehouse Management Next navigation step Dock Appointment Scheduling End of the navigation path:

    • BAdI: Property for Loading Appointments

    • BAdI: Determination of Property

    If you implement the BAdIs, the system can also use reference documents to determine the duration of the loading appointment automatically. The system determines the number of packages from the reference documents, then uses the number to determine the loading appointment duration.

  • Collaboration with Carriers

    You can allow appointment planners for carriers to plan appointments directly in the system by creating business partner roles for them. This means that the carriers can accurately plan for their vehicles, which results in more accurate scheduling for the warehouse. The appointment planners for carriers can display their own carrier’s appointments only. For more information, see Collaboration with Carriers.

  • Analyze Loading Appointments

    You can collate and analyze information about loading appointments in your warehouse. For example, you can see how many loading appointments have arrived at the checkpoint on time.

  • Graphical and Textual Screens

    For accessibility according to the respective SAP Accessibility Status Document for SAP Extended Warehouse Management, use the textual screens instead of the graphical screens. Appointment planners for carriers can access the textual screens only.