Direct Outbound Delivery 

Use

Direct outbound deliveries support unplanned outbound deliveries and direct sales in the warehouse. You can create these deliveries for external and internal goods recipients in the warehouse, without having to first create a sales order or stock transport order.

In EWM, you can also create a packaging material as an additional item in outbound deliveries, with which you can update the stock of this material with the goods issue posting of the delivery.

Integration

To be able to use direct outbound deliveries, you have connected SAP EWM to SAP ERP.

Prerequisites

●      You have activated business function LE, Extended Warehouse Management Integration.

●      You have made the required settings in Customizing for SAP ERP:

○       You have defined which delivery types are used for direct outbound deliveries in ERP. This is required for deliveries to an external customer, and is optional for stock transfer deliveries.

For more information, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Extended Warehouse Management Integration under Logistics Execution → Extended Warehouse Management Integration → Outbound Process → Direct Outbound Deliveries → Determine Delivery Types for Direct Outbound Deliveries.

The ERP direct outbound deliveries adopt the document number and item numbers from EWM. For this reason, make sure that a suitable external number range is defined for the used delivery types that fits the reference document numbers in EWM.

●      If you want to control item categories individually, you have also defined which item categories are to be used for the items of a direct outbound delivery.

For more information, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Extended Warehouse Management Integration under Logistics Execution → Extended Warehouse Management Integration → Outbound Process → Direct Outbound Deliveries → Determine Item Types for Direct Outbound Deliveries.

●      For direct outbound deliveries to another plant, you have maintained the corresponding Customizing for Purchasing.

For more information, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Materials Management under Purchasing → Purchasing Documents → Purchase Order → Set up Stock Transport Order.

●      To use additional packaging material items in outbound deliveries, you must adjust the item category determination for delivery items in ERP. For the corresponding settings, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) under Logistics Execution → Shipping → Delivery → Assign Item Categories.

○       For packaging material items in outbound deliveries for the customer and in replenishment deliveries with reference to stock transport orders, an entry with the item category group of the packaging materials (usually VERP) and the item usage PACE is required.

○       If you are using two-step stock transfers, and an inbound delivery is generated for the goods receipt in the receiving plant, you require for the additional packaging material an entry with the item category group of the packaging material and the item category usage V, since the packaging material items are created with reference to a purchase order.

As item categories for the additional packaging material items, you can use the respective standard item categories of the delivery or you can use copies of these which you configure as billing-relevant or not billing-relevant, depending on your business process requirements.

Features

The following are differentiated in the direct outbound delivery:

●      Direct outbound delivery for the customer

●      Direct outbound delivery to another plant

Direct Outbound Delivery for the Customer

After creating and saving the direct outbound delivery order in EWM, the direct outbound delivery is sent to the ERP system. Further processing in EWM and ERP up to goods issue occurs in the same way as for an outbound delivery with a sales order reference. For billing in ERP, a direct outbound delivery for the customer is treated in the same way as a delivery to the customer without a reference.

A direct outbound deliver to the customer can also be used to map scrapping that is triggered in EWM. In this case, you use a delivery type in ERP than allows goods movements and that is not relevant for billing.

Direct outbound deliveries for the customer are also used for goods issue posting of kit components. Creating this delivery is triggered by EWM as part of value-added service order processing.

When creating a direct outbound delivery for the customer, the ERP system determines additional data that EWM is unable to provide:

●      The sales area of the delivery (sales organization, distribution channel, division) is determined from the supplying plant.

●      The shipping point is determined from the supplying plant, the shipping condition from the customer master, and the loading group from the item data of the delivery.

Direct Outbound Delivery to Another Plant

After creating and saving the direct outbound delivery order in EWM, the direct outbound delivery is sent to the ERP system. If the ERP system identifies that the goods recipient is not assigned to an external customer but to another plant in the ERP system, first a stock transport order is created, followed by a replenishment delivery with reference to this stock transport order. Further processing in EWM and ERP up to goods issue occurs in the same way as for a standard outbound delivery; however, for quantity changes and deletion of items, the system also automatically adjusts the stock transport order. If the stock transfer it to be done according to the two-step principle, the ERP system can automatically generate the inbound delivery required for mapping goods receipt in the receiving plant.

If the supplying plant and receiving plant are in different company codes, the replenishment delivery can be billed internally as in the standard SAP system.

For creating the stock transport order from the direct outbound delivery that is sent from EWM to ERP, the ERP system determines additional data:

●      The receiving plant of the stock transport order is determined from the goods recipient of the delivery.

●      The purchase order type of the stock transport order is determined from Customizing for Purchasing, where supplying plant and receiving plant are considered. (IMG: Materials Management → Purchasing → Purchase Order → Set up Stock Transport Order → Assign Document Type, One-Step Procedure, Underdelivery Tolerance)

●      The sales organization of the purchase order is derived from the receiving plant (IMG: Enterprise Structure → Assignment → Materials Management → Assign purchasing organization to plant).

●      The purchasing group is taken from the purchasing view of the material master. If no purchasing group is specified there, the system determines one from the master data of the supplier that is assigned to the supplying plant.

The shipping data of the replenishment delivery with reference to this purchase order, particularly the sales area, delivery type and shipping point, are determined the same as in the standard ERP system from the settings in Customizing for Purchasing.

The process for stock transfer of a direct outbound delivery is also supported for stock transfers between storage locations, if the goods recipient of the direct outbound delivery is assigned to a storage location as opposed to a plant. In this case, determining the required purchase order data is done from Customizing for the storage locations involved.

Additional Packaging Material Items in Outbound Deliveries

In EWM, you can manually record the packaging materials used as additional items of the delivery. After saving the outbound delivery order in EWM, the items are sent to the ERP system and created as copies in the ERP outbound delivery.

Additional packaging material items are supported in the following outbound deliveries:

●      Outbound deliveries with reference to a sales order

●      Replenishment deliveries with reference to a stock transport order

●      Direct outbound deliveries for the customer

●      Direct outbound deliveries to another plant

Providing the ERP outbound delivery was created with reference to a stock transport order, the stock transport order is automatically extended by this item before it is added to the delivery. This ensures that the item can also be transferred to the receiving plant in two-step stock transfers. In all other outbound deliveries, the additional packaging material item is created as an item without a reference to a preceding document.

Further processing of additional packaging material items in EWM and ERP occurs in the same way as for the other items in the delivery; in addition, subsequent deletion of the packaging material items is also possible. You can trigger this in EWM. When you post goods issue for the outbound delivery order in EWM, the packaging material item is also considered, and the stock of the packaging material is reduced in EWM and ERP.

If the packaging material item is part of a replenishment delivery as part of a two-step stock transfer, it is automatically added to the subsequent inbound delivery in the ERP system after goods issue, meaning that it can be considered during goods receipt in the receiving plant.