Warehouse Activity Monitor (SAP Library - Warehouse Management System (WMS))

Warehouse Activity Monitor

Use

The functions of the warehouse activity monitor are intended to assist warehouse administrators to oversee, plan and optimize work processes in the warehouse. It provides a means to notify responsible personnel in case there are delays or errors in the overall system. The warehouse activity monitor helps you to identify and correct warehousing errors or critical processes soon after they occur, thus enabling you to carry out warehousing transactions in a timely manner.

The warehouse activity monitor provides

Automatic monitoring of warehousing processes

Automatic recognition and display of errors in the warehouse

Support in the analysis of processes in which errors have occurred

Support to error correction

Why do I need the warehouse activity monitor?

The warehouse monitor is useful for several reasons:

Not all warehousing processes are carried out in the system without errors.
Errors are often not recognized until sometime after they have occurred.
The search for the cause of an error and correcting it can be time consuming.

Orders to move stock in the warehouse should always be processed within a reasonable time period. One of the key features of the warehouse monitoring task is the checking of timely processing of transfer orders in WM.

Example

For example, if a pallet has not been moved from the goods receipt area to its destination within a few hours, then it is likely that the transfer order has been lost, misplaced or that an error has occurred.

Prerequisites

Whether or not a process or situation is considered to be critical depends upon the object that is to be monitored. You can use various criteria to decide whether a process is critical:

As a general rule, you can say that a process is critical if the process has not been completed within an acceptable period of time.

– For example, once the system creates a transfer order, it is expected that, as soon as the material in the has been physically moved to its destination in the warehouse, the transfer order will be confirmed.

– When the system creates a posting change notice, soon afterwards, it is expected that the notice will be converted into transfer orders.

For some activities in the warehouse, a deadline is set for the completion of the activity. This applies to

– Supply of materials to production

– Delivery processing

For some situations in WM, a certain period of time or duration is considered to be acceptable. These situations can be viewed as critical if the expected time span is exceeded. Examples include:

Negative stock. As an example, negative stock is recorded in the goods receipt area if you post a goods receipt in WM before posting it in IM.

Stock in interim storage types. For example, when you post a goods receipt in IM, the system stores this information in the interim storage area for goods receipts.

Setting Time Parameters

You maintain critical time periods using the Customizing application. For most of the objects, you can define several critical time periods. For critical time periods, you define the time duration and a corresponding unit of time.

Additionally, you can define a time period with reference to a particular calendar. This ensures that days are excluded that are not to be calculated into the critical time period (such as weekends, holidays and so on).

Example

All transfer orders that have been created but not confirmed within 4 hours are to be listed as critical transfer orders by the warehouse activity monitor. If the critical time period is defined with reference to the factory calendar, not all non-confirmed transfer orders that are created on Friday will be displayed on Monday morning as critical transfer orders.

When you define the critical time period, you need to ensure that only the exceptional situations are displayed by the warehouse activity monitor. This is important because of the additional time required to investigate and resolve a critical situation.

For information on how to configure individual time parameters for the warehouse activity monitor, see the Warehouse Management IMG documentation.

Features

In Warehouse Management, the warehouse activity monitor displays objects with critical processes. For each of the monitoring functions, the warehouse activity monitor offers additional functions that help you to analyze and correct errors. The additional functions that are available depend on the object concerned.

The individual objects that you can manipulate in this manner include the following:

Unconfirmed Transfer Orders

Open Transfer Requirements

Open Posting Change Notices

Open Deliveries

Stock in Interim Storage Areas

Negative Stock

Inconsistencies in Stock Figures for Production Supply

Activities

You can control which of the monitoring functions the warehouse activity monitor can display for individual users or for user groups.