Customizing

SAP uses this word to describe the necessary table settings for adjusting the SAP system to the needs of the user. For example:

Key values are determined with their attributes (for example, shipment types)

Number ranges are maintained (for example, shipment number)

organizational units are created and maintained (for example, transportation planning points)

Procedures for sending documents are configured (for example, message control)

Procedures for modifying documents are created (for example, route restrictions)

Other customer-specific system settings can be executed

The descriptions for Customizing settings are available in detail in the Implementation Guidelines in Online help. Particular specifications for setting the transportation planning interface can be found in IMG under Tools Customizing Implementation projects SAP Reference IMG Logistics General SCP Interfaces Transportation Planning Interface

Planning Restrictions for Routes

In some planning situations the whole transportation process is not determined by one transportation planning system for individual deliveries. In order to optimize the planning of domestic transportation (roads) for companies sending deliveries both at home and abroad, a planning system might be used where shipment documents can also be manually generated using SAP transactions for transportation activities for overseas shipments (sea routes). In this case, the transportation planning system has to be notified that the destination location for planning is not definite for deliveries abroad, but that automated planning should take place for another location (for example, departure harbor or border location). Similar situations arise for orders that are shipped from the shipping location outside the planning area of the transportation planning system for which an automatic subsequent leg planning should be carried out.

Planning restrictions are linked to the combination of transportation planning system (transportation planning point) and routes. Thus for every planning system and delivery route joined together, you can determine separately how a substitution for the departure or destination location can be carried out in planning requests.

To determine a substitute departure or destination location for planning, location substitution procedures are used. A substitution procedure is composed of a sequence of conditions, that are checked one after the other until a valid substitution for the departure or destination location has been found. Once a substitution location has been found, the time specifications for the location are also reset as far as is possible.

The following conditions can be used in a substitution location procedure.

All the search strategies only refer to documents currently in use for the document being processed. Locations that are used as departure and destination locations for the delivery in existing shipment are those where the delivery is loaded or unloaded but not the absolute beginning or end of a shipment.

If a substitution location is found, the system also tries to determine the connection scheduling for the departure or arrival time of the delivery to the substitution location (time substitute). This is done by applying the following procedures:

User-specific location substitution takes place using a customer function. For more information, see SAP System Settings and Modifications as well as in the online help for customer functions.

Location and Time Substitution with reference to Existing Shipments

Automatic connection scheduling to existing SAP shipments can only take place properly if the important data have been maintained in SAP shipment documents. The following data are absolutely necessary in the shipment document:

Departure and destination location

Planned departure and arrival time in shipment header

Delivery assignment

If a connection to a stop-off shipment is planned, the following data must also be maintained:

Shipment stages

Delivery assignment to legs

Departure and arrival times at shipment stage

If possible, you should also ensure that all address data for the locations to be visited is maintained.

Example: Location substitution for Subsequent Leg Planning

The “Germany Roads” planning system is used for planning the subsequent legs in the delivery route “North America-Hamburg,” which means that the departure location for the delivery is in North America (that is, outside the planning area) and must be substituted by a suitable starting location for the planning system. The determination procedure will identify the following condition sequence, which is processed sequentially until a substitution location has been found:

End of the last main leg: if one or more main legs exist for the corresponding delivery, the destination location of the last main leg is used as the starting location for the planning. The shipment end date becomes the shipment departure date.

End of delivery route: if in existence, the end point of the delivery is used as the starting point of the planning. The departure time is determined using the delivery date and the specified subsequent leg time.

Predefined points: points defined in Customizing are used and a departure time is not determined.

No substitution takes place.

The following shows the four most relevant substitution procedures with their condition steps.

Automatic Preliminary Leg Planning: Connections to Departure Location of an Existing Main Leg Shipment:

Automatic Subsequent Leg Planning: Connection to destination location in existing main leg shipment:

Automatic Main Leg Planning: Connection to destination location in existing preliminary leg shipment:

Automatic Main Leg Planning: Connection to departure location in existing subsequent leg shipment:

Material Cumulation

To plan shipments it is absolutely necessary to know the materials/delivery items to be transported in all details.

In certain circumstances it is not always relevant whether two delivery items (one each for 500 liters of red and 500 liters of green paint, for example) are to be transported. Often it is enough to know that 1000 liters of paint have to be planned as shipment goods. The circumstances are similar in batch handling, where different batches from one material are divided among several delivery items.

Delivery items can be combined according to different criteria in order to achieve a better overview or to reduce the data volume that is to be transferred. This combination (cumulation) can take place separately for each combination of transportation planning position and route. However it can also be carried out altogether for a transportation planning point.

Cumulation of delivery items takes place in a transportation planning interface always related to deliveries. that is, a cross delivery cumulation is not provided for.

When creating planning requests, there are two options for creating planning requests for the cumulation of items in the current delivery:

Reduction of shipment relevant items:

Activating this function affects the following:

Combination of batch items in a header item per material

Combination of product selection of a material in a header item

Deletion of BOM items not relevant to the shipment.

Text and value items as well as automatically generated packing items are not transferred.

Cumulation according to freight code:

A freight code set can be assigned to the combination of transportation planning point and route and the freight code can be defined together with the material freight group from the material master. The items from a delivery are combined according to freight codes and the type of material will only be represented by the freight type code in the message. The quantity is only available in weight and volume specifications and no longer as number of pieces, and so on.

If both cumulation procedures are activated, cumulation will first be carried out according to shipment relevant items and then according to freight type.

The option exists to implement a user specific cumulation via a customer function. This customer function is carried out according to both the reduction of shipment relevant items and freight class. For more information on customer functions, see SAP System Settings and Modifications as well as in the online help documentation.

Procedure for Transferring Planning Requests