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Enhanced Services for Transportation Network Locate this document in the navigation structure

 

Technical Data

Technical Name of Business Function

SCM_SCMB_TR_NETWORK

Type of Business Function

Enterprise Business Function

Available From

SAP enhancement package 1 for SAP Supply Chain Management 7.0

Technical Usage

SCM

Application Component

SCM Basis Master Data (SCM-BAS-MD)

Required Business Function

Not relevant

You can use this business function to improve the geographical services used in Transportation Network for SAP Supply Chain Management (SAP SCM). Accurate geographical data can help to improve the quality of many features in SAP SCM applications, such as determining geocoordinates for locations, determining distances and durations between locations, and so on. The following functions have been enhanced and improved:

  • Geocoding

  • Distance and duration determination

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the following components as of the version mentioned:

    Type of Component

    Component

    Required for the Following Features Only

    Software Component

    SCM 701

    SCM_BASIS 701

    SCMBPLUS 701

    External Product

    Any geographical information systems.

After the activation of the SCM_SCMB_TR_NETWORK business function, you have made the following settings in Customizing for SCM Basis:

  • Geocoding

    To help the system improve the performance of the distance and duration determination, you have defined geocoding levels under   Master Data   Location   Geocoding   Define Geocoding Levels  .

  • Distance and duration determination

    • You have defined GIS zones under   Master Data   Transportation Lane   Distance and Duration Determination   Define GIS Zone  .

    • You have assigned countries to GIS zones under   Master Data   Transportation Lane   Distance and Duration Determination   Assign Country to GIS Zone  .

    • You have defined strategies for the distance and duration determination under   Master Data   Transportation Lane   Distance and Duration Determination   Define Strategy for Distance and Duration Determination  .

    • You have maintained global settings for the buffering of the distances and durations under   Master Data   Transportation Lane   Distance and Duration Determination   Maintain Global Settings for Buffering of DDD  .

    • If you are using external GIS providers, you have made settings in the Customizing activity Set Usage of GIS Tool to ensure that the external GIS providers are available. You make the settings under   Master Data   Transportation Lane   Distance and Duration Determination   Set Usage of GIS Tool  .

Features

Geocoding

Geocoding is the determination of geographical coordinations for locations. To improve geocoding, the following enhancements are available:

  • To ensure a more flexible approach to the determination of geocoordinates, you can use the process controller as a flexible framework to create different geocoding strategies so you can connect to external geographical information systems (GIS) different from the standard geocoding program. This flexibility allows you to use third-party GIS providers if required. For more information about how to configure the process controller for geocoding, see Customizing for SCM Basis under   Master Data   Locations   Geocoding   Configure Process Controller for Geocoding  .

  • You can define geocoding levels to store geocoordinates for the address of a location on different levels of detail, for example by house number, postal code, or region. Having different levels of detail for the geocoordinates of a location allows you to improve the performance of the distance and duration buffering table when determining distances and durations between locations. The additional geocoordinates are displayed in the location master.

    You can define geocoding levels in Customizing for SCM Basis under   Master Data   Locations   Geocoding   Define Geocoding Levels  .

For more information, see Geocoding.

Distance and Duration Determination

To ensure more accurate data for transportation lanes, you can use the distance and duration determination to calculate the distance and duration to travel between the start and the destination locations. However, the calculation is done externally by third-party GIS providers and is performance critical. Therefore the following features are new and enhanced in the distance and duration determination to ensure a more flexible determination of distances and durations and an improved performance:

  • To ensure a more flexible approach to the determination of distances and durations, you can use the process controller as a flexible framework to create different distance and duration determination strategies so you can connect to external geographical information systems (GIS) that offer different calculations than the straight line distance and the calculation offered by the standard geocoding program. For more information about how to configure the process controller for the distance and duration determination, see Customizing for SCM Basis under   Master Data   Transportation Lane   Distance and Duration Determination   Configure Process Controller for Distance and Duration Determination  .

  • To improve the performance of the determination of distances and durations, the distance and duration buffering has been enhanced as follows:

    • A new table that uses geocoordinates for the buffering has replaced the existing buffering table. You can precalculate distances and durations for the buffering table to improve the performance by using the Precalculate Distances and Durations for the DDD Buffer report. For more information, see Precalculation of Distance and Duration Determination.

    • You can use the Deletion of Buffered Distances and Durations report to delete obsolete entries from the distance and duration determination buffering table. For more information, see Deletion of Buffered Distances and Durations.

For more information, see Distance and Duration Determination.

Example