Freight Unit Building Rule
The system takes into account freight unit building rules (FUB rules) when creating and editing freight units (see Creation and Editing of Freight Units).
Features
Freight Unit Building Strategy
In the FUB rule, you define how the system is to consolidate freight units. To do this, you can use various freight unit building strategies (FUB strategies):
Consolidate as much as possible
In this case, the items come from different business documents, for example, forwarding orders. The system groups the items in freight units.
NoteIn addition to forwarding orders, other possible business documents are forwarding quotations, order-based transportation requirements, and delivery-based transportation requirements.
End of the note.Consolidate per item
In this case, the system generates one freight unit per business document item.
Consolidate per request (compatible parts)
In this case, the system groups all items of a business document to form a freight unit.
For all three FUB strategies, the system takes into account hard constraints and incompatibilities (see Incompatibilities).
Note
The FUB strategy also applies to the creation of transportation units and freight orders (see below under Document Type
and Automatic Creation of Freight Orders
).
Planning and Split Quantities
In the FUB rule, you enter planning quantities (for example, gross weight and gross volume) with the corresponding units of measure. The system copies the units of measure to the freight units that it creates. The units of measure form the basis for checking the capacity of resources. You define the maximum capacity of a freight unit using the split quantity.
Note that if you create equipment-based freight units or transportation units, the system automatically fills the planning and split quantities from Customizing for the equipment. For more information, see below under Equipment-Based Freight Units and Transportation Units
.
Example
You want to transport 5 tons of cement, but you can only transport it in batches of 500 kg. In this case, you define a split quantity of 500 kg. The system generates 10 freight units.
If the system cannot find the planning unit in the business document, it converts the unit using the values that you have defined in the product master.
Example
You want to transport 5 tons of cement, but you can only transport it in batches of 0.5 m3. In the product master, you have defined that 0.8 m3 of cement is equivalent to 1 ton of cement. The system then converts 5 tons of cement into 4 m3 and generates 8 freight units.
In addition to the split quantity, you can also specify a rounding value. In this case, the system calculates the freight unit quantity as a multiple of the rounding value.
Example
You define the following values:
Product | 1 computer = 1 piece = 0.06 m3 |
Split quantity | 1 m3 |
Rounding value | 1 piece |
Since 1 m3 divided by 0.06 m3 makes 16.67 m3, with this split quantity, the freight unit can contain a maximum of 16 computers.
If you enter 3 pieces as the rounding value, for example, because you can only pack three computers in a box, the freight unit can contain a maximum of 15 computers, since 15 is a multiple of 3 and is less than 16.67.
In the FUB rule, you can use the item split checkbox to control whether items are allowed to be split if the split quantity is exceeded.
Example
You have defined the following values:
| Consolidate as much as possible |
| Gross weight |
| No |
| 20 tons |
You want to schedule four items with a total weight of 21 tons. Items 1 to 3 each contain 5 tons and item 4 contains 6 tons. Taking into account your settings, the system creates two freight units:
Freight unit 1 with items 1 to 3
Freight unit 2 with item 4
Freight Unit Update Strategy
You can specify whether it is possible to move items from one freight unit to another when freight units are updated. You do so by defining the freight unit update strategy in the freight unit building rule.
Example
There are two cargo items in a forwarding order. The system creates one freight unit for each item. One freight unit is planned (FU1) and the other freight unit is not planned (FU2). Item 1 belongs to FU1 and item 2 belongs to FU2.
If item 1 is deleted from the forwarding order, the following occurs:
In the standard system (that is,
Item Swap Allowed (Standard Behavior)
is selected in the freight unit building rule), item 2 is moved to FU1 and FU2 is canceled.If you have selected
Item Swap Not Allowed
in the freight unit building rule, item 2 stays in FU2 and FU1 is canceled.
Document Type
You can control which document type is to be created by the freight unit builder, that is, freight unit type, transportation unit type, or freight order type. You can either enter a document type directly or enter a condition for determining the document type in the advanced settings. You define freight unit types, transportation unit types, and freight order types in Customizing. For more information, see Customizing for Transportation Management
under the following:
Planning
Freight Unit
Define Freight Unit Types
-
Planning
Transportation Unit
Define Transportation Unit Types
-
Freight Order Management
Freight Order
Define Freight Order Types
If the system determines a freight order type as the document type, it automatically generates freight orders without generating freight units or transportation units (see below under Automatic Creation of Freight Orders
).
Default Business Document Categories
During freight unit building, the system can create different categories of transportation units. If you do not specify a freight document type in the freight unit building rule (either directly or using a condition), the system creates the following business document categories:
Item Category | Business Document Category |
|---|---|
Product / package | Freight unit |
Container | Container unit as an instance of the transportation unit with TU category “Container” |
Railcar | Railcar unit as an instance of the transportation unit with TU category “Railcar” |
Trailer | Trailer unit as an instance of the transportation unit with TU category “Trailer” |
In this case, the system reads the default document type from Customizing. You must therefore ensure that a default type has been defined in the Customizing activities Define Freight Unit Types
and Define Transportation Unit Types
.
If you want the system to create “Freight unit” instead of “Container unit” as the business document category for container items, you must specify the document type of the freight unit in the freight unit building rule (either directly or via a condition).
Equipment-Based Freight Units and Transportation Units
If you enter an equipment type and group (or vehicle type and group) in the freight unit building rule, the freight unit builder creates equipment-based freight units or transportation units. Depending on the equipment type or vehicle type, the freight unit builder creates transportation units of the category container, railcar, or trailer.
The system automatically derives the planning quantities, units of measure, and split quantities from Customizing for the equipment or vehicle (Customizing activity Define Equipment Groups and Equipment Types
). You can delete or change these quantities in the freight unit building rule. This enables you to create transportation units or freight orders (shortcut scenario) with multiple items (see Example: Freight Unit Building for Railcar Units).
If you want the system to create “Freight unit” instead of “Container unit” as the business document category for container items, you must specify the document type of the freight unit in the freight unit building rule (either directly or via a condition). We recommend that you enter it directly, rather than using a condition.
For more information, see Consideration of Equipment Data During FU or TU Creation.
Automatic Creation of Freight Orders
If you want a freight order to be created automatically instead of a freight unit (shortcut scenario), enter a freight order type as the document type or a condition for determining this freight order type. This function is also supported for transportation units (see Transportation Unit).
Example
You specify in a condition that if the quantity exceeds 20 tons, freight order type 1 is to be used; otherwise freight unit type 1 is to be used.
This function is suitable, for example, for the following cases:
In general you want to send small orders that are below one of the upper limits you have defined with an express delivery company.
You always have to transport orders as a full load due to their size.
Process Controller Strategies
You can use strategies to define the way in which freight units are created in accordance with your own requirements. SAP delivers the standard strategy FUB_AUTO
for freight unit building. For more information, see Process Controller Configuration.
Activities
You define FUB rules in SAP NetWeaver Business Client by choosing Application Administration
Planning
General Planning Settings
Freight Unit Building Rule
Create Freight Unit Building Rule
.