SAP ERP

Operations: Cross Functions -- Inbound and Outbound Logistics

The Inbound process comprises all the steps of an external procurement process that occur when the goods are received; the outbound part covers the necessary activities for preparation and shipping of goods to their destination. Furthermore, Inbound and Outbound Logistics with SAP ERP covers the execution aspects of transportation providing a complete and integrated solution to create, execute, and monitor shipments. The planning aspects of transportation to create an optimized, executable transportation plan are covered in SAP SCM.

Further Information

Please visit the SAP Service Marketplace to get further information on Inbound and Outbound Logistics within SAP ERP.

Please visit the SAP Service Marketplace to get further information on Transportation Management within SAP ERP.

Goods Receipt

Is a follow-on activity to a purchase order. It forms the basis for updating the financials and inventory records and can trigger warehouse management and quality management processes.

With the warehouse management system, you can control the goods receipt and goods issue processes at a physical level. Goods receipts are possible from purchase order, inbound deliveries (advanced shipping notice), stock transport orders, or from production orders. Goods receipt begins the putaway process, which is supported by different advanced strategies.

Determination of External Demands

Determines the data describing a demand for a material that is procured externally. This data includes the quantity that is required, the release-to-supplier date of the demand, the goods receipt date for the delivery, and the location to which the material has to be shipped.

Advanced Shipping Notification

Comes from the vendor and contains the exact materials, quantities, and the delivery date with reference to a purchase order. This document becomes the Inbound Delivery in the receipt process.

Delivery Monitor Provides an overview of deliveries in working processes. Gives an overview of the workload in different areas, for example shipping, transportation, or invoicing, while also allowing you to collectively process documents that have the same selection criteria. Specialists in different execution areas of the organization can use this tool to gain a quick overview of their workload, drill down to single documents, and trigger follow-up activities.

Yard Management

Gives the warehouse an overview of stocks located on trailers, trucks, or railcars in the yard. Sequencing

functions decide which stock should be received into the warehouse at which point in time. Yard Management also manages the vehicle from the check-in to check-out, including in-yard activities such as sealing, weighing, and directing the vehicle to a door or parking place within the yard. Registration of the start and finish of loading or unloading activities is also supported. Yard Management is integrated with Mobile Data Entry.

Returns handling

Should the delivered goods turn out to be faulty or damaged, you can return either the entire or partial quantity to the supplier. In the case of an existing goods receipt, you can return either parts of single items or all items to the vendor.

Configuration Variants

Goods Issue

The outbound delivery forms the basis for goods issue posting. The data required for goods issue posting is copied from the outbound delivery into the goods issue document. When you post goods issue for an outbound delivery, the following functions are carried out on the basis of the goods issue document:

• Warehouse stock is reduced by the delivery quantity.
• Value changes are posted to the balance sheet account in inventory accounting.
• Requirements are reduced by the delivery quantity.
• The serial number status is updated.
• The goods issue posting is automatically recorded in the document flow.
• Stock determination is executed for the vendor's consignment stock.
• A worklist for the proof of delivery is generated.

After goods issue is posted for an outbound delivery, the scope for changing the delivery document becomes very limited. This prevents discrepancies between the goods issue document and the outbound delivery.

Delivery Processing & Distribution

Controls the actual fulfillment of sales orders and purchase orders as well as stock transport orders. The execution of logistics tasks is handled here. With delivery processing, the goods are shipped and relevant documents are printed out. The sales requirements can be distributed to alternative locations. The delivery might be shipped to the customer directly from the fulfilling locations (more than one delivery), or consolidation may occur at one location before one complete shipment is transported to the end customer.

Proof of Delivery

Proof of delivery (POD) is an instrument involved in business processes in which an invoice is issued only after the customer has confirmed the delivery's arrival. In addition to the POD itself, you can also record the POD date, time, actual quantity, and the reason for possible differences in quantities. This is especially important for deliveries where the delivery quantity varies because of the nature of the goods or for which the exact delivery quantity is unknown from the start. You are now in a position to issue an accurate invoice based on the customer's confirmation of goods received. You no longer need to create credit memos. The reasons for deviation that occur most frequently in real-world scenarios, such as stock shrinkage, theft, certain characteristics of goods (volatility, for example), and transportation damage, are recorded and analyzed in the system. This analysis is especially valuable when you are negotiating with forwarding agents, vendors, or customers, since all deviations can be reflected.

Value-Added Services

Value-Add activities in the warehouses need to be managed and monitored. Using the VAS functionality, you are able to manage and control the execution of services in the warehouse. VAS is fully integrated into Warehouse Management, Handling Unit Management, Task and Resource Management, and Mobile Data Entry.

Delivery Monitor

Provides an overview of deliveries in working processes. Gives an overview of the workload in different areas, for example shipping, transportation, or invoicing, while allowing you to collectively process documents that have the same selection criteria. Specialists in different execution areas of the organization can use this tool to gain a quick overview of their workload, drill down to single documents, and trigger follow-up activities.

Configuration Variants

Is a complete and integrated solution that creates, executes, and monitors shipments.

Shipping

SAP Transportation Management provides different options for consolidating deliveries and orders as shipments. It is possible to combine orders based on rules and strategies, based on optimization logic in SAP APO, or interactively and manually in SAP ERP and SAP APO. It is also possible to combine orders using collaboration over the Internet. If you decide to rely on your carrier's ability to consolidate your orders into shipments, you can give your carrier access to your deliveries through the Internet, where it can consolidate your shipments. Different types of shipment documents have been defined to enable you to reflect in the system the various forms of transportation used. You can use shipment documents to:

• Specify shipment stages, legs, border crossing points, and load transfer points.
• Assign service agents and means of transport.
• Define the packaging for goods (handling unit management).
• Specify planned transportation deadlines.
• Record actual transportation deadlines and statuses.
• Specify output required for transportation (such as shipping papers, XML, and EDI messages).
• Define transport-relevant texts.
• Separate document types and deal with inbound and outbound shipments

Collaborative Shipment Tendering

Enables you to tender, based on your actual shipment plans and orders, your offers to your carriers over the Internet or using XML or EDI directly into your carrier's or your forwarder's system. This collaborative process enables you to integrate your business partners into your business processes and keep control of your plans.

Express Ship Interface (XSI)

Offers a generic, customizable online interface to express carriers. Supplies three basic functions:

• Assigns unique, carrier-specific parcel IDs to outbound parcel shipments.
• Prints parcel label.
• Retrieves tracking information.

The tracking information is displayed on the standard SAP screen. It mirrors the complete itinerary of the parcel and is pulled on demand out of the carrier system.

Distance Determination

Service Retrieves distances from third-party providers. Is an add-on for transportation.

Configuration Variants

Calculates and settles freight costs. 

Freight Cost Calculation

An accurate and detailed freight cost calculation is essential for the verification of invoices sent from the carrier or to self-bill carriers. Shipment costs are calculated using the standard condition technique for pricing.

Freight Conditions

Freight rates are the basis for the shipment costs calculation. The totals of the different freight rates that are used for a particular transaction give the shipment costs. Freight rates are stored in the system in the form of condition rates that can be created at a very detailed level.

Freight Cost Settlement

Is initiated with the relevant service agents after shipment cost calculation has been completed. Within the settlement process, SAP is able to carry out settlement for multiple carriers who may have taken part in a shipment. Both costs and accruals are posted. The users then decide if they would like to settle the costs with the carrier through classical invoice verification or through an automated self-billing function. With self-billing, the evaluated receipt settlement feature is used in purchasing to pay the service agents automatically, based on the calculated shipment costs. If required, aspects of the shipment costs can be billed to the customer directly.

Freight Costing Extension

Extends the ability to charge a customer an amount that differs from that paid to a carrier for transportation services. Includes tariff reference data, routing guide, customer freight invoicing, and inter-company settlement of freight costs. The customer freight invoicing engine allows companies to simultaneously manage buying and selling tariffs with consideration to competitive freight discounts, equalization, and out-of-territory moves. The freight costing extension is an add-on for transportation.

Configuration Variants

The process of assigning official material numbers for the export or import of goods is called product classification. It is a time-consuming task that involves intimate knowledge of multiple classification taxonomies and is open to a range of interpretations. The product classification capabilities of SAP Customs Management simplify this important task by enabling companies to upload classification data from authorized providers. To classify a product, users can search for the right number via drill-down or employ powerful phonetic search capabilities that scour the schema and make intelligent classification proposals.

Upon importing into any country, import duty is to be calculated and paid to Customs Authorities. The Duty Calculation capabilities of SAP Customs Management enable the calculation of the import duty to be paid and store this information in customs documents. Tax rate data for different customs authorities can be uploaded from data providers or maintained manually. With abilities to account for value-adds, rebates, transportation costs, insurance, royalties, and other mitigating considerations, the calculator accurately determines duty rates based on the ultimate transaction value of the imported commodities.

The Customs Communication Service enables the electronic communication with customs authorities for transit and customs procedures. The customs communication process is defined via a process profile. In this profile, the necessary activities for communicating with the customs authorities are defined. The corresponding inbound or outbound EDI messages can be assigned to each activity. Using these profiles, SAP GTS can handle various international customs communication processes, such as the New Computerized Transit System (NCTS) in the European Union, the Automated Export System (AES) in the United States, the Integrated Cargo System (ICS) in Australia, and others.

Trade Document Service enables the printing of complete and accurate import and export documents that facilitates prompt clearance by customs officials. The Trade Document Service capabilities of SAP Customs Management automatically determine which document or document set should be printed for a given process. This simplifies decision making and ensures that all needed documentation is generated for any specific customs situation. All documents are printed in appropriate formats and include relevant information such as the legal regulation being complied with, country of origin, and port of entry.

Leveraging the benefits of the preferential agreements put forth by the European Union (EU) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is business-critical for corporations to stay competitive in the global marketplace. The Trade Preference Processing capabilities of SAP GTS help companies to take advantage of reduced rates on customs duties or exemption based on established rules. SAP GTS automates the entire process including requesting vendor declarations from suppliers, calculating and publishing eligibility information in sales documents, and providing detailed reports. SAP GTS thereby helps companies comply with regional trade agreements, eliminate risks through documentation and audit trails, and ensure competitiveness through reduced duty rates.