Cross Docking Functionality in SAP ECC 6

December 16, 2009 by tkreddy Leave a Comment

This blog Post is for SAP consultants and WM Teams to understand the cross dock functionality in SAP ECC6 (WMS). The post also discuss about planning for Cross docking and how the cross docking actually taking place with or without cross dock monitor. I personally feel that deciding which type of cross-docking and what kind of materials suitable for Cross Docking is important. Most Clients may use to customize the SAP Cross-docking function based on their requirements. Type of material suitable for cross docking are like a) prepicked, pre-packed customer orders from another plant or warehouse b) materials that are pretagged, pre-ticketed c) promotional material d) Staple retail materials with a constant demand or low demand variance. Lets talk about Cross-Docking: In very simple SAP terminology Cross docking matches inbound and outbound deliveries to avoid having to store material in the warehouse. Not all material is suitable for cross docking, but when it can be used it reduces labor costs, delivery time to the customer, and the amount of warehouse space. Types of Cross Docking: A number of cross-docking scenarios are available for warehouse management. a) Manufacturing Cross Docking- Warehouse may receive the material and issue for production orders, b) Distributor Cross Docking- example: computer parts distributors often source their components from various vendors and manufactures and combine them into one shipment for the customer , c) Transportation Cross Docking- Combines shipments from different shippers in the less than -truckload (LTL) and small package , d) Retail Cross Docking- Receipt of material from multiple vendors and sorting onto outbound trucks for a number of retail stores, e) Opportunistic Cross Docking -The like is manually created, transferring a material directly from the goods-receiving dock to the outbound shipping dock to meet a known demand; i.e a customer sales order.

SAP enables warehouse managers to plan the cross docking process by decisions. A cross docking decision is a link that can be made between a planning document, which can be an inbound or outbound delivery, and a candidate document, which is another inbound or outbound delivery. Cross Docking Movements: When cross docking decision is made before material arrives, the movement can be processed as a one-step or two-step cross docking process. One-Step Cross Docking: Movement process directly from the inbound goods-receiving area to the outbound goods issuing area. For one-step cross docking to be active, check the configuration for the warehouse to ensure that the two-step cross docking indicator is not set. So there will not be any Cross-dock storage type required. This can be a opportunistic cross docking, transferring a material directly from goods receiving dock to the outbound shipping dock. After due configurations for one -step system process steps are.. You need to create either Putaway TO/Pick TO and then system checks the cross doc config and cancel the TO and create a new TO from 902 to 916. and also updates in the document flow. This you can do with out Cross dock monitor.

Two-Step Cross Docking: When a link is created between an inbound and outbound delivery as part of a cross docking decision. If system active for two-step process, the system will create two transfer orders: 1) A transfer order for the inbound delivery materials from the goods receipt storage type (902) to the cross docking storage type (XCD). 2) A transfer order from the cross docking storage type(XCD) to the goods issue storage type(916).

Configuration for Cross Docking Configure for planned and opportunistic cross docking for the warehouse and the storage type. IMG> Logistics Execution> Warehouse Management> Cross Docking> General Setting> Maintain Warehouse Level settings. The next configuration step is to confirm that a movement type that is to be used for cross docking is set to allow cross docking. IMG> Logistics Execution> Warehouse Management> Cross Docking> General Setting> Define Cross-Docking Relevancy for movement Types. The CD Relevant indicator should be set for movement types to be used cross docking. Accessing the Cross Docking Monitor Transaction: LXDCK or SAP> Logistics> Logistics Execution> Cross Docking> Cross Docking Monitor Cross Docking Alert Monitor Transaction: LXDCA or SAP> Logistics> Logistics Execution> Cross Docking> Alert Monitor Note: The cross dock decision made automatically by the system (means no cross dock monitor used) will not give good results for all the materials for cross docking. SAP checks Material and Qty for both inbound and outbound documents will not able to do more fields checking before deciding the automatic link between documents. Click the link here for more Cross-Dock help at SAP

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