Transportation in SAP

About Transportation
Inbound and outbound logistics
Vendor to manufacturer through
warehouse and manufacturer to
distributor to end customer through
warehouse
Fulfills demand and replenishment
requirement of supply chain
Basic functions are
Transportation planning
Shipment creation
Shipment cost calculation
Shipment cost settlement
Freight handling
Shipment tracking
Information sharing (advanced
shipping notification, shipment
confirmation, shipping manifest etc.)


Transportation Planning Concepts
Org unit -transportation planning point
Group of employees responsible for transportation planning activities, when
to ship, what to ship and how to ship
Assigned to company code
Shipment cost calculation and settlement
Shipment Document as the record of transportation planning, status
tracking and completion
No. range, whether shipment is inbound or outbound, leg determination, type
of shipment, mode of transportation, leg indicator
Individual ,Collective shipments, transportation chain
Number of deliveries, no. of departure points, no. of destination points, no. of modes of
transport
Multiple shipment documents (for each leg) is possible
Each mode of transport may require its own shipping papers
Different commercial terms on freight and insurance
Once a shipment document is created it is in planned status
Maintain transportation relevance for delivery types, delivery item types and
routes
LTL and FTL for planning truck load capacity utilization

Shipment Document Type Control
Type of shipment outbound or inbound,
loaded or unloaded
Shipping type in a specific leg (e.g. truck)
Service level of cargo to be handled
Process control i.e. type of shipment
individual, collective and transportation
chain (unimodal or multimodal)
Type of leg for the shipment document
How to adopt routes from delivery
How to determine different legs in
shipment
Whether shipment is relevant for GR
Output determination
Text determination
Control w.r.t. picking (shipment only after
picking is complete)

Shipment Document
Combine deliveries into one shipment
Specify shipment stages legs, border crossing, load transfer
Assign goods to handling units, assign service agent (CFR agents, customs agents)
Specify planned transportation deadlines and record actual transportation
deadlines
Time required for organizing and planning various transportation activities are stored
Generate output (shipping manifest, shipping notification, bill of lading)
Specify texts, specify any additional data, mention the external ids (shippers
number)
Handling units appear as means of transport
Packed deliveries can be repacked for shipment in new handling units, e.g. containers
Tare weight and volume and weight and volume of packed unit
Once a planning status is reached deliveries cannot be added or modified. A traffic
light icon signifies the overall status (red for planning complete)
Tendering status status of the shipment w.r.t. negotiations with vendor
Route and forwarding agent may be copied from deliveries if same all through and
if status is planned
Information Flow


From Entity Information Type To Entity
Shipper (Sender) Shipping Order,
transportation info
Service Agent
Forwarding Agent Advanced Shipment Customer
Other Master Data
Freight Codes are used as a means to classify the
goods by the freight forwarders
Specified on transportation papers
Used to identify the class of goods being handled
Grouped together in freight code sets
Are industry standards
Freight classes are made up of one or more freight
codes
Used in shipment costing
Freight code determination
Country of origin, shipping type and forwarding agent,
route
Freight code set, material freight group
Config required defining material freight group
and putting them in material master, defining
forwarding agents (vendor master), freight code
set and freight code determination
Shipment Stages
Geographical locations including legs, load transfer
points and border crossing points, transportation
connection points, shipping point, plant, warehouse
no., dock door
Stages can be created manually in the shipment
document, entered into shipment header as part of the
route which already contains stages, or can be
determined as part of automatic leg determination





Transportation Planning Process
Functions
Acquire Service Agent
Organize Means of Transport
Specifying Route
Defining Stages and legs for the route
Determine which deliveries should be part
Route (all deliveries must have same route)
Route can be different in shipment from the accompanying deliveries
Shipment planning status of the delivery indicates current processing status of
the delivery
Not TR relevant, TR relevant not processed, partially processed, completely processed
Additional shipment documents can be created for capacity reasons
Edit->Automatic Planning->Shipment Per Delivery
Moving deliveries to and from delivery is only possible till status is Planned
Subsequent Delivery Split in Shipment
Split a delivery into two or more shipments (may not fit in the same truck). No
goods movement has happened for the delivery
Split results and split remainder. May or may not remain in shipment based on
before planning or after planning)
Split results determine which delivery items are grouped together in the same delivery.
All others are split remainders


Leg Determination
Creates legs using simple rules that determine point of departure and
destination as well as some leg data (service agent, shipping type,
preliminary/subsequent leg, leg indicator, and shipment cost relevance for the
leg)
Leg determination cannot be carried out, for example, if the leg determination
type is set to _ (blank), if there are no deliveries in the shipment, or if the
shipping types have not been filled in
Places (departure points and destinations of deliveries or of a leg, etc.) are
given a unique identification number during leg determination; this number is
then used in further processing
The system checks to see if this shipment is part of a transportation chain. This
information can be determined from the leg indicator in the shipment header.
Leg indicator 4 indicates direct leg whole shipment appears in one shipment
document. Leg indicators 1, 2,3 indicates that shipment is part of a
transportation chain
Border crossing point and load transfer point are inserted between legs
Automatic assignment of deliveries to the stages
Deliveries can appear in some stages, not in all (loading/unloading at various stages)
Point of departure and destination of deliveries is used for this purpose
Custom leg determination using exit V56SLDET


Leg determination blank System does not perform leg determination
Leg determination 0 System does not perform leg determination but
assignment of deliveries to stages is determined through automatic delivery
assignment
Leg determination 1 Legs are determined according to itinerary (order of
deliveries) in the shipment document, used for collective shipments
Leg determination 2- Preliminary leg is created for each starting point and
subsequent leg is created for each destination point
This type of leg determination is used for transporting deliveries that are to be sent
by sea in a group, but originate from different shipping points or are to be
transported to different ship-to parties
Leg determination 3 Preliminary leg and a subsequent leg is created for each
delivery
This leg determination type is used for transporting extensive amounts of goods that
must be distributed among multiple deliveries because one delivery would not offer
enough capacity
Leg determination 4 is similar to leg determination 1 except that shipping
types for preliminary and subsequent legs are taken into consideration



Leg Determination Categories
Set the Planned status on the screen Overview Shipment in the shipment document. Choose Leg
determination on tab stages
The system calculates the shipment legs based on the leg determination indicator for the shipment
document type. It takes into account the shipping points and ship-to parties in the deliveries, as
well as the shipping type, the leg indicator, and the route and transportation chain
Denote a transportation chain using multiple shipment documents
Leg Determination Process
Category 1
Category 2
Category 3
Packing hierarchy set up in delivery can be continued in shipment document
Crates and pallets can be put inside containers and loaded onto trucks
We can use the handling units created in the delivery or create new handling units
Handling units created in delivery cannot be unpacked in shipment document
Delivery item can be generated for returnable/to be sold packaging material
Delivery supplied information to transportation header routes (if configured as
such), service agents (forwarding agents if all equal)
Service agents can be copied from header to individual stages
No automatic text determination in shipment documents
Texts need to be maintained manually in Text tab at the header level
Different Statuses -> copy routines can be used to transfer dates from delivery
Planned ->Shipments planning is complete
Check In Vehicle arrives in the plant
Start Load vehicle is loaded/unloaded
End load loading unloading complete
Shipment Completion documents are created
Possible activities on shipment completion
Goods Issue Posting, Billing, output generation This can be controlled through Activity Profile.
Other Functions
Activity Profiles
Defines activities that are to be carried out in a shipment document when a certain
status is set for shipment
A certain profile can be defined for each status
Post goods issue for deliveries in the shipment, calculate shipping costs, print certain outputs, create
invoices
A variant in customizing is maintained per shipment type for the status. Define in
this variant the activity to be carried out
Different reports are available to monitor shipment
Shipment cost processing
Calculating and settling shipment costs
Carried out using condition technique
Pricing Procedure determination is based on transportation Planning Point, Service Agent,
Shipping Type and Shipment Cost Item (item category)
Calculation base can be delivery, delivery item, shipment cost item, handling units, distance,
location and tariff zones (postal code area)
Pricing and settlement date can be proposed based on deadlines
Conditions can be combined into group and the values can be compared to get most
favorable. This uses condition exclusion groups and exclusion procedure.
Pricing and settlement date types are assigned to shipment cost item categories


Other Functions
Shipment Cost Processing
Shipment Cost Document Type
Shipment Cost Header
General status, control and administration info
Shipment Cost Item
Shipment header or a shipment stage, items include service agents, pricing date and
settlement date, tax amount, company code, plant, purchasing org
Shipment cost Sub items
Calculation of shipment costs carried out at this level
Can include single delivery items, deliveries, handling units etc.
Preconditions
Shipment document is relevant for shipment costing
At header, leg, load X, border X
Shipment must have a transportation status of atleast planned
Shipment must have a service agent (vendor)
Condition records to be maintained
After determination of freight cost we can simulate the transportation
costs (Freight Cost Estimate)



Example: Shipment
cost calculation base
shipment cost item
The settlement of shipment costs with the service agents is carried out per
shipment cost item
Settlement includes assignment and forwarding of shipment costs to FI and CO for creating
accruals and posting payables
Automatic settlement using self billing or manual settlement
The functions used during settlement are
Account Assignment
Relevant G/L account determination for every individual shipment cost item
Assignments for cost accounting
Relevant transfer to financial accounting
Purchase order is created for the service agent and the service entry sheet created
After accepting services accrual entries are created
Invoicing
Automatic using Self Billing or Evaluated Receipt Settlement (ERS)
Manual Invoicing



Shipment Cost Settlement
EDI in transportation
External transportation planning system or own TPS
Warehouse (third party), warehouse (own)
Entities involved
Vendor (inbound), warehouse, freight forwarder, customer
Information involved
Deliveries (e.g. shipper to warehouse), Shipment Notification (inbound), Shipment notification
(outbound), shipment document (e.g warehouse to shipper/freight forwarder), shipment notification
(to customer)
Config Set freight planning for forwarding agent ->assign vendor and partner number
Idoc type
TPSSHT01 ->creating changing or deleting shipment documents. Action code is used for type of action
(create/change/delete)
E2TPSHH contains header info including TKNUM, CARRID service agent (vendor), SRVID1 (external identification)
E1TPSHI containing deliveries in shipment
Several customer functions are available to update custom tables or set status in shipment document
SHPMNT05_>idoc type for creating advanced shipment notification depending on message type SHPADV or SHPMNT
(EDI 856)
DLVRY03 idoc type with message type SHPCON for shipping confirmation (EDI 945), DLVRY03 with SHPORD for
shipping order (EDI 940)
Tables used
VTTK shipment header and VTTP Shipment Item, VTTS Stages and VTFA Shipment document flow
Parcel Tracking in Delivery and Shipment Separate Discussion Topic