Category Archives: TP/VS

Lot Size in TP/VS

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The book… has a very good explanation of lot size with respected to TP/VS.

Lot sizes are also used for the selection of a transportation lane, e.g. that a transportation lane is only valid for lot sizes between 20 and 500. If the order lot size is above 500, a different transportation lane has to be used. To use the lot size restriction for the transportation lane in the SNP optimization, it is necessary to choose the options for discretisation in the optimizer profile. A discretisation method has to be selected, the discretisation for ‘minimum transport lot size’ has to do with the ‘discretisation until end/detailed’ resp. an end date for the discretisation has to be set. Differing from the SNP heuristic and the PP/DS heuristic, the lot size restrictions in the ‘product -view, the transportation lanes are not used, but the lot size profile in the ‘product specific means of transport’-view. The lot size profile is maintained with the transaction /SAPAPO/SNPl12.


Delivery Windows

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Setting the Windows

On a number of occasions we discuss how TP/VS mus respect hard and soft constraints that are set on the delivery windows. These can be set in the Define Pickup/Delivery Windows view.

Delivery Windows
This brings up a very straightforward window where the windows can their characteristics can be configured.

Delivery Windows 2


Vehicle Scheduling Costs

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How They Work

Optimization is based upon setting costs to the supply chain, and then letting the optimization routine make decisions. In other parts of SCM, such as SNP and PP/DS, this means applying many costs, and then updating these many costs. However, TP/VS tends to have fewer different types of costs..and fewer to maintain as well. Secondly because their are fewer stakeholders in transportation, it is easier to agree upon what the costs are. Transportation costs are explicitly – if a company has outsourced its transportation. For companies with private fleets, its a bit more tricky. Delivery window costs to partners are explicit, but implicit for stock transfers to a company’s own facilities.

Where They Are Setup

TP/VS Costs are setup in the maintain vehicle scheduling costs configuration transaction.

Maintain Vehicle Scheduling Costs
You are then taken to a multi-tabbed interface that offers many different types of costs to setup.

Load costs are one set of costs.

Vehicle Scheduling Costs
Shipment costs are the easiest to agree upon.

Shipment Costs
The costs related to penalties are also entered.

Cost Factors


Transportation Lanes in SCM

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What Are They?

We found a great description of a Transportation Lane by a Rajendra on the SCM-APO forum at www.sdn.sap.com.

Transportation lanes control the material flow along the supply chain. Defines the transportation method, ie., means of transport( might be Truck, Plane, Ship etc ) Also determines the transportation cost, transportation capacity by volume, weight etc. Defines the transportation cost per unit, product and transportation method.You can find the scheduling agreements that you had created in R/3, the planned delivery time etc..

Important Features About Transportation Lanes

The transportation lanes and product assignments that are created must only represent valid planning options, however a location/product record must exist at both the source and destination location for specific products to be assigned to a transportation lane. Location/product combinations are maintained in SAP ERP. However, not all locations are linked by transportation lanes and as a practical matter if all locations were linked via transportation lanes the number of lanes would be significant and difficult to validate. One of the most common planning exceptions is where supply (product or stock) exists to fulfil a demand (sales order, forecast) but no valid transportation lane/product assignment exists to link the two, therefore the transportation lanes must be setup for all valid location combinations. This is easy to do to setup using the mass maintenance transaction.

Transportation Lane Data Included

Transportation Lanes allows you to define the product procurement parameters like lot sizes, cost functions, unit costs, and lane priorities. To define the transportation methods for each lane and related parameters like transport costs, distances and times. Assign product specific transport methods, assign carriers to the lanes. You can use transport bucket resources to model the capacity of transport fleets in order to avoid overloading them.

The Supply Network

Transportation lanes, along with locations combine to form the supply network. They come across from SAP ERP – in the translation of purchase order info records and scheduling agreements. However, they can be created in SCM individually and in batch. They are used in the following SCM modules:

  • SNP
  • TPVS
  • SPP
  • GATP

They are not used in the other SCM modules because the other modules do not deal with the problem of the overall network. The modules above are multi-location decision modules. To see where transportation lanes have their effect in SCM, see the following posts.

Transportation Lane Config

The transportation lane seems like kind of an afterthought in an implementation. The concept being that the data is CIFed over, the lanes come and and end of story. However, when you actually open up a transportation lane in SCM, it becomes apparent how much there is to the lane in terms of configuration fields. Here we have a screen shot of the lane configuration.

Transportation Lane

Transportation Lane 2
SNP and Lane Setup

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2008/09/14/snp-transportation-lane-and-transportation-resource-setup/

SPP and the Bill of Distribution

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2008/09/28/spp-bill-of-distribution-bod/


TP/VS Transportation Planning and Vehicle Scheduling

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Truck Back
Where Do Planning Shipment Go?

Shipments to be planned come from SAP ERP, and from SAP ERP the orders go through the Core Interface. These include the following types of confirmed orders:

  1. Sales Orders
  2. Purchase Orders
  3. Returns
  4. Stock transport orders
  5. Deliveries

Transportation planning and execution is critical to improving inventory management and production efficiencies because transporation is what allows material to arrive at the right time and to the right location (even the right door to the warehouse). Auto manufacturers and others have moved to just in sequence (JIS) which means that the materials must arrive in the sequence which they will be used on the manufacturing line. This places an even larger burden on the quality of transporation planning and vehicle scheduling.

Transportation Lanes

These are the connections between the locations. The locations + the transportation lanes form the supply network. This network is used by TPVS to plan and schedule shipments. However, the supply network is used by other modules within SCM such as SNP, SPP, and GATP. For a description of transportation lanes see this post.

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2009/06/20/transportation-lanes-in-scm/

Resources

TP/VS is based upon vehicle and transport resources, and thus it can be constrained. To see details on resources see this post.

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2008/09/14/resources/

How is Transportation Planning Performed?

  • Transportation planning can be manual or performed using the optimizer
  • Delivery dates can be changed within TP/VS if they are planned from sales orders. This is connected to backorder processing through GATP.
  • Planned shipments are then through the CIF and go out of SAP ERP

TPVS Functionality

The functionality includes:

  • Contract Management
  • Carrier Tendering
  • Optimal Routing
  • Shipment Creation

TPVS is not that widely installed, partially because many finished goods manufacturers simply do not understand or focus on transportation planning. Since they don’t seem to get it, it may be software that could be installed to improve the operations of third party logistics providers, however, they tend to not spend very much money on systems.

Different From TM?

To see how TPVS is different (or the same) as TM, see this post.

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2009/05/19/how-tm-isdifferent-from-tpvs/