Tag Archives: ASN

EWM Expected Goods Receipt

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ASNs and Expected Goods Receipt

Within EWM, there is the ability to forecast the work to be done by using expected goods receipt. When one wonders what types of planning are actually performed in a warehouse (a common understanding is that warehouses are for execution, and not for planning), the expected goods receipt is a perfect example of how EWM can help perform planning in warehouses. If you have expected goods receipts, you can know how to schedule labor, what resource usage can be expected to be, etc..

The following objects can be used to create the expected goods receipts.

  • Purchase orders
  • Production orders
  • Stock transports
  • External suppliers

The communication method can be the ASN. More information can be found about ASNs here…

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2009/05/17/snc-asn/

Expected Goods Receipt

“Used in situations that interfere with the standard delivery process. The expected goods receipt processing provides additional options and processing capabilities in handling certain goods receipt situations. A primary feature of expected goods receipt processing is the ability to create a goods receipt within EWM without an inbound delivery from ECC” – EWM 100 Training Material

Characteristics of EGRs

  1. They are temporary
  2. They only exist in EWM
  3. They are used to create inbound delivery documents in EWM

This is good also if ECC is unavailable, or as we had problems with getting inbound deliveries to CIF over. These document types are the:

  1. Notification of Expected Goods Receipt Document (GRN) – created with reference to either a purchase order or a production order.
  2. The Expected Goods Receipt (EGR)

The EGR is created from the GRN. These are both temporary documents.

Transactions

/SCWM/ERMPERGDELETE /SWEM/ERPDLVDELETE

/SPE/EGR can be used to perform the initial creation of the expected goods receipt document, while /SCWM/ERPEGRDELETE can be used for regular updating of expected goods receipt documents. Either can be used to delete and or generate expected goods receipt

The GR workload list is a list that combines the inbound delivery documents and the Expected Goods receipt. This is:

/SCWM/GRWORK

btw, we have a problem with this transaction.

It has the following data:

  1. Number of items
  2. Number of HUs
  3. Weight and volume
  4. Customer own field

It is a time dependent data aggregation of anticipated inbound products based upon inbound deliveries and expected goods receipt.


SNC – Supplier Network Collaboration

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What Is It?

SNC is module in SAP APO which is directed to company to company supply chain collaboration. It provides a number of ways, or workflows for collaborating between suppliers and their customers.

These workflows include the following:

  • Demand – Forecasts for replenishment planning, and not the broader collaboration forecasting which other tools tends to speak of when addressing forecast collaboration
  • Inventory (part of Supplier Managed Inventory – SMI, aka VMI, as well as Supplier Network Inventory (SNI)
  • ASNs – Advanced Shipment Notifications
  • Purchase Orders
  • Replenishment Orders
  • Scheduling Agreements
  • Work Orders – A SNC specific object designed to track the progress of production
  • Subcontracting
  • Invoices (invoices and credit memos), enhances traceability and confirmation on the status of payment documents
  • Kanban, just like Kanban inside of a factory, but instead between two different entities
  • Inbound Delivery Control
  • Dynamic Replenishment (compares customer planned and firm demands and supplier receipts)

Some of these workflows are shared in some forms of collaboration supported by SNC and others are left out depending upon the collaboration being performed.

Thought Process Behind SNC

SNC is part of a larger concept in supply chain management that proposes that the real benefits lie between organizations – so called cross-enterprise integration. This has been a very strong development focus of SAP in SCM for several years now. It has not yet taken off as of 2011 because companies have challenges simply integrating supply chain information internally. However, it may become more prevalent in the future.

Supplier Collaboration and the 80/20 Rule

Supplier collaboration does not have to be universal in order to be effective. That is a company does not need to collaborate with all of its supply chain partners in order to use software of this type. Instead a company can simply collaborate with its biggest suppliers. This spreads the effort of the collaboration over a large product base. In fact, the collaboration that has historically been at least semi-effective has been between partners that were were large percentages of each others businesses. One example being the collaboration between Wal-Mart and major CPG companies such as Proctor and Gamble.

Areas of Collaboration

The strongest candidate areas for collaboration include:

  • CPFR – Where retailers are collaborating with suppliers to replenish shelves. The textbook case of CPFR is Wal Mart. This would be an example of Replenishment Collaboration
  • Large marketing brands such as Nike, or Intel, managing their contract manufacturers. This would be an example of Work Order Collaboration

There are many areas of collaboration, however the success in these two areas – CPFR / Retail Replenishment and Contract Manufacturing have propelled the interest in collaborating in other areas.

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CPFR

The CPFR model presents the aspects in which industries focus. The model provides a basic framework for the flow of information, goods, and services. In the retail industry the “retailer typically fills the buyer role, a manufacturer fills the seller role, and the consumer is the end customer.”[4] The center of the model is represented as the consumer, followed by the middle ring of the retailer, and finally the outside ring being the manufacturer. Each ring of the model represents different functions within the CPFR model. The consumer drives demand for goods and services while the retailer is the provider of goods and services. The manufacturer supplies the retailer stores with product as demand for product is pulled through the supply chain by the end user, being the consumer. -

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SNC Articles

We have a number of SNC articles on this site.

SAP Creates a New Term – SMI

To see how SAP has created a new term to replace a term that has been generally accepted for several years, see this post.

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2009/05/16/snc-supplier-managed-inventory-vs-vmi/

Replenishment Collaboration

To understand replenishment collaboration see this post.

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2009/05/19/snc-replenishment-collaboration/

How is SNI Different from SMI?

SNC uses two terms that are confusing and not generally used or accepted in industry. This article explains and differentiates between SNI and SMI

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2009/05/18/supply-network-inventory-vs-supplier-managed-inventory/

Using SNC to Track Scheduling Agreements

Release processing is how SNC tracks scheduling agreements. This post briefly discusses this.

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2009/05/18/snc-release-processing/

Subcontracting in SNC

This post describes subcontracting in SNC

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2008/09/16/subcontracting-in-scm-and-snc/

What Level of Collaboration?

One of the questions on projects is the degree of collaboration that is actually required. That is, is it

  1. EDI
  2. Portal
  3. Full SNC implementation

Some supply planning projects have collaboration listed as a necessity, but how much collaboration that is necessary is important.

http://wp.me/p9G3d-1vs

SPP and SNC

This post shows the integration of SNC with SPP, SAP’s service parts planning module.

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2009/04/23/spp-drp-shipment-and-snc/

Reference

Supplier Collaboration with SAP SNC, Mohammed Hamady and Anita Leitz, SAP Press 2008


SNC Replenishment Collaboration

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Which Objects are Exchanged?

Replenishment collaboration involves the exchange of the following objects:

  • Replenishment orders
  • ASNs

See more details on the ASN in this post.

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2009/05/17/snc-asn/

Replenishment orders have a lifecycle where both the supplier and customer perform different actions on the order that move it towards completion or towards rejection. Replenishment orders are not “real orders” in the SAP ERP sense in that they only exist within SNC. The replenishment orders are used to provide transparency, and are, if confirmed, eventually converted to purchase orders.

Responsive Replenishment

Responsive replenishment involves the integration of SNC to a system that can provide available to promise functionality (this could GATP) which would allow them to confirm on replenishment orders.


Advanced Shipment Notification in SCM

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What Are ASNs?

ASNs or Advanced Shipping Notices are used to communicate to customers of eminent deliveries. ASN’s are optional. They begin as an XML message but are converted into IDocs before being sent to SAP ERP. They do not go through the CIF, which is an important distinction vs. other data sent between SAP ERP and SCM.

ASNs can be created with reference to the following objects:

  • Planned receipts
  • Replenishment orders
  • Forecast delivery schedules
  • Purchase orders

The History of The ASN

An Advance Shipment Notice (ASN) is an EDI formatted electronic notification of pending deliveries; an electronic packing list. In the EDI X12 system, it is known as the EDI 856 document…. The ASN is noteworthy in that it is a new concept in logistics, enabled by the advance of modern communication methods. Although it provides information similar to the Bill of Lading, its function is very different. While the Bill of Lading is meant to accompany a load on its path, the goal of the ASN is to provide information to the destination’s receiving operations well in advance of delivery. – Wikipedia

Goods Receipt and the ASN

The goods receipt is created on the basis of the ASN. This may be counter-intuitive as a goods receipt is to occur when the inventory has been received into the warehouse. In this way this can be seen as a projected goods receipt.

Are ASNs Universal?

An interesting point is brought up in the joint white paper by Ciber and Red Prairie entitled Achieving Best Practice Performance In Automotive Parts Distribution.

“Many parts suppliers have the operational sophistication to provide detailed ASN information, while others are lucky to have a computer in their facility. The receiving process requires a flexible way to receive products using either ASN information,previously sent information, or one SKU at a time.”

This brings up a real world issue of the degree to which ASNs are available from suppliers. If they are not, then, another means must be used to communicate outbound/inbound shipments.


Integration with RFID

One of the most important uses of ASNs is to associate them with RF data. When material comes into the warehouse, (or at the receiving dock of the retailer) the RF read data can be quickly compared against the expected quantity in the ASNs to validate the shipment. (to see a very good video on RFID, see this post)

http://www.scmfocus.com/supplychaininnovation/2009/06/04/rfid-video/

Many parts suppliers have the operational sophistication

to provide detailed ASN (Advanced Ship Notification)

information, while others are lucky to have a computer

in their facility. The receiving process requires a flexible

way to receive products using either ASN information,

Previouslysent information, or one SKU at a time.”

More on how RFID is used in SAP is available at this link.

Where Are They Used in SCM?

SNC

As the main SCM module which connects different enterprises for various supplier collaboration methods, for ASNs are used most extensively in SNC.

EWM

EWM is he most execution oriented of the modules in SCM. Because it is responsible for receiving shipments into facilities and for sending shipments from warehouses to either other warehouses or retailers. ASNs can be used in EWM to create something called expected goods receipt. This allows EWM to use this information to plan its workload as far out as the ASNs.

Forecasting and Replenishment

Forecasting and Replenishment is the module which manages replenishment to the retails stores. Thus F&R can receive ASNs from ship from locations.

Reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdvancedShippingNotice

Supplier Collaboration with SAP SNC – SAP Press

http://www.ciber.com/downloads/whitepapers/CIBERAchievingAutoBestPractices.pdf


SCM Collaborative Planning

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Different Types of Collaboration

In order to properly present SNC, we thought it would be good to provide an overview of collaborative planning. SNC actually supports a number of different collaborative planning methodologies and they should first be explained from the business perspective.

Here are a number of ways that SNC can collaborate:

  • Demand collaboration
  • Inventory collaboration
  • Procurement collaboration
  • Capacity collaboration
  • Transport collaboration

Demand Collaboration

This is where the supplier gets forecast information from the customer

Prerequisites

  • Harmonized master and transaction data
  • Customers on demand collaboration agreement must be allocated inventory and capacity at a higher priority than non collaboration customers

Transferred Object

  • Forecasts

Inventory Collaboration

  • Customer provides information about his future demand and about the current inventory to the supplier. Replenishment orders are no longer sent to the supplier. Agreement is based upon a service level, the service level determines when a new order is created.

Prerequisites

  • Harmonized master and transaction data
  • Customers must be interested in moving away from submitting replenishment orders and getting into a service contract

Transferred Object

  • Current stock
  • Subcontract reservations
  • Receipts
  • Requirements

Procurement / Subcontractor Collaboration

Driven by the customer. Both the procurement and subcontractor information is set with the same SAP ERP object. Read this post to find out details on the Purchase Order Info Record.

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2008/03/12/purchase-order-info-record/

Prerequisites

  • Harmonized master and transaction data
  • Suppliers on procurement collaboration agreement must be allocated inventory and capacity at a higher priority than non collaboration customers

Transferred Objects

  • Purchase Orders, ASNs

To read more about ASNs see this post.

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2009/05/17/snc-asn/

Capacity Collaboration

PPMs and PDSs as well as resource capacities and loads are shared between supplier and customer.

Transport Collaboration

Collaboration on transportation services. This is collaboration with third party transportation providers

More Than VMI

As you can see there is much more to SNC than VMI. In fact, the term VMI, which is one modality of collaboration is no longer used by SNC and has been replaced by SMI. See this post for more details.

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2009/05/16/snc-supplier-managed-inventory-vs-vmi/

Extra Organizational Integration

There is presently a lot of focus around extra-organizational integration technologies like SNC. However, binding together organizations like this is extremely difficult. This is brought to light in a quote:

Since supply chains are physically distributed, the information that makes up the supply chains is also distributed. The information in any supply chain is originated and owned by different entities, i.e. supply chain partners. Consequently, pieces of information are distributed along the Supply Chain in different systems and, therefore, in different formats. This has a great implication when decision makers attempt to make decisions regarding the supply chain as a unit. Often data is available but the knowledge required for decision-making is hard to come by since a great effort has to precede any analysis in order to obtain the data and format the available data into a common body of knowledge that is universal to all elements of the supply chain. This issue is further complicated when supply chain partners are hesitant to provide this data.

We discuss the important of testing these concepts first before committing to any implemenation or software company.

Reference

http://www.amazon.com/Supply-Chain-Management-Advanced-Planning/dp/3540220658

We found a good paper which describes some of the erroneous assumptions with regards to collaboration projects.

The goal of this paper is to discuss the realities of supply chain collaboration. The first common erroneous assumption of SCC is that the involved companies must collaborate on basis of equal power. Surely, the powerhouses in a chain play an important role in the collaboration process and significantly influence the rate of success, yet their roles must be recognized. A second mistake is
that people tend to misjudge the level of collaboration required. Full integration is certainly not necessary for every industry or supply chain. A third mistake is that we are expending too much effort in the wrong places by assuming that all supply chains have the potential to be ‘collaborative’? Not all supply chains are likely to be suitable for collaboration. This relates closely to the fourth mistake, which is a wrong assessment of priorities, for example: investments in wrong areas usually mean sacrificing global chain effectiveness for local efficiency priorities, and may quickly lead to the end of a SCC initiative.
- Realities of Supply Chain Collaboration, R.P. Kampstra, J. Ashayeri, J. Gattorna