Integration of Sales Scheduling Agreements with TM embedded in SAP S/4HANA – Use Cases and Document Flow

 

Dear friends of SAP TM,

In this blog post we already announced the integration of sales scheduling agreements with TM embedded in SAP S/4HANA.

With this blog post here, I want to provide a few more details how freight units are built according to the transport requirements from the delivery schedules of the sales scheduling agreement.

The basic paradigm for building the freight units is to consider the delivery relevance of the schedule lines. This is similar with the integration of other sales documents as sales orders and customer returns.

Settings regarding delivery relevance

The delivery relevance of the schedule lines is determined by the indicator ‘MRP for DS Type’ at header level of the sales scheduling agreements. Here, you determine whether forecast delivery schedules or JIT delivery schedules or both of them are delivery relevant.

For the case of forecast and JIT delivery schedules supposed to be delivery relevant, this means that the JIT horizon is decisive. Means, for forecast schedules, only schedule lines after the JIT horizon are delivery relevant. And for JIT delivery schedules, only schedule lines before the JIT horizon are delivery relevant.

Building Freight Units and Deliveries

As mentioned, the basic paradigm for building freight units is similar to other sales documents as sales orders and customer returns. Means, only delivery relevant schedule lines are considered for building freight units according to the freight unit building rule in the logistics integration profile. And those freight units then have a reference to the respective schedule line.

When the delivery is created for the schedule line, the freight unit is reassigned from the schedule line of the sales scheduling agreement to the delivery. This again is similar to other sales documents.

Examples with different settings for delivery relevance

We now take a closer look at the different settings for the delivery relevance of the delivery schedules.

In the first example, no JIT delivery schedules are used and only forecast delivery schedules are delivery relevant.

See here, the forecast delivery schedules and the document flow:

Here you also see the mentioned reassignment of freight units to the delivery.

Similarly, when only JIT delivery schedules are delivery relevant, for this scheduling agreement, the following document flow exists:

For the last case, where forecast and JIT delivery schedules are used and the JIT horizon determines the delivery relevance, the document flow looks like this:

Integration of existing sales scheduling agreements

As scheduling agreements are covering long term business relations, they need to be integrated with TM seamlessly.

For customers, this means that the customizing of the TM integration needs to be adjusted. To be precise, for the combination of order type, sales org., distribution channel and the division, a logistics integration profile has to be assigned. Then with the next change of the sales scheduling agreement (e.g. the next release from the customer is sent), the integration with TM happens along with the freight unit building for all delivery relevant schedules not being delivered yet.

Fiscal year change

In a sales scheduling agreement, the cumulative quantities are always stored for the current fiscal year. If the system detects a fiscal year change, the cumulative quantities of the sales scheduling agreement are adjusted respectively and the open quantities (including the quantities in transit) are taken over to the next fiscal year. In regards to TM integration, no additional effort is necessary. Freight units are retained and can be used in the next fiscal year.

Transaction SACO

As a scheduling agreement covers a long term business relation, the number of assigned documents (e.g. deliveries, freight units) will grow. Therefore, transaction SACO can be used to copy a sales scheduling agreement to another one, thereby taking over the data necessary for the future handling as open quantities to be delivered. With that, you can somehow start with a ‘new’ sales scheduling agreement.

For TM integration this means that freight units are reassigned from the ‘old’ to the ‘new’ sales scheduling agreement and execution can continue seamlessly.

Correction deliveries

In the context of sales scheduling agreements, correction deliveries are used to adjust the open quantity of a delivery schedule. E.g. delivered goods turn out to be faulty at the recipient and another delivery is expected. Those correction deliveries are a special type of outbound deliveries.

With TM integration, correction deliveries are not integrated as they don’t have any logistical relevance. Nevertheless, their quantity is considered in the open quantity calculation of TM and thus in freight unit building to enable a transport of the complaint goods.

Conclusion

Having explained those details about different use cases, you see that sales scheduling agreements are seamlessly integrated with TM and can be used with its various use cases.

Don’t hesitate to ask or give feedback, I appreciate!

Best regards,

Michael

Source: https://blogs.sap.com/2023/02/24/integration-of-sales-scheduling-agreements-with-tm-embedded-in-sap-s-4hana-use-cases-and-document-flow/