Handling Differences in your Warehouse
Use
It is possible that you discover stock differences in your warehouse, for example, during inventory or when you are executing a stock transfer.
- In a stock transfer, you confirm more goods or less goods than provided for in the transfer order.
- Goods turn up at an expected location.
- A storage bin is discovered to be empty although there should actually be material in it.
Prerequisites
You have assigned the difference indicator for storage bins in Customizing for Warehouse Management under the path Activities Confirmation (see the section below). Here you define to which storage type and storage bin the stock difference is to be posted. There are three different ways to specify storage bins for a difference indicator:
- You assign a pre-defined bin coordinate.
The system debits the specified storage bin with the difference in the column Diff.SB.
- You assign a dynamic bin coordinate.
If you set the indicator TO, the system generates the storage bin coordinate on the basis of the transfer order number, should a difference occur during confirmation.
- You assign the source storage bin as a bin coordinate to the transfer order item.
If you set the indicator Srce bin, the system debits the source storage bin of the movement type with the stock difference.
If the source storage type does not allow negative stock balances, the system checks whether the stock balance is going to be negative (see Negative Stock Check).
If you use this type of difference indicator, the transfer order item cannot contain a return quantity. Furthermore, you cannot use this difference indicator for stock picks from bulk storage areas.
Features
In the Warehouse Management System (WMS), you can classify stock differences by cause (for example, breakage, theft) using the difference indicator.
If you determine discrepancies during the confirmation process, you post the difference quantity to a logical interim storage type. The interim storage type is not a physical location since it does not occupy space in a warehouse; it serves merely as a type of clearing account.
In order to ensure that you have the same stock levels in Inventory Management (IM) and Warehouse Management (WM), you must pass on to Inventory Management all the stock differences that you determine in WM and subsequently correct them using the difference storage type (see also the section below: Clearing Differences).
In the standard version of the Warehouse Management System (WMS), the following two movement types are defined for handling differences:
- For differences where the quantity does not exist in the storage bin but is recorded in the books, use movement type 711. In this case, the difference must be cleared from the warehouse and posted to the interim storage type for differences.
- For differences where the quantity does exist in the storage bin but is not recorded in the books, use movement type 712. In this case the difference must be cleared from the interim storage type for differences and posted to the warehouse.
As soon as you have confirmed the transfer order item, the system posts the difference to the storage bin that has been specified for the respective difference indicator.
Activities
You create a transfer order with a movement type that is provided for handling differences. The system posts the respective quant to the interim storage type for differences.After you have posted the difference quantity to the interim storage type for differences, you can clear it from there as an inventory difference and then post the quantity to inventory management.
Clearing Differences
Use
You must clear all the stock differences (handling differences) that you have corrected in the Warehouse Management system (WMS) from the WMS and then report them to inventory management (MM-IM).
Procedure
To clear stock differences between inventory management and WM:
- In the SAP Menu, choose Logistics > Logistics Execution > Internal Whse Processes > Physical Inventory > In Warehouse Management > Clear Differences > Inventory Management.
- At the very least, you must enter the warehouse number and the storage type for the interim storage area.
There are also several other indicators and selection criteria available to limit the number of items displayed.
- Choose Program ® Execute.
The system displays a list of stock differences. All differences are marked (X) by default in the S column, meaning that they are ready to be cleared. You can deselect items in the list and select only those differences that you want to process. The selection functions are available in the Edit menu.
- Select Clear to clear the differences.
If no errors occur, the system returns to the initial screen once the clearing is finished and the number of quants that were cleared appears.
If processing errors occurred, the system displays a screen that lists error messages. The system displays a message that specifies how many quants were cleared. Choose Back to return to the initial screen.
Allowing Negative Stock
Use
Warehouse Management (WM) manages negative stock in interim storage areas (see the definition below). If movements occur that require the use of interim storage areas, the stock balance between Inventory Management (IM) and WM must remain constant. This is made possible by posting negative stock.
The system posts negative stock when a goods receipt is posted in IM before the goods receipt posting, for example.
Procedure
You can define whether you want to allow negative stock by making the relevant settings for each storage type in Customizing.
- To do this, choose Logistics Execution ® Warehouse Management > Interfaces > Inventory Management > Allow Negative Stocks in Interim Storage Types > Allow negative stock for each storage type in the Implementation Guide (IMG).
- When the allow negative stock indicator is set, the system lets you post negative quants to the corresponding storage type.
Additionally, you can define whether you want the system to issue an error message (E) or a warning message (W) or no message (blank) when posting negative stock. You can make the relevant setting in the activity Control of System Messages in Warehouse Management. You can determine the notification type using the parameter MSV in the user master record.
- To do this, choose System > User profile > Own data.
- Then select the tab page Parameters.
- Enter MSV in the Parameters field and enter the value with which you want to group certain users in the value field (for example 01).
- Choose Logistics Execution > Warehouse Management > Interfaces > Inventory Management > Allow Negative Stocks in Interim Storage Types > Control of System Messages in Warehouse Management in the Implementation Guide (IMG).
- Create a new entry with the version number (Value) you have chosen and enter the desired system reaction in the Message Category field (E, W, or blank):
- Version = Parameter MSV from the user master
- Application area = L9
- Message No. = 040
- Message Category = E, W, or blank
If the parameter MSV is not maintained in the user master, the system uses version 00.
Interim storage area Definition
A logical or physical storage area used to exchange data between two application components.
Movements involving the Inventory Management (IM) system use storage areas that are defined as storage types in the Warehouse Management (WM) system and as storage locations in the IM system.
For example, when a goods receipt is posted in the IM system, it is also recorded as having arrived in the goods receipt area in the WM system.
Confirmation
In this section, you configure the system settings for handling differences and for confirming transfer orders.
Handling Differences
Differences that are found in the warehouse are posted by the SAP System to a specific type for differences (for example, 999) whenever the following processes are executed:
- Confirming a transfer order with differences.
- Automatic stock transfer to storage type (for example, 999) after inventory with quantity differences.
In the WM system, you can classify differences according to cause (for example, breakage, theft).
Using the difference indicator, you determine the storage type and the storage bin to which the differences are posted. Depending on the actual quantity involved, a dialog box appears in which you confirm the difference quantity and the difference bin.
For each difference indicator, you can store the percentage value for the deviation allowed, that is, starting from which the dialog box is to appear. Suppressing the dialog box is appropriate for stock picks that cannot be done to the exact amount and where the difference is cleared against the stock in the source bin.
Example
A warehouse worker guesses a 3 kilogram pick for a particular material and determines the actual weight further away from the bin. In this case, each pick is confirmed with a difference. It would be appropriate to have the dialog box suppressed so as to save this extra step.
Confirmation Control
One important aspect of confirmation of transfer orders is the setting of the confirmation requirement. This requirement means additional work for the user, but it also affords a high level of stock and information security.
The decision as to whether a transfer order item requires confirmation and whether it is confirmed immediately depends on the parameters you set for your movement types and your storage types.
- At the warehouse number level you define:
- whether there is to be separate confirmation of pick and transfer
- At the storage type level you define:
- whether putaways to this storage type require confirmation
- whether picks from this storage type require confirmation
- whether a zero stock check is to take place for a bin that becomes empty through the pick
- whether the destination storage bin and destination storage type can be changed during confirmation
- At the movement type level you define:
- whether transfer orders with this movement type can be confirmed immediately
- whether the confirmation requirement is to be proposed during transfer order generation
- whether single-step confirmation is to be applied although two-step confirmation is set for the source and destination storage types
- through which screen the transfer orders are to be cofirmed.
Confirmation Requirement
Basically, the following applies: as soon as one of the above parameters calls for a confirmation requirement for a transfer order item, the item must be confirmed.
Immediate confirmation of a transfer order item only works out if the respective movement type does not disallow this, that is, if the storage type from which the materials are picked is not subject to pick confirmation and if the storage type into which the materials are put away does not have a putaway confirmation requirement.
Two-Step Confirmation
For two-step confirmation, both storage types involved in the trasnfer order must be subject to confirmation.
At the warehouse number level, you define whether transfer orders or TO items are to be confirmed in two separate steps.
During the confirmation of the first step, the pick process from the source storage bin is confirmed. The source storage bin and the quant are automatically updated. In the quant of the destination storage bin, only the open transfer quantity is updated at this point.
During the confirmation of the second step, the transfer process and also the receipt of the material at the destination storage bin are confirmed. Here the source storage bin and its quant are no longer updated, but only the destination storage bin and the quant stored there.
SAP Recommendation
SAP recommends working with the stock placement and stock removal confirmation functions. The confirmation procedure is recommended for the following reasons:
- Storage bins should only be released for further putaways after the goods putaway in the destination bin has been confirmed.
- A storage bin that is going to be emptied by a pending stock pick should already be filled with a putaway before it is really emptied.
- The posting of differences should be executed during the actual confirmation , and not by means of a separate transfer order.
Include the confirmation process in your organizational procedures.
Activities
1. Decide whether you want to confirm the transfer orders created in the SAP system using the confirmation procedure.
2. Maintain the difference indicator for differences in TO confirmation.
3. Maintain the indicator "Confirmation control/Warehouse number".
4. Maintain the indicator "Confirmation control/Storage type".
5. Maintain the indicator "Confirmation control/Movement type".
