Warehouse Movements

Use
In the Warehouse Management system (WMS), there are two types of goods movements: Warehouse movements, which only affect the warehouse: o o Stock transfers within a warehouse (within a warehouse number) Posting changes

Warehouse movements, which also affect the warehouse environment: o o o Putaway Picking Stock transfers from one warehouse number to another

You control warehouse movements in the WMS via the corresponding WMS movement types.

Integration
You trigger goods movements in the WMS mostly via other components such as Inventory Management (MM-IM) or Shipping (LE-SHP). In this case, you usually use the transfer requirement (TR) to plan goods movements in the WMS.

When you post a goods receipt for a purchase order in IM, the system automatically generates a transfer requirement for the putaway. In this case, the goods are to be moved from the goods receipt area into the warehouse.

If you trigger the goods movements in WMS via Shipping (LE-SHP), the inbound delivery or outbound delivery serves as a basis planning document.

Features
Goods Movements within the Warehouse
For every goods movement in WMS, you move materials from one storage type to another based on a transfer order (TO). You record all material information that is relevant for goods movements in the transfer order. The actual stock quantity and total stock quantity in the system do not change during goods movements within the WMS.

Goods Movements Involving Interim Storage Areas

Goods movements involving inventory management (MM-IM) use interim storage areas. An interim storage area is a logical (and, in some cases, physical) storage area that is used to exchange quantity data between Inventory Management and Warehouse Management. Interim storage areas for goods receipts, goods issues, and differences are used to temporarily store data before it is posted to the storage areas in the warehouse. For detailed information about interim storage areas, see WM Interface to Inventory Management (IM).

Negative Stock
WM manages negative stock in interim storage areas. When movement transactions that require the use of interim storage areas take place in the warehouse, the total stock in IM and WMS must remain constant. The use of negative stock postings makes this possible.

The system posts negative stock when, for example, you put away in WMS before you have posted the goods receipt in Inventory Management. You can find additional information under Creating a TO in WM Without Previous Posting in IM, Posting First in WM and Allowing Negative Stock.

Movement Types in WM
Definition
The movement type is a classification key in the Warehouse Management system that describes a warehouse movement within a warehouse number.

Use
In Warehouse Management, goods movements are controlled through the movement type. Postings to inventory in IM are also identified by movement types. Together with other indicators, a movement type that is used for a goods movement in IM refers to a WM reference movement type. The reference movement type provides the following information: Movement type for WM Stock category for the quants created by the movement Indicator controlling the creation of transfer requirements and posting change notice

WM movement types provide the following information that is needed to move stock into or out of the warehouse: Interim storage area Type of interim storage bin (predefined, dynamic, fixed) Control indicators for processing, confirming, and printing transfer orders Indicator for finding the storage type in the warehouse

Example
For example, in the standard system a goods receipt based on a purchase order is assigned movement type 101, while a goods issue to a cost center is coded as movement type 201.

Using the standard WM movement type 101, the system accesses the table in which the movement type is defined to determine how the goods receipt will be handled in WM.

To display this movement type, choose the path Activities Transfers Define Movement Types in the Implementation Guide under Warehouse Management. WM movement type 101 (Goods Receipt for Purchase Order) has the following characteristics and handles goods movements as follows: Since the goods are being transferred from the interim storage area, the source storage type is an interim storage area. In the standard system, it is defined as number 902 (Goods Receipt Area for External Receipts). The dynamic coordinate indicator (Dyn.) is set. This means that the system creates the interim storage bin coordinate using the same number of the document that triggered the move - in this case, the purchase order number. The type of document that is used to create the dynamic storage bin coordinates is defined in the Requirement type field as B (Purchase Order). This means that the system uses the purchase order number to build the coordinates.

When you post a goods receipt using movement type 101, WM will create an open transfer requirement with a positive quant in the interim storage area for goods receipts. Subsequently, when the transfer requirement is processed, WM creates a transfer order to move the goods from the interim storage area into a storage bin in the warehouse. In the above example, the system uses the reference movement type 101 to access the table in which a reference movement type is assigned to a WM movement type.

To assign an IM movement type to a reference movement type, choose the path Interfaces Inventory Management Define Movement Types.in the Implementation Guide (IMG) under Warehouse Management. In addition to the reference movement type, the system uses the settings for the warehouse number and the following indicators to determine the WM reference movement type: Stock special indicator Movement indicator Special stock indicator Special movement indicator

The entry of *** in the Warehouse number column of the table indicates that the reference movement type is valid for all warehouses. The system finds that the movement type for WM (column MTy) is also 101. If the TR column is selected, it means that a transfer requirement will be created automatically by the IM component when the goods receipt is posted. This line also contains special indicators for stock and movements.

Using Special Movement Indicators

Use
It is possible to influence the movement of material within WM via the special movement indicators. You can assign another movement type in the Warehouse Management System (WMS) to a movement type from Inventory Management using this indicator. Since you can specify interim storage areas and interim storage bins within the WM movement types, you can determine which interim storage areas and bins will be selected in WM for a goods movement depending upon the special movement indicator used. You can thereby actively influence the interface between Inventory Management (IM) and Warehouse Management (WM).

Prerequisites
In the Warehouse Management implementation guide (IMG), define the corresponding special movement indicators per warehouse number and assign these to a combination of warehouse number, reference movement type and Warehouse Management movement type. 1. For the definition of special movement indicators select the activity Master Data Material Defining special movement indicators. 2. To assign special movement indicators (SpecMovementInd) to a movement type select the activity Interfaces Inventory Management Defining movement types LE-WM Inventory Management interface. You can still define a special movement indicator directly in the material master. You can thereby carry out particular goods movements via the IM-WM interface, for example, for a group of materials with similar characteristics (see example). You set the special movement indicator in the material master as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. In the SAP Menu, choose Logistics Logistics Execution Master Data Material Change Immediately. Enter the requested material for which you want to set a special movement indicator. Choose Goto View Selection and select the Warehouse Management 1 view. Enter the warehouse number (and the storage type if required) for which you wish to make the changes. In the storage strategies area enter the corresponding special movement indicator.

Procedure
There are two ways to set the special movement indicators: Automatic retrieval from the material master If you have configured your system as described under prerequisites, this indicator is evaluated automatically and the corresponding activities carried out in the warehouse for a corresponding goods movement using the material for which the special movement indicator was defined. Manually If you have not set the indicator in the material master for a particular group of materials, which you want to post specifically in WMS for a specific goods movement, for example, you can set this indicator for an IM goods movement posting manually as follows: 1. On the access screen for goods movements choose Goto Warehouse Management WM Parameters. 2. Enter the special movement indicator in the following dialog box.

If you manually set the special movement indicator when posting a goods movement in Inventory Management, the system ignores the indicator in the material master record and is valid for the total material document (that is, for all items).

Example
Moving stock directly to a fixed storage bin using a special movement indicator when posting goods receipts Each time a goods receipt is posted for material ABC, you want to move the material directly to the fixed storage bin FIXABC in storage type 005 of warehouse number 001 without creating a transfer requirement or transfer order. To do this, you need to set up the system as follows: 1. Create the fixed storage bin FIX-ABC in storage type 005 that is defined in the standard system using the fixed bin search strategy. (See Stock Placement Strategy F: Fixed Storage Bin) 2. Create a special movement indicator for your warehouse number. 3. Add the special movement indicator and the fixed storage bin FIX-ABC to the material master for material ABC. (Be sure to enter storage type 005 in the organizational level dialog box when creating the material master). 4. Create a new WM movement type to move materials directly into fixed storage bins without creating transfer orders or transfer requirements.

5. In the reference movement type table, create a new entry that links an appropriate IM movement type to the new movement type using the special movement indicator. If you now post one goods receipt for material ABC in IM, the system neither creates a transfer requirement nor a transfer order. The posted quantity for the material is immediately increased in the fixed storage bin. Moving stock directly to a production storage bin using a special movement indicator When materials used in production are received, they are usually stored first in the reserve storage area and then retrieved when they are needed on the production line. For a specific material or only for a particular goods receipt, it is also possible to enter a special movement indicator during the goods receipt posting (or retrieve it from the material master record). For these exceptions, the transfer order uses a different movement type (based on the Customizing set up) than is normally used to find storage bins in the warehouse. This means that you can enter a special movement type to move a particular material directly to a production storage bin.