How to structure a multiple business WM solution in SAP

[Former Member]

Hi there,

I am in a preparation phase to show our business the merits of SAP WM, replacing a third party system. As I'm new to WM I'm struggling a bit with the possible structures to use for our DC. I understand the SAP and standard WM structures however I'd like some guidance on what would be the best fit in our situation.

We run 1 Distribution Centre with several physical buildings (1 Main DC, multiple outside storage buildings for bulk storage/overflow). The DC itself is physically split into 5 sections. Each of these sections relate to a completely separate business within our organisation. As such, these 5 different businesses maintain completely separate inventories for completely different products.

The requirements for the set up are:

• Completely separated stock on hand controls in IM

• Separated purchasing

• No stock transfers between businesses (instead Goods Issue/Goods Receipt if this ever happens)

• Easy to recognise split between the 5 businesses

So far, the best I'v been able to come up with is 5 Warehouses in WM, each assigned to its own plant (and all 5 plants assigned to the same company code). Underneath the Warehouses in SAP I then use the Storage Type and section to split the internal warehouse into its appropriate sections. It's the easiest one to explain to the users (and myself!) but not ideal as we really only have 1 DC.

I've also been looking at 1 Warehouse, 1 plant, 5 (permanent) storage locations (not taking into account staging areas) but I'm unsure how to assign the storage locations to the relevant storage types. Is this at all possible?

Your help is very much appreciated!

best regards,

Cees

[Former Member]

Hi,

As said by Frenchy and your second option, single warehouse 5 storage types can serve the purpose, which is simplest.

Storage type assignment to storage location, you may use concept of reference storage location.

Hope will help u.

Deepak

[Former Member]

Hi Cees,

I agree with Frenchy. Keep it simple and your WH will flow smoothly.

You mentioned "* No stock transfers between businesses (instead Goods Issue/Goods Receipt if this ever happens)". With this said, and if you go with 1 plant and different storage locations, you can always use a 2-step transfer so that the receiving party do a GR (placement into stock) and that the issuing party don't just put the stock in the destination sloc.

Also, do you want to see the value of the different buildings seperately? It all depends what your business strategy is and what your stock valuation level must be. If, like you say, the different businesses operates separately, then maybe it makes sense to create different plants with 1 sloc each linked to 1 WH. In your WH then you can seperate the areas by means of different ST's. All your WH stock data on quant level keeps the plant as an entry on the table, so you can get a wm stock report specifying the different plant stock and then you can also get IM valuation data (for example MB5L) per plant (valuation area).

Your structure could look like the following:

Company: 1000

-> Plant: AA01 with sloc FG01

-> Plant: AA02 with sloc FG01

-> Plant: AA03 with sloc FG01

-> Plant: AA04 with sloc FG01

-> Plant: AA05 with sloc FG01

-

---

> All of above Plant/Sloc combination linked to WH 100 (see table T320)

Will your plants share distribution channels/shipping points?

I myself is busy with an implementation with 2 factories on one physical site which are currently configured in 2 different company codes & plant and then these are linked to 1 WH with different ST's for the different products (coming from the different business units). This setup is done in a decentralized WM environment. SAP can hadle this as std functionality.

I hope this helps with your decision.

Good luck,

Hein

[Former Member]

Hi

I always find that the simplet the structure the better and the easier it works.

Try

One Plant

One St Location

One Warehouse

Manage pysical buildings as Storage Types

Within St Type seperate by St sections if required.

I one created and managed a European dustribytion centre with 28,500 pallet spaces with one warehouse and 4 st types.

You can use st type indicators (or st section indicators) in the search (put away and removal) strategies to manage automatically where the materials are sent to when they arrive at Goods Inwards.

I hope that this helps

Frenchy