SAP Solution Brief SAP Supply Chain Management SAP Extended Warehouse Management

EXTENDED WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT IN RETAIL

INTEGRATED, COMPREHENSIVE LOGISTICS

The SAP Extended Warehouse Management application enables comprehensive management and tracking of warehousing activities. You can optimize and adapt logistics processes to lower costs, increase efficiency, and optimize demand-driven supply chains.

As a retailer, you face many challenges. On one hand, you have to manage and coordinate a large number of local, regional, and international warehouses across complex, global supply chains. On the other hand, your customers demand an increasingly large variety of products and faster deliveries, which often means that you have to hold smaller quantities of a larger range of SKUs. To fulfill customer demands and execute on your business strategies, you need a complete and accurate picture of where inventory is deployed and of its movement across the supply chain network. At the same time, you need to keep supply chain costs low, especially given fuel costs. Optimizing transportation management and synchronizing it with warehousing plans to meet fluctuating customer demands and store needs is essential to competing successfully when margins are tight. The SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) application aligns and optimizes task execution including loading time, sequence, and use of staging areas and bays with all supply chain events that occur outside of the warehouse. SAP EWM is part of the SAP Supply Chain Management (SAP SCM) application, which provides an integrated supply chain solution. SAP SCM gives you the visibility and control needed to optimize transportation and warehousing plans for competitive advantage.

for synchronization with order management and finance. Now you can synchronize supply with demand by creating a balanced push-and-pull network and aligning warehouse activity with replenishment on the basis of shopper demand. The software enables you to fine-tune management of warehouses to perform the supply chain activities that are central to running multistore and multichannel retail businesses. Because these features are also part of the SAP SCM application, you gain networkwide visibility, collaboration, and analytics across the extended supply chain. For example, you have up-to-theminute cost and inventory visibility into individual warehouse resources including the dock and the yard and throughout the entire distribution network. SAP SCM provides visibility into freight management, transportation dispatching, and execution, and the application also works with transportation optimization and charge management to provide a holistic view of all supply chain activities. As a result, you have the insight you need to make informed decisions that combat rising fuel, labor, and material costs; boost store margins and service levels; and enable you to manage fluctuating demand effectively.

Defining a Complete Warehousing Plan

To optimize warehousing as part of a demand-driven supply chain model, you Aligning Warehouse Logistics need a comprehensive plan for managing activities every step of the way. SAP The SAP Extended Warehouse Manage- EWM helps you anticipate, define, and ment application provides comprehensive document the activities involved in storing support for warehouse management and and managing inventory. integration with the SAP ERP application

Order Management SAP EWM integrates with SAP ERP for comprehensive order management. Once an item is shipped, you can create billing documents. And when an item is received into the warehouse, you can track it and pay your suppliers in a timely manner. You can also post goods issued from a distribution center to a store and print or transmit critical documents, such as a bill of lading or material safety data sheets. Warehouse Planning and Inventory Tracking and Tracing Once you define the high-level plan, you can focus on optimizing activities within each supply chain location. Support for cross-docking enables a direct flow from

The application also supports the tracking and tracing of inventory down to granular levels of detail information needed to initiate recalls. RFID technology makes these tasks more efficient and ensures accuracy. Value-Added Services You can define tasks and schedule staffing for value-added services such as kitting, picking, and labeling. By synchronizing the timing of these resources and activities (such as when to start a picking wave or a labeling or kitting process) with shipment dates, you can minimize the number of units stored. Once youve defined your plan, youre ready to start receiving, managing, and shipping goods. With SAP EWM, you can optimize daily inbound and outbound processes which can be largely automated by the support for RFID technology in SAP solutions for auto-ID and item serialization. The software collects data and communicates with back-end and partner processes in real time, improving both the quality of information and execution speed for inbound and outbound processes. You can write, print, and scan RFID labels, and scans can automatically trigger predefined actions, such as task confirmations and packing. Because many inbound and outbound tasks are completed instantly, you can lower inventory and handling costs and have more visibility into and control over goods movements. Inbound Processing With SAP EWM you can schedule when deliveries should arrive at various locations and optimize yard management. The application also supports multiple cross-docking methodologies from standard to opportunistic, flow-through, and planned distribution approaches.

SAP EWM helps you contribute to corporate sustainability initiatives by aligning with green corporate policies. You can define sustainability goals and then track your companys carbon performance throughout the supply chain.
Support for slotting optimization allows you to ensure that incoming goods are stored according to your previously defined warehouse floor plan. By keeping picking areas filled with what is in greatest demand, you can fulfill orders more efficiently. Outbound Processing SAP EWM helps you optimize outbound processing and enables an efficient, demand-driven supply chain. The application supports wave management so that you can efficiently execute valueadded services typically performed by a fulfillment center. Now, warehouse staff can perform localized repackaging, execute postponement strategies, and carry out light assembly activities that help you manage highly variable demand while minimizing inventories. You can also group warehouse request items to minimize the labor costs associated with picking and packing. As business and customer needs change,

The application also supports the tracking and tracing of inventory down to granular levels of detail information needed to initiate recalls. RFID technology makes these tasks more efficient and ensures accuracy.
goods receipt to goods issue. You can run cross-docking in a manual or automatic mode, as a planned or ad hoc activity, and with or without a designated, intermediate cross-dock storage location. Cross-docking is fully integrated with yard management along with internal and external transportation processes. You can also develop warehouse floor plans that keep high-volume items within easy reach for fast shipping execution.

you can execute on various strategies, such as first in, first out (FIFO); last in, first out (LIFO); shelf expiration; and two-step picking. Material Flow System SAP Extended Warehouse Management offers complete material flow control without additional software allowing all programmable logic controllers to be connected to SAP EWM via remote function call (RFC) adaptors. To help ensure that goods keep moving inside the warehouse and to avoid unnecessary (and costly) manual intervention, the system offers high performance. That level helps ensure that a carton can be scanned, compared to the expected size and weight, and have a determination made about where it should be sent in less than a second. Tracking and Management of Warehouse Activities SAP EWM provides enhanced monitoring features for tracking and managing warehouse activities. A warehouse cockpit provides an overview of key processes, costs, schedules, and valueadded services. This real-time visibility helps you manage daily operations and optimize the use of labor. You can plan ahead for upcoming activities, assign resources to tasks, and identify ways to minimize time per process step or eliminate steps.

Grocery Catch weight management functionality that is integrated with SAP ERP enables you to get an accurate inventory. Additionally, the best-before date controls continually revolving stock, and a sophisticated quality inspection engine secures food safety. Finally, support for cold chain logistics can leverage RFID to help ensure that the cold chain is not interrupted. Fashion and Highly Seasonal Merchandise Support for push-pull logistics allows you to execute the most effective plan for seasonal merchandise. Extended functionality for reverse logistics helps streamline the returns process so those products are quickly made available again where appropriate.

When you combine the management functionality of SAP EWM with other functionalities of SAP SCM as well as SAP ERP, you gain an entirely new level of visibility and control.
Track the performance of service-level agreements and contracts Track fulfillment of orders from SAP ERP

Promoting Sustainability
SAP EWM helps you contribute to corporate sustainability initiatives by aligning with green corporate policies. You can define sustainability goals and then track your companys carbon performance throughout the supply chain. Additionally, you can optimize and measure the movement of mechanized and automated transports and combine forklift transports with an interleaving function. RFID can help reduce the amount of paper required for warehouse communication and activities. Appropriate warehouse strategies can yield maximum utilization of space and the minimum number of resources required for fulfillment.

Gaining Visibility and Control to Run Your Business

When you combine the management functionality of SAP EWM with other functionalities of SAP SCM as well as SAP ERP, you gain an entirely new level of visibility and control. Performance management functionality gives you powerful analytical, reporting, and benchmarking functions to: View key performance indicators (KPIs) at operational, aggregate, and tactical levels Identify areas for process improvement (for example, what percentage of trucks are shipping less than full and by how much) Gain an immediate overview of inventory visibility and goods movements Track costs and make informed decisions that increase profitability Optimize utilization of resources, such as bins, docks, parking, people, and trucks Monitor performance of warehouse task execution in real time

Support for All Retailers

In addition to providing high-quantity volume handling, high performance for many power users, and a multiclient framework for multichannel retailers, the SAP Extended Warehouse Management application offers functionality necessary to serve specific segments.

For More Information

Regardless of whether you have an internal logistics organization or outsource to a logistics service provider, SAP EWM can support your transportation and warehousing management operations. For more information, please visit www.sap.com/retail.

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Summary With the SAP Extended Warehouse Management application, you can manage and track warehousing activities. You can integrate that management with the rest of the supply chain so that you can optimize and adapt logistics processes to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and enable demand-driven supply chains. Business Challenges Increase inventory accuracy and reduce labor costs Support demand-driven supply chains to minimize inventory Increase visibility and control over goods and movements Improve flexibility and agility of logistics Key Features Inbound goods processing Manage and track the activities involved in managing yards and warehouses, receiving goods, and tracking and shelving goods to fulfill orders Outbound goods processing Execute value-added services (such as pricing), schedule and manage picking and packing waves to meet variable demand, and update orders Material Flow System Control all programmable logic controllers in a high-performance system Financial integration Enable billing and invoicing processes to support customer billing, freight auditing, and self-billing Business Benets Reduced labor costs through direct staffing reductions or improved workforce utilization Increased perfect-order fulfillment through integration and automation of processes Enhanced flexibility and agility through deployment of the application by itself or in conjunction with the SAP ERP application Real-time visibility through an overview of warehousing and supply chain processes Greater responsiveness through real-world updates For More Information Call your SAP representative, or visit us online at www.sap.com/retail.
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