Using a Single SAP System for Stock Transport Order Processes

In this blog post, I’ll show you the main steps to be completed in an SAP system for stock transport order (STO) processes.

While I’ll be providing my instruction on an SAP ECC 6.0 system, it is relevant for SAP S/4HANA as well. I have implemented the MM, SD, LE-SHP, and LE-WM modules in my system.

It is worth stressing the advantages that transfer of stock using an STO has over the transfer of stock without one. Benefits include the following:

• A goods receipt can be planned in the receiving plant.
• You can enter a vendor (freight vendor) in the STO document.
• Delivery costs can be entered in the STO document as well.
• The STO is part of MRP; purchase requisitions that were created in MRP can be converted into STOs.
• The system can run an availability check for the stock transfer.
• You can post a goods issue for the STO in either MM-IM (inventory management) or LE-SHP (shipping). For the goods issue in SD, a replenishment delivery is created.
• You can use stock determination if you want to withdraw materials for stock transfers from different storage locations and stocks according to a particular strategy.
• The goods receipt can be posted directly to consumption.
• The entire process can be monitored via the purchase order history flow.

SAP Business Flows

I will be showcasing the following business activities in the system.

Activity in Issuing Plant

Here, you’d do the following:

• Create an outbound delivery against the STO.
• Pick & pack the goods to be delivered.
• Post a goods issue against the outbound delivery. (At this stage, if the appropriate message type has been activated, the ID is created in the receiving site.)
• Print the shipping documents.

Activity in the Receiving Plant

You’d do the following here:

• Create a purchase requisition.
• Create an STO.
• Create an inbound delivery against the STO.
• Post a goods receipt against the inbound delivery.
• Perform the putaway processes. This step is only necessary if the receiving warehouse is LE-WM managed. In the case of this post, I’m utilizing a decentralized warehouse and hence, this activity will not be necessary.

Performing These Process Steps in SAP

Let us delve deeper into these steps in SAP now.

Create a Stock Transfer Order  

In order to create an STO in the receiving plant, the logistics department can use Transaction ME27 or follow this menu path: Logistics > Materials Management > Purchasing > Purchase Order > Create > Stock Transfer. Enter the following data alongside any other enterprise structure information: sending, receiving plant, warehouse storage location, material, quantity, delivery date, and material. Note that during the STO creation, if the appropriate customizing settings have been done, an availability check will be triggered automatically. In the next figure, you’ll see the STO line item overview.

Create an Outbound Delivery                                                                              

The logistics department of the sending plant will create an outbound delivery with reference to the previous STO using Transaction VL04 or by following this menu path: Information Systems > General Report Selection > Sales and Distribution > Shipping > Process Delivery Due List. Next, they will enter the appropriate shipping point, delivery date, and flag the option “purchase order” as documents to be selected. When running this report, the output listed in the next figure will display.

Perform Picking

The warehouse department of the sending plant will specify the picking quantity against the outbound delivery using the warehouse management transfer order functionality, since the material is stored in a specific warehouse storage bin.

In this case, the picking quantity is copied automatically into the delivery during the creation of the corresponding transfer order. This can be done in WM using Transaction LT03 or by following this menu path: Logistics > Logistic Execution > Warehouse Management > Transfer Order > Create > For Delivery. Alternatively, you can use Transaction VL02N or this menu path: Logistics > Sales and Distribution > Shipping and Transportation > Outbound Delivery > Change > Single Document.

After specifying the delivery document number and pressing enter, the system will return this screen.

Based on the customizing done for the removal strategy of storage types of the warehouse linked to the combination sending plant/sending storage location, the source and destination bins will be determined here. Note that the destination storage type will be the conventional SAP one “916” and the destination storage bin has been defined as dynamic as the number of the outbound delivery document. In our case, those details are reported in this figure.

To complete the picking process in WM, the transfer order created in the previous step must be confirmed. This can be done using Transaction LT12 or by following this menu path: Logistics > Logistics Execution > Internal Whse Processes > Stock Transfer > Confirm Transfer Order > Single Document > In One Step. The system will provide details such as those reported in this figure.

Note that at this stage, the picking status and WM status of the outbound delivery is “C – Completed.”

Post Goods Issue

The warehouse department of the sending plant will post the goods issue against the outbound delivery using Transaction VL02N or by following this menu path: Logistics > Sales and Distribution > Shipping and Transportation > Outbound Delivery > Change > Single Document.

After entering the outbound delivery document number in the selection and then choosing the “post goods issue” option, the system will provide the message reported in this figure.

Note: Upon the goods issue posting, the system will create the so-called “in transit material document”. To retrieve the material document, you can use Transaction VL03N and then choose the option “document flow,” as shown here.

To display the details of the material document, you can use Transaction MIGO or Transaction MB03, as shown here.

Create the Inbound Delivery

The logistics department of the receiving plant will create the inbound delivery against the STO using Transaction VL31N or by following this menu path: Logistics > Materials Management > Purchasing > Purchase Order > Inbound Delivery > Create.

After entering the outbound delivery document number in the selection, pressing enter, and choosing the “post goods issue” option, the system will provide this message.

Note: In order to create an ID, the appropriate confirmation control key must be defined in the STO line item. It is very useful to default this key from customizing based on the order category/order type/plant/storage location.

Note: The creation of the ID document can also be triggered automatically based on the PGI in the sending plant via output type “SPED.” To reverse these postings, you can use the output type “SPER.”

Post Goods Receipt

Once the materials arrive at the receiving plant, the warehouse department creates the goods receipt against the STO using Transaction VL32N or by following this menu path: Logistics > Materials Management > Purchasing > Purchase Order > Inbound Delivery > Change. After entering the inbound delivery document number in the selection, pressing enter, and then choosing the “post goods receipt” option, the system will provide this message.

This last step completes the whole process, since no invoice verification and payment are expected; the stock in transit is therefore reduced and the unrestricted-use stock is increased in the receiving plant by the requested quantity.

Note: In our example, the receiving warehouse has been mapped as decentralized and hence no putaway activities are expected in LE-WM, as you can clearly see in the overall putaway and warehouse statues in the previous figure.

Note: Efficient warehouse management processes require faster data entry and processing for inbound, outbound, and internal warehouse operations. SAP transactions can be executed on RF devices that are handheld (terminals, barcode scanners, etc.) or forklift mounted. No middleware software is required to connect the devices to SAP.

Master Data Prerequisites

For stock transport orders with delivery via shipping, note the prerequisites described below.

Material Master Data

The master data teams need to maintain the following details in the sending and receiving plants, either via Transaction MM01 or this menu path: Logistics > Materials Management > Material Master > Material > Create (General) > Immediately.

In the material master for the supplying plant, the following views must exist:

• Basic views
• Sales views (in particular shipping data like item category group, loading group, transportation group, and availability check)
• Storage views
• Warehouse views (if needed)
• Accounting views

In the material master for the receiving plant, the following views must exist:

• Basic views
• Purchasing views
• Storage views
• Warehouse views (if needed)
• Accounting views

Customer Master Data

If you are working in SAP ECC, the master data management team can use Transaction XD01 or follow this menu path: Logistics > Sales and Distribution > Master Data > Business Partner > Customer > Create > Complete.

If you are working in SAP S/4HANA, the master data management team can use Transaction BP or follow this menu path: Logistics > Settlement Management > Environment > Master Data > Maintain Business Partner.

In the customer master record, you must create a customer master record for the receiving plant. From this, both the address and other data that is relevant for shipping, such as transportation zone and shipping condition, are taken. For intra-company-code stock transport, it is sufficient to create the customer master record as a goods recipient for the appropriate organizational units.

Customizing Prerequisites

In this section, I’m going to report only the most important customizing settings to be checked in the SD, MM, and LE-SHP modules to perform the end-to-end STO process in the system.

Sales and Distribution-Relevant Customizing

The schedule line category to be used in order to default into the outbound delivery line item the appropriate movement types to post the Good Issue must be “NN.”

In order to check its details, you can follow this menu path: IMG > Sales > Sales Documents > Schedule Lines > Assign Schedule Line Categories, as shown here.

In order to assign the schedule line category to the item category, follow this menu path: IMG > Sales > Sales Documents > Schedule Lines > Assign Schedule Line Categories, as shown in this figure..

Shipping-Relevant Main Customizing Steps

Shipping point assignment depends on the supplying plant, the shipping condition of the customer master record belonging to the receiving plant, and the loading group of the material.

You can assign the shipping point to the supplying plant using Transaction OVXC or by following this menu path: IMG > Enterprise Structure > Assignment > Logistics Execution > Assign shipping point to plant, as shown below.

The shipping point determination customizing step is needed in order to determine the shipping point during the outbound delivery creation. You must enter a shipping point for the following combination: shipping condition (from the customer master record of the ordering plant), loading group (from the material master), and supplying plant.

You can define shipping determination using Transaction OVL2 or by following this menu path: IMG > Logistics Execution > Shipping > Basic Shipping Functions > Shipping Point and Goods Receiving Point Determination > Assign shipping points, as shown in the following figure.

Note that if all the required settings have not been made, the system informs the user in the purchase order screen.

The confirmation control key determination customizing step is needed in order to determine the confirmation control key in the STO line item, which is a prerequisite to create an inbound delivery with reference to the same STO line item. You must enter the appropriate order category/order type/plant/storage location. In order to apply those settings, the user can use Transaction 0184 or follow this menu path: IMG > Logistics Execution > Shipping > Deliveries > Define Order Confirmations for Inbound Deliveries, as shown here.

The delivery item category determination customizing step is needed in order to determine the appropriate item category during outbound delivery creation.

Use Transaction 0184 or follow this menu path: IMG > Logistics Execution > Shipping > Deliveries > Define Item Category Determination in Deliveries, as shown below.

In order to define the copying control from the source dummy sale order, type “DL” to the outbound delivery document type “NL.”, You can use Transaction VTLA or follow this menu path: IMG > Logistics Execution > Shipping > Copying Control > Specify Copy Control for Deliveries.

In the two figures below, you can find the details of those settings respectively at the header and line-item levels.

Purchasing-Relevant Main Customizing Steps

You must assign sales and distribution organizational units to the supplying plant.

They are a sales organization and a distribution channel. To do so, follow this menu path: IMG > Purchasing > Purchase order > Set up Stock Transport Order > Plant, as shown in this figure.

You must also assign a customer master record to the receiving plant. To do so, follow this menu path: IMG > Purchasing > Purchase order > Set up Stock Transport Order > Plant. This customer master record must be created for the organizational units of the supplying plant, as shown here.

Assign delivery type NL to the combination of order type UB and the supplying plant (replenishment delivery for intra-company-code stock transfers). If you do not assign a delivery type, you can only post the goods issue in inventory management. You define the delivery type in customizing for purchasing by following this menu path: IMG > Materials Management > Purchase Order > Set up Stock Transport Order > Assign Delivery Type and Checking Rule, as shown in this figure.

Another step to complete is assigning a document type, one-step procedure, and underdelivery tolerance. In this step, you define which document type is to be used for a certain combination of supplying plants and receiving plants. To do this, follow this menu path: IMG > Materials Management > Purchasing > Purchase Order > Set up Stock Transport Order > Assign Document Type, One-Step Procedure, Underdelivery Tolerance as shown in this figure.

Conclusion

In this blog post, I discussed the processes involved in using STOs and gave details about the main customizing settings to be done in the system. My goal was to give an overview of the processes to be followed in order to transfer goods from one SAP plant (the issuing plant) to another SAP plant (the receiving plant) belonging under the same legal entity.