Most of the industries go for flow racking system to store the pallets which has an advantage to store materials of high volume, High density, FIFO pallet storage and picking.
A flow rack is a special storage type that allows you to put away stock at the back of a so-called tunnel and to remove it at the front. The stock in these racks is lying on tracks or rolls and is transferred from the back to the front by gravitation or motors that are moving the rolls. This way, the stock is in a kind of queue. Flow racks are often used if a strict application of the FIFO ("First in first out") principle is required, for example, for products with expiry dates or for frequently picked articles. To fulfill such requirement in SAP EWM we can use Bulk Storage behavior.
The advantages of Flow racks as bulk storage include:
- Reduced need for physical storage bins
- Fast access to the containers
- Clear structuring of the warehouse (into blocks and rows)
Below, I would be explaining you the setup of storage type, required things to support HU handling for Putaway and Picking with FIFO strategy from Bulk Storage.
Setting up Bulk Storage Type.
Storage behavior you need to select as 2-Bulk Storage, in Bulk storage the level of Avail. Qty is always at the storage bin level.
- The combination of bulk storage behavior and Fixed Bin storage is not possible in the standard, although it seems possible to set the flags in customizing.
For, Bulk Storage types the addition to existing stock is done on product basis only, thus different batches of the same products will be mixed automatically by the EWM standard customizing. 'Addition to Existing Stock / Empty Bin' with same product but different batches will only work automatically for Storage Behavior set as '2 - Bulk Storage' and Available Level for batches set as '1-Batch Neutral'.
In Bulk Storage you can also setup stacking of the HU in one storage bin, you have to define this in Bulk Structure
Stacks are the no. of rows and stack height are the pallets on top of each other. In the below example you can see stacks as 6 and stack height as 2 and you can store max of 12 HUs in a bin. Colors in the below image depicts different batches.
In the below example you can see stacks as 6 and stack height as 2 and here you can store max of 10 HUs in a bin. Colors in the below image depicts different batches.
Apart from configuration, you also have to maintain few master data as below.
- Bin Type will be maintained in Storage bin type (/SCWM/LS01)
- Bulk Indicator will be maintained in Product master (/SCWM/MAT1 > Warehouse view)
Putaway in Bulk Storage
Test scenario for Putaway, create an inbound delivery with materials with maintained putaway strategy in product master and create multiple batches for the same material.
Below, you can see for Storage type where maximum 12 HUs were configured, during putaway it stores 12Hus of different batches for same material in a bin (based on config).
Below, you can see for Storage type where maximum 10 HUs were configured, during putaway it stores 10 HUs of different batches for same material in a bin (based on config).
Picking in Bulk Storage
The HU Picking Control =1 (Propose Source HU as Destination HU) and Round Whole Units = 2 (Round Down WT Quantity to Single Unit) this will allow you to pick as per the HU actual quantity. i.e. each time when you scan the HU you give the actual HU qty and the qty from the WT will keep on reducing until the full quantity is picked.
Additionally, you also have to configure the Round Whole Units =1 (Storage Type Decides) in WPT settings used for Picking.
Test scenario for Picking. Picking can be against Outbound delivery or PMR.
You can see 1 WT with 4 Qty is created against 1 WO.
WT will have Source Bin and Batch but without HU, as HU will be decided by the user to pick up the first one in the bin.
Start picking via RF : 04 Outbound Process > 01 Picking > 04 Picking by WO.
In the below image, you can see that multiple WT are created against same WO after Picking was completed.
Summary : Warehouses going for Flow racks as one of the storage solution for their products can easily use SAP EWM Bulk Storage functionality. This also gives them flexibility to define stacks, stacks height, max no. of HUs for a bin, Putaway in sequence, FIFO Picking, user decision to pick the first HU to be picked.
PS: I have not shown the basic configurations like how to maintain Activity Areas, Sorting, Putaway / Picking Strategies, WOCR, Queue determination etc. as those are basics and can be found in other blogs too.
This blog is based on the self testing and how we handle the complexity of it by using standard EWM functionalities. Will appreciate your feedback / comments.
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