As many of us have experienced, transactions flow pretty smoothly through an ERP system until a deviation from the norm occurs. Deviations from normal processes can cause incorrect transactions, workarounds, or lost productivity when users do not have sufficient instructions on how to handle these. This blog will cover how to handle three common scenarios within Outbound Logistics in SAP Business ByDesign where deviations from the regular processes might occur.
Scenario #1 - An Outbound Delivery was Discovered to have been Accidentally Over- or Under-Shipped.
If it’s discovered that an Outbound Delivery was shipped with an incorrect quantity, then you’ll want to make an adjustment to reflect the correct quantity. To do so, you’ll need to start by Undoing the Release of the Outbound Delivery in SAP Business ByDesign. This can be done within Outbound Logistics -> Outbound Deliveries. Select the row of the Outbound Delivery that needs to be adjusted, then click Actions -> Undo Release.
Now, go to Outbound Logistics -> Monitoring -> By Warehouse Order. Within the View “All Warehouse Orders”, type in either the ID of the Sales Order related to the Outbound Delivery, or the Outbound Delivery ID itself. Make sure you select the correct Warehouse Order (you can tell by the details that appear when it’s selected – ensure that it has the right associated Outbound Delivery that appears below the main list). Once it’s selected, click “Edit”.
Within the Outbound Warehouse Order screen that appears, click “Adjustment Confirmation”.
Within the Adjustment Confirmation screen that appears, you’ll see a list with Line Items with each quantity that was confirmed during the Pick Task. To adjust the quantity, first select the row of the Line Item you want to modify, then click “Enable Entry”.
Enter the adjustment quantity for the Line Item. Note that this is additive – that is, it will be summed with the current Fulfilled Quantity to produce the new Fulfilled Quantity. In the example below, if I had only actually shipped a quantity of 9 each, then I would enter a negative 1 each to offset the currently Fulfilled Quantity of 10 each. Note that you can enter adjustments for multiple Line Items at once. You do have to Enable Entry for each Line Item you want to adjust.
Once you’ve entered your adjustment(s), click “Save”. You should see the Fulfilled Quantity reflect your adjustments.
Once you’ve made your adjustment, navigate back to Outbound Logistics -> Outbound Deliveries, then located the Outbound Delivery. If your default View is “Released Outbound Deliveries”, you’ll need to change it to “Unreleased Outbound Deliveries” or “All Outbound Deliveries” first to locate the Outbound Delivery that you undid release for in the first step.
Select the Outbound Delivery, then click the “Release” button.
Scenario #2 – A Pick Task is Created for a Product that is Discovered to not have Enough Quantity in Stock for Fulfillment.
This scenario may occur due to an inventory adjustment or emergency count, as typically this scenario shouldn’t occur if your Customer Demand is Released “With Stock Check.”
In this scenario, we’ll need to back the transaction out of Outbound Logistics.
To do so, you need to find the Warehouse Request itself within Outbound Logistics -> Monitoring -> By Warehouse Request.
The easiest way to search for it is by the associated Sales Order ID. You’ll want to ensure the drop-down is either Released Warehouse Requests or All Warehouse Requests. Select the appropriate Warehouse Request and click the Reject Request button.
Once the Warehouse Request is rejected, the Order will appear again within Outbound Logistics -> Delivery Requests. Search by the associated Sales Order ID once more. Select the Delivery Request and all line items that need to be rejected. Click the Reject button.
Once rejected the order will go back to the Customer Demand work list, and can then be re-released to Outbound Logistics when sufficient inventory is available.
Scenario #3 – A Pick Task Needs to be Completed with Only Partial Fulfillment.
If an order needs to be shipped quickly, but the full quantity for fulfillment is not available in the warehouse and the Sales Order item is marked for Multiple Deliveries, you have the option of completing a Pick Task with a partial quantity.
To do so, the process is the same as the standard process up until the point at which the Pick Task is confirmed. In this scenario, use the manual Confirm button to navigate to the Pick Task detailed confirmation screen. Within the manual confirmation, enter the values for the Actual Quantity picked and the Source Logistics Area it was picked from.
For any of the Line Items that only had a partial quantity picked, go to the Quantities section within the General sub-tab and click on the drop-down to specify a Deviation Reason. If there isn’t an appropriate deviation reason, contact your system administrator in order to update the list. Once all the values have been entered, click Save.
Once either a full quantity, partial quantity and deviation reason, or zero quantity and deviation reason have been entered, navigate to Outbound Logistics -> Monitoring -> By Warehouse Order. You can select the system provided Warehouse Orders with Deviations query to locate the related Warehouse Order for the Pick Task that was partially confirmed. You should also see an orange circle indicator in the Deviation column. Select the Warehouse Order and click Edit.
Within the Warehouse Order screen, navigate to the Operations tab. You will see an orange circle in the Deviation column for any line that wasn’t fully confirmed and had a deviation specified. At this point, there are three main options to process each Line Item with a deviation:
Accept Deviation and Reject Open Quantity – this will send the unfulfilled quantity back to the Delivery Due List, where it can be released at a later point in time when the inventory contains quantity to finish fulfillment.
This is likely the most common option to select, as it will execute the checks to ensure that inventory quantity exists prior to re-release to the warehouse.
Accept Deviation – this will take any of the unfulfilled quantity and send it back to Delivery Proposals so that another attempt will be made to pick the quantity once the proposal is processed.
This would most likely be used in the event that the inability to fulfill the full quantity is due to a short term issue.
Typically, this should be avoided if automatic Delivery Proposal processing is used as, unless the necessary quantity is added to inventory prior to the Delivery Proposals being automatically processed again, it will generate another Pick Task that will require a deviation.
Reprocess Open Quantity – this is used if the deviation was accidentally specified. This will allow the open quantity to be confirmed. Once a Deviation method is accepted the Warehouse Order will be set to a status of Finished.
We hope the three scenarios described above will help you tackle the most common Outbound Logistics deviations in SAP Business ByDesign. Feel free to reach out should you have questions or need assistance with SAP Business ByDesign.
Written by:
Micah Trujillo, SAP Business ByDesign Practice Manager
Dan Edelman, Senior SAP Business ByDesign Consultant
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