Physical Inventory in Warehouse Management

[former_member1284482]

Dear ALL,

We have Warehouse Management, My Clients requirement is to carry out physical Inventory Storage Bin wise at any point of time during the Year or may be number of times for a Bin in a Year. In SAP, when we create a Physical Inventory document in WM for a Storage Bin and Activate it, System will block the Storage Bin for any further Postings like Issues/Receipts/Transfers. Further, Even if we try to post the new material to the same storage bin, system will throw error "Storage bin XXXXX blocked for stock placements" "Message No. L3180".

My Question here is, the way we have an option of Freeze book Inventory in Inventory Management so that even if i am doing physical Inventory for a Particular Material/Storage location, system does not stop me for any Issues/Receipts rather freezes the Book Inventory at key date. In the Similar way, Do we have any thing in Physical Inventory in Warehouse Management that system will not stop me for GR/GI postings for the same material or different material in/from that Storage Bin ??

As per there Business, after entering the count, they have to take Business/Finance approval for final write-off of the Quantity. which actually takes months to carry out, and off-course they cant hold a Storage bin for months without any Postings(GR/GI/Transfer).

Requesting everyone's Expert advice in this matter.

Best Regards,

SAURABH

[Former Member]

Hi Saurabh,

Also look at the below link, it might be helpful.

Dynamic Cycle Counting (LE-WM-DCC) - Mobile Data Entry (LE-MOB) - SAP Library

Dynamic Cycle Counting Process - Mobile Data Entry (LE-MOB) - SAP Library

Regards

AMK

[Former Member]

Hi  Sourabh 

Until unless you will not to do LI20 (Inventory posting difference in WM level ) system not allow you to do any transaction the that specific bin .but after LI20 . stock will go to 999 storage type , from there you can move the stock to your standard bin with reference to manual movement bin ti bin .

Once you will do LI20 , system will give the message "One bin cleared" & there is no specific freezing process in WM ,

& what you are saying the freeze book inventory , it can possible in IM level physical inventory MI01 .

Regards

Dillesh.

[MANIS]

in WM for physical inventory provision of clearing off stock is define at two level WM as well as IM level

when you perform LI20 (Clear from WM) system release the storage bin for further putaway / picking and any other warehouse activity.

After the above step  you are  supposed to use LI21(Clear from IM) to clear the stock which can be done later by taking Business / Finance approval

(The only con of this process is that suppose you have 10 pc in IM as well as WM stock, now during physical count you found 8 pc so after LI20 system will transfer 2 pc to 999 storage type which need to be clear by using LI21 so that material document get posted in IM and IM stock also will become 8 pc, suppose LI21 process takes 5 days from the day you executed LI20  now in between(after LI20 and before LI21) you got a sales order of 10 pc then from IM perspective you will have an OBD with 10 pc but physically when you will do the picking from WM you will have only 8 pc)

[former_member1284482]

Dear Manish,

Thank you very much for your speedy reply.

As per your suggestion, can i confirm following points/questions:

1. Similar to IM, In WM, I dont have option of Freezing book Inventory and system does not support to do the postings(GR/GI) at Storage Bin once Physical Inventory in Active?

2. I will suggest my client to complete the Physical Inventory in WM i.e. till LI20 in continuation, by doing so, that particular Storage Bin will become open for further Postings (GR/GI) and later after some time IM write off can be done ?

3. how system will behave when, I don't have to write-off, like in your example : 2 quantity should be written off from Inventory. but if suppose in case only 1 quantity is to be written-off and in WM we have 2 quantity of stock lying in 999 Storage type. How to reverse 1 quantity ?

Thanks in Advance.

SAURABH

[JL23]

How can you know that only 1 quantity should be written off if there are 2 in the difference storage type? 

I think people forget that a physical inventory is a real physical count, and when the stock is not present, then it should not be visible in the system at all (not even for 5 days) as it gives a wrong picture to anybody looking at the numbers for planning, sales and procurement processes.

No there is no extra freezing in WM, this is in general already achieved by the splitted transaction for clearing.

[MANIS]

1) Yes, once physical inventory is active you won't be able to perform any activity in that storage bin till the time you are not performing the Clear WM - LI20 steps

2) Yes you are right after LI20 you can ask them to perform the LI21 during LI21 you need to clear the stock from 999 storage type

3) In real world you should not have this scenario after LI20, This scenario can occur when you performed the count (LI11N) if you are getting difference then system is giving you a provision to initiate the recount (LI14) for the same physical inventory and you can perform the count again(LI11N)

Now I am taking a scenario where you performed LI20 and 2 pc stock is in 999 then you came to know that worker found 1 pc in another bin (might be the bin is empty in system and stock is physically lying or counting is not intitated for that bin otherwise that have been brought to the notice) and 1 pc is still missing, then you can use the LT01 to move the stock from 999 to storage bin (where it was found physically)