Cubing-out / Weighting-out issue in transportation

‘Professional Shipping’ section of the SAP S/4 HANA Supply Chain for Transportation Management (embedded TM) includes those functionalities which were not available in SAP LE-TRA (Logistics Execution – Transportation). Since professional shipping requires additional license cost, it is necessary to understand the additional business processes in transportation, that can be designed using professional shipping functionalities. In my previous blog, event driven charge calculation was discussed. In this article, cubing-out/weighting-out issue during transportation is addressed.

Transportation of goods usually happens in transportation resource such as container, trailer, railcar etc. The maximum capacity of these transportation resources is usually specified in volume or weight. While loading the product, when transportation resource reaches its volumetric capacity before reaching the permitted weight limit, it is called cubing-out issue. Similarly, when a transportation resource has reached its weight limit, before reaching the volumetric capacity, is called weighting-out scenario. Cubing-out is very common in land and ocean mode of transport, where low density materials are moved via truck or container. Weighting-out usually happens when we transport high density materials such as iron one, coal, copper, lumber etc… In both these scenarios, there are chances that, we will not be able to load the transportation resource as planned (if planning does not consider both weight and volume). Some of the negative business impacts are: