No Click Scenario / Automated TM process

Transportation plays a crucial role and is a critical link in the supply chain. Transportation may have been an isolated business process in the past, but it is now increasingly considered within the context of overall supply chain and logistics processes. It is costly, time-consuming, and sometimes difficult to manage. Hence, transportation management systems (TMS) are used to streamline the transportation component of the supply chain. Being a complex problem, transportation management often beckons complex solutions (TMS).

SAP Transportation Management (SAP TM) provides a new generation of functionalities that allows users to manage all their transportation requirements on a single global platform from end to end. SAP TM targets all industries where transportation management plays a major role in order fulfillment. SAP offers the Transportation Management solution as an embedded option (in addition to the decentralized option) where the solution is within the core ERP (SAP S/4 HANA) system. This has greatly simplified the solution and provided various avenues for tight integration of TM processes with the S/4 HANA core modules (SD, MM, FI, eWM). Additionally, one of the key advantages of having advanced shipping (new terminology from SAP for ‘professional shipping’) functionality of SAP S/4HANA Supply Chain for Transportation Management is the ability to model complex and high-volume transportation scenarios.

SAP Transportation process:

With more functionalities, additional process steps in transportation are required, compared to the standard ‘Order-to-Cash’ or ‘Procure-to-Pay’ cycle. For example, in SAP TM, documents such as Freight Unit, Freight Order, Freight Settlement Document etc. are required and process steps such as freight planning, carrier selection, tendering, freight settlement etc. are incorporated. A simple road transportation process along with document flow is illustrated below.