Stock Room Management or embedded EWM?
Stock Room Management or EWM?
Choosing the right warehouse management solution is crucial to the success of your SAP S/4HANA transformation. But which option is best for your company? This is a question that concerns all companies that are currently using a non-SAP warehouse management system or SAP LE-WM and have yet to make the switch to SAP S/4HANA.
Before the transformation to SAP S/4HANA, a decision must be made about which warehouse management system should be used in the future. In SAP S/4HANA, you can initially continue to work with SAP LE-WM or SAP Stock Room Management. Stock Room Management is an SAP S/4HANA solution that technically corresponds to the LE-WM module in SAP ECC, but with a limited scope. It is not SAP’s strategic warehouse management solution. However, it offers existing customers the option of continuing to carry out less complex warehouse management processes in SAP S/4HANA. The following functionalities are not part of SAP Stock Room Management, but can be used in SAP S/4HANA until 2025 as part of the compatibility scope:
- Shaft management (WM-TFM-CP)
- Additional logistics services (WM-VAS)
- Yard management (WM-YM)
- Cross-docking (WM-CD)
- Decentralized warehouse management (WM-DWM)
- Warehouse control interface (WM-LSR)
- Task and Resource Management (WM-TRM)
In the meantime, SAP has extended the maintenance of the SAP Business Suite and therefore also of LE-WM until the end of 2027. With extended maintenance, it is possible to extend SAP support until the end of 2030. Maintenance of Stock Room Management has been communicated until the end of 2040.
SAP Embedded EWM as a basic or advanced version?
Basic
- Inventory management
- Inbound processes
- Internal warehouse processes
- Outbound processes
- Inventory
- Reporting
Covered with ERP license
- Material flow system
- Shaft management
- Yard management
- Work management
- Cross Docking
- Valuable additional services
- Loading
- Dock scheduling
- Packaging planning
- Integration with Transport Management (TM)
- …
Separate license required
Reasons for choosing SAP (Embedded) EWM
Why should you switch to EWM and not keep working with the old functionalities as usual if LE-WM or Stock Room Management basically covers your requirements?
Due to the fact that EWM is considered SAP’s strategic product in the area of warehouse management, LE-WM or Stock Room Management will not see any further innovations. In addition, (Embedded) EWM offers additional functionalities compared to LE-WM or Stock Room Management, such as
- Deconsolidation via mapping of workstations
- Extended production supply via production requests in addition to the standard production supply methods
- Central control of all warehouse activities via the warehouse management monitor
In addition, Embedded EWM already comes with a large number of Fiori apps that are visually appealing and intuitive to use.
Big bang or step-by-step?
In both the downstream conversion to EWM and the upstream conversion to EWM, the actual SAP S/4HANA transformation is separated from the conversion of the warehouse management solution, which can help relieve the organization and spread the project effort. There is also a third option, the “big bang”, i.e. the introduction of embedded EWM as part of the SAP S/4HANA transformation.
All variants have advantages and disadvantages that need to be weighed up for your company on a case-by-case basis. Hybrid variants – i.e. a mixture of the options shown above – are also possible. Especially with a greenfield approach, the clear recommendation is to take the path towards embedded EWM.
Are you unsure whether Stock Room Management or Embedded EWM is the right choice for your SAP S/4HANA conversion? Talk to our experts! We would be happy to help you.