Logistics and SAP Cloud? YES!

May 27, 2020
  • SAP

Over the past decades, the  internet has become an essential  part of our lives and its use in the corporate environment is also constantly expanding. Outstanding among these is the use of the Cloud, which is also one of the main strategic pillars for SAP. Although the ever-expanding range of cloud-based services has been available within SAP since 2012, logistics and most of all warehousing logistics  has been so far less open towards this area.
However, the general growing trust in the direction of the Cloud and in many cases the applications that are only available through the Cloud platform have also led to a more open mindset in this industry as well. The SAP integration of transport (TM – Transport Management) and warehouse logistics (EWM - Extended Warehouse Management) already contains many process improvement and optimization elements, but the use of the Cloud expands the range of possibilities further.

EWM mobile apps

delaware’s self-developed and best practice based EWM mobile apps are currently only available on the Cloud platform, but they provide a greater level of freedom for the users. It is no longer necessary to use ITS mobile (SAP technology connecting mobile devices) to access the RF (radio frequency) interface. In addition, the applications developed by delaware are compatible with any native Android or iOS devices, and both in-, and outbound processes are supported by them. Future API releases will also be available for Cloud platform first, then later on the on-premise as well.


Warehouse insights

In addition to delaware’s mobile apps mentioned above, SAP also offers cloud-based services for EWM. The so-called “Warehouse Insights” has been available in SAP’s portfolio since 2019 and it focuses on the following main areas:

1. Configuration
 2. Visualization
 3. Optimization

Access to Fiori Tiles of Warehouse Insights is coordinated by two authorization levels and they are based on the sensitivity level of the respective applications (warehouse administrator / configuration expert). Warehouse Insights provides a simple and convenient tool for the visualization of the warehouse through which the correctness of the data (location data, distances between the bins, etc.) and the optimal warehouse process flow can be checked.

Furthermore, Warehouse Insights additionally provides a wide range of graphical reporting possibilities on the utilization of the warehouse and various material handling equipment. One of them is the so-called “Heat map”, which shows how many movements were performed from or to the warehouse location in a given timeframe. In addition, through the application we have the ability to optimize the allocation of open warehouse orders, during which Warehouse Insights examines the path of  them and the resources allocated to them; if tasks can be distributed more efficiently among the available resources, then it executes the redesign, and also sends the redesigned allocation back to the EWM.

In the upcoming years, we can expect a number of newly available features within Warehouse Insights that will make it increasingly  essential for the EWM users.

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