Published on February 2, 2018
This article explains the different deployment options for SAP Yard Logistics (SAP YL) based on our best-practice experience from various projects. Our goal is to find the best fit for your current system landscape, depending on whether you have already deployed SAP ERP, SAP EWM or SAP TM.
The first option is the standalone option for SAP YL. The documents that are necessary for the yard execution such as Yard Orders and Yard Tasks are directly created in SAP YL. In this deployment scenario, no master data is taken over from SAP ERP or other SAP systems (for example carriers or truck types). A lot of manual work might be entailed to execute planning and execution.
A lot of existing SAP customers have already completed the transport planning. One option is to use the LE-TRA module of SAP ERP to create deliveries and shipments.
With SAP YL service pack 2 (SP2) the integration with the shipments was released. The shipment will be transferred to SAP YL and then Yard Requests will be created. Also, master data can be exchanged via the CIF interface between ERP and YL. This enables ERP to be the leading system for master data e.g. carriers as business partners. Once the master data is changed in SAP ERP, it will also be changed in SAP YL. The integration with SAP YL via deliveries is not a standard functionality but can be delivered by our Westernacher Add-On portfolio. The delivery integration is currently being implemented at a customer in west Germany.
Some customers might also have completed a project for SAP Transportation Management (SAP TM). In this case your system landscape might look like this in the future:
In this scenario, the integration between SAP ERP and SAP YL is not necessary anymore. SAP ERP integrates with SAP TM via Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Stock-Transfer-Orders or Deliveries. SAP TM then helps to complete the transport planning via Freight Units and then creates Freight Orders. Freight Orders are the result of the planning process and contain data such as locations, times, carriers and drivers. Therefore, this document gets transferred to SAP YL to create Yard Requests. The yard operations are then executed and the status is taken over to SAP TM (via SAP Event Management) as events. SAP TM updates the ERP system with the transportation status so that the end-to-end visibility is possible.
SAP ERP is integrated with SAP EWM via the delivery. Furthermore, the same integration between SAP ERP and SAP YL is applied as in option 2 (via shipment or delivery). SAP YL then communicates with SAP EWM via the Transportation Unit (TU). After check-in the Transportation Unit (TU) becomes active. Moreover, events such as door arrival and departure are sent to SAP EWM. SAP EWM sends the un-(loading) notification to SAP YL so that the execution on the yard can continue.
Also, a direct integration via SAP EWM and SAP YL is possible and has been implemented. This is so that a Transportation Unit (TU) from SAP EWM is transferred to SAP YL and then Yard Orders are created accordingly.
Another option is the implementation of the complete SAP Supply Chain Execution Platform including SAP YL:
SAP ERP integrates with SAP TM and SAP EWM. Furthermore, the Freight Orders are replicated to SAP YL as Yard Requests (as in option 3). SAP YL and SAP EWM are communicating as in option 4 via the Transportation Unit (TU).
For some LSP (Logistics Service Providers) that are running SAP TM as a standalone solution, an integration with SAP YL is possible as well.
The integration works as in option 3, the Freight Order is integrated with the Yard Request. Execution information is transferred to SAP TM (via SAP Event Management).
Having an heterogenous system landscape, SAP YL also provides interfaces to integrate with 3rd party software solutions:
This option needs to be discussed in a project since it can be quite different from the software solutions.
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