Inventory Management

Barcode Automation for Inventory Management

For companies that utilize core Materials Management (MM) functionality of SAP S/4HANA and ECC 6.0, and do not use the Warehouse Management (WM) or Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) modules, BCC Distribution has the leading real-time, mobilized RF barcode scanning and label printing solution for SAP Material and Inventory Management (MM/IM) applications.

For nearly every manufacturing, warehousing, or distribution application, optimized inventory management is the key to success and maximum efficiency. Tracking inventory levels and stock movements quickly and accurately matters most to reduce errors, eliminate unnecessary manual data collection and data entry tasks, and free up resources to focus on core warehouse needs. At BCC Distribution, we offer the best SAP software and hardware needed to manage your company’s inventory and stay on track to meet your targets. 

BCC Distribution has designed, developed, and mobilized over 100 SAP IM RF transactions with individual movement types. These transactions utilize SAP standardization and inventory control best practices to create consistent, real-time data collection screens for the material handlers. Each transaction has been designed for mobility and simplicity, with minimal words that limit the operators’ need for using the keypad (physical or virtual) on a device, such as a mobile Zebra RF barcode scanner, vehicle terminal, or rugged enterprise tablet. This optimization has been designed by BCCD to make our barcoding system approach extremely easy to use for the material handler. These mobilized and automated SAP IM RF transactions have been designed, developed, and optimized through years of real-world application use.

Applying SAP Change Management best practices, BCC Distribution’s TranASAP software also supports customer enhancements or application specific customizations based on a company’s industry requirements (such as MRO, Oil and Gas, Automotive, Chemical, Aerospace, Biotech, Food and Beverage, etc.) or based on the specific SAP software environment. BCC Distibution’s TranASAP and QuickPrint software supports multiple native SAP connectivity approaches, to best match our customer’s immediate requirement and future SAP roadmap: SAP Console using telnet connection, SAP’s recommended RF framework ITSmobile (web browser), and multiple UI5 toolsets for a Fiori design operating only in real-time or supporting Store and Forward connectivity (online/offline and batch-mode).

Key Functions of SAP Mobility for Inventory Management

BCC Distribution has enabled RF mobility for SAP Inventory Management to enable and automate the tracking of physical inventory, goods receipts, goods issues, cycle counts, stock overviews, stock transfers, and several other inventory functions. These IM functions, mobilized and put into the hands of the material handler, provide real-time validation and inventory accuracy to maximize your ability to leverage SAP analytics helping your business improve productivity and efficiencies that directly impact planning, production, shipping, procurement, and more.

• Goods Receipt for a Purchase Order, Stock Transfer Order, Delivery, or Reservation
• Goods Receipt to a Production Order with Label Print
• Cross Docking of Hot Parts (Required for an Open Order)
• On-Demand Printing or Reprinting of Material Barcode Labels, Documents or Forms
• Receiving Including Putting Stock Away (One-Step or Two-Step RF Putaway)
• Moving Inventory IN and OUT of Quality (Unrestricted/Restricted)
• Storage Location (SLoc) to Storage Location (SLoc) Moves
• Goods Issue to an Order, Cost Center, Reservation, or Project
• Back Flushing
• Production Order Confirmation, Receipt, and Label Print
• Barcode Label Design and Printing for Picking
• Picking Inventory for Delivery Automating Part Moves to a Central Pick Location
• Picking Utilizing Handling Unit Management (HU) or Label Pallet Numbers (LPN)
• Plant to Plant Inventory Movements or Transfers
• Outside Vendor Compliance Tracking
• Inventory Inquiry or Stock Overviews (by Location and/or by Part Number)
• Cycle Counting (RF Blind Count / RF Ad Hoc Count)
• Physical Inventory Counting

Sample Mobile SAP ERP IM RF Transactions:

• Goods Receipt with Automated Label Print
• Storage Location (SLoc) to Storage Location (SLoc) Movement
• Goods Issue to Cost Center, Work Order, Project, or Reservation

SAP-Integrated Barcode Label Printing:

• QuickPrint Barcode Label Printing to include SAP Smart Forms, SAPscript, and BarTender.
• Printing “License Plates” Barcode Labels (Pallet HU Labels or Serialized Labels)
• Material Labels with 1D and 2D (2-Dimensional, QR) Barcodes
• GTIN Labels
• Bill of Lading Document
• Pick Slips
• Shipping and Delivery Barcode Labels
• Forms and many others

Common SAP Inventory Management RF Enabled Transactions

Physical Inventory

Tracking and reconciling inventory is an essential part of ensuring that physical inventory matches the SAP software or ERP business system data. Accurate system data ensures materials are available for everyday production and warehousing operations, such as production planning, issuing and consumption, as well as picking and fulfillment for customer orders. Validating and reconciling inventory discrepancies can be performed via cycle counting or physical inventory counts. At BCCD, we have optimized the inventory counting process via mobilization of multiple options for SAP counting and utilization of mobile RF scanners. The RF scanners are set up to use as directed, with an inventory list resident on the device or to count inventory by location ad hoc.  With BCCD’s TranASAP solution for Inventory Management, the RF scanner accomplishes 3 tasks; (1) it tells the user what to scan, be it a 1D or 2D barcode label, (2) it easily validates and collects inventory data and updates the SAP software in real-time, and (3) the system can be designed to display a real-time user message after each scan to verify that the count matches the SAP software or directing the user to recount. A manual inventory count team typically includes a person to physically count the inventory, a person to record the data, and a person to enter the data into SAP GUI (at another location and later time). A mobile RF scanning system, equipped to perform SAP counts, eliminates the need for the person to write down the data as well as the data entry person. In addition to requiring less resources and increasing the speed of data collection, this system also reduces errors in data collection commonly associated with manual data processing.

Goods Receipts from PO or Production Order 

SAP Inventory Management requires tracking inventory when it’s received from production, as a finished good (FG) material, and received goods from suppliers, vendors, or other plants (such as raw materials, supplies, and/or finished goods). The receiving objective is to ensure that accurate inventory information is entered into the SAP software, in real-time, during the inbound process = good data in, good data out.

Solution: to receive inventory in real-time using a mobile RF scanner enabled with barcode label printing capability. Upon arrival of a truck, rail car, freight or delivery carrier, inventory enters at the point of receiving and is delivered with a Bill of Lading (shipping document) to a material handler. The material handler scans the document barcode, selects, or manually enters the PO number from the document into the RF scanner that is directly connected to the SAP system. They may then validate items received (line items of PO are visible on mobile device’s screen) to make sure the items and quantities are correct. Once confirmed, the barcode printer (a mobile printer in hand, on a fork lift, or a printer staged at receiving) is used to print inventory or pallets labels for individual items or pallets. The printed labels will have essential information such as part number, serial or batch number, HU/LPN, put away location, with applicable barcodes for automating the next-step put away and (future) picking processes. With RF scanners directly connected to SAP, data is updated in real-time after each scan to validate inventory accuracy and inventory location.

Stock Transfers – SLoc Moves

Within Inventory Management, your business needs to know where the physical inventory is, at any given time. Each time a material handler moves inventory or assets in the warehouse, inventory best practice will mandate that they also utilize barcode scanning to update the SAP software. Moving inventory? Scan or enter the source location, scan the material number barcode, enter the quantity to be moved, physically move the inventory as required, and then scan the destination storage location. This process discipline will ensure that the SAP software accurately manages stock transfers, and where products are moved to and from within a company. BCCD’s combination of mobile SAP IM software transactions and efficient barcode scanning technology ensures the barcoding solution will quickly and accurately record validated inventory data in SAP, such as stock transfers.

Inventory Inquiries / Stock Overviews

Having trouble finding inventory in SAP, or physically in your warehouse? You’re not alone. Real-world warehouse applications can directly benefit from leveraging their barcode scanning system to also enable Inventory Inquiry (Stock Overview) functionality. With a mobile RF scanner running SAP at the point of execution in the warehouse, a material or location inquiry directly improves process efficiency through the reduction of time and resources to physically find material, find a suitable location, or like location where inventory resides and/or may be moved for put away. Additional efficiency will be gained where BCCD’s inventory inquiry SAP software transaction may be daisy-chained or linked to supplement another automated process. Examples include Putaway– finding locations where like materials reside, or location where all materials may be placed in a single Putaway, and (2) Picking– finding locations that have equal or more quantity available than needs to be picked, enabling for a full delivery/order pick.

Picking, Shipping, and Goods Issue

Every application for picking, issuing, or outbound shipping has its own unique process flow and data tracking requirements. As a result, BCC Distribution has taken a “Swiss Army Knife” approach to designing and developing preconfigured software transactions that are versatile for outbound processes using SAP and Inventory Management. Following BCCD’s standard gap analysis phase, documenting the features your application needs and disabling what you don’t, the result is blueprinted outbound/consumption functionality that streamlines your production and warehouse operations through SAP mobility and barcode automation. Ultimately, material handlers will utilize mobile RF scanners and portable printers that are directly connected (in real-time) to the SAP software. Pick slips are sent automatically to the material handlers’ RF scanners with a picking priority, or by queue. By simply viewing the RF scanner, the user knows what to pick, where to pick, and which item is the oldest (if FIFO is to be used). At the time the user selects and scans the specific line item on the pick slip, the scanner lets the material handler know if the scanned material and quantity matches the delivery or order. Once the order pick is complete, the system will prompt the user for an option to print one or more labels, which will be affixed to the item, pallet, or container to show the order is complete and ready to be shipped. This scenario eliminates lost items within the warehouse and reduces time to locate items; as well as validating the correct product is picked for the applicable order. An additional scan of the pallet label can be done to initiate BOL (shipping) paperwork to print at the shipping dock, as well as to automatically load the ASN for EDI transmittal.

RFID Technology and SAP Inventory Management

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is powerful inventory tool that automates inventory tracking and reduces manual user interaction. When paired with a RF barcode scanning system, your company could benefit from a significant increase in productivity and efficiency using RFID automated data collection and SAP system updating.

RFID Tagging, Readers, and Infrastructure

If your company chooses to evaluate integration of RFID technology for its inventory management methods, it will need to consider several factors that are exclusive to a RFID data collection system: tags or labels for products, readers and antennas to capture RFID data, RFID software for data parsing, BCCD software and services for RFID software integration with the SAP software, and the facilities infrastructure to manage the data’s bi-directional transfer. At BCCD, we offer end-to-end RFID solutions to be your one-stop-shop for all things Inventory Management with SAP. 

From barcoding scanning, label printing, to RFID technology, BCCD provides the software and equipment that facilitates process efficiency for manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution applications. Each system has out-of-the-box capabilities, as well as being highly customizable, leveraging the full extent of SAP’s capabilities. Best practice barcode scanning and RFID automation, with SAP software integration, can transform any industry by automating and transforming data collection, analytics, and logistical capabilities.

Manage Inventory with BCC Distribution

At BCC Distribution, we offer extensive, certified barcode scanning and RFID solutions for SAP business systems. This includes certified software, services, and the optimization of Inventory Management operations for your manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution needs. With user-friendly and state-of-the-art data collection technology, your company can rely on BCC Distribution for your barcode scanning and RFID solutions. Contact us today so we can demonstrate our end-to-end SAP solutions to help you transform your inventory operations for the future of manufacturing and distribution using SAP’s Materials Management (MM) and Inventory Management (IM).