What is SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM)?

Today, organizations focus on delivering their services and products to their customers in a fast and high-quality manner in order to ensure customer satisfaction. The way to achieve this goal is to perform all organizational activities efficiently, which can only happen when an organization carries out all business processes from suppliers to customers. Therefore, supply management and warehouse management are critical concepts for businesses that sell physical products. SAP EWM is SAP's newest warehouse management system developed for the needs of organizations.

What is Warehouse Management System (WMS)?

A warehouse management system (WMS) is a software solution that enables a business to manage its stock and warehouse operations. It can help businesses to keep track of their inventory, automate tasks such as picking and packing orders, and optimize their storage space. In doing so, it can improve efficiency and accuracy, and help to reduce costs.

A WMS can be a standalone software application or it can be integrated with other business systems such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

The benefits of using a WMS include:

• Improved inventory accuracy: A WMS can help to improve inventory accuracy by providing real-time visibility of stock levels and stock movements. This can help to reduce stock-outs and overstocking.
• Improved order fulfillment: A WMS can help to improve order fulfillment rates by automating key warehouse processes such as picking, packing, and shipping. This can lead to shorter lead times and improved customer satisfaction.
• Reduced operating costs: A WMS can help to reduce operating costs by automating manual tasks and improving warehouse productivity. This can lead to lower labor costs and improved asset utilization.
• Improved decision-making: A WMS can provide managers with real-time visibility of warehouse operations. This can help to improve decision-making and enable proactive responses to operational issues. It can help businesses to keep track of their inventory, automate tasks such as picking and packing orders and optimize their storage space. In doing so, it can improve efficiency and accuracy, and help to reduce costs.

What is SAP EWM?

SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) is a warehouse management module/system included in the SAP Supply Chain Management (SAP SCM) solution package. The flexible warehouse management system has been developed to manage high-volume warehouse operations. It provides flexible and automated support for managing the stock movements of the entire warehouse process, from goods to picking, packing and removal.

SAP EWM provides advanced features for managing inventory in a warehouse such as real-time inventory, warehouse structure, and labor management.

It was developed based on an older version of SAP Warehouse Management, a more basic version of itself. SAP has announced that it will end all development and maintenance support in SAP Warehouse Management in 2025 due to the increasing demand for warehouses, planning and procurement. This means that companies will now demand the SAP EWM module instead of SAP WM in the future.

What are the Differences Between SAP EWM and SAP Warehouse Management?

In the previous part of our article, we said that SAP EWM was developed in line with the increasing needs in supply chain processes. This means that SAP EWM is actually a more comprehensive solution than SAP WM. SAP Extended Warehouse Management is similar to Warehouse Management but provides more features to manage warehouse functions such as aggregation, storage, RF framework, warehouse structure, and more flexible options. Apart from this, new elements such as activity area, resources, workforce management and work centers that are not available in WM can be created in SAP EWM.

What are the Main Features of SAP EWM?

SAP EWM solution helps organizations control warehouse activities such as collecting, recording and managing warehouse bins and goods receipts.

• SAP EWM covers the storage, processing and transportation of hazardous materials in accordance with SAP Environmental Health and Safety Regulations.

• SAP EWM enables better planning of runtimes and resources, thus helping the organization manage its warehouse efficiently using key resource management tasks.

• SAP EWM enables the visual presentation of important warehouse figures and the evaluation or follow-up of the operation according to the determined lines.

• With cross-docking in SAP EWM, it can be used to move transport units from multiple distribution centers or warehouses before reaching the final location in the warehouse.

• It can deconsolidate processing units containing different items until we place them in various storage areas.

• In SAP EWM, organizations can set alarms for changed data before goods are received by the ERP system.

• SAP EWM evaluates warehouse concepts through placement and automatically optimizes the warehouse arrangement of products.

• SAP EWM enables organizations to perform executable tasks such as work packages for warehouse management that warehouse workers can perform.

Why Should Businesses Use the SAP EWM Solution?

For more than four decades worldwide, SAP has provided many new applications and platforms for different types of businesses and organizations of different sizes, such as installation and operations. SAP's warehouse management solution is designed and developed as one of SAP's best in Supply Chain Management, the logical measure of the logistics activities of their products for organizations. Since 2007, many companies have preferred to use SAP EWM for Supply Chain Management.

SAP EWM has been designed in such a way that it can be shaped according to business needs by meeting possible changes if necessary in order to eliminate any deficiencies understood by practical actions. Real users of SAP EWM provide transparent data on stock or raw materials on hand. SAP EWM provides organizations with greater inventory control, ensuring optimum use of resources. In addition, SAP EWM enables organizations to fuse accounting and financial aspects with SAP EWM, helping planners to make the best decisions and thus reduce costs.

Is SAP EWM Good?

At first glance, SAP EWM may seem like a difficult product, but it is a very advanced and comprehensive product for a corporate company. If SAP EWM is applied appropriately to the organization, it increases efficiency, especially in the collection and supply processes. Most of the SAP EWM disadvantages come from not working with the right partner. If organizations work with a good business partner and consultant, and a good project is created together, better warehouse management is provided.

• Ready product

SAP EWM is a product in which all processes for warehouse management are offered to organizations ready-made by a provider. In SAP EWM, processes have been tested and settled as they have been tried by other companies before. Therefore, like other warehouse management software, the functions you need or don't eliminate the risks of being untested due to its special development.

• Integration

If organizations are using products such as SAP ERP, the integration process is easier both in terms of configuration and management so that they can integrate two different products.

• Follow-up

SAP EWM allows organizations to monitor warehouse management processes and their employees in detail. In addition, SAP EWM can be arranged according to the business and resource plans of the organizations.

What are the Advantages of SAP Extended Warehouse Management?

Extended Warehouse Management is to help SAP realize the benefits of automation through true integration with the Material Flow System (MFS). SAP EWM increases the business value and efficiency of warehouse operations for an organization dealing with production, warehousing and logistics. However, it is not correct to limit the advantages of SAP EWM to warehouse management only. SAP EWM also simplifies the goal of delivering a good customer experience with a fully integrated solution.

SAP EWM is flexible, with its scalable functionality it can be adapted to the needs of any business. It, therefore, benefits warehouse operations of any size and complexity. SAP EWM adapts to address new or updated processes of organizations and offers flexibility to design solutions that meet operational needs.

SAP Extended Warehouse Management automatically updates warehouse processes in real-time directly in SAP and provides live access to all relevant business data, allowing instantaneous responses and responses. However, SAP EWM events can be accessed via mobile devices. There is a wide variety of mobile applications specifically designed for integrating EWM processes into SAP. This improves the user experience and increases productivity.

EWM users can maximize efficiency in their business processes with automated warehouse processes.

Is SAP EWM Part of S/4HANA?

No, SAP EWM is not part of SAP S/4HANA. SAP EWM is a standalone on-premise warehouse management solution that can be integrated with SAP S/4HANA.

What is Decentralized SAP EWM?

Decentralized SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) is a distributed and decentralized SAP EWM solution that allows organizations to maintain and manage multiple warehouses in multiple geographic locations. This distributed architecture enables the organization to centralize its master data and keep track of its inventory in real time. Decentralized SAP EWM helps organizations to optimize their storage space, reduce costs, and increase productivity. It also enables them to improve inventory accuracy and customer service and reduce lead times.

What is the role of SAP EWM Consultant?

SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) consultants are experienced professionals who help businesses integrate their warehouse and inventory management systems with SAP EWM. They provide solutions to streamline processes, increase operational efficiency and provide visibility into warehouse operations. SAP EWM consultants can help with system design, functional configuration, data migration, testing, training and go-live support.

The role of an SAP EWM Consultant is to support the implementation and ongoing maintenance of an enterprise warehouse management system. This includes understanding customer requirements, configuring the SAP EWM system, coordinating user training and providing ongoing technical support to ensure the system is running efficiently and effectively. The consultant must also have a strong understanding of the warehouse processes and be able to identify areas for improvement and automation.

SAP EWM Consultancy

SAP EWM Consultancy is a specialized form of consultancy that focuses on providing business solutions and advice on the use of SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) software. SAP EWM Consultants provide advice and guidance on the implementation, configuration, and maintenance of the system. They offer services to companies that are interested in optimizing their warehouse operations, inventory management, and supply chain processes. SAP EWM Consultants work with clients to identify areas where optimization can be achieved and help to create customized solutions to meet their needs.

Businesses that migrate their warehouse processes to SAP EWM need SAP EWM consultancy to optimize their EWM processes. Because expert support is required to benefit from the functions of SAP EWM in the most efficient way.

MDP Group optimizes the warehouse processes of companies with more than 12 SAP EWM consultants. With SAP EWM consultancy, you can contact us to maximize of efficiency your warehouse processes and supply chain processes.