What is SAP Transportation Management (TM)?

Companies are continually improving their supply chains to increase efficiency and reduce costs. Achieving efficiencies in freight transportation can be a major challenge.

Definition of SAP TM

SAP Transportation Management (TM) is a unique, integrated solution from SAP that allows shippers to manage their transport processes in a robust order management environment. With many companies choosing to outsource the logistics side of their business, SAP TM is an important tool for both shippers and third-party logistics providers to ensure that shipments are planned, tracked and executed efficiently.

SAP TM is a complete solution for all shipment-related needs, including transportation planning and collaboration, freight settlement, fleet management and business intelligence. The solution can be configured to suit any mode of transportation from air to ocean.

By integrating with SAP ERP, TM can directly leverage the data and structure of logistics documents (such as sales orders, delivery notes, and purchase orders) in the ERP system.

In addition to its own extensive suite of features and capabilities, SAP TM also integrates with other applications within SAP's Business Suite software. This integration allows customers using other solutions within the Business Suite to easily access transportation information directly related to orders.

For example, by integrating with SAP Global Trade Services (GTS) customers can use SAP TM to monitor the status of shipments in compliance with export regulations. Or, by integrating with SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), users can see real-time inventory information based on the status of shipments moving through their supply chain.

SAP TM gives you the ability to manage resources, transportation and distribution in one application. The software consists of two main components:

• Transportation Planning & Optimization (TPO)
• Transportation Execution (TEX)

Relationship Between SAP TM and SAP EWM

Improving the efficiency of a supply chain is one of the main goals for most customers. The procurement phase is the time the product is delivered after the order is placed. SAP Transportation Management and SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) are both modules of the SAP S/4HANA suite. This time indicates the stage at which the ordered product is supplied. SAP TM helps reduce freight costs by optimizing resource capacity. SAP EWM helps improve warehouse efficiencies. For this reason, these two modules are modules that support each other in a supply chain process. SAP offers direct integration between SAP TM and SAP EWM. Thus, businesses can achieve end-to-end efficiency in their supply chain processes by using two solutions.

Integration Scenarios Between SAP EWM and SAP TM

The following scenarios are supported by integration SAP Transportation Management and SAP Extended Warehouse Management:

• Inbound delivery for sales orders (stock transfer order)
• Inbound delivery for goods receipts (stock transfer order)
• Outbound delivery for sales orders (stock transfer order)
• Outbound delivery for goods issue (stock transfer order)