What is Wave Management in SAP EWM? Complete Guide

Wave Management in SAP EWM

In the SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) system, a collection task is released for each sent delivery. In some scenarios, these sent delivery items can be managed separately but it is possible that manage more than one sent delivery item at the same time. Gathering thousands of items with one warehouse order can be accomplished with wave management. Waves get the different delivery items together based on the criteria.

To give an example, you have a warehouse that contains different products. One of the products among them is product X and there is a discount for this specific product. So, you have more than one order for that product. You know that the demand is increasing for it. Thus, you want to carry the 50 pieces of product X at once to the staging area or goods issue zone rather than to carry them one by one. After that, these 50 products are guided to different destinations based on the different deliveries. This can help us to use time more efficiently.

Wave Header

Wave Header consists of some general information about a wave such as its type, the time it is managed, how the wave is managed, etc.

Wave Items

Wave items are the sent delivery items that are assigned to a wave. Waves can be released either manually, automatically, or immediately.

Manually Released Wave

A wave can be released based on an existing template by giving the details manually at any point in time.

Automatically Released Wave

A wave is created based on the wave rules. Then, the wave can be released by setting a background job at the release day and time.

Immediately Released Wave

A wave can be released just after it is created.

As it is mentioned above, templates are used by creating waves. Thanks to wave management, these templates can be customized for different orders. Besides, different waves can be created for different transportation companies. Hence, it can help us to optimize the activities in a warehouse.

Last but not least, creating a collecting task for employees automatically is also possible with an automatically released wave. This means that an employee can see the task to collect items in the morning without waiting for the control center’s task release. So, time management can be done more efficiently and we can optimize the empty and full spaces in the warehouse.

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Our SAP EWM team provides consultancy services to the warehouse management processes of companies in different locations around the world. Do not hesitate to contact us for your SAP EWM support needs!

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