Research Of The Application Of SAP System Control In CRC Stereoscopic Warehouse Management

Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd. (CRC), the predecessor of the Changchun Railway Car Factory, is China's railway cars produced by leading enterprises. In preparation for production of 350 km high-speed motor train units in 2007, CRC invested 40 billion RMB in Changchun City for the new rail transportation equipment manufacturing industrial park, and it will be put into use in 2010, the central warehouse of the industrial park is a an area of 3 million square meters of stereoscopic warehouse. How to optimize the stereoscopic warehouse management is a new task of the logistics management in CRC.SAP Company, originated in Germany, is an advocate of ERP Thought. The company's products SAP R / 3 system is the world's most successful ERP software, 80% of companies of the world's top 500 are using the system. Warehouse Management (WM) module of SAP R / 3 System, is designed for optimal management of the stereoscopic warehouse. How to use the advantage of the warehouse management system, in the management of the stereoscopic warehouse in CRC, is the main content of this study.There are two ways of warehouse management in SAP R/3 system. One is in the Materials Management (MM) module level; in this way the warehouse management is in the storage location levels of materials under the right amount of inventory management, which means for the material to monitor the each state stock in storage location. For example, the plate in the steel library, how much is in the state is receiving, how much is in a state of quality control failed, how much is in quality control can be used in the production of qualified status of requisitioned. Although the materials have a very detailed inventory control in the Materials Management module level, there is not an exact storage location of materials to control. Therefore, it is not enough for the stereoscopic warehouse management requirements in this way.The other one is in the Warehouse Management module level. This way is based on warehouse structure as the core to control the materials flow. The warehouse structure is divided into several levels such as storage location, warehouse number, storage type, storage section, storage bin and so on. Storage bin is the smallest storage spatial units. Storage bin also describes the specific location of material placed. The storage bin is usually derived from the coordinate system, the name of a storage bin often point to a coordinate value, for example, the storage bin 01-02-03 refers to the first row, the second tier of shelves and the third cargo grid. Storage bin which also can be divided into multiple quants, were not a physical storage location, but rather refers to the different batches of material in this storage bin. Through the exact division for the physical location of the warehouse in the system, there could be a precise management for each one of the smallest storage spatial units.You need to make a storage policy configuration for each material in the SAP R/3 system when you use the Warehouse Management module. Through the storage policy, the system could help you to choose the best location to storage the material. For example, for a fixed storage bin, for the next empty storage bin in the storage section, in bulk storage and so on. You also need to make a transport policy configuration for each material in the system. Through the transport policy, the system could help to tell you the material in which storage bin is the best to choose for transport. For example, first in first out, last in first out, for a fixed storage bin and so on.Through the Warehouse Management module of the stereoscopic warehouse management, when you are doing a warehousing work you need to make a transport order. It contains the type of material, quantity, out of storage bin, target storage bin and other information in the transport order. The storage policy and the transport policy could help the storage administrators reduce a number of workload. They just need to follow the system instructions to put or to get the material from the storage rack and count the number. They could put more focus on the accuracy of the physical operation.Warehouse Management module also provides a variety of stocktaking models: Annual stocktaking, continuous stocktaking and so on. This variety of stocktaking could be used alone and also could be combined together to use. There could be more rigorous monitoring for the inventory quantity. It also could adjust the workload; to avoid all the materials do the stocktaking in the year-end.In CRC it is currently using the Material Management module under the warehouse management, the management style needs to be replaced by Warehouse Management module for the stereoscopic warehouse. So the business processes require large-scale changes. In the new business processes, they need to add the transport order processes which are belong to the Warehouse Management module.We also need to change the business processes for the changes in the actual business. For example, the planner must manually create a bill of shipping notice to tell the warehouse workers which purchase order could be used in the past business process, but in the new process the planner could make this bill in the system; in the past, the workshop need to make a bill to tell the warehouse workers which material they need, but in the new business process, the workshop only need to make a mark in the production order, the requirement of material for the production will pass to the warehouse immediately, so the workers could prepare for the production order at once.The standard functions of the SAP R/3 system are basically able to meet the needs of the CRC stereoscopic warehouse management, but they can not achieve the company's specific business. For example, the management of the serial number material, pre-purchase order trans into formal purchase order, the problem of the system material package, the lend and the back material problem, the shortage of the material, the unit conversion and so on. This requires customized solutions to these problems, at the same time within the system make some secondary development and enhancement to achieve these functions.After the study of the control method of SAP R/3 system in the stereoscopic warehouse management, we can see that it is mature in the warehouse management module for the stereoscopic warehouse management. The SAP R/3 system control on the CRC stereoscopic warehouse management is able to: accurate control over the types and quantities for each one of the smallest storage spatial units in the warehouse, make the best choice on the control of each material movement in the warehouse, automatically assign tasks to reduce the workload of operation by the policy, increase the accuracy of business operations, offers a variety of stocktaking methods to meet the needs of a variety of stocktaking, though the secondary development and enhancement to achieve those specific business in CRC.With the help of SAP R/3 system, the CRC stereoscopic warehouse management may be under a full and effective control. Warehouse Management module should be the best solution for the CRC stereoscopic warehouse management. SAP R/3 system is also the best supplement for the CRC stereoscopic warehouse which is still under construction. This article aims through the research of the application of SAP system control in CRC stereoscopic warehouse management, to seek for the more streamlined, more effective management of the stereoscopic warehouse in the future.