Introduction to SAP IBP Transportation Load Building (TLB) for Order-Based Planning

SAP IBP Response & Supply Planning – TLB Functionality

Overview

The Transportation Load Building (TLB) is a feature of the IBP Response & Supply Planning module (Order-based planning) and has been released with the 2208 IBP Update.

It groups planned distribution receipts on the same transportation lane & delivery date into transportation loads, selecting the optimal equipment type based on cost. To use TLB, a planning area must be created using the SAP7F template (Order-Based Planning Based on Flexible Master Data).

In IBP, the limits on resources are set through attributes within the master data type “Equipment Type Limit”, unlike in APO where this is done with profiles.

Process Flow

Master Data

1.) Equipment Type: Defines available transportation resources in the supply chain.

2.) Equipment Type Limit: It defines constraints on the transportation resources.

3.) Alternate Unit of Measure: It’s important to maintain conversion factors for the limit units defined on Equipment Type (For ex: weight (KG), volume (M3), and palette (PAL) in this case). When TLB runs, these factors are used to perform calculations internally to ensure loads generated are constrained based on the upper limits of “Equipment Types”.

4.) Transportation Group: Represents an individual or group managing transportation resource(s)

5.) Transportation Group Equipment Type: This is the combination of two MDTs defined previously, namely, “Transportation Group” and “Equipment Type”. Cost of the available transportation resource(s) or Equipment type is defined within this MDT.

6.) Transportation Lane: This builds the association between “Ship-From Location” – “Ship-To Location” – “Product” – “Mode of Transport”. Also, the priority of the lane(s) can be set here within this MDT. When assigning transportation lanes to a transportation group – it’s important that the same values exist for “Ship-From Location”, “Ship-To Location”, “Mode of Transport”, and “Purchase Organization”. TLB run will not create loads for a transportation group if it includes lanes that violate this rule.

Order Flow/ Transactional Data

• TLB clubs planned distribution receipts into transportation loads or load requisitions for product codes, on the same transportation lane & delivery dates. It selects the optimal equipment type considering the cost associated with it.
• Load Requisitions generated, can be changed or deleted only by TLB; other planning runs (supply & deployment planning) see them as fixed. These can be viewed in the “Planner workspace” app under the component “Transportation Load Building”.
• TLB doesn’t re-schedule or re-plan the requisitions, it copies the dates from the input requisitions and only adjusts quantities in case the split happens across multiple loads considering the limits on equipment types.
• Load Requisitions are multi-item requisitions – sharing the same order number but differentiated by line items. All these items can have different products but should share the same Ship-From, Ship-To, Mode Of Transport, and Purchase Organization.
• TLB doesn’t generate pegging relationship or gating factors for load requisitions. The corresponding supply planning run takes care of it.
• When TLB generates load requisitions, it gets an internal order number pre-fixed by “L”. After integration with the corresponding S4/ECC system, key completion happens, and this internal order gets replaced by S4/ECC order number.

Application Job Templates for TLB

a.) Order-Based Planning: Transportation Load Building Run

b.) Order-Based Planning: Generate Planning Objects for External Key Figures

c.) Real-Time Integration (Outbound):

Pre-requisite for order integration between IBP/OBP and S4 or ECC system: 

d.) Order-Based Planning: Unload or Delete Load Requisitions:

Scenario Set-up

• Based on the master data setup in S4, we have FG126 that needs to be transported from Plant 3710 to DC 1210. As per the initial setup, we have 3 STRs available at DC 1210.

• Details of the STR are mentioned below:

        STR1 = 10000333, DD = 13.12.2022, Qty = 100

        STR2 = 10000334, DD = 13.12.2022, Qty = 100

         STR3 = 10000335, DD = 14.12.2022, Qty = 100

• These STRs have been created directly in S/4 and transferred to IBP via RTI integration. In IBP, these orders can be viewed in “View Projected Stock” app.

• Upon integration, these STRs are published through to IBP with the mode of transport as “Default”.

• In IBP, we have 3 truck types (Equipment types) available to ship this product from 3710 to 1210. Each of these trucks has different limitations with respect to weight, volume, and the number of palettes each of them can hold.

Step 1: STRs can be viewed in IBP “View Projected Stock” app:

Step 2: Perform the TLB run, generate PLOBs for External KFs and view results in “Planner Workspace” app:

TLB component within “Planner Workspace” in IBP

TLB component within “Planner Workspace” in IBP

Step 3: Run RTI outbound to publish “Load Requisitions” from IBP to S/4