SAP EWM Best Practices Explained — (Guest Post & Video)
Author: Hendrik von WMEexperts
Have you ever wondered what the SAP EWM best practices are, or how you Access easily Access to learn Access them or create prototypes? Then you've come to the right place! In this blog post, I've summarized the answers to the questions I've asked myself over the past few years.
In this post, I'll first explain what EWM Best Practices are and how they stack up against other options like the Fully Activated Appliance (FAA). In the second part, I'll show you how to access these Best Practices. I'll also share a shortcut that gets you access to them in minutes, not days.
So, what exactly are SAP EWM Best Practices?
Simply put, SAP EWM Best Practices (hereafter "BPs") are a set of pre-configured, standardized process scenarios provided by SAP. They're designed to give you a head start by offering functional warehouse processes that are supported by standard features and already validated by SAP. Instead of starting from scratch, you kick off with a solid foundation. Their main purpose is to support: • Training: A starting point, especially for beginners learning EWM. • Prototyping: A reliable base for project activities during the specification phase (e.g., specification workshops).
The BPs are organized into "Scope Items," each identified by a unique three-digit code (e.g., 4RS for decentralized EWM – Replenishment).
What you get with each Scope Item:
1. Process Description/Overview
2. Process Flow Diagrams
3. Detailed Test Scripts
You can find all this info in the SAP Process Navigator (just select your solution and then navigate to Supply Chain → Warehousing). That's where you'll find all the detailed documentation, process models, and test scripts.
https://me.sap.com/processnavigator/SolS/EARL_SolS-055/2022?region=DE
BPs vs. RDS vs. Fully Activated Appliance
If you've looked for pre-configured SAP content in the past, you might have come across a few different terms:
Rapid Deployment Solutions (RDS): This is SAP's old approach from the 2010s. These were pre-built packages with limited scope, but they have since been discontinued. Today, you no longer need to worry about them.
Best Practices (BPs): As mentioned earlier, these are individual, preconfigured process scenarios (scope items) that can be added individually to an existing SAP system or client.
Fully Activated Appliance (FAA): This is a complete, preconfigured sandbox environment in which all best-practice processes—for EWM and all other modules—are already activated (in my opinion, the FAA does not cover 100% of the best practices, but rather about 90%).
Conclusion: For anyone who is just getting started with EWM or wants to create prototypes, the fully activated appliance or selected Best Practice Scope items are the options they should focus on.
Installation
If you want to install the FAA on your on-premise system, you'll need to download a complete system image. This also means you can't just import it into an existing system (you basically need a new/empty system or have to overwrite an existing one). However, individual Best Practice Scope Items can be imported into an existing client (more details below).
If you'd like to learn more about the FAA and its local office, there's an excellent blog by Joerg Wolf.
Alternatively, you can also order the FFA via SAP CAL (Cloud Appliance Library), but you'll need an account with one of the major hyperscalers (e.g., Azure, AWS). Running the system there costs about $4 per hour. So, just the hosting will set you back around $1,000 per month if you want to run the instance 10 hours a day. On top of that, after the 30-day trial, you'll need a CAL license, which will cost at least another $600 to $700 per month.
To my knowledge, the CAL option is the only way to get easy Access to Best Practices directly from SAP (keep in mind that the FAA largely covers the BPs). However, you can add as many Best Practice scope items as you want to your local on-premise system.
The process isn't super straightforward and requires at least some basic SAP knowledge. Here are the key high-level steps:
1. Create a Best Practices client.
2. Download the BP package (ZIP file) for your system version from OSS.
3. Save the data and co-files from the ZIP file to your application server.
4. Import the files as a transport via transaction STMS.
5. Import the solution content and installation data via transaction /N/SMB/BBI.
6. Select or deselect the required BP items.
7. Activate your solution (with demo data).
I won't go into detail here, since there's already a great blog post that explains every single detail (a big thank you to Hanuma Rupakula and Mahesh Sardesai (LINK)).
My honest opinion is that this process will keep even an experienced Basis expert busy for at least 1-2 days. You'll need patience for release-specific error messages, retries, and lots of manual steps.
The Shortcut
I promised you a 10-minute option, and here it is – the alternative for consultants, trainers, or students who want to focus on the process, not the struggle of installation.
By using a hosted service (like the one from IDES24, which I collaborate with), you essentially get a fully provisioned, fully activated appliance system. This covers not only all EWM Best Practice items but also comprehensive Best Practice processes configured for all other SAP modules.
The whole process is quick and easy:
Sign up on the website (www.IDES24.de).
You'll receive your Access details via email.
Log in via your browser or add the connection details to your local SAP GUI.
That's it! You can now more or less immediately start learning or prototyping. I think this option is a fantastic time and money saver for some of you, as you can fully focus on learning EWM processes without having to worry about system setup.
Shoot me a quick email at contact[at]wmexperts.online if you want to get a 10% discount and support my blog/channel at the same time!
What's next?
This wraps up my quick dive into SAP EWM Best Practices and how to use them.
In the next post in this series, I'll share a proven method for learning EWM basics using the Best Practice scope items. I believe I've developed a step-by-step approach that makes learning incredibly easy.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel youtube.com/@sapewm or the newsletter so you don't miss the next video!
Author: Hendrik von WMexperts
