Around SAP EWM
SAP EWM Best-Practices explained – What & How
Have you ever wondered what the SAP EWM Best Practices are, or how you can easily get access to them for learning or prototyping? You’re in the right place! In this blog post I compressed the answers to the questions that I had during the last years.
In this post, I’ll first break down what EWM Best Practices are, how they stack up against other options like the Fully Activated Appliance (FAA). In the 2nd part I will explain how you can access the best practices. In this context I’ll also show you a shortcut to get access to the best practices within minutes, not days.
What Exactly Are SAP EWM Best Practices?
Simply put, SAP EWM Best Practices (BPs in the following) are a set of preconfigured, standardized process scenarios delivered by SAP. They are designed to give you a head start by providing working warehouse processes supported by standard functionality and already validated by SAP.
Instead of starting from a blank slate, you begin with a solid foundation. Their primary purpose is to support:
• Training: A starting point, especially for beginners learning EWM.
• Prototyping: A reliable baseline for project activities within the specification phase (e.g. specification workshops).
The BPs are organized into ‘Scope Items,’ each identified with a unique three-character code (e.g., 4RS for Decentralized EWM – Replenishment).
What You Get with Every Scope Item:
1. Process Description/Overview
2. Process Flow Charts
3. Detailed Test Scripts
You can find all of this information in the SAP Process Navigator (select your solution, then navigate to Supply Chain → Warehousing). This is the hub for 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
When looking for pre-configured SAP content in the past, you might have heard a few different terms:
Rapid Deployment Solutions (RDS): This is SAP’s old approach from the 2010s. They were prepackaged bundles with limited scope, but they have since been discontinued. No need to worry about them today.
Best Practices (BPs): As discussed, these are single, pre-configured process scenarios (Scope Items) that can be individually added to an existing SAP system/client.
Fully Activated Appliance (FAA): This is a complete, pre-built sandbox system environment with all Best Practice processes—for EWM and all other modules—already activated (I feel there is not a 100% coverage of the BPs within the FAA but somewhere around 90%).
Takeaway: For anyone starting to learn or prototype with EWM now, the Fully Activated Appliance or selected Best Practices scope items are the options to focus on.
Installation
If you want to install the FAA on your on-premise system you must download a full system image. That also means you cannot easily import it into an existing system (you basically need a new/empty one or overwrite an existing one). The single Best Practices scope items, however, can be imported into an existing client (details further below).
There is an excellent blog written by Joerg Wolf if you want to learn more about the FAA and how to install it locally.
Alternatively, the FFA can also be ordered via SAP CAL (Cloud Appliance Library) but you need an account at one of the big hyperscalers (e.g. Azure, AWS). Running the system there is roughly 4$ per hour. So the hosting alone will cost you around 1k per month if you want to keep the instance up & running 10h per day. On top of this you need a CAL license after the 30-day trial which is at least another 600-700$ per month.
Based on my knowledge, the CAL option is the only one to get easy access to the best practices directly from the SAP (remember – the FAA pretty much covers the BPs). You can, however, add any number of best practice scope items to your local on-premise system.
The process is not straightforward but requires at least some SAP basis knowledge. These are the main steps on a high-level:
- Create a Best Practices client.
- Download the BP package (ZIP file) for your system release from OSS.
- Save the data and co-files from the ZIP on your application server.
- Import the files as a transport via transaction STMS.
- Import solution content and installation data via transaction /N/SMB/BBI.
- Select/Deselect the BP items you need.
- Activate your solution (with demo data).
I will not go into detail here as there is already a great blog explaining every single detail (shoutout 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 need patience for release-specific error messages, retries, and plenty 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 wrestling match with installation.
By using a hosted service (like the one offered by IDES24, who I collaborate with), you essentially get a fully provisioned Fully Activated Appliance system. So this does not only covers all EWM Best Practice scope items but also comprehensive Best Practice processes configured across all other SAP modules.
The entire process is simple and fast:
- Subscribe on the website (www.IDES24.de/en)
- Receive your credentials by email.
- Log in via your browser or add the connection details to your local SAP GUI.
That’s it! You’re ready to start learning or prototyping more or less immediately. I think this option is a fantastic time and money saver for some of you, allowing to concentrate entirely on mastering the EWM processes without the headache of system setup.
Send me a short mail to contact[at]wmexperts.online in case you would like to enjoy a 10% discount while at the same time supporting my blog/channel!
What’s Next?
That closes my quick insight into what the SAP EWM Best Practices are and how you can access them.
In the next post of this series, I’ll explain a proven way to learn the EWM basics using its Best Practice scope items. I think I’ve developed a step-by-step method that makes the learning experience incredibly sticky.
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