Chapter 13 Physical Inventory

• Physical inventory is performed for products and handling units (HUs) as needed in the warehouse.
• Physical inventory methods used include storage bin-specific and product-specific.

Physical Inventory Procedures

• Cycle counting, periodic, and continuous physical inventory procedures are used for new warehouse setup in EWM.
• Periodic physical inventory is performed at the end of the fiscal year.
• Continuous physical inventory is performed at any time during the fiscal year.
• Cycle counting is performed based on A, B, C, and D categorization of products.

Counting Process

• When a warehouse worker finds a counting difference, they should enter an exception code.
• The exception code helps determine the follow-up function for creating the physical inventory document and adjusting the book inventory.
• The two forms of counting are cycle and periodic.

Difference Analyzer

• Value-based tolerances control the tolerance group when using the difference analyzer for variance approval.
• Value-based tolerances are set for posting differences to SAP S/4HANA using Transaction /SCWM/DIFF_ANALYZER.

Storage Bin-Specific Physical Inventory

• Applicable physical inventory procedures for storage bin-specific physical inventory include: zero-stock, low-stock, and ad hoc.
• Storage bin-specific inventory is required for zero-stock and low-stock check.

Physical Inventory Document Status

• Physical inventory documents can only be deleted if the status is Inactive, Active, or Counted.

Physical Inventory with RF Devices

• Benefits of using RF devices over paper-driven counts: no printing required, no manual entry, real-time recording, and accurate data entry through scanned data verification.

Stock Comparison

• Transaction /SCWM/ERP_STOCKCHECK is used to perform stock comparison between SAP S/4HANA and EWM.
• This transaction creates a physical inventory document in SAP S/4HANA to post differences.

Low-Stock Check vs. Zero-Stock Check

• The main difference is that zero-stock check occurs when the pick quantity and storage bin quantities are the same.
• Low-stock physical inventory documents are created during stock removal confirmation if the quantity goes below a set limit.
• Zero-stock physical inventory documents are created when the storage bin becomes empty after stock removal confirmation.

Physical Inventory Area

• The following can be defined in a physical inventory area: putaway physical inventory, low-stock physical inventory, and HU count.
• The physical inventory area is set up in Customizing and assigned to the activity area.

Printing Physical Inventory Documents

• Printing is possible when the physical inventory document status is Active.

Standard Processes Assigned to Reason Codes

• Inbound delivery is not a standard process assigned to user-defined reason codes.
• Standard processes include: WT Warehouse Task, STO Pending Claim from Stock Transfer, COR Correction, CO Customer Claim, and QI Inspection Document.

Physical Inventory Area Assignment

• A physical inventory area must be assigned to activity areas to create a physical inventory document.
• Activity areas created for activity type INVE (inventory) need to be assigned to perform the physical inventory process.

Sample-Based Inventory

• Sample-based inventory is performed with an external system using ES External Procedure (product-specific inventory) and EL External Procedure (storage bin-specific inventory).

Physical Inventory Document Creation

• Physical inventory documents can be created specific to product or storage bin.
• Product-specific physical inventory counts the product across all storage bins.
• Storage bin-specific physical inventory counts all products in a storage bin.

Activity Areas

• Activity areas are used to perform physical inventory.
• Activity area is a logical grouping of storage bins that can belong to one or multiple storage types that are defined for picking, putaway, physical inventory, stock change, and replenishment.