Basic vs Advanced eWM
eWM used to be usually installed on a separate machine and integrated with SAP ERP. It can be used directly with S/4 HANA 1610 . In fact, although it behaves like two systems in embedded eWM on S/4 HANA, an interesting situation occurs because the receiving and sending system are the same.
Basic EWM can actually be used as a replacement for the old WM ( Warehouse Management) module, as a product where you can manage basic warehouse processes without paying an additional license fee. Its basic features can also be found in the picture below. Functions that you can easily manage an average warehouse are offered to you out of the box.
Advanced EWM, on the other hand, offers much more than the Basic version, especially for warehouses with high mobility and wanting to increase productivity. Of course, these additional features are subject to a licensing on the basis of the delivery item (inbound + outbound) processed monthly in the Warehouse, and also the user license (logistics user) differs.
In my personal opinion, Labor Management, VAS (Value added Services) and Kitting in advanced eWM are very popular and although they are not indispensable functionalities for companies, Wave management is a very valuable feature that makes picking efficient. The efficiency it creates, especially in the e-commerce picking process, is quite high. Instead of picking each delivery individually , grouping them according to certain rules, creating a picking wave and assigning them to queues can greatly reduce the total number of steps taken in the warehouse.
Transportation Unit, which is a part of the Yard Management process that comes with Advanced eWM, can be an important feature according to company needs and processes. Especially in warehouses that make large shipments and make multiple deliveries by loading them on the same vehicle, speeding up the operations performed separately for each delivery . We can say that these transportation units are integrated in SAP TM.
In summary, if you don’t have a very complex warehouse process, Embedded Basic EWM will meet the needs of most companies. If you have a voluminous warehouse operationally and you have to create efficiency in warehouse processes, Advanced EWM will be suitable for you. Of course, when making this comparison, the decision should be made by comparing the gain from efficiency with the fees to be paid to the license and calculating the return.
