Integrated Business Processes with ERP Systems

CHAPTER 7

Inventory and Warehouse Management Processes

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing this chapter you will be able to:

1. Discuss the four goods movements associated with inventory management.
2. Describe the organizational levels in warehouse management.
3. Analyze the master data associated with warehouse management.
4. Identify and explain the key steps in the warehouse management processes.
5. Demonstrate how inventory and warehouse management processes are integrated with other processes.
6. Effectively use SAP^® ERP to execute the key steps in the warehouse management process.
7. Extract and analyze meaningful information about the warehouse management process utilizing SAP ERP.

In Chapter 1 we introduced inventory and warehouse management (IWM) processes, which are concerned with the storage and movement of materials within an organization. We indicated that IWM is closely related to the procurement, fulfillment, and production processes. Then, in Chapter 4 we introduced the underlying activity in inventory management (IM), namely, goods movement. Specifically, we introduced the four goods movements—goods receipt, goods issue, stock transfer, and transfer posting—as well as specific movement types. In our discussion of material movement in the preceding chapters, we focused on the simpler processes associated with IM. In addition, we explained that warehouse management (WM) involves processes that enable companies to manage materials more effectively using sophisticated techniques. ...