SAP TM Planning Configuration

SAP Transportation Management Management (SAP TM) - Release 9.0 Document Version: 1.3 – 2014-02-20

White Paper SAP TM Planning Configuration SAP AGS Business Solution Architecture Ekaterina Tarchinskaya Rodion Schuster Christopher Suerie

Typographic Conventions

Type Style

Description

Example

Words or characters quoted from the screen. These include field names, screen titles, pushbuttons labels, labels, menu names, menu paths, and menu options. Textual cross-references to other documents.

Example

Emphasized Emphasized words or expressions.

EXAMPLE

Technical names of system objects. These include report names, program names, transaction codes, table names, and key concepts of a programming language when they are surrounded by body text, for example, SELECT and INCLUDE.

Example

Output on the screen. This includes file and directory names and their paths, messages, names of variables and parameters, source text, and names of installation, upgrade and database tools.

Example

Exact user entry. These are words or ch aracters that you enter in the system exactly as they appear in the documentation.

Variable user entry. Angle brackets indicate that you replace these words and characters with appropriate entries to make entries in the system. Keys on the keyboard, for example,

EXAMPLE

F 2 or E N T E R .

Icons

Caution Example Note Recommendation Syntax

© 2014 2014 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. 2

White Paper SAP TM Planning Configuration

Typographic Conventions

Type Style

Description

Example

Words or characters quoted from the screen. These include field names, screen titles, pushbuttons labels, labels, menu names, menu paths, and menu options. Textual cross-references to other documents.

Example

Emphasized Emphasized words or expressions.

EXAMPLE

Technical names of system objects. These include report names, program names, transaction codes, table names, and key concepts of a programming language when they are surrounded by body text, for example, SELECT and INCLUDE.

Example

Output on the screen. This includes file and directory names and their paths, messages, names of variables and parameters, source text, and names of installation, upgrade and database tools.

Example

Exact user entry. These are words or ch aracters that you enter in the system exactly as they appear in the documentation.

Variable user entry. Angle brackets indicate that you replace these words and characters with appropriate entries to make entries in the system. Keys on the keyboard, for example,

EXAMPLE

F 2 or E N T E R .

Icons

Caution Example Note Recommendation Syntax



Document History

Version

Date

Change

1.0

2013-12-14

Initial version of White Paper

1.1

2014-01-16

1st review

1.2

2014-01-30

Final review (internal release)

1.3

2014-02-20

Reviewed version after internal release



Table of Contents

1

About This Document ............................................................ ................................................................. ....... 6

2

Transportation Planning ....................................................... ................................................................. ....... 7

2.1

Selection Profiles ..................................................................................................................................................... 8 2.1.1 Selection Profile Attributes ............................... ................................. ................................ .................... 8 2.1.2 Geographical Selection Attributes ...................................................................................................... 10 2.1.3 Time-Related Selection Attributes ......................................................... ................................. ............. 11 2.1.4 Additional Selection Attributes.............................. ................................. ................................. ............ 17

2.2

Planning Profile ...................................................................................................................................................... 19 2.2.1 General Data .......................................................................................................................................... 19 2.2.2 Planning Horizon ................................................................................................................................... 19 2.2.3 Profile Assignments ................................ ................................ ................................. ............................. 26 2.2.4 Business Document Type .................................................................................................................... 28 2.2.5 Manual Planning and Manual Planning Strategies................................ ................................ .............30 2.2.6 Scheduling ............................................................................................................................................. 32

2.3

2.4

2.2.7 Check ..................................................................................................................................................... 34 2.2.8 Loading and Unloading Duration ................................................. ................................. ....................... 35 2.2.9 Parallel Processing Profiles............................... ................................. ................................ .................. 37 Optimizer Settings.............................. ................................ ................................. ................................ .................. 38 2.3.1 General data .......................................................................................................................................... 38 2.3.2 Planning Strategies............................. ............................... ................................. ................................. . 38 2.3.3 Transportation Proposal ..................................................................................................................... 40 2.3.4 Optimizer Runtime .............................. ............................... ................................. ................................. . 45 2.3.5 Rough Planning and Capacity Constraints ....................................................... ................................. . 47 2.3.6 Transshipment Locations ....................................................................................................................50 Planning Costs Settings ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 52 2.4.1 2.4.2 2.4.3 2.4.4 2.4.5 2.4.6

2.5

General Data .......................................................................................................................................... 52 Freight Unit Costs ................................................................................................................................. 52 Direct Shipment Options............................. ................................. ................................. ....................... 55 Means-of-Transport Settings .............................................................................................................. 56 Costs Functions .................................................................................................................................... 74 Cost Values in the Optimizer Explanation Tool ..................................... ................................. ............ 75

2.6

Carrier Selection Settings............................. ................................ ................................ ................................. ....... 78 2.5.1 General Data .......................................................................................................................................... 78 2.5.2 Settings for General Carrier Selection ............................................. ................................. .................. 79 2.5.3 Settings for Carrier Selection for Tendering .................................................... ................................. . 92 2.5.4 Settings for Carrier Selection for Direct Shipment ............................... ................................. ............ 93 Capacity Selection Settings.................................................................................................................................. 94

2.7

2.6.1 General Data............................. ............................... ................................. ................................. ............ 94 2.6.2 Capacity Selection ................................................................................................................................ 94 Incompatibility Settings ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ........96 2.7.1 2.7.2

General Data............................. ............................... ................................. ................................. ............ 96 Incompatibility Selection ............................. ................................. ................................. ....................... 97

© 2014 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. 4


3

References.............................................................. ................................................................. ..................... 99



1

About This Document

The main objective of this document is to describe in a setting-by-setting manner two profiles - the selection profile and the planning profile - which mainly configure the planning process in SAP Transportation Management (SAP TM). It is evident that both profiles and their proper definition play an important role in overall transportation planning in SAP TM and affects its outcome. Hence, this paper represents an attempt to gather in single document the information on planning-related settings. This document does not intend to provide all details and capabilities of transportation planning within SAP TM. Instead, it gives some insights about the selection profile and the planning profile and describes the settings based on simple examples. Therefore, this document is of interest to all SAP TM users. After reading the document at hand, the reader will have a better understanding of how to adjust the selection and the planning profiles in SAP TM. As it is mentioned in the title, the settings described and examples used in this document are based on the SAP TM release 9.0. Nevertheless, most of the content and settings described are relevant and present in the descending and ascending releases of the SAP TM release 9.0. Follow-on versions of this document will reflect the changes related to the new SAP TM releases.

The content of this document is not part of SAP product documentation. SAP does not guarantee the correctness of the information provided. You may not infer any product documentation claims against SAP based on this information.



2

Transportation Planning

One of the intentions of SAP TM is to provide its users with the ability to plan and optimize their transportation activities. The planning process can be determined by using the most cost effective and timely transportation routes from source to destination locations while considering numerous constraints, costs, and penalties. Which constraints are relevant and how costs and penalties are to be calculated in a specific scenario largely depends on the scenario itself. Therefore, one should carefully and th oughtfully model the scenario and adjust planning settings in order to sufficiently map all the business requirements into the system and obtain in return the most accurate planning and optimization results which would correspond to the needs of SAP TM users. In SAP TM, the planning process relies on the following three pillars: •

Master Data

Master data objects for planning contain transportation network (locations, transportation lanes, transportation zones, etc.) and resources. •

Selection Profiles and Settings

Selection settings are used to specify what should be planned in a certain scenario. For example, selection settings outline the geography for which a transportation plan shall be created. •

Planning Profiles and Settings

Planning settings are the core of the planning process and specify how it is to be executed. For example, a planner may only be allowed to schedule standard trucks and not a helicopter for emergency transports. This information dictates how the actual transportation is to be carried out. Which resources can be used and at what cost is specified in the planning settings. The document will cover only two of the stated planning pillars. Therefore, it is structured as follows. In Section 2.1 selection profiles and settings are examined. Sections 2.2 - 2.9 deal with planning profiles and settings. Section 3 outlines references and SAP Notes used in this document.



2.1

Selection Profiles

In the following section of this document, the configuration settings of selection profiles and selection attributes are presented.

2.1.1

Selection Profile Attributes

2.1.1.1

General Data

General Data

Value

Selection Profile

Text Value

Description

Text Value

Maximum Number of Selected Objects

Natural Number

Table 1 General Data Settings in Selection Profile Attributes

The selection profile is a user-specific grouping of business documents considered for planning. What objects relevant for planning are selected largely depends on the context of the planning scenario. These objects can be freight units, freight unit stages, freight orders, freight bookings, and transportation units. The system takes into account the selection profile during manual planning, VSR optimization, and carrier selection. The selection profile can be created via the path menu SAP NetWeaver Business Client by choosing Application Administration  Planning  Selection Profiles  Create Selection Profile.

In the General Data area, the unique name and the description of the selection profile are defined.

In the Maximum Number of Selected Objects , one can define the maximum number of business documents the system is to take into account during planning.

2.1.1.2

Profile Assignments

Profile Assignments

Value

Time-Related Sel. Attributes

List Selection

Geographical Sel. Attributes

List Selection



Profile Assignments

Value

Additional Sel. Attributes

List Selection

Table 2 Profile Assignments Settings in Selection Profile Attributes

Figure 1 Selection Profile Assignments

In the selection profile, one can define the selection attributes by which the system is to retrieve the business documents for planning. It is possible to assign the following selection attributes to the selection profile (Figure 1): 

Time-Related Selection Attributes With this profile, one can define the demand horizon. The time-related selection attributes can be created via the menu path SAP NetWeaver Business Client by choosing Application Administration  Selection Profile Attributes Create Time-Related Selection Attributes.



 Time-Related Selection Attributes 

Geographical Selection Attributes With this profile, one can define source and destination locations for the selection of the business documents. The geographical selection attributes can be created via the menu path SAP NetWeaver Business Client by choosing Application Administration  Selection Profile Attributes  Geographical Selection Attributes  Create Geographical Selection Attributes.



Additional Selection Attributes With this profile, one can define additional attributes for database queries. The additional selection attributes can be created via the menu path SAP NetWeaver Business Client by choosing Application Administration  Selection Profile Attributes  Additional Selection Attributes  Create Additional Selection Attributes.

In the system, it is possible to create these three attributes independent of each other and the selection profile. Also, it is then possible to reuse the same selection attributes in different selection profiles. The selection profile retrieves objects relevant for planning according to settings specified in the attached selection attributes.



2.1.2

Geographical Selection Attributes

2.1.2.1

General Data

General Data

Value

Geographical Sel. Attributes

Text Value

Description

Text Value

Both Locations

Select/Deselect

Table 3 General Data Settings in Geographical Selection Attributes

In the Geographical Sel. Attributes and the Description, the unique name and the description of the geographical profile are defined.

Both Locations setting defines whether the selected business object must comply with the selected geographical criteria of source and destination selections, or it is sufficient if only their source or destination matches its criterion. The source/destination selection settings are described below.

2.1.2.2

Selection

Selection

Value

Source Locations

List Selection

Source Zones

List Selection

Destination Locations

List Selection

Destination Zones

List Selection

Table 4 Selection Settings in Geographical Selection Attributes

The geographical profile consists of four sections: 

Source Locations



Source Zones



Destination Locations



Destination Zones



Within each section, one c an define an inclusive or exclusive set of location values that determine which freight units or other planning-related objects are relevant for planning. Each section allows to define specific values or ranges of values, using the logical greater than, less than, or not equal to, to provide precise selection for planning.

2.1.3

Time-Related Selection Attributes

2.1.3.1

General Data

General Data

Value

Time-Related Sel. Attributes

Text Value

Description

Text Value

Table 5 General Data Settings in Time-Related Selection Attributes

In the Time-Related Sel. Attributes and the Description, the unique name and the description of the time selection profile are defined.

2.1.3.2

Demand Horizon

Demand Horizon

Value

Absolute or Relative Horizon

Use Absolute Horizon Use Relative Horizon

Round Horizon to Full Days

Select/Deselect

Time Zone for Rounding the Horizon

List Selection

Factory Cal. For Offs./Dur. Calc.

List Selection

Table 6 Demand Horizon Settings in Time-Related Selection Attributes

Within the time-related selection attributes, one can define the demand horizon that is assigned to the selection profile. The demand horizon outlines dates for pickup and delivery. The system then c hooses planning-related objects whose pickup date and time and/or delivery date and time lie within the relevant demand horizon.

Absolute or Relative Horizon allows to define the demand horizon as absolute or relative.



With the absolute horizon option, one can define the demand horizon precisely by maintaining the exact start and end date and time of the demand horizon. Using the absolute horizon, one can specify explicit dates for the pickup horizon and/or the delivery horizon. If using the relative horizon option, the demand horizon is defined not with precise dates but instead with the specified duration duration (in days) starting from the current date. If the demand horizon is not desired to start from the current date, it is possible to use an offset. The general logic of these features is described more in detail in Section 2.2.2 Section 2.2.2 Planning Horizon.

complete days. In Round Horizon to Full Days specifies whether or not the system rounds the demand horizon to complete the time-related selection attributes, this setting is available in case relative demand horizon is selected. Therefore, if this setting is set, the first day of the relevant demand horizon starts at 00:00 and the last day rounds till 23:59 o’clock. Also o’clock. Also to keep in mind, the Round Horizon to Full Days setting is set by default. .

Time Zone for Rounding the Horizon specifies the time zone in which the horizon is to be calculated. In the timerelated selection attributes, attributes, this setting is available in case relative demand horizon is selected.

Factory Cal. For Offs/Dur.Calc. If a factory calendar is specified, then the system takes into account non-working days when calculating the start of the horizon according to the calendar. In this case, the planning horizon always begins on a working day. In the time-related selection selection attributes, this setting is available in case relative demand horizon is selected.

2.1.3.3

Pick-up

Pick-up

Value

Ignore Pick-up

Select/Deselect Select/Deselect

For Relative Horizon

Value

Pick-up in Days

Time Value (hh:mm)

Additional Duration (hh:mm)

Time Value (hh:mm)

Offset Direction

Past Future

Offset in Days

Time Value (hh:mm)

Additional Offset (hh:mm)

Time Value (hh:mm)

For Absolute Horizon

Value

Start Date

Date



Pick-up

Value

Start Time

Date

End Date

Date

End Time

Date

Table 7 Pick-up Settings in Time-Related Time-Related Selection Attributes

Within the time-related selection attributes, it is possible to define a separate pick-up horizon and delivery horizon. Assigned checkbuttons Ignore Pick-up/Ignore Delivery allow choosing whether both horizons are used in the selection, only one of them, or neither.

In case the Use Relative Horizon Horizon (Figure 2) option 2) option is selected, the following settings are enabled in the profile: 

Pick-up in Days In the system, the pick-up demand horizon is specified not in precise dates and time but by entering the duration (in days) starting from the current date and time.



Additional Duration (hh:mm) In the system, it is possible to determine the precision of the planning horizon down to hours and minutes. The logic of how additional duration is added to the specified horizon can be checked in Section 2.2.2 more in detail.



Offset Direction The Offset direction specifies in what direction – backward or forward – in relation to the current date the offset duration is calculated. The logic of this setting is described more in detail in Section 2.2.2.



Offset in Days In case it is not desired to start the demand horizon from the current date, one can determine the offset. The logic of how the offset is added to specified horizon can be checked in Section 2.2.2.



Additional Offset (hh:mm) With this setting, one can define the precision of the offset duration down to hours and minutes. The logic of how the additional offset is added to specified horizon and defined offset can be checked in detail in Section 2.2.2.



Figure 2 Relative Horizon fo r Pick-up Setting in Time-Related Time-Related Selection Attributes

In case the Use Absolute Horizon (Figure 3) option 3) option is selected, the following settings are enabled in the profile which allow defining the precise start and end dates and time for the demand horizon: 

Start Date



Start Time



End date



End Time

Figure 3 Absolute Horizon for Pick-up Setting in Time-Related Time-Related Selection Attributes

2.1.3.4

Delivery

Delivery

Value

Ignore Delivery

Select/Deselect Select/Deselect



Delivery

Value

For Relative Horizon

Value

Delivery in Days

Natural Number


Time Value (hh:mm)

Offset Direction

Past Future

Offset in Days

Natural Number


Time Value (hh:mm)

For Absolute Horizon

Value

Start Date

Date

Start Time

Date

End Date

Date

End Time

Date

Table 8 Delivery Settings in Time-Related Selection Attributes

The settings for the delivery demand horizon definition have the same logic as the setting for the pick-up demand horizon descried above.

2.1.3.5

Other Settings

Other Settings

Value

Use Index Time for Selection

Do Not Use Index Time; Use All Stop Times Use Index Time of Stop

Comb. Of Pick-Up and Delivery Windows

Combination with AND Combination with OR Comb. Pick-Up Wind. with Sce Loc., Del. Wind. with Dst. Loc.



Table 9 Other Settings in Time-Related Selection Attributes

Use Index Time for Selection enables the selection of freight documents according to index times of stops (pickup/delivery times) specified in these freight documents. The following options are available: 

Do Not Use Index Time; Use All Stop Times With this setting, the system does not use the index time for selection.



Use Index Time of Stop With this setting, the system selects freight documents according to the index time which represents the earliest time of other stop times in freight documents.

Comb. Of Pick-Up and Delivery. When both the pick-up horizon and the delivery horizon are defined, one can determine how these horizons can be used in combination: inclusive or exclusive. The following options are available: 

Combination with AND When this method is chosen, a freight document is selected based on two conditions:



o

If at least one time element of the pick-up window, such as the start of the requested pick-up date, falls into the pick-up window and

o

If at least one time element of the delivery window, such as the end of the acceptable delivery date, falls into the delivery time window.

Combination with OR When this method is chosen, a freight document is selected based on two conditions: o

If at least one time element of the pick-up window, such as the start of the requested pick-up date, falls into the pick-up window or

o

If at least one time element of the delivery window, such as the end of the acceptable delivery date, falls into the delivery time window.



Comb. Pick-Up Wind. with Sce Loc., Del. Wind. with Dst. Loc. When this method is chosen, a freight document is selected based on two conditions: o

If both time elements of the pick-up window, such as the start and the end of the requested pick-up date, falls into the pick-up window and

o

If both time elements of the delivery window, such as the start and the end of the acceptable delivery date, falls into the delivery time window

Recommendation for the VSR optimizer setup In order to speed up the optimization process and relax th e computational effort for the VSR optimizer, it would be better to restrict the demand horizon to a short amount of time, in order to minimize the number of alternatives the optimizer has to evaluate.



2.1.4

Additional Selection Attributes

2.1.4.1

General Data

General Data

Value

Additional Sel. Attributes

Text Value

Description

Text Value

Planned Requirements

Include in Selection Exclude in Selection

Blocked Documents

Include in Selection Exclude in Selection

Table 10 General Data Settings in Additional Selection Attributes

In the Additional Sel. Attributes and the Description, the unique name and the description of the additional selection profile are defined.

In the Planned Requirements and the Blocked Documents, one can define by Include in Selection/Exclude in Selection settings whether or not planned requirements and blocked business documents (freight units, freight orders and bookings) are to be selected for planning.

2.1.4.2

Selection

Selection

Value

Selection Values

List Selection

Condition-Based Filtering

List Selection

Table 11 Selection Settings in Additional Selection Attributes

In the selection section, one can either use predefined conditions with the Selection Values setting (Figure 4) or specify its own conditions with the Condition-Based Filtering. If it is preferred to use own conditions, then it should be defined beforehand. It can be done in SAP NetWeaver Business Client by choosing Application Administration  General Settings


 Condition  Create Condition.


Figure 4 Selection Objects in Additional Selection Attributes



2.2

Planning Profile

In the following section, the settings of SAP TM planning profile divided into categories as it is done in the system will be presented.

2.2.1

General Data

General Data

Value

Planning Profile

Text value

Description

Text value Table 12 General Data Settings in Planning Profile

The planning profile can be created via the menu path in SAP NetWeaver Business Client by choosing Application Administration  Planning  Planning Profiles

 Create Planning Profile.

In the Genera l Data, the unique name and the description of the planning profile are defined.

2.2.2

Planning Horizon

Planning Horizon

Value

Duration in Days

Natural Number


Time Value (hh:mm)

Offset Direction

Future Past

Offset in Days

Natural Number


Time Value (hh:mm)

Factory Cal. For Offs/Dur.Calc.

List Selection

Round Horizon

Select/Deselect

Time Zone for Rounding the Horizon

List Selection

Table 13 Planning Horizon Settings in Planning Profile

Planning Horizon setting represents the interval of time where all transports have to be planned. In other words, planning horizon defines a time frame in which new freight documents (i.e. planning results) have to be created. During planning, the VSR optimizer takes into consideration all defined in a freight unit dates (highlighted with the red rectangle in Figure 5); thereby, these dates have to be kept in mind while specifying the planning horizon.



When the freight unit is planned, planned departure and arrival dates are inserted by the VSR optimizer into the special field in the freight unit (highlighted with the green rectangle in Figure 5).

Figure 5 Freight Unit Dates Settings in Freight Unit

There could be the case that, for example, selected for planning freight units are outside of the planning horizon. Whether or not such freight units get planned depends on what dates - acceptable or requested - are defined. The freight unit might have two time windows defined (Figure 5, Figure 37). The first time window is the acceptable time window (defined by the acceptable start date and the acceptable end date). This time window is a hard constraint, i.e. it must not be violated. If a t least one of the acceptable dates (i.e. the start date or the end date) is outside of the defined planning horizon, these freight units cannot be planned at all. The second time window is the requested time window (defined by the requested start date and the requested end date). This time window is a soft constraint, i.e. it should not be violated but it can be violated in order to achieve a freight unit to be planned in favor of leaving it unplanned. If the requested dates are outside of the planning horizon, the optimizer might plan such freight units anyway. In this case these freight units would be planned inside the planning horizon; however, some penalty costs might occur (see Section 2.4 for more details).

Duration in Days. In the system, the planning horizon is specified by entering the duration (in days) starting from the current date and the current point of time. This means that if the planning horizon is set to 1 day and the current time is exactly 13:00 o’clock, then the actual duration of the planning horizon would be counted from 13:00 o’clock of the current point of time till 13:00 o’clock tomorrow (in case additional duration, offset and rounding have not been defined). Figure 6 depicts the calculation logic for the Duration in Days setting.



Figure 6 Planning Horizon Duration in Days

Additional Duration (hh:mm) . This setting allows extending the planning horizon duration defined in days in the previous setting by the additional duration defined in hours and minutes. Taking the abovementioned example where the planning horizon ends at 13:00 o’clock on the next day, one can prolong the planning horizon duration till 17:00, for example, by defining the additional duration of 4 hours (04:00). Therefore, the additional duration defined here is counted from the end time of the planning horizon. Figure 7 depicts the calculation logic of this setting.

Figure 7 Planning Horizon with Defined Additional Duration

Offset Direction specifies in which direction – backward or forward – in relation to the current date the offset duration is calculated. The following options of the offset directions are available: 

Future The future offset direction allows obtaining planning results in the future with the starting point of the planning horizon also defined in the future.



Past The past offset direction allows shifting the starting point of the planning horizon to the past. This means that it is possible to obtain planning results dated to the past.

Note The only situation in which it makes sense to set the offset direction to Past is in a test environment. In this case, the user avoids creating a new test data, and can use the past test. In a productive system, there are no feasible reasons to perform planning in the past. Let's consider several examples to demonstrate the configuration of the offset direction, If the current date is 01.01.2014, defined offset in days is 5, and offset direction value is Future , then the start of the planning horizon would start from 05.01.2014 (Figure 8). If offset direction value is set to Past, then the planning horizon would start from 27.12.2013 (Figure 9).



Figure 8 Offset Direction

Figure 9 Planning Horizon with Past Offset Direction

Offset in Days. In case it is not desired to start planning from the current date, one can determine the offset. To keep in mind, the calculation of the planning horizon starts from the current point of time. Figure 10 and Figure 11 illustrate two different calculation logics of the planning horizon: 1) when the offset is defined; 2) when the offset is defined together with the additional duration.



Figure 10 Planning Horizon with Defined Offset

Figure 11 Planning Horizon with Defined Additional Duration and Offset

Additional Offset (hh:mm) works the same as Additional Duration (hh:mm) setting described above. Figure 12 and Figure 13 illustrate two different calculation logics of the planning horizon: 1) when the offset and the additional offset are defined; 2) when the offset, the additional offset are defined together with the additional duration.



Figure 12 Planning Horizon with Defined Offset and Additional Offset

Figure 13 Planning Horizon with Defined Additional Duration, Offset and Additional Offset

However, optionally it is possible to define only additional offset without specifying an offset value in days in the Offset in Days setting. In this case, the overall offset is equal only to the duration defined in Additional Offset (hh:mm) setting. Figure 14 and Figure 15 illustrate two different calculation logics of the planning horizon: 1) when only the additional offset is defined; 2) when the additional offset is defined together with the additional duration.



Figure 14 Planning Horizon with Defined Additional Offset

Figure 15 Planning Horizon with Defined Additional Duration and Additional Offset

Factory Cal. For Offs/Dur.Calc. If a factory calendar is specified, then the system takes into account non-working days when calculating the start of the horizon according to the c alendar. In this case, the planning horizon always begins on a working day. The factory calendar affects the duration of the planning horizon. That is, if, for example, the planning horizon is set to 250 days and the specified factory calendar has 5 working days, then the overall duration of the planning horizon extends to approximately one year.



Round Horizon setting specifies whether or not the system is to round the planning horizon to complete days. As the start of the planning horizon is defined from the current point of time and date, then this setting rounds the start and the end days of the planning horizon to complete days. Thus, the first day starts at 00:00 and the last day of the planning horizon rounds till 23:59 o’clock. Going back to the very first example of the planning horizon, round horizon means that if the planning horizon is set to 1 day and the current time is exactly 13:00 o’clock, then the actual duration of the planning horizon would be counted from 00:00 o’clock of the current day till 23:59 o’clock tomorrow (in case additional duration, offset and rounding have not been defined). Regardless of the fact that the Additional Duration (hh:mm), Offset, or Additional Offset (hh:mm) settings are defined, if the Round Horizon setting is set, one has the complete days inside the planning horizon. Also to keep in mind, the Round Horizon setting is set by default in the planning profile.

Time Zone for Rounding the Horizon specifies the time zone in which planning horizon is to be calculated.

Recommendation for the VSR optimizer setup In order to speed up VSR optimization process and relax th e computational effort for the optimizer, it would be better to restrict the planning horizon to a short amount of time, in order to minimize the number of alternatives the optimizer has to evaluate. In addition, when having scheduled vehicles, a shorter planning horizon reduces the number of schedules resulting from the departure calendar, which furthermore decreases the number of alternatives to consider.

2.2.3

Profile Assignments

Profile Assignments

Value

Selection Profile for Freight Orders

List Selection

Selection Profile for Freight Bookings

List Selection

Capacity Selection Settings

List Selection

Optimizer Settings

List Selection

Planning Costs Settings

List Selection

Incompatibility Settings

List Selection

Carrier Selection Settings

List Selection Table 14 Profile Assignments Settings in Planning Profile

In the Profile Assignments , all planning-related settings profiles can be defined which the system takes into account while performing planning and finding the optimal solution for transports. These profiles (Figure 16) are used to influence and control the outcome of the VSR optimizer in both interactive and background planning. The planning profile might consist of six settings profiles: selection profiles, capacity selection settings, optimizer settings, planning costs settings, carrier selection settings. Similar to the selection attributes, these settings can



be maintained independently of each other and the planning profile. Moreover, they can be reused in different planning profiles.

Figure 16 Link between Planning Profile and Settings Profiles

The following profiles can be included into planning profile: 

Selection Profiles The selection profiles are a user-specific grouping of business documents that is considered during transportation planning. In the planning profile two different selection profiles can be specified: one is for the selection of freight orders, another one – for the selection of freight bookings. Additionally, the selection profile for freight units and transportation units can be defined in the transportation cockpit layout (Figure 17).

Figure 17 Selection Profiles Settings in the Transportation Cockpit Settings

Note The entries in the Transportation Cockpit Profile and Layout Screen (Figure 17) overwrite the entries in the planning profile. If nothing is maintained in the Transportation Cockpit Profile and Layout Screen, the values from the planning profile are taken.



Capacity Selection Settings The capacity selection profile is a user-specific grouping of settings related to the section of required for planning capacities such as resources. The capacity selection settings can be created via the menu path in SAP NetWeaver Business Client by choosing Application Administration Create Capacity Selection Settings.



 Planning  Planning

Profile Settings

 Capacity

Selection Settings 

Optimizer Settings The optimizer settings profile represents a bundle of the VSR optimizer- and transportation proposals-related settings that are considered during the optimizer run.



The optimizer settings can be created via the menu path in SAP NetWeaver Business Client Client by choosing Application Administration Administration  Planning  Planning Profile Settings  Optimizer Settings  Create Optimizer Settings. 

Planning Costs Settings The planning costs settings define freight-unit-dependent freight-unit-dependent and means-of-transport-dependent means-of-transport-dependent costs which are used to control the outcome of the VSR optimizer. The planning costs settings can be created via the menu path in SAP NetWeaver Business Business Client by choosing Application Administration Administration  Planning  Planning Profile Settings  Planning Costs Settings  Create Planning Costs Settings.



Incompatibility Incompatibility Settings In the incompatibility incompatibility settings, one can define attributes that prevent freight units from being combined into one delivery. The incompatibility settings can be created via the menu path in SAP NetWeaver Business Client by choosing Application Administration Administration Incompatibility Incompatibility Settings.



 Planning  Planning

Profile Settings

Incompatibility Settings  Create  Incompatibility

Carrier Selection Settings The carrier selection profile is used to assign a suitable carrier to subcontractable subcontractable business documents either manually or automatically. automatically. The carrier selection settings can be created via the menu path in SAP NetWeaver Business Client Client by choosing Application Administration Administration Create Carrier Selection Settings.

 Planning  Planning Profile

Settings  Carrier Selection Settings



Below a more detailed description of each settings profile is outlined.

2.2.4

Business Document Type

Business Document Type

Value

Type Determination Determination Rule

Category Default Defined per Category in Planning Profile Condition-Based

Default Type for Vehicle Resources

List Selection

Default Type For Booking (Air)

List Selection

Default Type for Booking (Ocean)

List Selection

Default Type for Passive Vehicle Resources

List Selection

Table 15 Business Document Type Settings in Planning Profile

In the Business Document Type , a standard business document type of the planned freight document (freight orders and/or freight bookings) bookings) created as the result of planning is defined. In addition, there is an option to specify a condition with which the business document type is to be determined. determined.



Type Determination Rule setting is responsible for the determination of which standard business document type is to be created as a result of planning. The following rules are available: available: 

Category Default This setting takes the business document type which is checked as default in SAP TM Customizing. For example, in Figure in Figure 18 freight order type 1000 is defined as default. This means that this exact business document type is to be selected for planned freight documents.

Figure 18 Default Business Document Type Setting in SAP TM Customizing



Defined per Category in Planning Profile This setting means that one can define a specific business document type that is to be used in planning. To do so, a desired business document type can be selected according to the following categories:



o

Default Type for Vehicle Resources

o

Default Type For Booking (Air)

o

Default Type for Booking (Ocean)

o

Default Type for Passive Vehicle Resources

Condition-Based A special condition for selection of the business document type can be defined in SAP NetWeaver Business Client Application Administration Administration  General Settings  Conditions  Create Condition and then inserted in the field.

Even though one might choose condition-based business document type determination (Figure 19), 19), the rest of the settings are still visible. The reason is that the business document type is determined in the following steps: 1.

In case a condition for business document type determination is specified in the planning profile, the system first checks the result of the c ondition.

2.

If a specified condition does not return any result, then the defined per category business business type document is taken.



3.

If there is no defined per category type maintained, then the system takes default business document type defined in SAP TM Customizing (Figure 18). 18) .

Figure 19 Business Document Type Settings in Planning Profile

2.2.5

Manual Planning and Manual Planning Strategies

Manual Planning

Value

Manual Planning Strategy

VSRI_1STEP VSRI_CHK VSRI_DEF VSRI_SCH

Consider Fixing Status

Warning When Changing Fixed Documents Error When Changing Fixed Documents

Table 16 Manual Planning and Manual Planning Strategies Settings in Planning Profile

In the system, there is an option to perform manual planning. In comparison to automatic planning using the optimizer or transportation proposals proposals generation, one can manually (by drag-and-drop function in the transportation transportation cockpit) assign freight units to capacities such as vehicle resources. The system automatically creates freight documents (freight orders and/or freight bookings) depending on the settings configured in SAP TM Customizing. When freight units are manually assigned to capacities, the system takes into account all settings defined in the respective planning profile. For manual planning, it is possible to specify which planning strategy is to be used. Planning strategies determine determine the steps that the system is to carry out during the planning process and the order in which it does so. In other words, planning strategies for manual planning basically specify what happens when the planner manually (e.g. by drag-and-drop function) assigns planning-specific planning-specific objects to capacities. The following standard strategies for manual planning execution are available in the system: 

VSRI_DEF



The VSRI_DEF strategy is a default strategy for manual planning. The VSRI_DEF strategy works as a basis for the rest of manual planning strategies. In SAP TM Customizing, one can check what methods and in what sequences are performed within a certain planning strategy. The path is the following: in SAP TM Customizing SCM Basis  Process Controller  Assign Methods to a Strategy. In Figure 20, it is visible that all planning strategies are based on VSRI_PRE, VSRI and VSRI_POST methods which form default strategy, and other strategies have one additional method at the end depending on the purpose of the manual planning.

Figure 20 Overview of Assigned Methods to Manual Planning Strategies in SAP TM Customizing



VSRI_1STEP The VSRI_1STEP strategy for manual planning is based on default planning strategy VSRI_DEF. The distinctive feature of this strategy is that it performs carrier selection at the end of the planning process. Therefore, the additional method VSRI_TSPS is incorporated into the strategy (Figure 20).



VSRI_CHK This strategy is referred as a manual planning strategy with subsequent constraint check (capacities, incompatibilities, etc.). This strategy is based on default planning strategy VSRI_DEF and performs planning with checks defined in Check settings of Planning Profile. In order to execute check, this strategy contains additional method VSRI_CHECK (Figure 20). In case this strategy is not chosen in manual planning processing, checks would not be performed while generating transportation plans in manual mode. However, check procedure can be triggered by the respective pushbutton in the transportation cockpit (Figure 22).



VSRI_SCH This strategy is referred as a manual planning strategy with subsequent scheduling. This strategy performs planning with subsequent scheduling according to the scheduling settings defined in the Scheduling area of respective Planning Profile. The VSRI_SCH is also based on default planning strategy VSRI_DEF and has



additional method assigned VSR_SCHED for scheduling execution. In case this strategy is not ch osen in manual planning processing, scheduling would not be performed; however, scheduling can be called manually in the transportation cockpit (Figure 21).

Consider Fixing Status determines how the system is to behave during manual planning while facing business objects which are fixed for planning. Fixed business objects include freight orders and freight bookings. In the system, two alternative types of behavior in such situation are determined: 

Warning When Changing Fixed Documents The system performs manual planning despite of the fixing status of the planning object, subsequently throwing a warning message.



Error When Changing Fixed Documents The system stops planning and throws an error message, in case it faces fixed for planning business objects.

Note The planner remains responsible for ensuring that the planning results are consistent. For manual planning, the system is intended to provide support only. Moreover, keep in mind that if planning specific freight units are blocked, then the planning is not possible

2.2.6

Scheduling

Scheduling

Value

Scheduling Strategy

VSS_DEF

Consider Freight Unit Dates

Do Not Consider Freight Unit Dates Consider Freight Unit Dates Consider Freight Unit Dates as Soft Constraints only

Scheduling Direction

Not Specified Backward Forward

Table 17 Scheduling Settings in Planning Profile

For scheduling, the system calculates planned dates for freight orders and freight bookings. If this step is not completed, dates and times in manual planning results may be incorrect.



Note The scheduling settings described in this section are applied only to manual planning or can be called by the specific pushbutton in the transportation cockpit (Figure 21). These settings are not automatically called during VSR optimization.

Scheduling Strategy. The VSS_DEF calls scheduling for manually selected objects when the respective scheduling pushbutton is launched in the transportation cockpit (Figure 21). This strategy also takes into account settings specified in the Scheduling settings of the planning profile. Also the scheduling strategy can be used in manual planning, if the VSS_DEF strategy is assigned in the Manual Planning and Manual Planning Strategies settings.

Figure 21 Scheduling pushbutton in the Transportation Cockpit

Consider Freight Unit Dates . This setting defines whether or not freight unit dates are considered in manual planning. The following options are available: 

Do Not Consider Freight Unit Dates Freight unit dates are ignored during manual planning.



Consider Freight Unit Dates Freight unit dates are taken into account as hard constraints in manual planning. This means that both acceptable and requested dates of a freight unit are considered (Figure 37). Either the system finds a solution that fits within the time frame of acceptable dates, or it returns no solution.



Consider Freight Unit Dates as Soft Constraints only Freight unit dates are considered as soft constraints in manual planning. This means that only the requested dates of the freight unit are considered. Thus, the system can complete planning outside the acceptable time windows of the assigned freight units (Figure 37).

Scheduling Direction setting defines the direction of scheduling is to be used in manual planning. The following options are available: 

Not Specified The system determines the scheduling direction based on the planning profile. If a planning profile has not been defined, the system uses forward scheduling by default. The logic for selecting forward scheduling by default is the following. One can also schedule freight orders outside the transportation cockpit (e.g. in the freight order user interface directly). However, in this case there is no specified planning profile, because scheduling is not performed in the transportation cockpit. Thus, the system takes the planning profile which has been used at the time of creation of the freight order. If the freight order has not been created during planning (e.g. by manually typing in it), then there is no planning profile at creation. Therefore, a default scheduling type forward needs to be applied.





Backward Backward scheduling schedules backward from arrival (index time of the last stop of freight order or freight booking). If there is no such date, because there has been no delivery time window defined in freight unit, the system schedules backward from the end of the planning horizon taken from the planning profile.



Forward Forward scheduling schedules forward from departure (index time of the first stop of freight order or freight booking). If there is no such date, the system schedules forward from the start of the planning horizon taken from the planning profile.

Note For more information on scheduling and the scheduling strategy, please refer to SAP Note 1908165.

2.2.7

Check

Check

Value

Check Strategy

VSR_CHECK

Take Capacities into Account

No Check Error Warning

Table 18 Check Settings in Planning Profile

Note The check settings described in this section are applied only to manual planning and can be called by the specific pushbutton in the transportation cockpit. These settings are not automatically called during VSR optimization.

Check Strategy. The VSR_CHECK calls checks for manually selected objects when the respective scheduling pushbutton is launched in the transportation cockpit. This strategy verifies capacities, incompatibilities, and multiresource assignments and performs a dangerous goods check. The check strategy c an be used in manual planning, if the VSRI_CHECK strategy is assigned in the Manual Planning and Manual Planning Strategies settings. Otherwise, after the execution of manual planning, planned freight order would be generated without any checks. In this case, only the planner is responsible for the consistency of the manual planning output. It is also possible to perform checks of already created freight orders. This strategy defines the actions that are performed when a check is launched for a chosen freight orders or freight bookings in the transportation cockpit (Figure 22).



Figure 22 Check pushbutton in the Transportation Cockpit

Take Capacities into Account . During manual planning or when the check pushbutton is pressed in the transportation cockpit, it is possible to define if the system should raise an error message, a warning message, or no massage at all whenever resource capacities are overloaded. 

No Check This means that if resource capacities are exceeded, the system would not raise any message.



Error If resource capacities are exceeded, the system would raise an error message.



Warning If resource capacities are exceeded, the system would raise a warning message.

2.2.8

Loading and Unloading Duration

Loading and Unloading Duration

Value

Dependence

Freight Unit and MTr Independent Freight Unit Dependent/MTr Independent Freight Unit Independent/MTr Dependent Freight Unit and MTr Dependent

Loading/Unloading Duration

Time Value (hh:mm:ss) or List Selection

Table 19 Loading and Unloading Duration Settings in Planning Profile

Loading and Unloading Durations are defined and calculated using either standard values or conditions. A special condition for calculating loading and unloading durations for freight units can be defined in SAP NetWeaver Business Client Application Administration  General Settings  Conditions  Create Condition and then inserted into the field. In case a c ondition is specified, the system evaluates the condition and returns the loading or unloading duration as an output value.



The system calculates loading and unloading durations automatically during interactive planning, VSR optimization and background processing. In manual planning, it is possible to overwrite the loading and unloading durations calculated by the system. It is possible to define loading and unloading duration based on freight unit attributes or means of transport attributes or both. The following options are available: 

Freight Unit and MTr Independent Loading and unloading durations are calculated regardless of freight unit or means of transport attributes. In case the loading and unloading duration are defined freight unit and means-of-transport independent, then the option of defining the standard duration value gets enabled (Figure 23).

Figure 23 Standard Value Determination for Loading and Unloading Duration

If the loading and unloading duration is defined dependently of freight unit attributes, or means-of-transport attributes, or both, then a condition for the loading and unloading duration has to be defied and inserted into the planning profile. The respective list of available conditions gets enabled (Figure 24).

Figure 24 Condition-based Determination of Loading and Unloading Duration



Freight Unit Dependent/MTr Independent Loading and unloading durations are calculated based on freight unit attributes but not on means of transport attributes.



Freight Unit Independent/MTr Dependent Loading and unloading durations are calculated based not on freight unit attributes but on means of transport attributes.



Freight Unit and MTr Dependent Loading and unloading durations are calculated based both on freight unit attributes and means of transport attributes.



2.2.9

Parallel Processing Profiles

Parallel Processing Profiles

Value

Input Data Selection

List Selection

Lane Determination

List Selection

Distance and Duration Determination

List Selection

Table 20 Parallel Processing Profiles Settings in Planning Profile

Parallel Processing Profiles are used for background processing, for example, and by doing so improve performance. To do this, the system groups the data in packages. The system can assign each package to a separate parallel work process. It is possible to perform background processing using a parallel processing profile both in the background and interactively. Parallel Processing Profiles are defined in SAP NetWeaver Business Client by choosing Application Administration  General Settings  Define Parallel Processing Profile. However, in this document parallel processing settings will not be described in detail.



2.3

Optimizer Settings

In the section below, the settings of SAP TM optimizer profile divided into categories as it is done in the system will be presented.

2.3.1

General data

General Data

Value

Optimizer Settings

Text Value

Description

Text Value

Table 21 General Data Settings in Optimizer Settings

In the General Data area, the unique name and the description of the optimizer settings profile are defined.

2.3.2

Planning Strategies

Planning Strategies

Value

Planning Strategy

VSR_1STEP VSR_BOOK VSR_DEF VSR_ROUONL VSR_ROUSCH VSR_ROUTE

FO Building Rule

New Freight Order when Resource is Empty New FO when Resource is Empty and Depot Location Reached Table 22 Planning Strategies Settings in Optimizer Settings

Planning Strategies define the planning steps that the system is to perform and the sequence in which it is to perform them when the VSR optimizer is called. Each planning strategy comprises one or more methods that represent the individual planning steps. The following planning strategies are available:





VSR_DEF The VSR_DEF strategy is referred as a standard strategy for VSR optimization. The VSR_DEF works as a basis for the VSR_1STEP strategy. In SAP TM Customizing, one can check what methods and in what sequence are performed within a certain planning strategy. The path is the following: in SAP TM Customizing SCM Basis  Process Controller  Assign Methods to a Strategy. In Figure 25, one can check that the VSR_DEF consists of VSR_PRE, VSR_PRE_DG, VSR_OPT and VSR_POST methods. However, the rest of the planning strategies resemble this structure c ontaining pre-processing, main and post-processing methods.

Figure 25 Overview of Assigned Methods to Optimizer Planning Strategies in SAP TM Customizing



VSR_1STEP The VSR_1STEP strategy for VSR optimization is based on default planning strategy VSR_DEF. The distinctive feature of this strategy is that it performs carrier selection at the end of the optimizer run. Therefore, the additional method VSR_TSPS is incorporated into the strategy (Figure 25).



VSR_BOOK The VSR_BOOK strategy for VSR optimization consists of Route/Schedule Preprocessing, Booking Selection and Schedule Posting. This planning strategy selects booking based on schedules (Figure 25).



VSR_ROUONL



The VSR_ROUONL strategy for VSR optimization finds and posts a default route. The strategy consists of Route/Schedule Preprocessing, Find Default Route, and P ost Default Route methods (Figure 25). 

VSR_ROUSCH The VSR_ROUSCH strategy for VSR optimization finds and posts default route as well as finds and post a corresponding schedule. This strategy contains the following methods: Route/Schedule Preprocessing, Find Default Route, Post Default Route, Find Schedule, and Schedule Posting (Figure 25).



VSR_ROUTE The VSR_ROUTE strategy for VSR optimization finds and post default route. Then, it selects a corresponding schedule and a booking. This strategy contains the following methods: Route/Schedule Preprocessing, Find Default Route, Post Default Route, Find Schedule, and Find Booking for Schedule, and Schedule Posting (Figure 25).

FO Building Rule . The system takes into account freight order building rules (FOB rules) when creating and changing more than one freight order on one resource during VSR optimization. Freight order building rules are used to control how the system assigns activities on one resource to different freight orders. 

New Freight Order when Resource is Empty The VSR optimizer creates a new freight order, if the r esource is empty. That is, no freight units and no trailers are assigned to the r esource.



New Freight Order when Resource is Empty and Depot Location Reached The VSR optimizer creates a new freight order when the following prerequisites are met: the resource is empty, meaning that no freight units and no trailers are assigned to the resource; the resource has reached the depot location. An exception to these rules is schedule vehicles. The system creates a freight order for every departure of a schedule vehicle. Empty runs within the route of the schedule are part of the freight order as well. Let's consider an example for this setting. For instance, there are local delivery tours, and the vehicle comes back to the depot several times a day. Although the system may recommend the same vehicle, because planning is based on vehicle level, all tours are generally independent and could be switched to other vehicles. You use this setting to decompose an overall daily tour into its subtours all starting and ending at the depot. This setting is only relevant to own vehicles.

2.3.3

Transportation Proposal

Transportation Proposal Settings

Value

Accept Transp. Prop.

Not Defined Save Route and Freight Document Save Route Only

Planning Strategy for Transp. Prop.

VSR_1STEP VSR_BOOK




Value VSR_DEF VSR_ROUONL VSR_ROUSCH VSR_ROUTE

Max. Number of Trans Proposals

Natural Number

Do Not Create Trans. Prop. Immediately

Select/Deselect

Advanced Settings Transportation Proposal Preferences

Value

Route Variation

Use Defaults

–

Not Relevant Low Medium High Carrier Variation

Use Defaults Not Relevant Low Medium High

Departure Date Variation

Use Defaults Not Relevant Low Medium




Value High

Time Relevance


Cost Relevance


Table 23 Transportation Proposal Settings in Optimizer Settings

Accept Transportation Proposal setting specifies the subsequent behavior of the system when a specific transportation proposal is accepted. The following options are available: 

Not Defined In this case, if the transportation proposal is accepted by the planner, the system prompts to the question of how the transportation proposal should be accepted. Then, the rest two options of transportation proposal acceptance are available.



Save Route and Freight Document In this case, the system saves a selected route and creates a corresponding freight document.



Save Route Only In this case, the system saves only a route of the selected transportation proposal. That is, only the stages of the forwarding order or the freight unit are stored according to the transportation proposal.

Planning Strategy for Transp. Prop. Planning strategies for transportation proposals are the same strategies described in Section 2.3.2 Planning Strategies of this document. However, by contrast to the regular optimizer run, the optimizer run for transportation proposals results in the number of alternative optimization solutions transportation proposals.

Max. Number of Trans. Proposals determines the number of transportation proposals one can get after the optimizer run is finished.



Do Not Create Trans. Prop. Immediately. This checkbutton determines the availability of the individual transportation proposal preferences adjustment for planning specific freight units in more detail while performing the optimizer run in the transportation cockpit. 

Select If this checkbutton is ticked, after ch oosing planning specific freight units and capacity resources and then pressing transportation proposals pushbutton (Figure 26) in the transportation cockpit, the system at first does not output any transportation proposals.

Figure 26 Transportation Proposals Pushbutton in the Transportation Cockpit

Figure 27 Immediate Result of the Transportation Proposal Call

The result is not shown (Figure 27), because the system does not perform the automatic transportation proposal generation according to the general settings determined in the assigned planning profile. However, in the transportation proposal layout, it is now possible to adjust planning settings according to the needs of the desired transportation proposal outcome. To do so, one has to accomplish the following prerequisites: o

To personalize the page layout to display transportation proposals, in SAP NetWeaver Business Client, choose Application Administration  Planning  General Settings  Page Layouts  Page Layouts for Transportation Proposal (Figure 28):

Figure 28 Page Layout for Transportation Proposal



o

To specify and change specific transportation proposal preferences for planning specific freight units in the transportation cockpit, select Calculate and Reset Preferences checkboxes in the page layout for transportation proposals. The transportation proposal preferences screen area has to be set to visible in the page layout (Figure 29):

Figure 29 Settings of Page Layout for Transportation Proposal

o

Afterwards, one can choose a personalized transportation proposal layout in yet empty transportation proposal screen (Figure 30):

Figure 30 Selection of Transportation Proposal Layout

o

Then, it is possible to adjust planning settings for planning specific freight units by selecting, first, Change Proposal Settings and then Calculate (Figure 31):

Figure 31 Change of Transportation Proposal Setting in the Transportation Proposal Layout



o

Transportation proposals are visible now (Figure 32):

Figure 32 Output of the Transportation Proposals

In the Advanced Settings of Transportation Proposal Preferences (Route Variation/Carrier Variation/Departure Date Variation/Time Relevance/Cost Relevance) , one can adjust transportation proposal preferences even more in detail by using differentiation parameters for desired optimal results. For this reason, it is possible to weight ("a measure of difference of solutions") this differentiation parameters according to the scale - Use Defaults/Not Relevant/Low/Medium/High . Use Defaults option, in this scale, means a robust weight defined with respect to specific user/planner preferences. The following parameters for transportation proposals variation are available in the system: 

Route Variation



Carrier Variation



Departure Date Variation



Time Relevance



Cost Relevance

2.3.4

Optimizer Runtime

Optimizer Runtime

Value

Max. No. of Parallel Processes

Natural Number

Maximum Runtime (Seconds)

Time Value (s)

Max. Time Without Improvement (Sec./FU)

Time Value (s)

Automatic Runtime Regulation

Not Used Fastest Fast Good Quality Highest Quality



Table 24 Optimizer Runtime Settings in Optimizer Settings

To explain the optimizer runtime functionality, it is important to mention that the optimization works in three phases: 

Model Creation Phase building up the internal representation



Initialization Phase creating the first complete solutions



Improvement Phase improving the solutions

Moreover, with growing complexity and size of the scenario the number of alternative solution that the VSR optimizer has to consider grows more r apidly. Therefore, one could try to use parallelization inside the optimizer to increase its performance. In the Optimizer Runtime area, one can define how many threads the engine shall use during the optimization. For this reason, the field Max. No. of Parallel Processes is used. Independent of the number of processes the overall application flow stays unchanged. 

The pre-solving is implemented mainly serial, so there is no change.



During the initialization phase, several plans can be built up in parallel. If the number of parallel threads is larger than the number of initialization-techniques, random based initializations are added to utilize all threads. If no additional random-initialization is added, the results of the standard initialization will stay stable. Parallelization is not reducing the time to c alculating a single initial solution.



The improvement phase is using the additional threads to do several steps of the evolutionary local search in parallel. As the search process will discover new solutions in a different sequence, the parallel search is not deterministic. This means, restarting the same scenario may lead to different results, because of the t hread handling.

Recommendation for the VSR optimizer setup Nevertheless, it is recommended to start to solve the planning problem in a serial manner without parallel processing. After understanding the serial run, one can think about a speed up by parallel processing as a subsequent step, but even in the best case parallelization provides at most a linear speedup.

Maximum Runtime (Seconds) determines the overall time the VSR optimizer runs and performs its work. This setting defines the amount of time the VSR optimizer algorithm is to use to find and calculate the best possible result.

Recommendation for the VSR optimizer setup The obvious question that may arise here is how to determine the best running time for the VSR optimizer. It is recommended to first start the optimizer with a very long runtime, perhaps during the complete weekend. After the first optimization run is completed, it is possible to analyze the progress of the total cost with help of the explanation tool. In the explanation tool it should be possible to see a fast decrease at the start of the run and a very slow decrease of the cost at the end. One can use this progression of the cost over the time to decide, which runtime and solution quality fits best to the given requirements. SAP recommends to start this analysis single threaded with on CPU only. After defining a good runtime for one CPU, one can try to improve the runtime further by parallelization described above.



Max. Time Without Improvement (Sec./FU) . With this setting, if the VSR optimizer does not improve the best solution within the specified amount of time per freight unit, then it is automatically terminated before the defined maximum runtime.

Automatic Runtime Regulation allows the VSR optimizer to automatically regulate its operating time during the optimization process according to the specific planning needs. Technically, the system calculates a value which, assess the "difficulty" of the planning and optimization problem. Based on this result, the system chooses the runtime between zero seconds and the time value specified in the Maximum Runtime (Seconds) setting depending on the preferences listed in settings below. The following preferences for automatic runtime regulation are available: 

Not Used



Fastest



Fast



Good Quality



Highest Quality

Recommendation for the VSR optimizer setup Nevertheless, it is recommended to turn off the Automatic Runtime Regulation setting in order to avoid unexpected system behavior.

Note Runtime settings described above are not relevant for transportation proposals generation process.

Note In order to get more familiar with the VSR optimizer algorithm and its phases of work, please refer to SAP Note 1520433.

2.3.5

Rough Planning and Capacity Constraints


Value

Rough Planning

Do Not Use Rough Planning Use Rough Planning Where Defined Prefer Detailed Planning Over Rough Planning

Consider Capacities During Optimization

Yes No

Advanced Settings

Value

Ignore Capacities(Road)

Select/Deselect




Value

Ignore Capacities(Rail)

Select/Deselect

Ignore Capacities(Sea)

Select/Deselect

Ignore Capacities(Air)

Select/Deselect

Table 25 Rough Planning and Capacity Constraints Settings in Optimizer Settings

Rough Planning specifies whether rough planning or detailed planning is to be used for the optimizer runs. In SAP TM 9.0 and higher versions, it is now possible to setup a certain scenario without the need to define some master data by the usage of the rough planning option. In order to do this, in the transshipment location assignment definition, there is a new field Rough Planning Duration (Figure 33) that holds the information for VSR optimization.

Figure 33 Rough Planning Duration Setting in Transshipment Location Assignments Settings

This setting can be used for the planning scenario where it might not be necessary to have a detailed planning, for example, for the pre- and on-carriage at a certain point in time. This is the case when the main stage (ocean, air and etc.) needs to be planned in advance, but the truck pre- and on-carriage planning is done later and even by a different user or organization. To cover this, in the past it was required to setup transportation lanes and involve resources, even though pure and simplified transit duration would do the job. Therefore, rough planning option was introduced in order to enable the functionality of planning without using a detailed and complete master data setup for certain scenarios.



In the Rough Planning, there are the following options: 

Do Not Use Rough Planning Rough planning is not considered in the optimizer run.



Use Rough Planning Where Defined For all stages between a location and the assigned transshipment location for which a rough planning duration greater than 0 is defined, the optimizer delivers rough planning results. For all other stages, the VSR optimizer delivers detailed planning results.



Prefer Detailed Planning Over Rough Planning If the necessary vehicle-specific or means-of-transport-specific information is available, the VSR optimizer delivers detailed planning results. If the detailed information is not available, the optimizer delivers rough planning results (if it is defined in transshipment location assignment master data).

Consider Capacities During Optimization determines whether or not resource capacities are considered during VSR optimization. 

Yes Vehicle /resources capacities are considered in the optimizer run. This setting works only if the Advanced Settings of Ignore Capacities (Road/Rail/Sea/Air) are unchecked (Figure 34) (at least one is unchecked). In case of multimodal transportation, Ignore Capacities (Road/Rail/Sea/Air) option allows to ignore or use resource capacities at some stages depending on what capacities are to be considered during VSR optimization.

Figure 34 Advanced Settings of Rough Planning and Capacity Constraints in Optimizer Settings



No Resource capacities are not considered in the optimizer run. Even though resource capacities are exceeded, the VSR optimizer returns transportation proposals using defined means of transport with overloaded.



2.3.6

Transshipment Locations

Transshipment Locations

Value

Maximum No. of Transshipment Loc.

Natural Number

Advanced Settings

Value

Search Depth for Transshipment Locations

Natural Number

Search Depth for Connections

Natural Number

Automatic Connection Determination

Select/Deselect

Ignore Schedules

Select/Deselect

Ignore Freight Orders

Select/Deselect

Ignore Freight Bookings

Select/Deselect

Table 26 Transshipment Locations Settings in Optimizer Settings

Maximum No. of Transshipment Loc. determines the number of transshipment locations is to be used in a transportation route for planning specific freight units which corresponds to the number of times the freight units is being reloaded to another resource.

Recommendation for the VSR optimizer setup The larger and the more complex the network is having numerous transshipment locations, the less performance can be expected from the VSR optimizer. This is so, because there would appear more theoretical alternatives to transport the goods, and the more solutions regarding different transshipment locations must be considered, each one with different trucks and tours to use for the freight units. Therefore, it can be concluded that the scenario has to be modelled meaningfully containing only necessary transshipment locations.

Search Depth for Transshipment Locations setting defines how many levels of transshipment location are taken from each end (from the direction of source and destination locations) of the transportation. Let's consider an example. For instance, the value of Maximum No. of Transshipment Loc. setting is 6, and the Search Depth for Connection is 3. In this case, the system is limited to find the first three transshipment locations from the source and the last three - from the destination.

Search Depth for Connections setting looks for connections including locations of a schedule (also freight orders and freight bookings) which are not explicitly defined as transshipment locations.

Automatic Connection Determination setting specifies whether or not the setting described below are to be used.



Ignore Schedules/Ignore Freight Orders/Ignore Freight Bookings settings specify which object are to be ignored in the connection determination process, in case the setting is ticked.



2.4


In the following section, the settings of SAP TM planning costs profile divided into categories as it is done in the system will be presented. In the planning costs settings, one can define freight-unit-dependent and means-of-transport-dependent costs. However, these costs are not the actual costs. They simply offer a means of controlling the result of the VSR optimization and weight parameters important for the planning output.

2.4.1

General Data

General Data

Value


Text Value

Description

Text Value

Table 27 General Data Settings in Planning Costs Settings

In the General Data, the unique name and the description of the planning costs profile are defined.

2.4.2

Freight Unit Costs

Freight Unit Costs

Value

Earliness/Delay Cost Basis

Earliness/Delay Costs Defined in Planning Costs Earliness/Delay Costs Defined in Condition

Costs for Non-Delivery

Natural Number

Costs for Earliness per Day

Natural Number

Costs for Lateness per Day

Natural Number

Table 28 Freight Unit Cost Settings in Planning Costs Settings

In the Freight Unit Costs , one can specify how the system is to calculate relevant costs if freight unit dates are violated.

Earliness/Delay Cost Basis is defined by either entering it directly with the use of Earliness/Delay Costs Defined in Planning Costs setting or by specifying a c ondition in Earliness/Delay Costs Defined in Condition with the condition type Optimizer Penalty Costs for Freight Unit.



Costs for Non-Delivery specify the amount of costs assigned when a freight unit cannot be delivered. The cost value can be defined in the range of natural numbers from 0 to 999 999 999. By default, the system sets the value for non-delivery costs equal to 999 999 999, because non-delivery result is not usually a desired outcome for planning. The costs for non-delivery are incurred when hard constraints are violated, and the delivery of a freight unit cannot take place. An example for hard c onstraint violation can represent the inability to deliver a freight unit within a requested time frame. In this case, during the optimizer run, the system would throw an error message saying that the optimizer run failed (Figure 35). However, in the optimizer explanation tool, one can check that non-delivery costs are calculated and assigned to the planning-specific freight unit (note that in the shown example no other costs except for non-delivery costs are defined) (Figure 36).

Figure 35 Violation of Hard Constraints during VSR optimization

Figure 36 Caption of Non-Delivery Costs in the Optimizer Explanation Tool

Costs for Earliness per Day and Costs for Lateness per Day define the earliness/lateness cost factors that are to be used for early and late delivery/arrival cost calculation. The cost factor both for earliness and lateness can be defined in the range of natural numbers from 0 to 999 999 999. By default, the system sets the value of 1.

Earliness/Lateness costs allow controlling how the system is to deal when the pick-up and delivery windows of a freight unit are taken into account by the VSR optimizer. Earliness/Lateness costs are assigned per each freight unit in the planned transportation (in planned freight order or freight booking). Costs for earliness per day are applied per each early stop of the freight unit (i.e. early pick-up, early delivery). The same holds true for costs for lateness per day. Costs for lateness per day are applied per each late stop of the freight unit (i.e. late pick-up, late delivery). Therefore, the overall earliness/lateness duration of the freight unit represents the sums of earliness/lateness durations applied per each stop of the freight unit in the planned transportation. The earliness/lateness duration is calculated as the difference between requested dates and time and scheduled dates and time. Moreover, a planned freight document might contain several freight units. In this case, the total earliness/lateness duration represents the sum of all total durations of each freight unit.



In a freight unit, there are four parameters available for pick-up dates and time definition and four parameters for delivery dates and time definition. Dates and time are divided into acceptable and requested ones. In case acceptable start/end dates and time are defined, they work as a hard constraint for the VSR optimizer. If the VSR optimizer cannot find a solution within the time frame of acceptable dates, then it throws a message that planning-specific freight units cannot be delivered. Requested dates and time work as a soft constraint for the VSR optimizer. This means that the optimizer tries to adjust solutions to requested dates and time window; however, it might offer a solution with different time windows. To sum up, it is possible to model three cases related to time windows (Figure 37): 

Time windows as hard c onstraints. For this, acceptable start/end dates and time are defined. The system automatically sets the same values for requested dates and time.



Time windows as soft constraints. For this, only requested start/end dates and time are defined.



Time windows as hard and soft constraints. In this case, several options can be defined:



Both acceptable and requested start/end dates and time are defined in a freight unit. The tolerant time difference has to be defined between requested and acceptable dates and time. o

The start date and time is defined as a hard constraint. That is, the same values are set for the acceptable and requested start dates and time. The end date and time is defined as hard and soft constraint with the tolerant time difference.

o

The end date and time is defined as a hard constraint. That is, the same values are set for the acceptable and requested end dates and time. The start date and time is defined as hard and soft constraint with the tolerant time difference.

o

The start date and time is defined as a hard constraint. That is, the same values are set for the acceptable and requested start dates and time. The end date and time is defined as a soft constraint only.

o

The end date and time is defined as a soft constraint, while the end date and time is defined as a hard constraint.

Figure 37 Acceptable and Requested Dates in Freight Unit

Let’s consider an example of the Costs for Earliness per Day calculation. There is a freight unit with requested pick-up on 17.12.2013 at 13.30 o’clock and delivery on 17.12.2013 at 14.00 o’clock (Figure 38). Cost values for earliness and lateness per day are the same and equal to 1. No other costs are defined.

Figure 38 Definition of Freight Unit Dates in Freight Unit



After the optimizer run for transportation proposals is carried out, the VSR optimizer outputs several solutions. Let’s have a closer look at the first transportation proposal highlighted in the red rectangle in Figure 39. Its proposed departure time is slightly different from the requested ones, and as a result, earliness costs are assigned. The optimizer explanation tool captures the earliness costs equal to 0,0625 which is visible in the first highlighted column called Earliness in Figure 40. In the optimizer explanation tool, the second highlighted column called Earliness Costs captures the difference between requested pick-up date and time and planned pick-up date and time (Figure 40). In case of our example, this value is 1,5 hour or 5400 seconds. Note the system calculates earliness/lateness duration in seconds by default. In case of lateness, all values are calculated the same and captured in the columns Lateness Costs and Lateness in the optimizer explanation tool.

Figure 39 Results of VSR optimization

Figure 40 Caption of Earliness Costs in the Optimizer Explanation Tool

Going back to our example, the pick-up time is early 1,5 hour. In the system, 1,5 hour is converted into seconds what equals to 5400 seconds. Then, this value is multiplied by the earliness cost factor specified in the planning costs profile and divided by 86400 seconds (it is total amount of seconds in one day, since earliness or lateness costs are calculated per day). The result is (5400 * 1) / 86400 = 0,0625.

General formula for earliness/lateness costs per day calculation can be derived as follows:

∑∑(        ) 400

   ,

          ̅   ,   ̅   Equation 1 Earliness/Lateness Costs Calculation

2.4.3

Direct Shipment Options

Direct Shipment Options

Value

Currency

List Selection

Table 29 Direct Shipment Options Settings in Planning Costs Settings



In this document, the direct shipment is not going to be described in detail. However, in the planning costs profile, one can define a currency that is to be used when direct shipment options are determined. This currency is used in order to calculate costs for direct shipment option. Let's consider an example. There are created direct shipment options for two freight units: one is in EUR and another one - in USD. Then, one needs to convert costs into one c urrency in order to evaluate both numbers. This setting specifies the common currency that is used for evaluation.

2.4.4

2.4.4.1

Means-of-Transport Settings

General Data

General Data

Value

Means of Transport

List Selection

Consider Distance Costs from Planning Cost Settings

Yes/No

Consider Distance Costs from Transportation Lane

Yes/No

Fixed Cost

Natural Number

Table 30 General Data of Means-of Transport Settings in Planning Costs Settings

In the Mean-of-Transport, one can specify means of transport whose costs are to be considered during VSR optimization.

Consider Distance Costs from Planning Cost Settings /Consider Distance Costs from Transportation Lane settings allow specifying whether the distance costs of means of transport are to be taken from assigned transportation lane or to be determined in the planning costs profile. Alternatively, it is also possible to enable the option when the system considers the total of both values. For scheduled means of transport, costs are maintained in the schedule.

In case distance costs are taken from transportation lane, the following value, if any, is extracted from means of transport setting in transportation lane (Figure 41):

Figure 41 Definition of Distance Costs in Transportation Lane



Note In transportation lane, the default unit of measure for distance costs is kilometer. However, it is possible to influence the display of this field by setting parameter /SAPAPO/SCC_DISTUNIT. In case distance costs are specified in the planning costs settings, the value is taken from the Costs per Distance Unit setting in the Distance Settings.

Fixed Costs represent the cost factor that the system calculates once per freight order or freight booking planned after VSR optimization. Fixed costs can be defined in the range of natural numbers from 0 to 999 999 999. By default, the system sets the value equal to 0. Let’s have a look at the example. In the planning costs profile, the cost factor for fixed costs has a value of 7 (Figure 42):

Figure 42 Definition of Fixed Costs in the Planning Costs Profile

After the optimizer run for transportation proposals is completed, one of the outputted transportation proposals has two created freight order for two transportation stages (Figure 43):

Figure 43 Output of the VSR optimizer for Fixed Costs Example

In the optimizer explanation tool, the total fixed costs are shown in the column called Fixed Costs (Figure 44) and equal to 14, as there are two freight orders in the proposed transportation, and the optimizer explanation tool shows costs per the overall planned transportation, i.e. not individually per planned freight document.

Figure 44 Caption of Fixed Costs in the Optimizer Explanation Tool

Therefore, a general formula for fixed costs calculation can be defined as follows:

                Equation 2 Fixed Costs Calculation



2.4.4.2

Penalty Costs

Penalty Costs

Value

Premature Pick-Up

Natural Number

Delayed Pick-Up

Natural Number

Premature Delivery

Natural Number

Delayed Delivery

Natural Number

Table 31 Penalty Costs Settings in Planning Costs Settings

In the planning cost settings, one can use penalty cost factors to weight the earliness and lateness costs that are defined for each freight unit on the basis of the means of transport. The c ost factors can be defined in the range of natural numbers from 0 to 999 999 999. By default, the system sets all values equal to 1.The following cost factors are available: 

Cost factor for premature pickup



Cost factor for delayed pickup



Cost factor for premature delivery



Cost factor for delayed delivery

The definition of penalty costs allows modeling in the scenario the following two cases: 

The goods are picked up too early or too late.



The goods are delivered too early or too late.

This means that by defining the penalty cost factor, one c an force the VSR optimizer to find a solution with dates and time which are closer to the desired start/end of a pick-up or start/end of a delivery based on the means of transport. It is done by specifying a higher cost factor in pick-up-related penalty costs or delivery-related penalty costs. In case the pick-up or the delivery time window is violated, the total earliness or lateness costs are multiplied by the respective penalty cost factor, if any. Let's consider an example. The violation of a pick-up window for a truck is less expensive than the violation of a pick-up window for a train. Therefore, one can set the pick-up penalty cost factor 1 for a truck and 10 - for a train. As a result, the VSR optimizer will be forced to adjust the planning results in the favor of train pick-up window.

2.4.4.3

Distance Settings

Distance Settings

Value

Costs per Distance Unit

Natural Number



Distance Settings

Value

Maximum Distance

Natural Number

Unit Of Measure

List Selection

Distance Cost Basis from Lane

Route-Based Distance Costs Destination-Based Distance Costs

Table 32 Distance Settings in Planning Costs Settings

In the Distance Settings, one can specify a cost factor that refers to the distance dimension of a capacity used in VSR optimization.

If the system is to take the distance costs from the planning costs profile (Figure 45), the following settings are enabled: 

Costs per Distance Unit With this setting, one can define a cost factor per distance unit for variable distance cost calculation.



Maximum Distance The maximum distance setting allows defining an overall distance travelled of the planning-specific freight units as a hard constraint for the VSR optimizer. In case this value is defined, the system considers maximum distance as a hard constraint for each freight order and tries to find a solution with the distance not greater than this value.



Unit Of Measure The unit refers to both the costs per distance unit value and the maximum distance value.

Note If a unit is not specified, the system uses the unit of measure kilometer by default.

Figure 45 Distance Costs Specification in the Planning Costs Profile





Distance Cost Basis from Lane This setting determines the calculation logic for distance costs. The description of calculation options follows below.

The distance cost basis from lane setting is enabled regardless of whether distance costs are taken from the planning costs profile or from the transportation lane (Figure 46). This means that the c alculation logic for distance costs have to be defined in any case. The following two options are available: o

Route-based distance costs Route-based distance costs are determined using a calculation logic that adds up the costs for the transportation of the goods from the source location to the destination location via a number of transshipment locations based on the costs for each stage. This means that the total distance costs are the sum of distance costs of each stage of the transportation.

o

Destination-based distance costs Destination-based distance costs are determined using a calculation logic that adds up the distances between the source and target locations, including all distances between transshipment locations, and multiplies the result by a cost factor. This cost factor is a part of the direct transportation lane between the source location and target location and is based on the geographical location of the destination.

Note In case of destination-based distance costs, the transportation lane between source location and destination location has to be defined.

Figure 46 Distance Costs Specification in the Planning Costs Profile

Let’s look at the examples how the system c alculates distance costs during VSR optimization. The route-based distance costs calculation logic is taken as an example. Three cases are considered within this calculation logic: 1.

Distance costs are taken from the planning costs profile.

2.

Distance costs are taken from the transportation lane.

3.

Distance costs are taken both from the planning costs profile and the transportation lane.



In the planning costs profile, for a respective mean of transport a cost factor of value 10 with the unit of measure kilometer is defined (Figure 47).

Figure 47 Definition of Route-based Distance Costs in the Planning Costs Settings

After the optimizer run for transportation proposals is executed, and the following Figure 48 depicts calculated distance costs available in the optimizer explanation tool:

Figure 48 Caption of Distance Costs Defined in the Planning Costs Settings

In case of the first transportation proposal, the calculated distance costs are shown in the first highlighted column called Distance (Dimension) and equal to 55,37. This value is calculated as follows. The planned transportation consists of one stage and its total distance is 5,54 kilometers. Note that this value is r ounded. The distance of the planned transportation is captured in the second highlighted column which is also called Distance (Dimension). Then, the distance (5,54 km) is multiplied by cost factor 10 defined in the planning costs settings.

Note In the system, the distance is calculated in kilometers by default. However, the distance costs defined in the planning costs settings are adhered to the defined unit of measure. This means that if one specifies the unit of measure meter, then the system additionally multiplies distance costs by 1000 (1 km = 1000 m). Figure 49 illustrates the same example described above but with the unit of measure meter. The optimizer explanation tool captured distance costs equal to 55 370.

Figure 49 Caption of Distance Costs Defined in the Planning Costs Settings

General formula for the route-based distance costs defined in the planning costs settings can be defined as follows:

     ∑                    White Paper SAP TM Planning Configuration


         ̅ Equation 3 Route-based Distance Costs Calculation with Cost Factor Defined in Planning Costs Profile

Note In case cost factor for route-based distance costs calculation is defined in the planning costs profile, its value is constant for each stage in the transportation of the goods. The following cost factors of value 7 and 8 per kilometer are defined in two different transportation lanes are defined (Figure 50):

Figure 50 Definition of Distance Costs in the Transportation Lane

After the optimizer run for transportation proposals is carried out, the optimizer explanation tool shows the calculated distance costs (Figure 51):

Figure 51 Caption of Distance Costs Defined in Transportation Lanes

In case of the second transportation proposal which has two stages, the calculated distance costs are captured in the first highlighted column called Distance (Transportation Lane) and equal to 92,14. The same figure is captured in the second highlighted column which is also called Distance (Transportation Lane). Despite of the second column Distance (Dimension) described above which captures the total distance travelled in the planned transportation, the second column Distance (Transportation Lane) already takes distance values and distance costs factors from transportation lanes and multiplies them. In other words, two Distance (Transportation Lane) columns overlap each other.



Total distance costs are calculated as follows. The overall distance of the planned transportation is 12,06 kilometers: the distance of the first stage is 7,75 kilometers, and the distance of the second one is 4,31.The total distance costs represent the sum of distance costs of each stage which in return equal to the stage distance times a cost factor from the transportation lane. Therefore, 7,75 * 8 + 4,31* 7 = 92,14.

Therefore, a general formula for the route-based distance costs defined in transportation lanes can be defined as follows:

     ∑                              ̅ Equation 4 Route-based Distance Costs Calculation with Cost Factors Defined in Transportation Lanes

Note In case cost factors for route-based distance costs calculation is defined in transportation lanes, their values can be different for each stage in the transportation of the goods. In the following example, both costs from transportation lanes and the planning costs profile are considered (Figure 52). The same values are used as in the previous two examples.

Figure 52 Consideration of Distance Costs both from Transportation Lanes and Planning Costs Profile

After the optimizer run for transportation proposals is carried out, and the calculated distance costs available in the optimizer explanation tool (Figure 53):

Figure 53 Caption of Distance Costs Defined Both in Transportation Lane and Planning Costs Profile

The calculated costs are shown in the c olumn called Distance (Transportation Lane) and equal to 92,14, and in the column called Distance (Dimension) and equal to 120, 17. It is evident that the total distance costs are the sum of distance costs taken from transportation lanes and distance costs from the planning costs profile.

Therefore, general formula for the route-based distance costs defined in transportation lanes and the planning costs profile can be defined as follows:

     ∑                         ∑                                ̅ Equation 5 Route-based Distance Costs Calculation with Combined Cost Factors



Note Distance costs are calculated also in alignment with the specified unit of measure. This means that distance costs taken from the planning costs settings and transportation lanes can be calculated in different units of measure. These values are simply added up. Figure 54 shows such example: distance costs in the planning costs settings are calculated in meters, but distance costs from transportation lanes are defined in kilometers.

Figure 54 Caption of Distance Costs Calculated in Different Units of Measure

The main difference between route-based costs calculation and destination-based cost calculation is that in destination-based calculation logic the distance value of the planned transportation is multiplied by a c ost factor only once.

Let’s derive formulas for destination-based distance cost calculation: Distance costs are taken from the planning costs profile:

     ∑                               ̅ Equation 6 Destination-based Distance Costs Calculation with Cost Factor Defined in Planning Costs Profile

Distance costs are taken from the transportation lane:

     ∑                              ̅ Equation 7 Destination-based Distance Costs Calculation with Cost Factors Defined in Transportation Lane

Distance costs are taken both from the planning costs profile and the transportation lane:

     ∑                         ∑                                 ̅ Equation 8 Destination-based Distance Costs Calculation with Combined Cost Factors



Note The destination-based distance costs calculation with the cost factor taken from the planning costs settings is the same as the route-based distance costs c alculation with cost factor taken also from the planning costs settings. Furthermore, the user has to keep in mind that in case of using destination-based distance costs with the cost factor taken from the transportation lane, according to the setting definition, the cost factor is taken from the transportation lane that is not used by any stage in planned transportation. That is the transportation lane from the ultimate source to ultimate destination.

2.4.4.4

Duration Settings

Duration Settings

Value

Costs per Duration Unit

Natural Number

Maximum Duration

Natural Number

Unit Of Measure

List Selection

Table 33 Duration Settings in Planning Costs Settings

In the Duration Settings, one can specify a cost factor that refers to the duration (time) dimension of a capacity used in VSR optimization.

The following settings are available: 

Costs per Duration Unit With this setting, one can define a cost factor per duration unit for variable duration cost calculation.



Maximum Duration The maximum duration setting allows defining duration (consumed time for the transportation of a freight unit) as a hard constraint for the VSR optimizer. In case maximum value is defined, the system considers this value as a hard constraint for each freight order and tries to find a solution with the duration not greater than this value.



Unit Of Measure The unit of measure refers to both the costs per duration unit value and the maximum duration value.

Note If a unit is not specified, the system uses the unit hour. Let’s consider an example of the duration costs calculation. In the planning costs profile, the duration costs factor of 10 per hour is defined (Figure 55):



Figure 55 Definition of Duration Cost Factor in the Planning Costs Profile

After the optimizer run for transportation proposals is executed, the VSR optimizer shows s everal transportation proposals. The overall duration of the planned transportation represents the sum of durations travelled per stage. In the optimizer explanation tool, the duration value is captured in the second highlighted column called Duration (Figure 56).

Figure 56 Caption of Duration Costs in the Optimizer Explanation Tool

The first highlighted column called Duration (Total Duration) (Figure 56) captures the overall duration costs calculated by the VSR optimizer. In the shown example, in case of the first transportation proposal, the total duration costs are equal to 0,69 and calculated as follows. That is, (249 (duration per stage) * 10 (cost factor defined in the planning costs profile)) / 3600 (amount of seconds in 1 hour) = 0,69.

Note In the system, the travelled duration is calculated in seconds by default what is shown in the optimizer explanation tool (Figure 56). However, in the transportation cockpit the duration is rounded to hours and minutes (Figure 57). That is why in the shown example duration costs are divided by 3600, as the system aligns to the unit of measure of the calculated distance. In case the unit of measure for distance cost factor is changed to minutes, the results for the same example would be the following (Figure 57):

Figure 57 Caption of Duration Costs Defined in Different Unit of Measure

In this case, the total duration costs for the first transportation proposal is now equal to 41,50. That is, (249 (duration per stage) * 10 (cost factor defined in the planning costs profile)) / 60 (amount of seconds in 1 minute) = 41,50.

Therefore, a general formula for duration costs calculation can be defined as follows:



     ∑                                ̅ Equation 9 Duration Costs Calculation

2.4.4.5

Quantity Costs

Quantity Costs

Value

Basis for Quantity Costs

Planning Costs: Distance-Independent, per Lane/Schedule Planning Costs: Multiplied by Distance Transportation Lane/Schedule: Distance-Independent Transportation Lane/Schedule: Multiplied by Distance No Costs

Costs per Quantity

Natural Number

Unit Of Measure

List Selection

Table 34 Quantity Costs Settings in Planning Costs Settings

In the Quantity Costs settings, one can define a cost factor that refers to the quantity dimension of a capacity used in VSR optimization run.

In the Basis for Quantity Costs , one can specify the calculation logic for quantity costs and the source of the cost factor, meaning that the system can use cost factors either from transportation lanes or from schedules, or from a planning costs profile. The following options are available: 

Planning Costs: Distance-Independent, per Lane/Schedule The system takes a cost factor from the planning costs profile and calculates quantity costs in a distanceindependent way. The value is taken from the Costs per Quantity setting. In this case, quantity costs represent the sum of quantities of goods transported in each stage times the cost factor.



Planning Costs: Multiplied by Distance The system takes a cost factor from the planning costs profile (from the Costs per Quantity setting) and multiplies the quantity by distance times the cost factor.

In case it is chosen to take quantity costs from the planning costs profile, the following two settings are enabled: 

Costs Per Quantity In the Costs per Quantity, one defines the value for the costs per quantity.



Unit Of Measure



The Unit of Measure refers to the costs per quantity.

Note If a unit is not specified, the system uses the unit kilogram by default.

The rest three options for quantity costs calculation are: 

Transportation Lane/Schedule: Distance-Independent The system is to calculate the costs in a distance-independent way. For non-scheduled means of transport, the system takes the costs per quantity from the transportation lane. For a means of transport of a schedule, the system takes the costs per quantity from the schedule.



Transportation Lane/Schedule: Multiplied by Distance The system is to multiply quantity costs taken either from the transportation lane or the schedule by the distance and by the cost factor.



No Costs The system does not take quantity costs into account in VSR optimization.

In case quantity costs are taken from the transportation lane, the following cost factor and the unit of measure are extracted from the transportation lane master data (Figure 58):

Figure 58 Quantity Costs from Transportation Lane

In case quantity costs are taken from the schedule, then the system extracts necessary values from the following fields in the respective schedule (Figure 59):

Figure 59 Quantity Costs from Schedule



Let’s have a look at several examples: In the first example, Planning Costs: Distance-Independent, per Lane/Schedule is used. A planning-specific freight unit contains a product with weight of 800 kilograms. A cost factor of value 10 per kilogram is specified in the planning costs profile:

Figure 60 Definition of Quantity Costs in Planning Costs Profile

After the optimizer run for transportation proposals is carried out, the VSR optimizer outputs several transportation proposals. As mentioned above, the overall quantity transported represents the sum of product quantities transported per stage. In the optimizer explanation tool, the quantity transported of the planned transportation is captured in the second highlighted column called Quantity (Dimension) (Figure 61). Therefore, in the shown example one can see that the total quantity of the first transportation proposal is 800 kilograms, as there is only one stage generated in the transportation. However, the quantity of the second proposal is 1600 kilograms, because there are two stages, and the quantities are the same.

Note In the system, the quantity is calculated in the unit of measure of the product. In the optimizer explanation tool, the first highlighted column called Quantity (Dimension) captures the total quantity costs calculated by the VSR optimizer and represent the quantity of goods transported times the cost factor specified in the planning costs profile. That is, in the second transportation proposal with two stages, the quantity costs are calculated as follows: (800 (quantity of the first stage) + 800 (quantity of the second stage)) * 10 (cost factor from the planning costs profile) = 1600.

Figure 61 Caption of Distance-Independent Quantity Costs with Define Cost Factor in Planning Costs Profile

Therefore, general formula for the Planning Costs: Distance-Independent, per Lane/Schedule setting can be defined as follows:

     ∑                               ̅ Equation 10 Distance-Independent Quantity Costs Calculation with Cost Factor Defined in Planning Costs Settings Profile



Note Quantity costs are calculated also in alignment with the specified unit of measure. This means that the quantity cost factor defined in the planning costs profile and the quantity of transported goods can be calculated in different units of measure. This means that if one specifies the unit of measure k ilogram for transported goods and the quantity cost factor is measured in ton, then the system would additionally multiply the quantity costs by 1000 (1 ton = 1000 kg). Figure 62 illustrates the same example described above but with different units of measure used in the cost factor and the quantity of goods. The optimizer explanation tool captures quantity costs equal to 16000000 in the transportation proposal with two freight orders.

Figure 62 Caption of Distance-Independent Quantity Costs with Define Cost Factor with Different Unit of Measure in Planning Costs Profile

In this example, Planning Costs: Multiplied by Distance is used. A planning-specific freight unit contains a product with weight of 800 kilograms. A cost factor of value 10 per kilogram is specified in the planning costs profile. After the optimizer run for transportation proposals is carried out, the VSR optimizer outputs several transportation proposals.

Figure 63 Caption of Quantity Costs Multiplied by Distance with Defined Cost Factor in Planning Costs Profile

In this case, the overall quantity costs represent the sum of distances times quantities of goods transported in planned transportation times the cost factor. In the optimizer explanation tool, this value is captured in the second highlighted column called Quantity (Dimension) (Figure 63). Therefore, in case of the first transportation proposal, one can see that the total quantity is 4429,60 which equals 5,54 (distance travelled) times 800 (quantity transported). Note that there is only one stage, and the total distance represents a rounded value. However, the quantity of the second proposal is 9645,60 kilograms, because there are two stages generated with different distances which are multiplied by the quantities.

In the optimizer explanation tool, the first highlighted column called Quantity (Dimension) captures the total quantity costs and represents the quantity value taken from the second column times the cost factor specified in the planning costs profile. That is, in the second transportation proposal with two stages, the quantity costs are calculated as follows: (800 (quantity of the first stage) * 4,31 (distance of the stage)) + (800 (quantity of the second stage) * 7,75(distance of the second stage)) * 10 (cost factor from the planning costs profile) = 96456.



Therefore, general formula for the Planning Costs: Multiplied by Distance setting can be defined as follows:

∑                            ̅          Equation 11 Multiplied by Distance Quantity Costs Calculation with Cost Factor Defined in Planning Costs Settings Profile

Note Quantity costs are c alculated also in alignment with the specified unit of measure. This means that the quantity cost factor defined in the planning costs profile and the quantity of transported goods can be calculated in different units of measure.

Note In case the quantity cost factor is defined in the planning costs profile, its value is constant for each stage in the transportation of the goods.

Note In the planning costs profile, the following units of measure are available for the quantity cost factor definition (Figure 64).

Figure 64 Units of Measure for Quantity Cost Factor Definition in Planning Costs Profile

In this example, Transportation Lane/Schedule: Distance-Independent costs calculation basis is used. A planning-specific freight unit contains a product with weight of 800 kilograms. The following cost factors of value 8 and 10 per kilogram are defined in two different transportation lanes (Figure 65):



Figure 65 Definition of Quantity Cost Factors in the Transportation Lane

After the optimizer run for transportation proposals is carried out, the VSR optimizer output several transportation proposals.

Figure 66 Caption of Distance-Independent Quantity Costs with Defined Cost Factor in Transportation Lane

In case of the second transportation proposal which has two stages, the calculated quantity costs are captured in the first highlighted column called Quantity (Transportation Lane) and equal to 14400 (Figure 66). The same figure is captured in the second highlighted column which is also called Quantity (Transportation Lane) (Figure 66). Despite of the second column Quantity (Dimension) described above which captures the total quantity transported in the planned transportation, the second column Quantity (Transportation Lane) already takes quantity values and distance cost factors from transportation lanes and multiplies them. In other words, two Quantity (Transportation Lane) columns overlap each other.

The total quantity costs are calculated as follows. The quantity transported of 800 kilograms of the first stage is multiplied by the cost factor of 8 and then summed up with the quantity of 800 kilograms transported in the second stage times cost factor of 10. That is, 800 (quantity travelled in the first stage) * 8 (cost factor from the transportation lane) + 800 (quantity travelled in the second stage) * 10 (cost factor from the transportation lane) = 14400.

Therefore, a general formula for the Transportation Lane/Schedule: Distance-Independent setting can be defined as follows:

     ∑                               ̅ Equation 12 Distance-Independent Quantity Costs Calculation with Cost Factors Defined in Transportation Lanes

Note In case the basis of quantity costs calculation is taken from transportation lanes, quantity costs are calculated in the unit of measure specified of a planning-specific freight unit.in the shown example, even though the units of measure of defined in the transportation lane cost factor was changed to grams or completely different unit of measure, the calculated costs were always equal to 14400.



In this example, Transportation Lane/Schedule: Multiplied by Distance is used. All figures used are the same as in the previous example.

After the optimizer run for transportation proposals is carried out, the VSR optimizer outputs several transportation proposals.

Figure 67 Caption of Quantity Costs Multiplied by Distance with Defined Cost Factor in Transportation Lane

In case of the second transportation proposal which has two stages, the calculated quantity costs are captured in the first highlighted column called Quantity (Transportation Lane) and equal to 89556,80 (Figure 66). The same figure is captured in the second highlighted column which is also called Quantity (Transportation Lane) (Figure 66). As it was said earlier, two Quantity (Transportation Lane) columns overlap each other.

In this case, the overall quantity costs represent the sum of distances times quantities of goods transported in planned transportation times the cost factor. Therefore, in case of the first transportation proposal, one can see that the total quantity costs are 44296 which equals 5,54 (distance travelled) times 800 (quantity transported) and times cost factor of 10 specified in the transportation lane. However, the quantity of the second proposal is 89556,80 kilograms, because the transportation consists of two stages with different distances which are multiplied by the quantity transported in each stage and different cost factors taken from transportation lanes. That is, in the second transportation proposal with two stages, the quantity costs are calculated as follows: (800 (quantity travelled in the first stage) * 4,31 (distance travelled in the first stage) * 8 (cost factor from the first transportation lane)) + (800 (quantity travelled in the second stage) * 7,75 (distance travelled in the second stage)* 10 (cost factor from the second transportation lane)) = 89556,80.

Therefore, general formula for the Planning Costs: Multiplied by Distance setting can be defined as follows:

∑                              ̅          Equation 13 Multiplied by Distance Quantity Costs Calculation with Cost Factors Defined in Transportation Lanes

Note In case quantity cost factor for quantity c osts calculation is defined in transportation lanes, its value is variable for each stage in the transportation of the goods.



2.4.4.6

Additional Stops

Additional Stops

Value

Costs per Additional Intermed. Stop

Natural Number

Maximum Number of Stops

Natural Number

Table 35 Additional Stops Settings in Planning Costs Settings

In the Additional Stops section, one can define the maximum number of intermediate stops and the costs per additional intermediate stop.

Costs per Additional Intermediate Stop can be defined in the range of natural numbers from 0 to 999 999 999. By default, the system sets the value equal to 0.

In case the Maximum Number of Intermediate Stops is specified, the system takes it as a hard constraint during the optimizer run.

2.4.5

Costs Functions

Costs Functions

Value

Unit of Measure

List Selection

Cost Function

List Selection

Segment

List Selection

Load

List Selection

Load Costs

List Selection

Slope

List Selection

Table 36 Costs Functions Settings in Planning Costs Settings

In the Costs Functions , one can define piecewise linear cost functions for a combination of means of transport and load in a certain unit of measurement (load unit). Cost functions can be used to model load costs, for example.

Unit of Measure specifies the unit of measurement for load unit.



2.4.6

Cost Values in the Optimizer Explanation Tool

This section is to sum up mentioned above information about the optimizer explanation tool and to describe how different costs considered by the VSR optimizer are presented there. This information will help to better understand the composition of total costs calculated by the VSR optimizer and where its constituents are captured. To call the optimizer explanation tool, after the optimization run is completed in SAP NetWeaver Business Client, one can choose Planning Transportation Cockpit  Optimizer Explanation (Figure 68).

Figure 68 Optimizer Explanation Tool in the Transportation Cockpit

In the optimizer explanation tool the costs analysis is available under Result

 Solution

Details

 Costs

(Figure

69).

Figure 69 Costs Analysis in the Optimizer Explanation Tool

The following table represents the structure of costs how they are captured in the optimizer explanation tool: Field

Explanation of Meaning

Sol. ID

ID of proposed by the VSR optimizer solution

Total Costs

Total amount of calculated costs in planned transportation

Total Duration

Total amount of duration-related costs (the cost factor is taken from planning costs profile, see Section 2.4.4.4 Duration Settings)

Distance (Dimension)

Total amount of distance-related costs (the cost factor is taken from planning costs profile, see Section



Field

Explanation of Meaning 2.4.4.3 Distance Settings)

Distance (Transportation Lane)

Total amount of distance-related costs (cost factors are taken transportation lanes)

Distance (CO2)

In order to determine CO2 emission-related costs, a BADI has to be used.

Quantity (Dimension)

Total amount of quantity-related costs (the cost factor is taken from planning costs profile, see Section 2.4.4.5 Quantity Costs)

Quantity (Transportation Lane)

Total amount of quantity-related costs (cost factors are taken transportation lanes)

Quantity (CO2)

In order to determine CO2 emission-related costs, a BADI has to be used.

Stop Costs

Total amount of costs-related to intermediate stops (the cost factor is taken from planning costs settings, see Section 2.4.4.6 Additional Stops)

Load Costs

Total amount of loading/unloading costs

VehCosts

Total amount of vehicle costs

Earliness Costs

Total amount of earliness costs (the cost factor is taken from planning costs profile, see Section 2.4.1 General Data)

Lateness Costs

Total amount of lateness costs (the cost factor is taken from planning costs profile, see Section 2.4.1 General Data)

ND Costs

Total non-delivery costs (the cost factor is taken from planning costs profile, see Section 2.4.1 General Data)

No. of Veh.

Number of vehicles participating in planned transportation

Total Duration

Total duration of planned transportation (in seconds by default)

Distance (Dimension)

Total distance travelled in planned transportation (in kilometers by default)

Distance (Transportation Lane)

Captures total amount of distance-related costs (cost factors are taken transportation lanes)

Distance (CO2)

Total distance travelled in planned transportation (in kilometers by default)

Quantity (Dimension)

Total quantity of good transported in planned transportation



Field

Explanation of Meaning

Quantity (Transportation Lane)

Captures total amount of quantity-related costs (cost factors are taken transportation lanes)

Quantity (CO2)

Total quantity of good transported in planned transportation

No. Stops

Number of intermediate stops in planned transportation

Load Costs

Loading/Unloading duration

VehCosts

Total amount of vehicle alternatives

Earliness Costs

Total duration of earliness (in seconds by default)

Lateness Costs

Total duration of lateness (in seconds by default)

Number of Not Performed Orders

Total amount of non-delivered freight units

Table 37 Costs in the Optimizer Explanation Tool



2.5


2.5.1

General Data

General Data

Value


Text Value

Description

Text Value

Check Incompatibilities

Select/Deselect


List Selection

Parallel Processing Profile

List Selection

Type of Carrier Selection Settings

General Carrier Selection Carrier Selection for Tendering Carrier Selection for Direct Shipment

Table 38 General Data Settings in Carrier Selection Settings

In the Carrier Selection Settings and Description, one can specify a unique name and description of carrier selection profile.

Check Incompatibilities defines whether or not incompatibility settings are to be checked during a carrier selection run.

In the Incompatibility Settings, one can select incompatibility setting that is to be applied during carrier selection run. Some critical settings in the carrier selection profile are the following: incompatibilities between order and carrier, or customer and carrier.

In the Parallel Processing Profile , one can choose a parallel processing profile (see Section 2.2.9 Parallel Processing Profiles).

Type of Carrier Selection determines the process in which carrier selection is to be executed. The following options are available in the system: 

General Carrier Selection In this case, the system performs regular automatic carrier selection. It represents a separate optimization that is available for the automatic carrier selection. It takes into account the selected optimization options when determining the most cost-effective carrier for all selected business documents. If none of the carriers



are available, the system does not assign a carrier to the relevant business documents. If this option is selected, further settings are displayed in the carrier selection profile. 

Carrier Selection for Tendering In this case, the specified carrier selection profile is to be used in tendering process. In this document, tendering will not be described in detail. If this option is selected, further settings are displayed in the carrier selection profile.



Carrier Selection for Direct Shipment In this case, during carrier selection determination of direct shipment options is to be evaluated. In this document, direct shipment will not be described in detail. If this option is selected, further settings are displayed in the carrier selection profile.

2.5.2

Settings for General Carrier Selection

It has to be noted that automatic general carrier selection that is a part of special optimization run. Optimization determines the assignment of carriers with the lowest costs to business documents. It aims to achieve the following goals: 

Reduction in total costs (discounts for continuous moves)



Consideration of all allocation restrictions for means of transport and carriers



Consideration of business shares



Incompatibilities



Carrier validity

The total costs represent the weighted total of the following individual costs: 

Non-delivery costs for business documents that the optimizer for carrier selection cannot assign



Costs for the assignment of c arriers to business documents



Penalty costs for violating business shares



Discounts for continuous moves

The total of all the discounts for continuous moves is subtracted from these total costs. The optimization problem is solved by mixed-integer linear programming.

Note It is important to keep in mind that costs used in the optimization run for carrier selection are also not a real costs. Here, the same principle is applied as in VSR optimization for transportation planning - total costs are means to weight parameters included in the optimization. However, it is also possible to define real costs with the help of Transportation Charge Management. According to the practice, real costs are used more frequently for carrier selection runs.



2.5.2.1

Other Settings for General Carrier Selection

Other Settings

Value

Allocation Usage

Do Not Use Transportation Allocations Use Transportation Lane Settings Use Transportation Allocations

BS Usage

Do Not Use Business Shares Use Transportation Lane Settings Always Use Business Shares

Strategy

Use Transportation Lane Settings Costs Priority Costs + Priority Costs * Priority

Carrier Cost Origin

Use Transportation Lane Settings Use Internal Costs Use Transportation Charges from TCM No Cost Determination

Table 39 Other Settings for General Carrier Selection in Carrier Selection Settings

Allocation Usage determines how transportation allocations are to be considered during the carrier selection run. Transportation Allocation is either a minimum or maximum restriction that regulates how much business you are doing with a certain carrier in a certain region for a certain means of transport. The following options for transportation allocation consideration are available: 

Do Not Use Transportation Allocations In this case, the system does not use transportation allocations during the carrier selection run.



Use Transportation Lane Settings In this case, the system determines the value of the setting according to what is specified in respective transportation lane. If the Use Transportation Allocation setting is tickled (Figure 70) in the transportation lane, then it will be considered during the carrier selection run.



Figure 70 Use Transportation Allocations Setting in Transportation Lane



Use Transportation Allocations In this case, the system uses determined transportation allocations during the carrier selection run.

Business Share Usage determined how the system considers specified business shares during the carrier selection run. In a nutshell, business shares represent a fixed percentage of freight business allocated to a certain carrier. The following options for business share usage are available in the system: 

Do Not Use Business Shares In this case, the system does not use business shares during the carrier selection run.



Use Transportation Lane Settings In this case, the system determines the value of the setting according to what is specified in respective transportation lane. If the Use Business Share setting is tickled (Figure 71) in the transportation lane, then it will be considered during the c arrier selection run.

Figure 71 Use Business Shares Setting in Transportation Lane



Use Business Shares In this case, the system uses determined business shares during the carrier selection run.

Strategy setting determines which strategy is taken into account during automatic carrier selection. These strategies are based on cost, priority, or a combination of the two. The following options are available: 

Use Transportation Lane Settings In this case, the system determines the value of the setting according to what is specified in respective transportation lane. If the Priority/Costs strategy is specified (Figure 72) in the transportation lane, then it will be considered during the carrier selection run. The options for strategy selection are the same as presented in carrier selection settings. The additional available strategy in transportation lane Neither Costs Nor Priority means that the Priority/Costs strategy is not to be used in the carrier selection run. The rest is explained below.



Figure 72 Priority/Costs Strategy Setting in Transportation Lane



Costs All carriers are ranked in ascending order of the total costs. The carrier with the lowest total costs is always preferred over other carriers. Specified priority value, if any, does not influence the choice.



Priority A priority ranking is assigned to each carrier per transportation lane. Carriers are ranked in descending order of their lane priorities. The highest priority ranking is 1. The highest priority ranking carrier is always picked in the carrier selection process regardless of its cost value



Costs + Priority



According to this strategy, carriers are ranked in ascending order of their sum of Costs and Priority. Carrier with the lowest sum result has the highest ranking, and this carrier is selected in automatic carrier selection. For tendering, all the c arriers in the ranking list are relevant (peer-to-peer/broadcast) based on the specific flag maintained at the carrier level in the lane.



Costs * Priority According to this strategy, carriers are ranked in ascending order of their multiplication of Costs and Priority. Carrier with the lowest multiplication result has the highest ranking, and this carrier is selected in automatic carrier selection. For tendering, all the c arriers in the ranking list are relevant (peer-to-peer/broadcast) based on the specific flag maintained at the carrier level in the lane.



Carrier Cost Origin setting determines from which origin the cost values used in the c arrier selection run are taken. The following options are available: 

Use Transportation Lane Settings In this case, the system uses cost origin according to what is specified in the respective transportation lane (Figure 73).

Figure 73 Cost Origin Setting in Transportation Lane



Use Internal Costs In this case, the system takes internal costs specified in the transportation lane (Figure 74). If no internal costs are defined in the specific transportation lane, one can define them in the carrier profile. To access carrier profile settings, on the SAP Easy Access screen, one can choose Master Data  General  Define Carrier Profile.



Figure 74 Internal Costs Setting in Transportation Lane



Use Transportation Charges from TCM In this case, the system uses charges calculated in Charge Management. To use this functionality, charge calculation has to be created that is set up in charge management.

Note Note that the costs defined in TCM represent a real costs used for carrier selection decisions. As it was said earlier, according to the practice, this option is used more frequently.



No Cost Determination No transportation costs related to carrier are considered during the carrier selection run.

Note In the system, there is specified cost origin option - External Costs (ERP) . However, this option is not available in SAP TM. The reason it is shown is because transportation lane master data is also used in other SAP applications (SAP APO), and there one can retrieve carrier costs from SAP ERP.



2.5.2.2

Advanced Settings for General Carrier Selection

Advanced Settings

Value

Planning Strategy

TSPS_DEF

Optimizer Runtime

Time Value (s)

Consider Manual Assignment as Fixed

Select/Deselect

Action for Manual Ranking

Remove Keep Consider Costs But Keep Only When Available

Overall Carrier Availability

Select/Deselect

Transportation Charge Interpretation

Accept Carrier with Charges of Zero Accept Carrier with Charges of Zero as C. with Lowest Costs Accept Carrier with Charges of Zero as C. with Highest Costs

Common Currency

List Selection

Action After Carrier Selection Run

Assign Best Carrier Automatic Tendering Manual Tendering No Action

Continuous Move Type

Use Transportation Lane Settings Do Not Create Continuous Move Simple Continuous Move Round Trip Continuous Move

Continuous Move Information

Select/Deselect

Reaction to Continuous Move Removal

Remove Carrier Ranking (CR)



Advanced Settings

Value Remove CR and Unassign Carrier if Status = "Carr. Assigned" Remove CR and Unassign Carrier with Any Status

Check Distance and Duration

Select/Deselect

Continuous Move MTr Check

Select/Deselect

CM Cost Recalculation of TCM

No Recalculation Recalculation Of Costs Based on TCM

Use Tendered Objects for Optimization

Select/Deselect

Tender Without Optimizer Results

Select/Deselect

Tendering Manager

List Selection

Tendering Profile

List Selection

Table 40 Advanced Setting for General Carrier Selection in Carrier Selection Settings

Planning Strategy determines the steps that the system is to c arry out during the carrier selection process and the order in which it does so. The following standard strategy for carrier selection is available: 

TSPS_DEF This strategy is referred as a standard strategy for carrier selection. For more information, see Planning Strategies section.

Optimizer Runtime determines the overall time the VSR Optimizer runs and performs the search of the most optimal solution for carrier selection. The unit of measure is seconds.

Consider Manual Assignment as Fixed tells the system whether or not manual assignment of carrier is considered as final or not.

Action for Manual Ranking setting determines how the system considers manual ranking during the carrier selection run. Based on the settings described above, when the carrier selection is performed, the system determines the least costly carriers and ranks them from lowest to highest cost, or from lowest to highest priority. This ranking is then considered for tendering. It can, however, be manually switched in the freight order (Figure 75). Additions and deletions are also possible.



Figure 75 Carrier Ranking Settings in Freight Order

The following options are available in the system: 

Remove This means that manual ranking is removed and not considered during the carrier selection run.



Keep This means that manual ranking is kept while the carrier selection is performed.



Consider Costs But Keep Only When Available This means that systems determined costs and priorities according to specified settings; however, in case manual ranking is available it is c onsidered during the carrier selection run.

Overall Carrier Availability setting determines whether or not carrier availability is considered during the carrier selection run. Based on the carrier availability, transportation lanes are maintained in the system specific to means of transport. For example, the following carrier availability alternatives are possible in the system. A carrier can be available for a transportation lane, but may be incompatible for a specific customer who could exist on that transportation lane. Similarly, a carrier can be incompatible with the order characteristics if, for example, an order contains hazardous items but the carrier does not have any experience in handling such items. A carrier may be maintained on a transportation lane, but could have met his allocation requirements for the period and, for this reason, is not considered during carrier selection. The allocation requirements can be specific to a means of transport or zone hierarchy. Carrier availability can also be influenced by the purchasing organization the carrier is associated with in the freight agreement. Thus, the carrier may be available only for a specific purchasing organization within a company. This is based on the purchase organization definition in SAP TM, as defined by the individual client requirement. One can also define different carriers on an inbound or outbound transportation lane. Every transportation lane has a validity period, and the lane-level validity applies to the carriers associated with that lane, which is specific to the means of transport. A carrier availability can be turned on and off for a specific lane by updating the validity.

Transportation Charge Interpretation setting tells the system what to do when no charges are found for a carrier. The following options are available: 

Accept Carrier with Charges of Zero This means that the system that system is allowed to use c arriers with no charged in the c arrier selection run.



Accept Carrier with Charges of Zero as C. with Lowest Costs This means that the system ranks a c arrier with zero charges as a carrier with lowest costs.



Accept Carrier with Charges of Zero as C. with Highest Costs



This means that the system ranks a carrier with zero charges as a carrier with highest costs.

Common Currency setting determines currency for carrier costs interpretation. Carrier costs of different carrier might be defined in different currency. Therefore, this setting specifies the common currency that is used for evaluation.

Action After Carrier Selection Run setting specifies what further actions are to follow after the carrier selection run is executed. The following actions are available: 

Assign Best Carrier The system automatically assigns the best carrier according to carrier ranking to a freight order.



Automatic Tendering The system triggers automatic tendering among available carriers.



Manual Tendering The system prompts the planner to perform manual tendering.

In case automatic or manual tendering option is selected, the following setting are set to enabled: o

Tender Without Optimizer Results In case selected, the system performs tendering without consideration of carrier selection optimization results.

o

Tendering Manager In case tendering is to follow the carrier selection run, tendering manager has to be specified. Tendering manager represents a person responsible for the tendering process.

o

Tendering Profile In case tendering is to follow the carrier selection run, tendering profile has to be specified.



No Action No further action follows.

Continuous Move Type setting specifies whether or not the system is to combine subcontractable business documents (for example, freight orders) by forming continuous moves. The aim is to reduce the costs of the business documents by assigning additional business documents to a carrier. The following options are available: 

Use Transportation Lane Settings In this case, the system determines continuous move type according to setting specified in the transportation lane (Figure 76).



Figure 76 Continuous Move Settings in Transportation Lane



Do Not Create Continuous Move The system does not form continuous move during the carrier selection run.



Simple Continuous Move The carrier accepts one or more additional business documents and, after executing the first business document, directly executes the following business documents one after the other.



Round Trip Continuous Move A round trip is a simple continuous move for which the following additional prerequisites must be met: The source location of the first business document and the destination location of the second business document are identical.

Note A round trip can only consist of exactly two business documents. The system cannot take into account complex round trips where multiple source locations (pickup) or destination locations (delivery) are served.

Continuous Move Information setting defines how the system is to deal with continuous moves that were created in previous optimization runs. If this setting is enabled, the following settings are also available: 

Reaction to Continuous Move Removal This setting defines what happens with the unselected or unprocessed parts of a continuous move when the system deleted continuous move. This deletion than invalidates the current carrier ranking, since the ranking was generated considering the continuous move discount. The following further options of deletion are available: o

Remove Carrier Ranking (CR)

o

Remove CR and Unassign Carrier if Status = "Carr. Assigned"



o

Remove CR and Unassign Carrier with Any Status

If the Continuous Move Information setting is ticked, the system selects the complete continuous move for carrier selection. Therefore, no deletion is requires by the system.

Check Distance and Duration setting checks the compatibility if distances and durations of business documents combined into continuous move. Distances between the destination location of the first business document and the source location of the second business document must not exceed the smaller maximum distance that defined for the carrier in the transportation lanes (Figure 77). Moreover, departure/arrival windows of business documents participating in continuous move have to be c ompatible (Figure 78).

Figure 77 Maximum Distance of Continuous Move Setting in Transportation Lane



Figure 78 Arrival/Departure Windows Determination of Continuous Move Setting in Transportation Lane

Continuous Move MTr Check setting check continuous move setting specified in means of transport attached to transportation lane.

CM Cost Recalculation of TCM setting tells the system is to perform a r ecalculation of costs from charge management for continuous moves. If this setting is specified, the system considers the discounts for continuous moves for the business documents from charge management in the recalculation, however, only for the carriers that offer continuous moves. The system saves the result in the ranking list. The following options of setting are available: 

No Recalculation The system does not perform recalculation of costs from charge management.



Recalculation Of Costs Based on TCM The system performs recalculation of costs from charge management as it is described above.



Note In the system, there is a prerequisite setting for continuous move enablement that is sometimes missed out. The carrier has to be activated for continuous move option in the carrier profile (Figure 79).

Figure 79 Continuous Move Setting in Carrier Profile Settings

2.5.3

Settings for Carrier Selection for Tendering

2.5.3.1

Other Settings for Carrier Selection for Tendering

Other Settings

Value

Allocation Usage

Do Not Use Transportation Allocations Use Transportation Lane Settings Use Transportation Allocations

Table 41 Other Setting for Carrier Selection for Tendering in Carrier Selection Settings

The explanation of these settings can be found above in Other Settings for General Carrier Selection.



2.5.3.2

Advanced Settings for Carrier Selection Tendering

Advanced Setting

Value

Planning Strategy

TSPS_DEF


Select/Deselect

Table 42 Advanced Setting for Carrier Selection for Tendering in Carrier Selection Settings

The explanation of these settings can be found above in the Advanced Settings for General Carrier Selection.

2.5.4

2.5.4.1

Settings for Carrier Selection for Direct Shipment

Advanced Settings for Carrier Selection for Direct Shipment

Advanced Setting

Value

Planning Strategy

TSPS_DEF


Select/Deselect

Transportation Charge Interpretation

Accept Carrier with Charges of Zero Accept Carrier with Charges of Zero as C. with Lowest Costs Accept Carrier with Charges of Zero as C. with Highest Costs

Table 43 Advanced Setting for Carrier Selection for Direct Shipment in Carrier Selection Settings

The explanation of these settings can be found above in the Advanced Settings for General Carrier Selection.



2.6


In the Capacity Selection Settings section, the configuration settings of capacity selection profile will be explained as they are presented in the system.

2.6.1

General Data

General Data

Value


Text Value

Description

Text Value

Table 44 General Data Settings in Capacity Selection Settings

In the General Data area, the unique name and the description of the capacity selection settings profile are defined.

2.6.2

Capacity Selection

Vehicle Resources

Value

Attributes for Vehicle Resource Selection

List Selection

Sign

List Selection

Option

List Selection

Lower Limit

List Selection

Upper Limit

List Selection

Schedule

Value

Attribute for Schedule Selection

List Selection

Sign

List Selection

Option

List Selection

Lower Limit

List Selection



Vehicle Resources

Value

Upper Limit

List Selection

Table 45 Vehicle Resources Settings in Capacity Selection Settings

One of the basic elements for planning are the resources (truck, trailer, schedules, etc.) which perform the routes for moving the freight units. The different resources are grouped to means of transport. Each means of transport defines a cost structure and a set of possible lanes through the network which the VSR optimizer has to evaluate in order to find the optimal solution. Thereby, the capacity selection profile helps to define which vehicle resources and schedules are to be selected for planning.

This setting involves selecting the resource capacity in the transportation cockpit. Attribute for Vehicle Resource Selection/ Schedule Selection (Figure 80) setting provides the variety of attributes by which the resources can be selected. Both active and passive resources can be added. Each selection section allows to define specific values or ranges of values for resources, using the logical greater than, less than, or not equal to, to provide precise selection for planning. All selected resources (both vehicle resources and schedules) would appear in the transportation cockpit and would be used for planning.

Recommendation for the VSR optimizer setup Each extra means of transport creates additional alternatives of route that the VSR optimizer has to evaluate, which decreases the performance of the search. Therefore, for a performance reason, as little as possible different means of transport should be defined. Another relevant aspect for reducing the number of means of transport, besides reducing the number of alternatives, is the memory consumption, since in general each means of transport has its own distance information to represent the possible lanes, which usually is the main driver for memory consumption during the optimization.

Figure 80 Attributes for Vehicle Resource Selection



2.7


In the Incompatibility Settings section, the configuration settings of incompatibility settings profile will be explained as they are presented in the system.

2.7.1

General Data

General Settings

Value


Text Value

Description

Text Value

Incompatibility Area

Complete VSR (VSR Opt. and Man. Plng and Transp. Proposal) Freight Unit Building Carrier Selection Delivery Proposal

Default Incompatibility Settings

Select/Deselect

Table 46 General Data Settings in Incompatibility Settings

The incompatibility settings profile specifies when the system allows incompatibilities to be violated during manual planning, VSR optimization, and/or in background processing.

In the General Data area, the unique name and the description of the incompatibility settings profile are defined.

The Incompatibility Area groups together incompatibility definitions by the area they are applied. Incompatibility settings can be maintained for: 

Complete VSR (VSR Opt. and Man. Plng and Transp. Proposal)



Freight Unit Building



Carrier Selection



Delivery Proposal



2.7.2

Incompatibility Selection

Incompatibility Selection

Value

Incompatibility

List Selection

Violation in Manual Planning

Incompatibility Is Ignored Warning If Incompatibility Is Violated Incompatibility Must Not Be Violated According to Incompatibility Definition

Violation in Automatic Planning

Incompatibility Is Ignored Warning If Incompatibility Is Violated Incompatibility Must Not Be Violated According to Incompatibility Definition

Table 47 Incompatibility Selection Settings in Incompatibility Settings

The incompatibility setting in the incompatibility selection allows selecting several incompatibility definitions that may apply to a planning run.

In the Incompatibility, one can define which incompatibility definitions are to be selected for planning. The incompatibility definition can be created via the menu path in SAP NetWeaver Business Client by choosing Application Administration  Planning  Incompatibility Definitions  Create Incompatibility.

Violation in Manual Planning/ Violation in Automatic Planning specifies the behavior of the system when it detects the incompatibility during planning. The following behavior is predefined: 

Incompatibility Is Ignored Incompatibility is not taken into account during planning.



Warning If Incompatibility Is Violated The system throws a warning message when incompatibility is detected during a planning run.



Incompatibility Must Not Be Violated Incompatibility is considered as a hard constraint during planning. In case of its violation, a successful planning completion is not possible.



According to Incompatibility Definition The system is to behave according to the setting defined in Incompatibility Definition.



Note In case the option different from the According to Incompatibility Definition setting is chosen, the values of the rest of the Violation in Manual/Automatic Planning settings overwrite the value maintained directly in the incompatibility definition (Figure 81).

Figure 81 Manual/Automatic Violation Settings in Incompatibility Definition Settings

Recommendation for the VSR optimizer setup Each incompatibility reducing the number of resources or alternative transshipment locations increases the performance of the optimizer since fewer solutions have to be evaluated. Depending on the kind of characteristic it should be considered to split up the problem into several sub-problems (see above) when the sub-problems are mostly disjoint. Incompatibilities between different products within a resource reduce the number of tours where a freight unit can be assigned, but on the other hand make feasible and good combinations harder to find.



3

References

The following table lists sources used in this document: Reference

Titles

SAP Note Number

White Papers about SAP VSR optimizer

1520433 SAP Note Number 1908165

SAP Note on Freight Unit Dates in VSR Optimization and VSS Scheduling

Help Portal

SAP Transportation Management 9.0 Help Portal



SAP TM Planning Configuration

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