Stock Room Management (STRM)

WM under S/4HANA On-Premise / Stock Room Management (StRM)

With Stock Room Management, SAP has created an opportunity to continue to use the familiar WM functionalities at least in part after 2025.

The situation

The warehouse management module WM, which you know from your previous SAP ERP system, is also included in S/4HANA. However, it is on the so-called “Compatibility Scope Matrix for SAP S/4HANA on-premise” (see OSS note 2269324). For the functionalities mentioned there the right of use expires on 31.12.2025. This means for WM that not only the support expires, but WM will no longer be used under S/4HANA after 2025 (see also OSS note 2577428).

At the end of June 2019, SAP modified its licensing strategy once again. Under the name “Stock Room Management”, some of the WM functionalities will now remain available after 2025 (from S/4HANA 1909). Although this module will not be further developed, existing and new customers should consider it as an alternative to the significantly more complex EWM for their smaller and more simply structured warehouses.

WM vs. Stock Room Managemen – the Delta

In particular, existing customers who have been using WM so far will soon have to ask themselves whether they use WM functionalities that will no longer be available after 2025 under Stock Room Management. In detail these are:

• Task & Resource Management (WM-TRM)
• Yard Management (WM-YM)
• Cross-Docking (WM-CD)
• Value Added Service (WM-VAS)
• Wave Management (WM-TFM-CP)
• Warehouse Control Unit Interface (WM-LSR)
• Decentral WM (WM-DWM)

If you are not sure whether you are using one of these functions, we recommend that you install OSS Note 2882809. Then run program STOCKROOM_COMPLIANCE_CHECK in transaction SE38 – preferably separately for each warehouse number and logged on in English. The report checks both customizing and transaction data and gives you a result in traffic light form for each of the above-mentioned functions. Green means that the entire warehouse number can continue to be used in Stock Room Management after 2025; yellow gives you an indication of existing settings for non-sustainable functions, so that you should check for yourself to what extent these are relevant for you; red means the definitive use of such functions.

Decision making

Based on our project experience, we are convinced that the functions Task & Resource Management and Yard Management are rarely used and will therefore have only in the rarest cases an influence on the decision for or against Stock Room Management. However, if these functions are in use, they represent a clear argument for switching to EWM, which offers much more in this area.
The cross-docking and additional logistics services functions, which are also rarely used, should not have a significant influence on the decision-making process, even if they are actively used, as they can be developed in-house with comparatively little effort. Please feel free to contact us about this.
Shaft management certainly requires more careful consideration: Depending on the extent to which you use the possible customizing settings, either in-house development in Stock Room Management or a switch to EWM may be more advantageous.
The biggest headache for decision-makers will be the warehouse control computer connection and decentralized WM. A look at the source code of the program STOCKROOM_COMPLIANCE_CHECK reveals that not every message type that can be set in transaction OMKY is abolished in Stock Room Management. And what about self-created message types? There is obviously a gray area here; it remains to be seen how SAP will handle this in the future.
Connecting a decentralized warehouse management system to your S/4HANA will still be possible without any problems after 2025. But Stock Room Management will not be able to operate as such a decentralized warehouse management system. Companies that currently use a decentralized SAP-WM and wish to retain the decentralized architecture have the following options:

• Introduction of a decentralized EWM.
• Introduction of a decentralized warehouse management system from a third party supplier.
• Retention of the decentral WM system with no maintenance after 2027 (extendable to 2030). The extent to which this alternative is in line with the license terms must be clarified in each individual case.
• Migration of the decentralized system to S/4HANA and thus after 2025 operation as Stock Room Management, which must now be extended by the decentralized connection functionalities within the scope of an in-house development. We have already written a rough technical concept for this in-house development. If this alternative comes into consideration for you, please contact us! We would be happy to provide you with our concept and support you in restoring decentralized functionalities for Stock Room Management.

Our conclusion

You can clearly see that SAP has EWM as the target architecture for more complex warehouses: WM warehouses that use the above-mentioned functions cannot be operated in the future Stock Room Management in this way. But there is room for maneuver! We would be happy to help you to find and use this room for maneuver in order to maintain your WM system, which has been adapted over the years.