Intermodal transport with containers in SAP TM
Intermodal transport with containers
The sight of containers transported by truck, ship, or rail has become an integral part of logistics today. In a complex logistics chain, a container can be transported on different modes of transport. The advantages of each mode can be exploited. Ships are slow, but inexpensive for large volumes. Trucks are expensive, but can be flexible and precise in reaching recipients. Standardized load carriers (ISO containers) allow the same load unit to be used on different modes of transportation.
Intermodal transport or combined transport is a special form of multimodality and is characterized by the fact that the transport/load unit is transferred to the different modes of transport, but not unloaded. Different service providers can be responsible for the different modes of transportation.
The following is an example: Goods are imported from overseas in containers by container ship and transported to an overseas port. At the port, the containers are unloaded and picked up by freight forwarders. They use trucks to transport the containers to specific warehouses. In this example, there are only two modes of transport, or two legs (main leg and onward leg), for the handling unit. Transportation can be much more complex using other modes, such as barges (for inland transportation) or rail. Any interruption in the transportation process can result in risks, such as damage or delays.
Figure 1: Example of a multi-link transportation chain
How can such a scenario be mapped in SAP TM?
For intermodal transports with containers there is a container unit of the same name in SAP TM.
The special feature of container units is that they represent both a transportation requirement and a capacity at the same time. Planning units (freight units) in SAP TM can be consolidated to these transport units (capacity document), but at the same time these transport units (requirement document) can also be planned to freight orders or freight bookings (capacity document). Freight orders are used for road or rail transportation, and freight bookings are used for sea and air transportation. Pallets, pallet cages, etc. can be grouped into a container, which is then transported by means of transport (ship, rail, truck).
Details such as container number and seal number can be stored in container units, allowing a container to be uniquely identified throughout the transportation chain.
Several sections in a container unit can contain the various loading, transshipment and unloading stops, so that a multi-link transportation chain can also be mapped in these SAP TM documents.
If we take the multi-link transportation chain presented above and represent it in SAP TM, the following document flow (embedded scenario) results as an example:
Figure 2: Example document flow for intermodal transport in SAP TM
The transfer requirements (outbound deliveries, sales orders, purchase orders, shipping orders, etc.) report the need for transportation from a US port to warehouses in Germany.
The routes, including loading, transshipment, and unloading stops, are already known. For fixed routes, standard routes can be created in SAP TM. Here, a series of stops (in SAP TM locations) can be stored, which takes over the complete stop sequence from the standard route based on the first and last location in the freight unit.
If shipments from the USA to the German warehouses always go through the port of Rotterdam, this is stored in the freight unit.
Transfer requirements 1 and 2 are shipped from the U.S. port to the Frankfurt warehouse. Transfer requirements 3 and 4 are moved from the U.S. port to the Munich warehouse.
Figure 3: Sections in the TM documents for a multi-link transport chain.
These sections are transferred to the container unit. The container units would each have the segments Port New York -> Port Rotterdam -> Warehouse Frankfurt (1) or Munich (2).
The leg Port of New York -> Port of Rotterdam is performed by a container ship and is therefore a sea transport. A freight booking is created based on this leg. A freight booking reserves cargo space on a vessel. In the standard system, specific fields for ocean transport are filled in the freight booking (IMO ship identification number, shipping company booking number, house waybill, etc.). This document can be ordered and invoiced separately.
Transportation from the port of Rotterdam to the warehouses in Frankfurt and Munich is by land, where a freight order is created for the section. This document can be ordered and invoiced separately. In this way, a separate service provider can be ordered and invoiced for each leg.
Intermodal transport can be represented by different document flows in SAP TM. This depends on the customer's own requirements and processes.
Are you a trading company that outsources the accurate booking of transports to an external service provider? Then SAP TM allows you to integrate transportation planning into SAP. Or are you a logistics service provider (shipping company, etc.) with detailed booking information (departures, prices, etc.) and want to find the cheapest or fastest route for requirements along a multi-link transportation chain? Then you may be interested in schedules that the system can search for alternative routes. SAP TM makes transport proposals for you or plans these transports automatically via the optimizer.
