SAP ERP Decentralized Warehouse Management (dWM)

As the demands on warehouse operations increase, so do the demands on warehouse technology requirements. The need to migrate from a centralized SAP warehouse management (WM) environment to a decentralized WM environment is a key example of this change. For many organizations operating in a global environment, it is difficult to maintain one SAP instance without disrupting operations in another part of the globe. In order to provide a more flexible architecture and to address potential performance concerns, SAP developed a decentralized warehouse management (dWM) version of the application. This technology allows your operation to run a separate instance of WM that can run 24x7 operations independent of your central enterprise resource planning (ERP) instance.

Companies are now looking for reasons why they should not implement dWM, as opposed to considering why they should. Benefits such as the ability to operate independently of the core ERP, scalability, and increased performance and system response of both the ERP and Dec. WM systems are a few good reasons to consider Dec. WM. In addition, the advent of SAP's task and resource management (TRM), as well as SAP's indication that the future development vector for WM is going to be focused on dWM, furthers this support.

The decentralized environment is enabled through real-time integration between two SAP systems. This integration allows the WM module to operate as a stand-alone application and a separate client from the core ERP system. However, the recommended architecture is to have the dWM installed on a separate server, possibly located on site at the distribution center. The system operates similar to a third party software system, leveraging SAP's tight integration methods, standard BAPI's for transactions, and IDOC's for master data.

Catalyst can deliver a complete SAP ERP decentralized warehouse management solution, drawing on its unrivalled experience and understanding of the SAP SCM market.

There have also been some key improvements that make dWM a more practical solution, including:

  • Ability to change certain master data after it has been distributed to the dWM and make the changes in either the ERP or the dWM system
  • Ability to delay the transmission of an Inbound or outbound delivery from the ERP system to dWM
  • Ability to have several ERP systems connected to one dWM system