SAP ABAP Data Element STERM (Leg determination)
Hierarchy
☛ BBPCRM (Software Component) BBPCRM
   ⤷ CRM-BF (Application Component) Basic Functions
     ⤷ VTR (Package) SD R/3 transport processing
Basic Data
Data Element STERM
Short Description Leg determination  
Data Type
Category of Dictionary Type D   Domain
Type of Object Referenced     No Information
Domain / Name of Reference Type STERM    
Data Type CHAR   Character String 
Length 1    
Decimal Places 0    
Output Length 1    
Value Table      
Further Characteristics
Search Help: Name    
Search Help: Parameters    
Parameter ID   
Default Component name    
Change document    
No Input History    
Basic direction is set to LTR    
No BIDI Filtering    
Field Label
  Length  Field Label  
Short 10 Determ.Leg 
Medium 15 Determine legs 
Long 20 Determine legs 
Heading 1 L 
Documentation

Definition

Controls shipment leg determination.

Use

The leg determination function is a simple tool that facilitates or avoids manual leg entry. It does not constitute an optimization algorithm and does not have any kind of 'geographic intelligence'.

Based on simple rules, the leg determination function generates legs and determines the points of departure and destination of these legs as well as some leg-related data (service agent, shipping type, leg indicator, freight cost relevance).

Since the leg determination results depend on the settings of various parameters, you can model different business scenarios.

The most important parameter is the leg determination type that you have to specify here.

The following methods are supported:

  • Type ' ' (blank): Do not determine legs
    • For documents in which legs are not relevant.
  • Type '0': Do not determine legs, but determine the assignment of deliveries to existing legs
    • For documents in which such a complex situation exists that it is necessary to generate the legs manually. To reduce the maintenance effort, you can at least determine the assignment of delivery notes to stages.
  • Type '1': Leg determination on the basis of the sequence of departure and destination.
    • Collective shipments during which all goods are delivered to all shipment points and then to all ship-to parties.
  • Type '2': Preliminary leg for each departure point and subsequent leg for each point of arrival.
    • Consolidation
      • When there are several points of departure, a preliminary leg is created for each point of departure, which links the point of departure to the beginning of the main leg.
    • Distribution:
      • When there are several destination points, a subsequent leg is created for each destination point, which links the destination point to the end of the main leg.
  • Type '3': Preliminary leg and subsequent leg per delivery
    • Convoy:
      • Several deliveries leave the shipment point at the same time. A separate shipment leg is created for each delivery.
      All shipment legs go from the same shipment point to the same transportation point (beginning of the main leg).
  • Type '4': Same as type '1' but including the preliminary and subsequent leg shipping types

CAUTION:

Methods '2' and '3' describe shipments which are normally only carried out with a change of mode of transport (Example: Trucks take the delivery to the port, it is loaded onto a ship and loaded back onto trucks at the destination port). You should only use these two leg determination methods if no separate papers are required for the different legs. This is because the outputs (also the shipping units, texts, dates, and so on.) must be defined for the whole shipment. Therefore, documents such as truck and ships papers cannot be printed individually for different times and legs of the shipment.

If you need documentation covering each of the separate legs in a shipment document and you want to print out separate documents for the different modes of transport, for example, we recommend that you use several shipment documents to form a transportation chain.

(For further information, see the online documentation).

Procedure

For each shipment type you can define whether and how shipment legs should be determined.

Examples

Dependencies

Explanation of Leg Determination Procedure

During leg determination, the system determines the point of departure and the destination of a delivery on the basis of the leg indicator in the shipment header.
Leg determinaton is initiated when you choose the pushbutton "Leg determination" on the shipment stage overview screen or when the status "Planned" has been set in the shipment header. It is only executed if the respective shipment type has a leg determination type defined in the Implementation Guide.

You will find more information on the exact procedure for leg determination in the online documentation by choosing Shipment --> Shipment Stages --> Basic Information on Automatic Leg Determination.
Example:
In the case of a collective shipment (leg indicator 4, direct leg), the point of departure is the shipping point, and the destination is the ship-to-party. In the case of a preliminary leg shipment (leg indicator 1, preliminary leg), on the other hand, deliveries are not sent to the customer, but to a load transport point (for example, the harbor where the goods are loaded onto the main leg transport -- the ship). In the preliminary leg shipment, the destination point is the starting point of the main leg, for example, the harbor. The same applies for the subsequent leg shipment.

Leg determination type 0: Only determination of the assignment of deliveries to the stages.

With this leg determination type, no legs are determined by the system. You can assign the deliveries of the shipment to the existing (that is, manually entered) stages. See:

Leg determination type 1: Leg determination according to pick-up sequence and itinerary sequence.

The itinerary sequence results from the sorting of the delivery notes on the overview screen Delivery Notes for Shipment. If there is more than one point of departure, you must first define the sequence of the points of departure.

Example:
4 delivery notes:
L1 from V1 to W1
L2 from V2 to W2
L3 from V3 to W3
L4 from V2 to W1
(V1,V2,V3 shipping points W1,W2,W3 ship-to-parties)

Result of leg determination:
Preliminary legs:
V1 ---- V2 with L1
V2 ---- V3 with L1, L2, L4
Main legs:
V3 ---- W1 with all delivery notes
Subsequent legs:
W1 ---- W2 with L2, L3
W2 ---- W3 with L3

If you specified a main leg manually beforehand (by creating stages in the shipment document or by specifiying a route), the final point of the last preliminary leg is linked with the starting point of the main leg, and the final point of the main leg with the starting point of the first subsequent leg.

The assignment of the delivery notes to the generated stages takes place automatically.

Leg determination type 2: Preliminary leg for each point of departure. Subsequent leg for each point of destination.

Example:
4 delivery notes:
L1 from V1 to W1
L2 from V1 to W2
L3 from V2 to W2
L4 from V2 to W2
(V1,V2 shipping points W1,W2 ship-to-parties)
A main leg stage from 01 to 02 was specified.

Result of leg determination:
Preliminary leg stages:
V1 ---- O1 with L1, L2
V2 ---- O1 with L3, L4
Main leg stage:
O1 ---- O2 with all delivery notes
Subsequent leg stages:
O2 ---- W1 with L1
O2 ---- W2 with L2, L3, L4

If no main leg was specified, the shipping points are linked directly with the ship-to-parties.

This assignment of the delivery notes to the generated legs is executed automatically by the system.

CAREFUL:
Leg determination type 2 descripes a shipment that involves serveral
modes of transpoort (for example, trucks bring the deliveries to the shipping harbor, the goods are loaded onto a ship, at the destination harbor the goods are again loaded onto a truck).
You should only use this leg determination method if no separate documents are required for partial legs since the output (just like shipping units, texts, deadlines, and so on) is defined for the entire shipment (and is not leg-defined). Separate printing of, for example, truck and shipping documents at different times and for different legs is therefore not possible.
If your requirement extends beyond the actual documentation of the legs in the shipment document and you have to print separate papers for each mode of transport, we recommend that you create a transportation chain with several shipment documents.

Leg determination type 3: Preliminary leg for each delivery note, subsequent leg for each delivery note.

Example:
4 delivery notes:
L1 from V1 to W1
L2 from V1 to W2
L3 from V2 to W2
L4 from V2 to W2
(V1,V2 shipping points W1,W2 ship-to-parties)
A main leg from 01 to 02 was entered manually.

History
Last changed by/on SAP  19980218 
SAP Release Created in