Overview
Headquartered in Tulsa, Okla., this company is one of the largest independently owned aerospace companies in the world. They design, certify and manufacture integrated propulsion systems, nacelles and thrust reversers for business jets. In addition, they manufacture composite aircraft structures, interior shells, custom cabinetry, radomes, and aircraft transparencies such as cabin windows, wing tip lenses and simulator screens. It is also one of the world’s largest thirdparty providers of maintenance, repair and overhaul services to the military, commercial airline and air freight markets.
The company employs approximately 2,000 people around the globe, with facilities in the US, United Kingdom, Mexico and Singapore.
The Challenge
With manufacturing facilities in the US, Europe and Asia, the company needed to quickly implement a company-wide bar coding system to support their recent SAP upgrade. In fact, the project requirement was to go live 30-days after project start. Due to the short time frame involved, the customer was looking for something that could be deployed quickly and reliably but then extended by their internal IT staff in the future. Finally, the delivered solution was required to work properly with the existing SAP Single Sign-On (SSO).
The Solution
NLINK SAP Barcoding was installed on a central server running 64-bit Windows Server OS and fourteen pre-built data collection transactions were delivered. Junot Systems then provided a standard 3-day on-site training class that taught the IT group how to modify the delivered transactions and create new ones as needed.
SAP Bar Coding Transactions
The initial set of SAP bar coding transactions that were delivered to work with the customer’s SAP Inventory Management (IM) and Warehouse Management (WM) modules included:
| TXN CODE | TRANSACTION DESCRIPTION |
| MB01-101 | The pre-configured Goods Receipt for Purchase Order transaction in the NLINK SAP Barcoding prompts the user for the Purchase Order number and / or a material or batch number, usually scanned off the delivery documentation or packaging. NLINK SAP Barcoding then returns the matching line item information for verification of quantity and receiving location. Finally, NLINK SAP Barcoding posts the goods movement using Movement Type 101 (Receipt to Warehouse/Stores) to the SAP system and notifies the user of the success of the transaction. |
| MB1B-311 | The pre-configured Transfer Posting Storage Location to Storage Location transaction in NLINK SAP Barcoding uses the Movement Type 311 (One-Step Transfer Posting Storage Location to Storage Location). It prompts the user for the issuing Storage Location and a material number or batch number. NLINK SAP Barcoding then returns the existing inventory information for verification and prompts for the receiving Storage Location and quantity to move. Finally, NLINK SAP Barcoding posts the goods movement to the SAP system and notifies the user of the success of the transaction. |
| LT01 | The pre-configured Create Transfer Orders for Bin to Bin Transfer transaction in NLINK SAP Barcoding prompts the user for the Warehouse, Movement code, Plant, Storage Location and Batch or Material Number, usually scanned off documentation or packaging. NLINK SAP Barcoding then prompts the user for the source and destination storage type, section and bin. Finally, NLINK SAP Barcoding creates a Transfer Order (TO) in the SAP system and notifies the user of the success of the transaction. |
| LT12 | The pre-configured Transfer Order (Picking/Putaway) Confirmation transaction in NLINK SAP Barcoding prompts the user for the Warehouse and Transfer Order (TO) number, usually scanned off documentation or packaging. NLINK SAP Barcoding returns all matching and open (unconfirmed or partially confirmed) TO lines. Each TO line is shown one at a time. The user can navigate between TO lines using the << and >> buttons. The user marks all desired lines by checking the CONFIRM box for each line. Finally, NLINK SAP Barcoding posts a confirmation containing all selected lines to the SAP system and notifies the user of the success of the transaction. |
| MI04 | The pre-configured Physical Inventory Count transaction in NLINK SAP Barcoding prompts for the Physical Inventory Document number. NLINK SAP Barcoding then returns the storage location and material number for verification and prompts for the counted quantity. Finally, NLINK SAP Barcoding posts the inventory count to the SAP system and notifies the user of the success of the transaction. |
| TXN CODE | TRANSACTION DESCRIPTION |
| MB1A-921 | The pre-configured Goods Issue to Service Order transaction in NLINK SAP Barcoding prompts the user for the Service Order number, usually scanned off an order documentation. NLINK SAP Barcoding retrieves all matching and open reservation items associated with the service order. Each reservation item is shown one at a time. The user can navigate between items using the << and >> buttons. When the user posts an issue against a particular item, NLINK SAP Barcoding will post the goods movement using Movement Type 921 to the SAP system and notifies the user of the success of the transaction. |
| MB1A-261 | The pre-configured Goods Issue to Production Order transaction in NLINK SAP Barcoding prompts the user for the Production Order number and a material or batch number, usually scanned off the production documentation or packaging. NLINK SAP Barcoding then returns the matching line item information for verification of quantity and issuing location. Finally, NLINK SAP Barcoding posts the goods movement using Movement Type 261 (Consumption for Order from Warehouse) to the SAP system and notifies the user of the success of the transaction. |
| MB31-101 | The pre-configured Goods Receipt for Production Order transaction in NLINK SAP Barcoding prompts the user for the Production Order number and / or a material or batch number, usually scanned off the delivery documentation or packaging. NLINK SAP Barcoding then returns the matching line item information for verification of quantity and receiving location. Finally, NLINK SAP Barcoding posts the goods movement using Movement Type 101 (Receipt to Warehouse/Stores) to the SAP system and notifies the user of the success of the transaction. |
| LS24 | The pre-configured Bin Stock per Material transaction in NLINK SAP Barcoding prompts the user for the Warehouse, Plant and Batch or Material Number, usually scanned off documentation or packaging. When the user selects the QUERY button, NLINK SAP Barcoding returns all matching Warehouse Quants. Each Quant is shown one at a time. The user can navigate between Quants using the << and >> buttons. This is a reporting transaction and does not include any posting to SAP. |
Benefits
NLINK SAP Barcoding was delivered on-time and within budget despite the very short time-frame involved. All of the work was performed remotely from Junot’s offices in Houston which allowed more efficient use of technical resources while keeping services costs to a minimum.
Subsequent to deployment, on-site training by Junot Systems allowed the customer’s internal IT staff to immediately extend the delivered transaction set. In fact, the customer’s IT group added four new bar coding transactions within the next few months to support point-of-issue tracking of tools issued against a job site:
- Tool Assign to Work Area (Deliver to Work Area)
- Tool Locations
- Pickup Tool in Transit
- Put-away Tool to Home
Separately, the solution was further expanded to include the ability to print bar code labels directly from the hand held devices. Junot Systems provided this additional capability for one of their existing bar coding transactions and delivered it with documentation to allow the customer’s IT group to replicate it to other transactions as required.
In order to support users in other parts of the world, additional installations of NLINK SAP Barcoding are planning to be deployed regionally and connected into the customer’s SAP system via their global WAN. Other locations and other divisions will then be able to leverage the original work done to easily deliver a consistent and easily supportable enterprise wide bar coding solution.
The success of this project has allowed this customer to retire a previously deployed bar coding application that was not able to meet their enterprise needs.
About Junot Systems
Junot Systems, Inc. is a specialist provider of SAP integration solutions for the manufacturing and process industries. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Junot Systems, Inc. has deployed and supported its NLINK product suite for over 25 years in a variety of vertical markets, both in the US and overseas.
About Junot Systems’ Solutions
NLINK® is a configuration-based product suite that installs in minutes and requires absolutely no custom coding to be deployed. NLINK’s patented and SAP Certified Interfaces work with any version of SAP and require no additional SAP components to be purchased or installed into the SAP landscape.
NLINK is a registered trademark of Junot Systems Corporation. SAP is a registered trademark of SAP SE. Other names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
