Transfer Requirements

A transfer requirement is a document that is used to plan and initiate stock movements using the SAP
Warehouse Management (WM) application.
Using transfer requirements as planning documents, WM creates transfer orders that are then used to
execute physical stock movements. The distinction between the planning (creating a transfer
requirement) and the execution of a stock movement (creating and confirming a transfer order) enables
you to find out whether a stock transfer should occur, has already started, or is finished. A transfer
requirement answers several questions about a planned stock movement:

What should be moved?

How much should be moved?

When should it be moved? (The planning date is important for further automatic processing.)

Which direction should it moved? (Is it a pick or a putaway?)

Why is it to be moved? (Was it initiated as a result of a purchase order, production order, or

created manually?)

You use transfer requirements to pass information about stock movements that are posted in Inventory
Management to WM, but they are not limited to that function. You can use transfer requirements to start
stock movements within WM or to initiate the supply of materials to production storage bins at production
supply areas locations using the Production Planning (PP) application component. You can also use the
transfer requirement reporting functions to retrieve an overview of stock that is to be moved.

Stock Movements Not Initiated by Transfer Requirements

You can also carry out stock movements without transfer requirements. For example, you do not have to
use a transfer requirement if transfer orders are created from deliveries using the Sales and Distribution
(SD) Shipping component. The delivery replaces the transfer requirement and you manually create a
transfer order that is based on the delivery. For more information, see Overview: Goods Issues Based on
a Delivery.

How is a Transfer Requirement Structured?

A transfer requirement consists of a header that contains general information about the entire requirement
and one or more items. This information includes the material that is to be transferred and the quantities
involved. When you create a transfer requirement manually, you can enter values in all fields of the
header except the fields in the Additional data section. These fields are maintained by the system.
The first section of the screen item contains information from the header. In the second section, you enter
information about the quantity to be transferred. The system maintains the data about the open quantity.
In the third section, you enter information about the material to be transferred.

Transfer Types

A stock transfer is identified by a transfer type. Although it has no control characteristic, you can select
evaluation and display transactions using the transfer type indicator.

Transfer into the Warehouse

This type of transfer is a movement of a quantity of material to one or several storage
bins within the warehouse. A typical example is a goods receipt for which the quantity is
to be transferred from the interim storage area for goods receipts into the warehouse.

This type of a transfer is a removal of a quantity of material from one or several storage
bins in the warehouse. A typical example is a goods issue for which the quantity is to be
transferred from the warehouse to the interim storage area for goods issues.

Creating Transfer Requirements

You can create transfer requirements

Automatically by posting a goods movement in Inventory Management

Automatically by requesting materials using the Production Planning system

Manually using WM

You can create transfer requirements with or without reference to other system documents.

You can create a transfer requirement

With reference...

to a material document

to move stock into or out of the warehouse

to a production order

to supply required materials to a production supply area

Without reference...
to move stock from one bin to another in the warehouse

to request crate parts and release order parts to replenish their

assigned storage bins in production supply areas

to initiate the replenishment of fixed bins in WM