What is the difference between deliveries and shipments?

The SAP module Logistics Execution makes a distinction between deliveries and shipments. A simple example can explain this difference.

When you order groceries on-line for delivery within a few hours, the supermarket receives your order and verifies the availability. The sales order is converted into a delivery for those products in stock. Normally your order will only consist of a few items, and therefore will not fill one van. Instead the car used to deliver your order contains many orders from various customers who live in your area.  The shipment is used within SAP to group deliveries with the aim to have each shipment to represent a full car of groceries.

You notice personnel with their carts collecting the products within the shop.  This picking activity is linked to a delivery. The ownership of the products change when they are placed in the van, which is called the ‘goods issue posting’ within SAP.

Typical shipment related statuses are the planning, loading and physical delivery of the products. Each shipment is linked to the van, so you could link the driver and car registration number to a specific shipment within SAP.

So the next time you see a van delivering groceries to customers, the car is the shipment and the bags of groceries for a specific customer is a delivery.

NOTE: Just to add to potential confusion, when customising the SAP R/3 system you set-up deliveries in the ‘shipping’ section and shipments within ‘transportation’.

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