SAP Barcoding Image Attachments

As part of a SAP Barcode implementation project, we were asked to deliver a custom SAP barcode screen to handle Goods Issue to Delivery, comprising specific rules for lookups, serial number assignments, and calling custom RFCs in the SAP system. The customer then asked if we could enhance this screen, by adding some more tracking fields and image capture functionality.

With their existing legacy process, after posting the received items to SAP, the users had to do a second step of linking the posted serial numbers to a photo, (sometimes several photos), of the serial numbered item. Their approach was to take the picture(s), save to Google Drive, and then manually enter and track everything using a spreadsheet. The customer did not want to upload photos to their on-premise SAP S/4HANA system based on SAP Basis team’s concerns that it may eventually overload the storage capacity of their SAP server.

The new requirement was to incorporate a more seamless process into the SAP handheld scanner screen storing the image files on a separate network drive (rather than Google Drive), and automatically save the resulting file location’s network path in a custom field in SAP.

The customer was using Honeywell EDA51 scanners running Android Version 10.

These ruggedized smart phone form factor scanners have a 1280 x 720 high-definition display resolution with a solid 5-inch display screen.  This lightweight 9.59 oz unit also includes a 13-megapixel color camera.

Note that this model has subsequently been “retired” by Honeywell and is replaced with the slightly improved ScanPal EDA52.

We initially delivered the NLINK ADC to SAP Solution with just four SAP Inventory Management transactions from our out-of-the-box baseline library of SAP barcoding transactions:

• MB1A-261 (MIGO) Goods Issue to Production Order
• MB1B-311 (MIGO) Transfer Posting SLoc to SLoc
• MMBE Stock Overview
• MI04/MI05 Physical Inventory Count/Change Count

Early in the project we discovered that the customer needed the Goods Issue to Production Order to post with respect to the Production Order’s underlying Reservation. We have both options in our pre-built baseline library of SAP barcode transactions so we switched out that transaction. They also requested Goods Issue Reversal (MB1A-262), again with respect to Reservation. We expanded the scope of the original project and built that SAP barcoding screen for them based on the already approved Goods Issue screen.

We worked with the customer to understand the required changes to the SAP scanner screen’s process flow that these new fields would require. Since they were already using a custom SAP RFC for this screen, the customer elected to add these new fields to that same customized RFC.

With our zero-code approach, we quickly added the new input fields and an image capture control, for the image attachment, to the SAP handheld scanner screen, and built the behind-the-scenes configuration to seamlessly handle the file transfer from the barcode scanner to the network drive and include the new data in the RFC calls to SAP.

The NLINK® ADC to SAP Solution has a variety of pre-built out-of-the-box SAP barcode transactions to choose from, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get creative! Whether starting from scratch or building on top of one of our library transactions, NLINK can handle any of your custom SAP barcode scanner integration requirements. Take the opportunity to streamline and simplify your SAP data entry screens, presenting users with just the information they need to Scan and Go.