The consolidation group in SAP EWM is used in outbound processes to determine which delivery items may be packed together into one handling unit.

The joint packing indicator is set at document item level in SAP ERP. In SAP EWM it is passed into the delivery item in the field «Packing Consolidation»:

To use consolidation groups, the SAP EWM settings must specify the data on which the system generates a new number when a group is created. The possible options are:

• Warehouse number
• Route
• Ship-to party
• Delivery priority

This setting is maintained in SPRO IMG:

Extended Warehouse Management - Goods Issue Process - Define Consolidation Group:

You can also specify the consolidation group number for a combination of fields yourself. This is done in transaction /SCWM/DSGR, path in the SAP Easy Access menu:

Extended Warehouse Management - Master Data - Maintain Consolidation Group:

This is convenient because, for example, if you name the consolidation group the same way as the ship-to party, then in the screen transactions you can see the recipient of the stock at the level of the picked stock.

The consolidation group is determined as follows:

When an outbound delivery order is created, the system tries to assign a consolidation group to each delivery item.

• If the consolidation indicator is not set, SAP EWM generates a new number from the number range defined in SPRO and assigns it to all items of that delivery. This is useful for deliveries that always have to be packed into a separate HU, for example small customer orders.
• If the consolidation indicator is set, the system checks in the consolidation group maintenance table whether a consolidation group number already exists for the given combination (warehouse number – ship-to party – route – delivery priority). If it does, the system takes it and assigns it to the delivery item. If it does not, the system generates one from the defined number range, adds it to the consolidation group maintenance table and assigns it to all items of the delivery. This option works well for collective shipments of several orders to one recipient.

So we have determined for which deliveries a new consolidation group is generated and for which an existing one is used. But how is this used?

When pick warehouse orders are created, the limit values of the warehouse order creation rule (WOCR) let you specify how many consolidation groups may be picked into one order or into one HU:

As a WOCR filter you can also define restrictions that apply not to an individual item but to all items of one consolidation group:

In the work center settings you can also forbid repacking goods with different consolidation groups into one HU:

The consolidation group is assigned to the stock at the moment after it has been picked for an outbound delivery order item that carries a consolidation group. If only one consolidation group is picked into an HU, then that group is assigned to the HU itself:

If the standard algorithm for determining the consolidation group does not meet the customer's requirements, you can apply your own logic in the BAdI /SCWM/EX_CORE_CONS.