Setup Step 7 — Create Storage Locations
MANDATORY
Layer 2 · Logistics · owned by MM
⏱️ ~10 min
OX09
🎯 Why this setting exists
A storage location is a sub-division inside a plant — the physical spot where stock actually sits: a yard, a shelf, a cold store, a returns cage. Stock cannot exist in SAP without one, so it is entered on almost every goods movement. Crucially, a storage location holds quantity only — value lives at the plant level. That means moving stock between two storage locations of the same plant changes where the goods are but creates no FI document: the company's balance sheet is untouched because nothing left the plant.
💡 Easy example
Inside the Karachi factory (PK01), the building is one plant — but the materials are not piled in a single heap. RAWM is the raw-material yard where incoming iron ore waits, WIPS is the work-in-progress floor where half-finished billets sit, and FNGD is the finished-goods store where ready bars wait to ship.
They are different shelves in the same building. Carting a billet from the WIP floor to the finished store (movement type
They are different shelves in the same building. Carting a billet from the WIP floor to the finished store (movement type
311) moves it between storage locations — the factory still owns it, its value never changed, so Finance sees nothing.
🔗 How this connects to everything else
A storage location only makes sense once its plant exists, and once it does it shows up on nearly every stock transaction. Here's the web around it.
⬆️ Depends on (must exist first)
- Step 3 — Plants: a storage location is created under a plant; the plant must exist before you can add locations to it.
⬇️ Enables (what this unlocks)
- Goods receipt into a specific location — stock now has a place to land.
- Stock transfers between locations (Scenario 3, movement type
311). - Stock-by-location reporting — table
MARDstores quantity per plant + storage location.
🧩 Who owns it & why MM cares
MM Pure MM. Storage locations are the sub-divisions inside a plant where stock physically sits, and they are entered on almost every goods movement — receipt, issue, transfer. You configure and reference them constantly.
🔮 Links to other modules (now & later)
- WM / EWM: a warehouse is set up under a storage location. If you later turn on warehouse management, it attaches here — the storage location becomes the doorway into bin-level control.
🔧 Configuration — fields & steps
OX09 · SPRO → Enterprise Structure → Definition → Materials Management → Maintain Storage Location
Action sequence
- Run OX09
- Enter Plant
PK01→ Continue - Click New Entries and create the SLs (see table below)
- Save
- Repeat for plants
PK02,PK03,AE01
Storage locations to create per plant
| Section · Field | Fill | What the field asks (plain words) | Why we choose this — and the impact if wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage locations to create · OX09 → New Entries (the "Fill" column shows which plants to create each one in) | |||
| VPK1 · General store | PK01, PK02, PK03, AE01 | The catch-all default store for ordinary stock that needs no special area — like the main shelf in a warehouse. | Every plant needs one default place to receive and hold normal stock. Impact: with no general location, a routine goods receipt at that plant has nowhere to post. |
| RAWM · Raw-material yard | PK01, PK02 | Where bought-in raw material waits before production — the delivery yard where iron ore and coal pile up before the furnace. | Only the two factories (PK01 Karachi, PK02 Lahore) actually process raw material; the two DCs never do, so they skip it. Impact: no RAWM and a goods receipt of iron ore has nowhere to land at the factory. |
| WIPS · Work-in-progress floor | PK01, PK02 | Where half-finished goods sit mid-process — the shop floor holding billets that are started but not yet finished. | Only factories make things, so only they carry work-in-progress. Impact: without it, part-made stock can't be counted apart from raw or finished goods. |
| FNGD · Finished-goods store | PK01, PK02, PK03, AE01 | Where ready-to-sell output waits before it ships — the finished-goods store holding bars ready for customers. | Kept apart from raw and half-made stock so you can see at a glance what is sellable; every site stores or dispatches finished goods. Impact: mix finished bars in with raw stock and you can't tell what is ready to sell. |
| QHLD · Quality-hold area | PK01, PK02 | A fenced-off spot for stock waiting on a quality check — a "do not use yet" cage until inspection passes. | Keeps unchecked stock out of usable stock so no one issues it before it is approved; needed where goods are received and made (the factories). Impact: without it, stock still pending inspection could be used or shipped by mistake. |
| RTRN · Returns store | PK01, PK02, PK03 | Where returned goods land when they come back from a customer or the shop floor — the returns pile. | Both factories and the Karachi DC handle returns; the Dubai export DC does not in this design. Impact: without it, returns have no separate home and distort normal stock figures. |
| BLKD · Blocked stock | PK01, PK02 | Where rejected or on-hold stock is parked so it can't be used — the quarantine corner for damaged or failed goods. | Separates bad stock from good so it is never picked by accident; factories create such stock during production and QC. Impact: no blocked location means faulty material stays mixed in with usable stock. |
| EXPT · Export staging | AE01 only | A staging area where goods are gathered and prepped for international shipment — the export loading bay. | Only the Dubai DC (AE01) does export staging for international orders. Impact: without it, the export DC can't keep goods being prepared for shipment apart from ordinary stock. |
💡 Tip: same SL code in different plants is fine
SL RM01 in Plant PK01 is INDEPENDENT from RM01 in Plant PK02. Same code, different records. They share no relationship. This is by design.
🚨 Issues & fixes
⚠️ Common gotcha — "no FI document" is correct, not a bug
Beginners often expect a transfer between two storage locations of the same plant to post an accounting document. It does not — and that's correct. Storage locations carry quantity only; value lives at the plant. A same-plant transfer (movement type 311) just relocates stock, so Finance sees nothing. You only get an FI document when stock crosses a plant (and therefore a valuation area) boundary.
✅ Verification
- Run SE16N → table
T001L→ ~20+ storage-location rows total across all plants