Material Flow System (MFS) Integration with SAP Extended Warehouse Management: Architecture, Control, and Automated Warehouse Execution
Abstract: Automated warehouses depend on continuous coordination between warehouse management logic and the physical control equipment that moves handling units. SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) Material Flow System (MFS) provides this coordination by connecting EWM directly with programmable logic controllers (PLCs), allowing warehouse tasks to be broken into smaller material-flow stages and executed through telegram-based communication. This paper examines MFS as the control interface between SAP EWM and automated warehouse equipment. It describes the MFS architecture, the roles of PLCs, communication channels, communication points, conveyor segments, and resources, and the execution logic used to control putaway, retrieval, conveyor movement, and stacker-crane activity. Particular attention is given to capacity management, malfunction handling, interleaving, case-conveyor routing, monitoring, and operational recovery. The paper positions SAP EWM MFS against the broader warehouse-automation and automated storage and retrieval system literature, which has traditionally focused on system configuration, routing, travel-time optimization, storage assignment, and sequencing. The analysis shows that MFS operationalizes many of these control concerns inside a commercial warehouse-management platform while maintaining a direct link between system decisions and physical handling-unit movement. An illustrative business case is included to demonstrate how direct EWM-to-PLC integration can be evaluated in terms of integration simplification, exception handling, operational visibility, and equipment utilization.
Keywords: SAP EWM, Material Flow System, MFS, PLC, Automated Warehouse, AS/RS, Conveyor System, Stacker Crane, Handling Unit, Telegram Communication, Warehouse Automation, Intralogistics
How to Cite?: Varun Kumar Reddy Gaddam, "Material Flow System (MFS) Integration with SAP Extended Warehouse Management: Architecture, Control, and Automated Warehouse Execution", Volume 15 Issue 10, October 2026, International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), Pages: 623-629, https://www.ijsr.net/getabstract.php?paperid=SR261009045835, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21275/SR261009045835