Kazam WMS · warehouse platform
SAP runs the company; the warehouse needs an operational layer that speaks to scanners, operators and automation. The classic mistake is to ask the ERP to do the work on the floor as well — or to ask the WMS to stand in for the ERP. A sound integration gives each of them its own role: SAP remains the system of record, Kazam executes and hands back the facts.
How the integration works
Kazam integrates with SAP through a two-way data exchange: API interfaces and record layouts agreed during the analysis phase, adapted to the customer's SAP version and configuration (the specific arrangements are settled in the integration project). The principle does not change:
- From SAP to Kazam: item master data, purchase and sales orders, production orders to be fulfilled from the warehouse.
- From Kazam to SAP: receipt confirmations, stock movements and adjustments, picking and shipping confirmations, traceability data (batches, serial numbers, expiry dates).
Stock stays aligned in near real time; SAP does not need to know which aisle the pallet is in, and Kazam does not need to issue invoices. Each to its own trade.
What changes in the warehouse
With Kazam in front of SAP, operators work on Android handhelds with guided missions (receiving, put-away, picking, stocktaking) instead of ERP transactions; the WES sets priorities in real time; and where there is automation — shuttles, sorters, AGVs — the WCS drives it directly over OPC-UA, Modbus, FINS or VDA 5050, which an ERP does not do. The difference between the three layers is explained in the WMS vs WES vs WCS guide.
The reverse holds too: Kazam does not do accounting, demand planning or supplier management, and does not try to. If the warehouse is already well run by the ERP module and there is no automation to drive, adding one more layer would be a cost without a matching benefit.
What actually crosses over
SAP and the warehouse do not talk to each other directly. In between sits an exchange area: a database kept apart from the operational one. The ERP writes to it whenever it has something to pass on, Kazam reads it back at configurable intervals — in the order of seconds — and reports the facts in return. Neither is left hanging on the other: if the warehouse is down for maintenance, SAP carries on writing and finds everything waiting in the queue when work resumes.
There are five families of data: item master records, customers, delivery addresses, work documents with their lines, and load units with their contents.
Every row deposited carries a status: to be read, imported, or discarded because superseded. That serves two purposes. The first is that every import is repeatable. If the service stops halfway, on restart it picks up only what it had not yet processed, without duplicating anything. The second concerns updates in quick succession. If SAP rewrites the same master record three times before Kazam reads it, the latest version is the one that goes in; the earlier ones stay marked as superseded, with a timestamp and a reason. There is no queue to sort out by hand.
How you check that the figures add up
Every warehouse document keeps the reference to the SAP document that originated it, on the header and on each line. That is not an implementation detail: it is what makes the integration verifiable without keeping two screens open and comparing them by eye.
Kazam's APIs are queried with SAP's own key, not with an internal numbering scheme. You ask for the status of a document using the number the ERP already knows, and you get back what was done in the warehouse. In the same way you can read where an item or a load unit is. Access is authenticated with a token.
This is what gets checked during acceptance testing. You take a sample of documents and compare what SAP sent with what the warehouse carried out. Until the two sides agree you do not go live, and in the meantime the warehouse carries on working as before.
Frequently asked questions
Do we have to modify SAP in order to use Kazam?
No: the integration works through interfaces, with no changes to the SAP core. The record layouts are configured together with the customer's IT team during the analysis phase.
Who stays in charge of stock?
SAP remains the accounting system of record; Kazam manages operational stock by location and reconciles it back to the ERP with confirmed movements.
Does it work with any version of SAP?
The interface-based approach adapts to different versions and configurations; feasibility in a specific case is assessed in the first technical analysis (free of charge — talk to an engineer).
And if automation arrives tomorrow?
Nothing to redo: WES and WCS are modules of the same platform. The SAP integration stays exactly as it is; machine control is switched on when you need it.
Kazam is the source-available platform that covers WMS and WES and integrates with Sun Tech WCS. Talk to an engineer for an assessment of the integration with your SAP.