Merchandise and Assortment Planning supports planning and reporting for all business activities involving assortment and merchandise, as a smoothly integrated process. This enables you to plan on a value-basis and on a quantity-basis. Planning can be done at any number of hierarchy levels, for example, purchasing organization, store group, or merchandise category levels. For example, you can define your strategic targets at a higher hierarchy level, and then transfer them step-by-step to the assortment, price band or even article levels. In doing so, you can compare test versions that were created manually and then develop a final version based on these test versions.

The planning is used to define important key figures, for example, sales, gross revenue, stock, assortment width, and assortment depth for a time period in the future: for example, a season. By comparing planning data, actual data and historical data, you can define and optimize future developments for your company.

You can define the planning process flow, the planning hierarchy structure, and key figure selection to be included in planning, according to your requirements.

You define the structure of your planning process in the planning scenario. Here you can also define the extent of your planning. Planning scenarios represent self-contained planning processes and are used to administer all system activities in planning. You can create various planning scenarios manually. You can use network graphics to simplify maintenance, thus meaning that the total number of planning processes remains more manageable.

SAP Business Workflow can be used to control the timeframe for your planning session. This ensures that the sequence and deadlines for the individual planning activities can be met by your associates.

Planning steps are the main components in planning scenarios. You can choose which planning step method you want to use. Manual planning is the most important planning method. In manual planning, you enter the planning data for selected key figures in freely-definable entry screens (planning layouts) and then creating further planning data based on this.

If you use Excel Integration in your planning, Microsoft Excel is used as the interface for entering planning data, thus replacing the SAP interface. This allows you to combine SAP functions with the functional flexibility offered by Microsoft Excel.

Planning can be done at any levels of the planning hierarchy. Planning data is, however, stored on the lowest level of the planning step. As a result, data is consistent at every planning level when the planning data is aggregated or disaggregated.

Planning data is distributed to periods using time-related distribution keys.

Plan versions enable you to keep different planning strategies separately in your database in the system, so that you can, for example, execute a comparison of historical and current planning or alternatively, a comparison of planning versions.

In automatic planning you can copy actual or planning data to other plan versions. While you are doing this, you can process your data using SAP Copy Management.

You can exchange planning data between linked planning steps using planning step links.

The database table (info structure) provides you with the required planning levels and key figures for which you want to generate planning data. You can define which of the planning levels and key figures in the info structure represent plan characteristics (for example, purchasing organizations, merchandise categories) and planning key figures (for example, sales, sales quantities) in the planning step.

You can also use the SAP Business Warehouse in your plan, thus copying data from the BW system to the info structure and saving planning data in the BW system, to enable you to run user-friendly and efficient Reporting (comparison of planning, actual and historical data).

Planning data, actual data, and historical data can also be compared using the reporting functions in the Retail Information System (RIS). Standard analyses are available in the Merchandise and Assortment Planning component and allow you to compare the different types of data.

Interfaces can be used to create allocation tables and promotions in the system using the planning data that you have created. You can also integrate your own programs and transactions in planning scenarios. Planned articles can be created for articles that have no master data in the SAP System. You can thus integrate the planned articles in your planning.

You can integrate your own programs and transactions in the planning scenario.

You can use the Business Document Navigator to create information as Microsoft Office documents or graphics for planning scenarios, planning steps, and planning step links. This enables you to define targets and strategies for your company.

Authorization objects ensure that only particular employees can create and display planning data.

Even if you use various currencies when entering data for your company, all planning data for a scenario is stored in the same database currency.

Merchandise and Assortment Planning was a new development for Release 4.6A, thereby replacing Open-To-Buy (OTB). The original planning functionality remains in SAP Retail with Release 4.5B status. No new developments will be made to the original planning functionality.

This unit concerns the planning aspect of Merchandise and Assortment Planning. For more information on Reporting, see the general documentation for SAP Business Information Warehouse or the Retail Information System (RIS).