Variant 5: Discontinuing an Article

Use

You use this variant to pass a discontinuation notice from the SAP system to the space management program.

When you plan to discontinue an article, you set a date by which the article is to be physically removed from your stores. Prior to this date, the article must be removed from its assortment and can no longer be sold. Then with this variant, the space management program is instructed to remove the article from planograms. Only after all this takes place can Workflow continue with the actual discontinuation process.

When you choose to discontinue an article, the system first checks whether the article is assigned to a layout module; if so, the article cannot be discontinued. In this case, though, you will be given the opportunity to first remove the article from all layout modules, then continue with the discontinuation.

See also:

Variant 1: Space Management for Information Only

Variant 2: New Placement for an Article

Variant 3: Moving an Article to a New Location

Variant 4: Manual Shelf Space Maintenance

Integration

Functions in the SAP System

  • Integrated article maintenance

  • Assortment list

  • Workflow for space management

Functions in the External Space Management Program

  • Color modelling of a shelf, possibly with digital images of the individual articles

  • Importing data by calling the Read-BAPI or by extracting from Microsoft Excel

  • Possible highlighting of various parts of the shelf according to various key figures, such as sales volume, margin, etc.

  • Starting optimizing functions in the space management program based on key figures (such as sales volume)

  • Executing the posting BAPI to export the optimized data to the SAP system

Data Flow

  • When there are placement changes to layout module data, the Assortment List function triggers a Workflow job. This selects all the relevant article data and exports it directly via OLE into Microsoft Excel or calls the space management program.

  • If you are not using Microsoft Excel , then the space management program calls the read BAPI Bapi_SiteLayMod_GetItems which imports the article data into the space management program.

  • The space management program performs any necessary optimization tasks and changes shelf contents and configuration as necessary

  • The optimized article data is passed to interface's posting BAPI Bapi_SiteLayMod_Change which is then executed.

In this illustration:

  1. First the external space management program is called. If there is only one planogram file, it is displayed. If there is more than one, then no file is displayed.

  2. Bapi_SiteLayMod_GetItems2 is called. It reads the export data and transfers it to the external space management program.

  3. Bapi_SiteLayMod_Change is called. It imports the data from the external space management program and posts it in the SAP system.

Additional BAPI Information

The reading BAPI Bapi_SiteLayMod_GetItems2 can export data for one layout module to multiple sites (site groups, site hierarchies, or all sites) or to no sites. If you choose no sites, then only the master data will be exported.

The posting BAPI Bapi_SiteLayMod_Change has the following two indicators:

  • A flag specifying whether listing conditions are to be created in the SAP system for each combination of site and article.

  • A flag that determines whether the system should check the assignment of layout modules to sites. Normally this should be set to yes. If not, then article movement data will be exported, even though the layout module (to which the articles are assigned) is not assigned to the site. This flag is also available for the read BAPI.

The posting BAPI also modifies the assignments of articles to the layout module version (that is, it can both add and delete articles).

Prerequisites

  • Shelves modelled according to the SAP layout concept

  • Creation of layout modules in the SAP system.

  • Creation of a document in the SAP Document Management System, with a link to a planogram file which in turn is assigned to a layout module.

  • In Customizing you must specify:

    • Which information structures and which fields are to be used for goods movement data (such as quantities, revenue, and sales volume).

    • Which data is to be selected for export.

    • The selection period (timeframe) for determining movement data (daily, weekly, monthly).

    • Which function module is to be used for data export.

    • The specific local directory path where external programs such as the space management program are to be found. (The function modules serve only as templates for customer-specific function modules, so you must insert actual path names.)

Restrictions

  • The selection period in the information structure must be the same as that in Customizing.

  • It is important that SAP Retail be the master system and the space management program as the slave. This means that only data recognized by SAP Retail can be posted. New articles which do not yet exist in SAP Retail, or price changes not reflected in SAP Retail, will be ignored.

  • It is not currently possible to take future layout module changes into account. Layout module changes will immediately affect the SAP model, otherwise Workflow cannot be started. This can affect the contents of the assortment list. (Simple changes to the listing conditions, however, have no effect.)

  • The system only recognizes newly listed or discontinued articles by either:

    • Placement changes to the relevant layout module, or

    • Execution of the manual shelf space maintenance program (Variant 4).