Variant Handling by Characteristics
Use
Fashion retailers have to deal with styles offered in various colors and sizes. It is rarely sufficient to perform certain functions for all the variants assigned to the style. Instead, you need to perform these functions for a subset of variants having some attribute in common; color, for example.
In SAP R/3 Enterprise Retail, styles are mapped as generic articles with different variants. You define a variant by specifying the characteristics and their values (for example, the characteristic color might have value blue). This way you can select, for example, all blue shirts regardless of size. Double-clicking on any field that you are allowed to maintain in Article Master Maintenance will bring up the matrix so you can maintain data for each variant. For example, if you click on Season, the matrix will show all the existing variants, with a grid where you can enter season/year for which the variant is valid.
Suppose you click on the Season field. The matrix will show all the existing variants, with a grid where you can enter season/year for which the variant is valid. Suppose further that seasons 0103 through 0403 represent winter, spring, summer, and autumn respectively. You want to have yellow shirts only available in summer, and maroon shirts in autumn. You might enter the following:
|
(Color/Size) |
XS |
S |
M |
L |
XL |
|
White |
|||||
|
Black |
|||||
|
Blue |
|||||
|
Yellow |
0303 |
0303 |
0303 |
0303 |
0303 |
|
Maroon |
0403 |
0403 |
0403 |
0403 |
0403 |
Since the other colors are not season-dependent, you do not need to enter a season. Instead, they will be continuously available throughout the validity period.
If the system does not permit you to select a given field in this way, you will receive a
message telling you to choose a valid function. In this case, you must select a different field.
You can change either individual fields or entire lines and rows. Undo and reset functions are available in case you make a mistake and want to revert to the previous entries.
To make data entry even quicker and easier, there is also a BAdI (Business Add-In) that allows you to include your own copy and maintenance rules. Some copy and maintenance rules are already defined (for example, you can copy the changes you made to all subsequent rows/ columns).
Integration
You can maintain listing data in the article master for a subset of variants defined by characteristic, and listing can be performed for the defined subsets. Thus, you can list variants by color.
Sales prices and cost for variants of a generic article often differ based on their characteristic values; for example, white shirts might be less expensive than other colors. Variants are arranged in a grid (matrix), with the price/cost price displayed/entered in the grid cells. You can easily copy the same price/cost for a subset of variants.
Because sales can vary depending on article color, you often need to mark down a generic article only for specific colors. The Markdown Planning function allows you to select variants of a generic article by characteristic.
See also:
Market Orders for Apparel