Large retailers and retailers in a high-growth period may open, on average, a new store every other day or even more frequently. The store opening process is critical because it can be the first impression a retail chain makes in a new market. Therefore this process requires simple and efficient maintenance, including the setup of the new store's master data as well as its initial ordering.

In Customizing you can specify whether you want to allow multiple assignment (n:m) of assortments to sites, or restrict assignments to a 1:1 combination of site and assortment. If you enable multiple association in Customizing, general assortments can be assigned to sites and/or customers. That is, a site may have several different assortments, and an assortment may be assigned to several different sites. Because articles are listed for assortments (not for sites), the listing conditions that are created are valid for all the sites assigned to this assortment. This results in much easier maintenance of assortment data, a significant reduction in the number of listing conditions that need to be stored in the database, and better system performance.

When a site is created, the system automatically creates a local, site-specific assortment for it.

• With the 1:1 assignment restriction, each site has exactly one local assortment and cannot be assigned to any other assortments.

• With the new n:m assignment , each site still has exactly one local assortment, but can be assigned to as many other assortments as desired.

To streamline this process, you can divide stores into logical groups, based on criteria you choose: for example, geographical location, size, or demographics. For each group you create, you can (optionally) select one store as a reference site for the group. When you open a new store and add it to that group, it automatically inherits all the master data (including assortment data) defined in the reference site. Essentially you create a pointer from the new store to the reference site. Whenever data in the reference site changes, it is automatically transferred to all stores within the group.

A site cannot have more than one reference site. An assortment can be assigned to only one distribution chain.

The screen for maintaining assignments of assortments and sites is divided into the following areas:

• Area for selecting assortments

• A tree structure showing assortments and the stores to which they are assigned

• A tree structure showing available sites

This provides a overview of the current assignments so you can better choose which additional assignments to make. You create assignments by dragging-and-dropping an assortment over to the site area, or a site over to the assortment area as appropriate

Exclusion modules are normally used for local assortments, enabling you to create exceptions for certain articles and for subsequent listings. You can use exclusion modules for general assortments as well.

In Customizing for General Control, Retail Master Data, you can enable the n:m assignment of sites to assortments by selecting the Multiple Assignment is Active flag.

SAP provides programs for customers upgrading from an older release of R/3 Enterprise and wanting to implement the n:m assignment.