Responsive Replenishment for SAP AFS

Purpose

You use this process when you are in an Apparel and Footware (AFS) scenario and want to perform Responsive Replenishment (RR) in SAP Supply Network Collaboration (SAP SNC), with consideration of AFS-specific planning challenges.

Each AFS hierarchy product is represented in the master data by a header product (aggregate SKU level) and component products (subproducts SKU level). For the majority of AFS customers, color is a characteristic at the AFS hierarchy header product level. All products that refer to one AFS hierarchy header product are linked together through a product hierarchy.

In the standard RR solution, the statistical forecasting runs for each location product separately (in long-term time buckets). The AFS enhancement is designed to enable the statistical forecasting to run for the header products only and to subsequently disaggregate the resulting forecast to the subproduct level.

Prerequisites

  • You have set the AFS indicator using the Business Add-In (BAdI) Setting the AFS Flag for the AFS Customer (/SCA/AFS_FLAG) to activate the functions that are specific to the SAP Apparel and Footwear.

  • You have transferred the product hierarchies from the SAP AFS system to SAP SNC using Core Interface (CIF). For more information on product hierarchies, go to the SAP Library (help.sap.com) and choose Start of the navigation path SAP for Industries Next navigation step SAP for Consumer Products Next navigation step AFS 5.0 including Connectivity Next navigation step Integration of SAP AFS and SAP SCM Next navigation step Integration of Master Data Next navigation step Creation of Products and Location Products and Their Hierarchy End of the navigation path .

  • You have maintained the master data for RR (product, location, business partner, and transportation lane). You have transferred all the products and locations (ship-from and ship-to) from SAP AFS to SAP SNC and created the business partner and transportation lanes in SAP SNC.

  • You have maintained the forecast master record for all the AFS header products.

  • You have maintained the short-term forecasting parameters for both the AFS header products and their subproducts.

  • You have maintained all the required profiles for the location products. The following are the processes with their corresponding profiles:

    • Responsive Demand Planning

      • Demand service profile

      • Forecast profile

      • Promotion profile

    • Responsive Replenishment Planning

      • Replenishment service profile

    • Transport Load Builder

      • TLB Profile

      • Additional TLB Functions in SAP SNC

      • TLB Service Profile

Process Flow

The following flowchart explains how Responsive Replenishment is carried out:

  1. You send sales data in short-term time buckets to SAP SNC at subproduct level via the XML message ProductActivityNotification .

  2. The Planning Service Manager (PSM) checks whether the sales data for all subproducts is received over each period of the long-term time bucket.

  3. At each period closing, the PSM aggregates the sales data (subproduct level, short-term time buckets) to AFS hierarchy header level for statistical forecasting (typically long-term time buckets). For more information, see Aggregation of Sales History Data - Respect to Subproducts .

  4. You run the statistical forecast for the AFS hierarchy header product.

  5. You can manually adjust the statistical forecast at header level on the statistical forecasting screen of the SAP SNC web UI. AFS hierarchy header location products are shown only on the statistical forecasting screens, and similarly the AFS subproducts are shown only on the short-term forecasting screens.

  6. The PSM disaggregates the AFS hierarchy header’s long-term forecast into short-term forecasts of its subproducts. Further, it uses the time-based disaggregation factors of the subproducts to disaggregate the forecast over the short-term time buckets. For more information, see Disaggregation of Statistical Forecast - Respect to Subproduct .

  7. You run the short-term forecast for the subproducts of the AFS hierarchy header product to calculate the key figure Released Demand .

  8. The PSM carries out the promotion planning to calculate the Released Promotion Demand key figure.

  9. The PSM calculates the Demand and Promotion Demand key figure values for all the subproducts (that are specified in the selection profile) maintained at the customer location, in short-term time buckets.

  10. The PSM carries out Replenishment Planning to calculate net baseline and promotion requirements at customer locations. It determines best ship-from locations according to the business rules and processes of the customer taking into account both the promotional and baseline demand, as per AFS industry-specific requirements. For more information, see Direct Shipment for Baseline Forecast .