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 Retail, Supply Chain

Technical Data

Technical Name of Business Function

ISR_RETAIL_SCM

Type of Business Function

Enterprise Business Function

Available As Of

SAP Enhancement Package 2 for SAP ERP 6.0

Technical Usage

Retail

Application Component

SAP F&R-SAP ECC Interfaces (SCM-FRE-R3)Allocation (LO-MDS-AL)

Directly Dependent Business Function Requiring Activation in Addition

Not relevant

Use

You can use this business function to improve existing functionality in the following areas:

• Forecasting & Replenishment

• Allocation

• Extended Retail Method of Accounting (ERMA)

For details on the continuous improvements see Features .

Prerequisites

You have installed the following components as of the version mentioned:

Type of Component

Component

Is Needed Only for the Following Features

Software Component

EA-RETAIL

SAP_APPL

The IMG nodes for this functionality are located in software component SAP_APPL and are therefore assigned to the business function ISR_RETAIL_SCM.

When you activate the business function ISR_RETAIL_SCM, the related IMG nodes will be visible and usable in Customizing.

Define Purchase Value - Change Profile:

Start of the navigation path Materials Management Next navigation step Valuation and Account Assignment Next navigation step Valuation at Retail and Value-Based Inventory Management Next navigation step Define Purchase Value - Change Profile End of the navigation path

The IMG node is enabled by switch RETAIL_SCM_SFWS_UI.

Define Assignment of Purchase Value - Change Profile to Revaluation Profile:

Start of the navigation path Materials Management Next navigation step Valuation and Account Assignment Next navigation step Valuation at Retail and Value-Based Inventory Management Next navigation step Define Assignment of Purchase Value - Change Profile to Revaluation Profile End of the navigation path

The IMG node is enabled by switch RETAIL_SCM_SFWS_UI.

Features

Interface Forecasting & Replenishment Enhancements (SCM-FRE-R3)

Using SAP F&R, retail companies can optimize their internal logistics by improving the replenishment process. When distribution centers and stores run out of stock, it leads to a huge loss in sales and locks up large amounts of capital for retail companies. SAP F&R helps avoid stockout situations while reducing stock reserves, resulting in a huge savings potential. Highly-automated replenishment planning in stores and distribution centers reduces the large amount of manual processing that is currently required. Retailers can increase transparency in the supply chain using effective analyses. SAP F&R optimizes internal logistics of retail companies, greatly improving the replenishment process.

The Interface enhancements comprise the following functionality:

  • Structural breaks for DC forecast

    Until now, information about the number of sites supplied by a distribution center has not been fully transferred from the ERP system to SAP F&R. If, for example, replenishment planning in SAP F&R is only performed for distribution centers, no data will be available for stores. This is also the case if stores are not relevant for SAP F&R, therefore they cannot be taken into account in a standard forecast integration scenario. With this new enhancement, it is possible to prepare and send the number of sites supplied by a distribution center to SAP F&R.

  • New interface for purchase organizations

    Until now, SAP F&R was supplied with purchasing organizations that are only included in transportation lanes and release profiles at the data retention level, but not evaluated in the source of supply determination. With this enhancement, it is possible to supply SAP F&R from the ERP system with all purchasing organizations as new objects, as well as with information about the assignment of purchasing organizations to locations. These assignments of purchasing organizations will be evaluated in the source of supply determination.

  • New interface for contract information

    With the new interface, it is possible to transfer contract information from ERP to SAP F&R. The outbound interface processing in SAP ERP will guarantee that only quantity contracts are transferred to SAP F&R. Value contracts are not to be transferred to SAP F&R. Also, transmission of contract data will only support products that are relevant for SAP F&R replenishment planning.

  • Suppress unnecessary data transfers

    Until now, an article/site combination had to be identified as SAP F&R-relevant in SAP ERP in order to trigger a data transfer. Generally, for such combinations, all related master and transactional data is transferred to SAP F&R.

    Since SAP F&R only requires partial data from certain processes (for example, only master data is required for listing checks), the interface logic has been enhanced to suppress the transfer of unnecessary data.

Allocation Enhancements

Retailers often have to distribute merchandise centrally among a large number of recipients (for example, stores). Using allocation tables, retailers can plan the distribution of this type of merchandise and then trigger the necessary goods movements.

Merchandise can be delivered directly from the vendor to the recipient, from the vendor to a distribution center and then to the recipient, or from a distribution center to a recipient. The system uses notifications to coordinate communication between headquarters and the recipients. After completing the planning stage, the system can automatically create documents for procuring or delivering the goods.

The enhancements for EhP2 comprise smaller improvements in the area of scheduling and contract determination for the allocation table.

  • Contract Determination within the Allocation Table

    Until now, contracts could be assigned manually to an allocation table. If the allocation table was created with reference to a contract, the information was transferred to the purchase order generation and the contract would be debited. If no contract was assigned, no contract could be determined.

    With this enhancement, it is now possible to decide whether contract determination should be carried out automatically in order to identify the existing contract when generating external purchase orders out of the allocation table. If a contract exists, it would be determined automatically when generating the external purchase order.

  • Scheduling within the Allocation Table

    Although scheduling out of the allocation table was already developed, there were still minor features missing. In order to be consistent with the scheduling process within the area of seasonal procurement, smaller adjustments were done for scheduling in the process of creating the allocation table. Now the scheduling in the allocation table follows the same logic as in seasonal procurement.

    Furthermore, the date line (that is, the chronological sequence of dates in the procurement process chain which is monitored by order monitoring) is now displayed and can be modified within the allocation table. In the previous version, the date line could not be displayed.

Extended Retail Method of Accounting (ERMA)

Retailers use a variety of inventory valuation methods to calculate the value of inventory and cost of goods sold. Generally, retailers use one of two inventory valuation methods: cost method of accounting (CMA) or retail method of accounting (RMA). However, even within these methods there are different ways of calculating inventory.

The traditional or classic RMA is an averaging method in which inventory is managed at the category or department level and the ending inventory at cost is derived by applying a cost percentage to the ending inventory at retail. The extended or hybrid retail method of accounting (ERMA) is similar to RMA, but it is an alternative inventory valuation method that manages inventory at a more detailed level of item or location. ERMA uses a moving average as the cost flow, but inventory is also tracked in retail values and markdowns may cause an adjustment to the inventory values at retail as well as cost.

Within SAP Retail, ERMA is supported using sales price valuation or valuation at retail. The focus of this development effort is to improve support for ERMA when retail price changes take place by enhancing the revaluation profiles and revaluation program. This development is also related to the Stock Ledger Analytics project, as the stock ledger is fed by results calculated by the revaluation program.

The revaluation profiles are now able to allow different methods of handling each price change type, such as markup, permanent markdown, promotional markdown and POS markdown. The profiles are now able to disallow the “maintain margins” treatment for markups. Also, the revaluation program has been enhanced to support the changes to the revaluation profiles.