The layout workbench is primarily intended for use with the SAP Retail space management interface. It serves as the central cockpit for all functions related to space management. For example, you can create the necessary listing conditions for all articles to be stocked on a particular shelf within a store.

You use the layout workbench in SAP Retail:

• When you want to plan assortments for stores (with or without the use of an external space management program)

• When you are making current or future changes to your planograms

• When you want to see an overview of layout information for a store

• When you want to display different planograms for a layout module

The layout workbench:

• Allows you to create and maintain layout modules for assortments

• Creates listing conditions for all articles assigned to each of the layout modules

• Allows you to control listing for articles imported or exported via the space management interface

• Provides a quick, hierarchical overview of the layout structure of one or more sites, and double clicking on a layout module displays all the articles in that module

• Allows you to trigger an external space management program from within R/3

• Can be used for planning purposes even without a space management interface

There is also a mass maintenance feature, which allows you to assign a large number of articles to a layout module all at once (for example, all articles in a merchandise category, or articles matching the selection criteria you enter, or all articles with a certain matchcode).

• For a given store, you can generate listings for all articles in all released layout module versions, or only for a selected number of layout module versions

• If you used the Document Management System to assign a planogram file to a specific layout module, you can click a button in the Layout Workbench to display that planogram.

• To delete a layout module, you must first delete all articles assigned to it. It is not currently possible to delete a layout module version and thereby automatically delete all articles assigned to it.

• The layout workbench does not itself export article data to other systems. To do this, you must first configure and then trigger the space management interface.

• The current release only supports layout module version 0000.