Retail, Supply Chain, EA
Technical Data
Technical Name of Business Function |
ISR_EARETAIL_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 |
Logistics Basic
Data (LO-MD) |
Directly Dependent Business Function Requiring Activation in Addition |
Retail, Supply
Chain (ISR_RETAIL_SCM) |
Use
You can use this business function to improve the existing functionality in the following areas:
● Forecasting & Replenishment (SAP F&R)
● Article Substitution (stock transfer orders, deliveries, SAP F&R)
● Stock Ledger Reporting
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 |
|
Article Substitution
The enhancements in the maintenance of the substitute article assignments (master data) are the basis for follow-up/replacement articles in the order, delivery and F&R processes.
To use article substitution, you have to activate the business function ISR_EARET_PLANNING.
SAP F&R – Assignment of multiple references
No prerequisites
SAP F&R – Promotional Planning
No prerequisites
Stock Ledger Reporting
The IMG nodes for this functionality are located in software component EA-RETAIL and are therefore assigned to the business function ISR_EARETAIL_SCM.
When you activate the business function ISR_EARETAIL_SCM, the related IMG nodes will be visible and usable in the IMG.
Enhancements for Structured Articles
Data Transfer to the SAP Business Information Warehouse → Settings for Application-Specific DataSources (PI) → Logistics → Settings for IBU Retail/ CP → Enhancements for Structured Articles
Features
Article Substitution
In a retail company, sometimes a certain article can no longer be delivered or ordered. In these cases, it is to be possible to replace the article with a different article (follow-up/replacement article).
Example: Suppose that a store wants to procure article A from distribution center; however, there is not enough stock available in the distribution center. Instead, the distribution center delivers Article B instead. If Article A has been discontinued, it may replaced permanently by article B.
The customer can maintain the substitute article assignments. The system considers these assignments during the creation of stock transfer orders or deliveries.
When a delivery is created for a stock transfer order, the system evaluates the substitute article assignments are evaluated and, depending on certain events and the relevant master data, the original article in the delivery may be substituted. This means that the substitute article will be delivered instead of the original article (from the stock transfer order).
SAP F&R Enhancements
Retail companies can optimize their internal logistics by improving the replenishment process using SAP F&R. Stockout situations in distribution centers and stores lead to a huge loss of sales and overstocks cause high capital lockup for retail companies. SAP F&R helps avoid stockout situations while reducing stock reserves. This provides a significant potential for savings. The 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.
ERP enhancements for SAP F&R comprise the following functionality:
● Article Substitution
Information about the assignments (master data) and substitution in stock transfer orders or deliveries can be transferred to SAP F&R.
● Characteristics-Based Determination of References for Articles Without History
ERP provided a function to enable the user to assign several references to new articles (article-site combinations) and to evaluate certain historical data for the references. This historical data could then be used in SAP F&R for forecasting the sales quantities of the new article in the store, or forecasting the goods issue quantities of the article in the distribution center.
With automatic assignment, references are determined using the information in the reference determination schema that is assigned to the article-site combination. The references can be determined by breaking down an article grouping (for example, merchandise category of the article). With manual assignment, a maintenance dialog in the ERP system enables all articles in certain article groupings to be proposed as references.
The new function enhances the automatic assignment of references to an article-site combination in the ERP system. It is possible to automatically assign articles that have certain predefined article attributes in common with an article-site combination as references.
● Promotional Planning
Promotion are used to positively influence the sales behavior of customers. The customer should want to buy more of the goods offered in the promotion. Therefore, that the space allocated to goods storage for an article during standard periods (outside of promotions) may need to be increased during the promotion. It should also be possible to order and deliver goods more frequently during the promotion period and use more frequent replenishment options to provide a better response to the actual quantity sold and to provide improved availability of promotional merchandise than during standard periods.
The solution has been enhanced to include the following functionality:
○ Maintain alternative minimum and maximum stock levels
○ Maintain alternative order and delivery dates for promotions
○ Transfer time-dependent minimum and maximum stock levels to SAP F&R
○ Transfer time-dependent procurement cycles to SAP F&R
Retail Stock Ledger Analytics
A stock ledger is a period-based repository of all inventory activity, and is an essential part of monitoring and reporting business performance.
One of the most visible aspects of the stock ledger is stock ledger reporting, which is critical to a retailer for tracking performance and managing inventory effectively. Currently, SAP does not provide standard reports or content in BI to support these reporting requirements, so customers must build them on their own.
This enhancement provides a series of retail and cost stock ledger reports, including period reports, period-to-date reports, and historical comparison reports. These reports collect and present inventory-related transactions and calculate key ratios under either the cost or extended retail methods of inventory accounting. Users can select data for initial display and then drill down to more detailed layers and filter the results.
In order to properly support these reports in BI, some technical enhancements in ERP were also required.