Discontinuation Workbench 

Use

You use this function to select articles that you want to discontinue. You enter the type of discontinuation and processing, and the system creates worklists accordingly. You can automate follow-up actions, which significantly speeds up the discontinuation process.

Features

Determinint the type of discontinuation

You can select one of the following types of discontinuation:

·        Client-wide discontinuation of articles

·        Article discontinuation for vendors

·        Article discontinuation for sites

If you call the Discontinuation Workbench for the first time during a session, the default discontinuation type is  client-wide discontinuation. If you call the function again during the same session, the system displays the last discontinuation type you used.

Selecting articles

The determination type determines the criteria that are displayed on the screen. However, you can use the following selection criteria in every discontinuation type:

·        Article category

·        Article type

·        Season

·        Season year

·        Rollout

When you select generic articles and set the Explode Generic Articles indicator, the system transfers all variants of the generic article to the worklist. Any other selection criteria are not taken into account.

If, for example, you select a generic article and also enter a selection criterion in the Season field, the system transfers all variants of the generic article to the worklist, including those whose season does not correspond to the defined criterion.

You can use a Business Add-In (BAdI) to display an additional, customer-specific selection screen.

For more information, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Logistics - General under Article Master® Retail-Specific Settings ® Settings for Article Discontinuation ® Enhancements Using Business Add-Ins ® BAdI: Selection Extension.

Defining the processing type

You can perform discontinuation in online or offline processing.

·        In online processing, the system creates only a temporary worklist in the working memory and performs the discontinuation checks online. The Discontinuation Monitor opens. You can process the worklist and the worklist log in the Discontinuation Monitor or save them under an alphanumeric name and then process them later.

For more information about worklist processing, see Discontinuation Monitor.

·        For offline processing, you can enter an alphanumeric description for the worklist, which you use to call the worklist for processing in the Discontinuation Monitor. Your user name is defaulted.

The system creates the worklist. It performs the discontinuation checks and saves the worklist together with the discontinuation log.

These worklists are not user-dependent. You can therefore process worklists created by other users in the Discontinuation Monitor.

You can specify that during the discontinuation check the system perform follow-up actions defined in Customizing for items that have been checked and found to be incorrect. This considerably reduces the number of error messages in the log, and accordingly the work involved.

The system automatically performs only the follow-up actions that you have flagged as standard procedures in Customizing for article discontinuation. You must perform other follow-up actions manually in the Discontinuation Monitor.

You can configure the system to set deletion flags automatically for items that have been checked and found to be correct.

You can also perform discontinuation as a background job. However, this only makes sense for offline processing.

Activities

On the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Logistics ® Retailing ® Master Data ® Article Data ® Article ® Discontinue ® Discontinuation Workbench.

...

       1.      You define the type of discontinuation you want to perform.

       2.      You enter criteria for the selection of articles that you want to discontinue from your assortment using the selected discontinuation type.

       3.      You define the type of processing that you want to perform.

       4.      You start discontinuation.

       5.      The system creates a worklist on the basis of the entries you have made and performs discontinuation checks. It creates an error log.

       6.      The system can automatically perform the follow-up actions defined in Customizing for items that have been checked and found to be incorrect.

If the system successfully performs a follow-up action, it deletes the corresponding error message from the discontinuation log.

       7.      The system can set deletion indicators for all items that have been checked and found to be correct.

       8.      If you have selected online processing, you can, if necessary, save the worklist.

Once you have selected offline processing, the system automatically saves the worklist.