SAP Retail Space Management Interface 

Use

In retail stores, space management can play a critical role:

·         It helps avoid stockouts and thereby lost sales.

·        It helps boost sales revenues. For example, grocery articles displayed on end caps and promotional merchandise near a department store mall entrance are more likely to capture the attention of shoppers than articles buried away in a side aisle or in the back of the store. You want to monitor prices, sales volumes, and margins so as to place your most profitable articles in high-traffic, high visibility areas.

There are several space management programs available that manage store merchandise placement. They determine the optimum location for articles within shelves and calculate the appropriate amount of space to be allotted to the articles, based on a number of factors such as sales volume, margins, and so on. Now you can integrate these external programs with the SAP system, with data flow in both directions.

You can use this ALE Business Process in the following variants:

Variant 1: Space Management for Information Only

Variant 2: New Placement for an Article

Variant 3: Moving an Article to a New Location

Variant 4: Manual Shelf Space Maintenance

Variant 5: Discontinuing an Article

Variant 6: Displaying Shelves in the SAP Retail Store

SAP Retail uses the following layout dimensions when modelling shelf space:

·         Shelf compartment (vertical placement within a rack, e.g., top shelf, bottom shelf)

·         Horizontal placement within the shelf

·         Facing (the amount of space taken up by a single article along the front of the shelf)

·         Front (vertical spacing)

·         Optimum stock level

·         Maximum stock level

·         Minimum presentation quantity

A shelf is made up of layout modules, which contain an array of articles that can be displayed in the same area (for example, laundry detergents). Thus, a layout module may contain more articles than are currently on the shelf at the moment. The validity of shelf data is determined by the corresponding layout module version. Each layout module version has a specific validity period which must not overlap that of any other version of that layout module; that is, no two versions of a layout module can be current at the same time.

There are three kinds of layout modules:

·        General modules: These layout modules can be used for several different stores. In this case, you need to define a reference store for which the article data within the layout module is fairly representative. Each layout module version has one of two statuses: planned or released.

·        Store-specific modules: For store-specific optimization, layout modules are only valid for a specific store (for example, store X is always the reference site for layout module Y). This can cause the number of layout modules and planograms to increase significantly compared to using general modules.

·        Delta layout modules: These contain only that data which varies from one version of one of the above two types of modules. This is particularly useful when merchandise varies only slightly from store to store due to regional or store-specific reasons. Delta layout modules always refer to a specific layout module version, and can only be assigned to a site after the layout module version is assigned.

For example, you may have a standard layout module that you use for your gas station convenience stores. For your California stores, however, you want to remove two articles that are not available in California, and add three local articles instead. Instead of creating new full layout modules for the stores, you can simply leave the existing layout module in place, then generate one delta layout module and assign it to each store. This avoids your having to generate a new shelf whenever minor changes occur, eliminates a lot of redundant data that would otherwise take up storage space in the system, and significantly increases system performance when assigning articles to layout module versions.

Delta layout modules can only be created via the Space Management Interface. You cannot create them manually. You can only change the assignment of delta layout modules to stores using the Layout Workbench in the SAP Assortment component.

Integration

There are several ways of exporting data from the SAP system to an external space management program:

·        Executing the external space management program and exporting the key parameters

Function module shelf_space_opt_keydata_exp calls an external program exporting parameters for the read BAPI call you have specified on the command line. The external program imports these parameters and starts the space management program. (Further details are available in the function module documentation.)

·         Executing the external space management program without exporting the key parameters

Function module shelf_space_opt_program_exe calls the space management program and the corresponding planogram file (or, if a new shelf is to be created, then ws_execute calls only the program without any planogram file). (The call command must include the directory path where the space management program is installed.) If the layout module already exists and a planogram document has been assigned to it in the SAP Document Management System, then the program displays this document. If there are several such documents, you can select from a list. (Further details are available in the function module documentation.)

·         Executing the external space management program and exporting the key parameters

Function module shelf_space_opt_ascii_gen calls an external program and exports the key parameters for the read BAPI call to a local ASCII file. The external program imports these parameters and starts the space management program. (Further details are available in the function module documentation.)

·         Exporting data into Microsoft Excel^â via OLE

Function module shelf_space_opt_MsExcel_exe starts Microsoft Excel^â and then exports data for the selected articles (including heading data) via OLE. (Further details are available in the function module documentation.)

These function modules serve only as templates for creating customer-specific function modules. So when you create your own function modules you must insert the actual directory paths.

The following table shows the data elements that can be transferred between the SAP system and the external space management program:

Outbound data (SAP to external system)	Inbound data (external system to SAP)
Article number (from Article Master Data)	Facing (linear shelf space allotted to the article)
Article short text	Shelf
Unit of measure (e.g., 6-pack, 12-pack)	Location within the shelf
EAN/UPC	Maximum quantity
Article dimensions (size)	Optimum quantity
Unit of measure for dimensions (e.g., inches, cm)	Article dimensions (size)
Merchandise category	Front (vertical facing)
Inventory level	Presentation quantity
Prices (cost and retail)
Sales volume
Sales revenue
Manufacturer
Flag for multiple placement (more than one shelf)
Article type
Number of multiple placements
Placement information (facing, front, shelf and location within the shelf)
Shelf quantities

Activities

For each existing layout module and for every subsequent new one you create, a version 0000 is automatically created. The layout version will be valid as of the current date until 12/31/9999, and has a status of 02 (released). You can create additional versions as necessary. When you create a new version via the space management interface, the latest version will have an end date of 12/31/9999 unless a specific end date is sent by the posting BAPI. The system will adjust the end dates for the previous versions automatically.

Suppose you create a version 0001 to go into effect on 6/1/2001 and a version 0002 to go into effect the following January 1. In this case, you have the following three versions for the same layout module:

Version	Valid from	Valid to
0000	Today	5/31/2001
0001	6/1/2001	12/31/2001
0002	1/1/2002	12/31/9999

If you attempt to insert a version with dates that fall within the validity period of one of the previous versions, the system generates an error message.

Each layout module has a specific starting date (the day it was created). The posting BAPI must always have the correct starting date for the layout module version which is to be updated. Otherwise, the system will try to create a new version with the imported validity dates; if it is unable to create the new version, it will generate an error message.

It is recommended that you make copies of your planogram file so that you don't overwrite your data when planning future changes. Consider using a naming convention that will help you remember the target for each plan; for example:

·         dairy0000.doc = your generic planogram for dairy products

·         dairy0199.doc = planogram for Q1 of 1999

·         dairy0299.doc = planogram for Q2 of 1999

·         dairy0399.doc = planogram for Q3 of 1999

Layout Workbench for Space Planning

SAP Retail contains a layout workbench which gives you an overview of the layout structure for a site. Within a given hierarchy, the system displays the layouts, layout modules, versions, variants, and documents assigned to the version are displayed. From the layout workbench, you can:

·         Access all transactions involved in space management, including customizing transactions

·         Display documents assigned to the layout modules, along with the relevant external program (normally planogram files executed by space management programs), and to display the articles of a version.

·         Display all articles for a particular version, along with the maintenance status of the version (planned, active)

·         Assign layout module variants for the different layout module versions to the store.

All functions relevant to listing control can be started from the layout workbench. In addition, you can control listing without linking to an external space management program.