Retailers can use this business scenario to implement integrated and complete planning within their company. You perform planning and reporting for all your business activities that involve assortments and merchandise. You can define sales, quantities, areas, stores and budgets, which are then transferred to an executing system for operational purposes and processed further.
Merchandise and assortment planning primarily deals with four main planning areas – strategic planning, merchandise planning, store planning, and assortment planning. This demonstrates that you can start on a high planning level and then move down to lower levels (top-down) – or the other way round (bottom-up).
When you integrate merchandise and assortment planning in SAP NetWeaver 2004s, usage type Business Intelligence with BI Content 7.0.2 Add-On (BI system), the system accesses various data from different areas. This has the advantage that you can optimize future developments for your company by comparing planning, actual, and historical data. In addition, you can continuously monitor defined objectives, and adapt to given developments and influencing factors.
The above process differentiates between the two process variants Basics and Fashion.
● Basics articles have the following characteristics:
○ Low proportion of new products
○ Long life cycle
○ Generally can be replenished at short notice
○ Procurement and replenishment are based on actual customer demand (pull-oriented)
● Fashion articles have the following characteristics:
○ Higher proportion of new articles
○ Short life cycle
○ Generally cannot be replenished at short notice
○ Push-oriented (store view)
○ OTB and markdowns are very important
After you have completed merchandise and assortment planning, you will have a basis for the subsequent operational processes, such as procurement, stock allocation and replenishment. By constantly monitoring and evaluating the accumulated business data and performing the comparison with once planned data, you can achieve a continuous adaptation to environmental influences inside and outside of the company.
Merchandise and Assortment Planning
Purpose
Retailers can use this business scenario to implement integrated and complete planning within their company. You perform planning and reporting for all your business activities that involve assortments and merchandise. You can carry out key figure planning (sales, margin, inventory, OTB etc.) at different hierarchy levels (for example, company, store, goods areas) and you can transfer the key figures relevant for the operational processes (OTB, procurement parameters in quantity and value) to an executing system for operational purposes. In the operational system, these can then be used to control the operational processes (especially procurement).
Merchandise and assortment planning primarily deals with four main planning areas – strategic planning, merchandise planning, store planning, and assortment planning. Whereas in strategy planning, the parameters are defined for the entire company and possibly for individual distribution chains, store planning is concerned with detailed planning for the individual stores. In merchandise planning, you can carry out key figure planning at different levels of the article hierarchy. In assortment planning, objectives are defined at assortment level for the procurement process. This can take place at the level of the material hierarchy or at article, color, and/or dimension level. The individual planning steps are closely linked and must be reconciled with each other. Planning can be done either top-down or bottom-up. The planning steps can also be carried out in parallel with subsequent reconciliation at the highest level.
The scenario described below shows an example of how merchandise and assortment planning can be run in your company. You can run the scenario as integrated or non-integrated. In the described planning scenario, planning is based on the SAP BI planning tool Integrated Planning (IP) and the integration is with SAP ECC. You can also integrate a different retailing system. You have to program the appropriate inbound interfaces yourself, the appropriate standard outbound messages are available.
In the SAP BI Integrated Planning templates for SAP MAP, you use the standard forecast functionality. The new SAP MAP content focuses on preseason strategic, store, and merchandise planning, and differentiates between two sets of templates:
· ● RMA (Retail Method of Accounting) templates
· ● CMA (Cost Method of Accounting) templates
This is because RMA and CMA use different calculations for valuating a retailer’s inventory. The two different methods of accounting impact the measure set itself and how the measurements work.
Although you find the use of both methods in all segments of retail, RMA is most commonly used by fashion/softline retailers. RMA is practiced in many countries in the Americas and some countries in the Asia Pacific region, but it is rarely found in Europe due to legal restrictions.
The following described MAP Scenario is based on the SAP BI Integrated Planning templates for SAP MAP. Currently, there is no IP-based planning template for Assortment Planning for Basics (non-seasonal merchandise).
Process Flow
The business processes run as follows:
...
1. Strategic Planning
2. Merchandise Planning
3. Store Planning
4. Reconciliation Planning
5. Assortment Planning Basics
6. Assortment Planning Fashion
7. Assortment Management Basics
8. Assortment Management Fashion
...
With the above process, you differentiate between the two process variants Basics and Fashion:
· ● Basics articles (also known as non-seasonal merchandise) have the following characteristics:
○ Low proportion of new products
○ Long life cycle
○ Generally can be replenished at short notice
○ Procurement and replenishment are based on actual customer demand (pull-oriented)
· ● Fashion articles (also known as seasonal merchandise) have the following characteristics:
○ Higher proportion of new articles
○ Short life cycle
○ Generally cannot be replenished at short notice
○ Push-oriented (store view)
○ OTB (Open-to-Buy) and markdowns are very important
Result
After you have completed merchandise and assortment planning, you will have a basis for the subsequent operational processes, such as procurement, stock allocation and replenishment. By constantly monitoring and evaluating the accumulated business data and performing the comparison with once planned data, you can achieve a continuous adaptation to environmental influences inside and outside of the company.
Strategic Planning
Purpose
Goal of this process: Creating strategic objectives for the company and passing those targets down through the organization.
The strategic planning process allows you to set high-level financial plans for the following:
1. Sales
2. Markdowns (markdowns only apply to RMA planning layouts)
3. Gross Margin
4. Average Inventory
5. Turnover
The strategic plan is usually developed once a year by the executive in an organization.
Prior to the start of the planning season, the planner starts the process by “seeding” last year’s (LY) actual results and this year’s (TY) forecast information into the planning layouts. This information is used as guidance and reference during the planning process.
The executive uses the LY and forecast information to plan the key measurements (Sales, Markdown, Gross Margin, Average Inventory and Turnover) within the plan.
Process Flow
The following business process runs in the SAP BI system:
...
Strategic Planning Distribution Chain
You can carry out strategic planning for the entire company as well as for different distribution chains. Planning takes place for key figures such as Sales at Retail, Sales at Cost and Turnover. The system displays previous year values (for example, Gross Margin, Sales at Retail) and forecast values (Sales at Retail) for the plan year.
You can plan on year and season level.
An automatically calculation e.g. of the key figures Gross Margin at Retail or Average Inventory at Retail are executed when changing the values for the related key figures.
Via function button you copy the Forecast for the Sales at Retail to your plan. Also via function button you distribute the results of the finalized Plan to the Strategic Plan Division.
Strategic Division Planning
Strategic planning is also possible on the division level for different distribution chains. In this step, you plan the same key figures as above.
Strategic Analytics
You can use the reporting functions to monitor the entire process during the planning phase.
Result
Once the executive is satisfied with the results, he or she publishes these results so the merchandise and store planners can do detailed plans to meet these goals. Also, the reconciliation of the two plans (merchandise plan and store plan) happens on this strategic level.
Merchandise Planning
Purpose
Goal of this process: Creating merchandise plans to meet the objectives of the company goals and targets
The merchandise planning process requires planners to develop detailed plans to achieve the company goals. The merchandise plan is usually developed once or twice a year by the merchants in an organization.
Prior to the beginning of the planning season, the planner starts the process by seeding Last Year (LY) actual results and This Year (TY) Forecast information into the planning layouts. This information is used as a reference and guide during the planning process.
The merchant uses the Last Year and Forecast information to plan an extended set of key performance indicators (KPIs) and time horizon to match the company goals. The system displays these KPIs in a progression format (set of steps) to guide the planner through the process.
Once the merchant is satisfied with the plans and submits them to his or her manager, the manager approves the plans so they can be incorporated into the reconciliation process.
Process Flow
The following business process runs in the BI system:
...
1. Sales Planning
Sales planning takes place at the distribution chain, segment, and season levels. The planner can drill down to the category, subcategory, rollout, month and week levels.
Planned key measurements are Sales at Retail and Sales at Cost. In addition, Last Year Actuals and Last Year Forecast values are displayed for reference and as a guide for planning. The system calculates the sales variances and contribution percentages.
The aggregated long-term forecast is used to create proposals for merchandise planning, primarily for sales-related KPIs (key performance indicators). It lets you define external influencing factors (such as school vacations) that affect the forecast. You can also forecast KPIs for characteristics combinations that do not have a sufficient history themselves, by referencing other characteristics combinations.
2. Markdown Planning
This plan is solely used within the RMA set of templates.
Markdown planning takes place at the distribution chain, segment, and season levels. The planner can drill down to the category, subcategory, rollout, month and week levels.
Planned key measurements are Sales at Retail, Sales at Cost, and Markdown at Retail. In addition, Last Year Actuals and Last Year Forecast values are displayed for reference and as a guide for planning. In this step, the planner can specify planned markdowns for promotions and clearances, shrinkage, and employee discounts. The planned markdown budgets can be passed on to the Price Planning Workbench (PPW) through the Release Workbench or the Budget Monitor.
3. Gross Margin Planning
Gross margin planning takes place at the distribution chain, segment, and season levels. The planner can drill down to category, subcategory, rollout, month and week levels. Planned key measurements are Sales at Retail, Sales at Cost, markdowns and receipts that have been entered earlier, but can still be adjusted. Last Year Actuals values are displayed for reference and as a guide for planning. The system calculates the Gross Margins, Initial Mark-Ups (IMU), Cumulated Mark-Ups (CMU), and GMROI. For CMA, the system calculates the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) as well as Inventory and Receipts Planning.
4. Inventory and Receipts Planning
Inventory planning takes place at the distribution chain, segment, and season levels. The planner can drill down to the category, subcategory, rollout, month and week levels. Planned key measurements are Beginning of Period Inventory (BOP) and End of Period Inventory (EOP). The EOP can be either entered or calculated based on key figures such as BOP, receipts, and sales. The EOP for a given period always equals the BOP of the following period. Last Year Actuals values are displayed for reference and as a guidel for planning. The system calculates the Average Inventory, Turnover, Sales/Stock Ratio, Sell-Through Ratio and Weeks of Supply (WOS).
The system calculates the preseason Open-to-Buy (OTB) based solely on goods movements; therefore, in this planning phase, the OTB equals the planned/projected receipts. In the integrated scenario, you release the OTB to the ERP system using the Release Workbench or Budget Monitor. The OTB can be displayed in Operational Assortment Planning and Control (OAPC). When you create a purchase order in the Order Manager, the system checks whether sufficient OTB is available.
5. Merchandise analytics
Reports are available for you to monitor the entire planning process.
Result
At the end of this process, key sales and inventory figures are available. Once the merchandise planner is satisfied with the plans, the manager approves the plans so that they can be incorporated into the reconciliation process.
Store Planning
Purpose
Goal of this Process: Creating Store Plans to meet the company goals and targets.
You can use this business process to design the strategic plan in detail, taking into account the different elements in the store hierarchy (company, region, district and store). The key performance metrics are Sales, Receipts, Margin, Inventory, Shrinkage, and Markdowns (markdowns apply only to RMA planning layouts). The store plan is usually developed once or twice a year by the store planner in an organization. You plan for the year/season/month/week.
Prior to the start of the planning season, the planner starts the process by seeding Last Year (LY) Actual results and This Year (TY) Forecastinformation into the planning layouts. This information will be used as a reference and guide during the planning process.
The store planner uses the LY and Forecast information to create an extended set of KPIs (key performance indicators) and an extended time horizon to meet the company goals..
Prerequisites
You have completed strategic planning and distributed the relevant key figures down to the store plan..
Process Flow
The following business process runs in the BI system:
...
1. Store Sales Planning
In this step, you plan your sales-related key figures, using the key figures from the strategy plan, Last Year Actuals and Last Year Forecast values are used as a basis. The planned key measurement planned is Sales at Retail. The system calculates the ales variances and contribution percentages.
2. Store Markdown Planning
You plan your markdowns for each store.
3. Store Gross Markdown Planning
You plan the gross margins. The system automatically calculates the Gross Margin % key when changing the related key figure values.
4. Store Inventory and Receipts Planning
In the inventory plan, you plan the values and stock quantities for each store. To do this, you can choose one of the following features:
○ You can enter the Projected Receipts and have the system calculate the End of Period (EOP) at Retail.
○ You can enter the End of Period (EOP) at Retail and the system calculate the Projected Receipts.
5. Store Analytics
Reports are available to help you monitor the entire process during the planning phase.
Result
At the end of this process, key sales and inventory figures are available for each store. Once the store planner is satisfied with the plans, the manager approves the plans so they can be incorporated into the reconciliation process.
Reconciliation Planning
Purpose
Goal of this process: Reconciling the strategic, merchandise and store plans.
When the merchandise and store plans are complete, you need to compare them to the original strategic objectives. You review both the merchandise and store plans to see if changes need to be made before final authorization and “lock-down” of the plans.
Prerequisites
You must have finished the strategic planning and distributed the relevant key figures down to the store and merchandise plan. You have completed the plans at that level and rolled back the results to the reconciliation plan. (You can display the store and merchandise plans using the screen icons to verify this.)
Process Flow
R...
1. Plan Reconciliation
You compare the strategic, merchandise and store plans in one planning layout. Initially, the system displays the planned numbers for the Sales at Retail and Sales at Cost key figures from all three plans, as well as the variances. The Turnovers and Average Inventory from each of the plans are displayed as a reference.
Result
You now have a reconciled plan that will provide the input data for the assortment plan.
Assortment Planning
Purpose
You can use this business process to put the objectives defined in the merchandise plan into more concrete terms. You can use the following process variants for basics and for fashion merchandise:
· Assortment Planning for Basics
· Assortment Planning for Fashion
Assortment Planning Basics
Purpose
You can use this business process to implement strategic planning in the BI system as part of integrated assortment planning for basics. The process ends with the transfer of the planning results to the Operational Assortment Management business process in SAP ECC.
This process lets you plan the structure of your assortments and their presentation in stores at the merchandise area level and for one planning period. The process enables you to create assortments and assortment versions and to plan them. Assortment versions let you model the different designs of an assortment with the articles to be presented over time.
You can restrict the assignment of assortments to stores temporarily in order to plan the presentation of assortments in stores.
Prerequisites
In order to better understand the following process, an overview of the relationship of the objects in SAP ECC, SAP MAP and in the external space optimization program is provided.
An assortment consists of multiple assortment versions with corresponding different validities (from to). Assortment versions cannot overlap time-wise but they can have time gaps, for example, due to seasonal factors. With basics, the articles are assigned directly to the assortment version and not to the assortment. The assortment can be seen as an inclusive grouping. The assortment version is also the object that is directly connected to the planogram of the space optimization program. The planogram is also scheduled periodically in the space optimization program and has specific validities. The relationship assortment version to planogram is 1:1.
Within SAP ECC a layout module has the same function as the assortment within SAP MAP. The assortment version in SAP MAP corresponds to the layout module version in SAP ECC and also represents a planogram within the space optimization program.
The following relationships hold:
Assortment in SAP MAP : Layout module in SAP ECC = 1 : 1
Assortment version in SAP MAP : Layout module version in SAP ECC : Planogram in SOP = 1 : 1 :1
Process Flow
The following business process runs in the BI system:
...
1. Optional: Capacity planning
With capacity planning, you distribute the fixtures that are available in the individual merchandise areas, for example, and you derive the presentation capacity with a time reference. You can use the InfoObject fixture for this. The fixture is also available in SAP ECC. It is created in SAP ECC and extracted to BI.
2. Optional: Store segmentation
When you use store segmentation, you can classify the stores according to various criteria (dimensions; maximum of 3), to assign stores with the same dimension values to a common assortment. You can perform store segmentation with the Analysis Process Designer (APD) prior to assortment definition. You can use the result of segmentation in the assortment definition. Alternatively, you can start segmentation directly from assortment definition.
3. Assortment Definition
For each merchandise area (any article hierarchy level), you define assortments and assign the assortments to stores that have identical dimension values. Optionally, this assignment can occur time-dependent. You can calculate these dimension values either in the APD (see Store segmentation) or using a custom-defined algorithm that you can implement in a Business Add-In (BAdI). To make the assortment assignments you planned in the BI system available to the operational processes, you have to release them to SAP ECC with the Release Workbench (message type LOCGRP), either manually or in background processing.
4. Optional: Create planned article
For the correct product mix, you may require new articles. You create this planned article by entering some article information (for example, base unit of measure, merchandise category). These planned articles can be planned further similar to existing articles in the subsequent steps. All planned articles need not be included in the final assortment plan. They can be removed from the assortment plan at a later date. Then they are not transferred to SAP ECC and created there.
5. Optional: Create assortment version
You define the assortments after the master data has been created, or at the same time. To do so, you create assortment versions for the existing assortments – that is, you create different time-specific versions. As with the articles, the assortment versions are created as planned master data (container) in SAP BI and are only created there as a layout module version on their release to SAP ECC.
6. Add articles to assortment version
Then you assign articles to the individual assortment versions (planned or existing) or you enter placement data, for example, facing.
7. Optional: Release assortment version to SOP
Before you can release the new assortment versions to the operational system, you can optimize this in an external space optimization Program (SOP). For this purpose you use "Merchandising to Shelf Optimization Integration".
You release the assortment version to the SOP by way of the Release Workbench (this assumes implementation of the SOP and that it is running on a server and not on the frontend). At the same time as the release of the assortment version to the SOP, the version is "frozen" in SAP MAP, that is, the header data or the completed article assignments cannot be changed in the meantime.
8. Optional: Request for assortment version out of SOP
Alternatively, the planogram (assortment version) can also be requested from the SOP by way of a service.
9. Optimize planogram (assortment version)
The Space Planner has opened an existing planogram or has created a new one and imported the requested assortment version with all the required data. All articles including the planned articles (with or without placement data) are also received and updated in the database of the SOP.
The Space Planner now optimizes the planogram by determining the optimal facing and the optimal placement for each article and creates an optically appropriate space management plan. If more articles are to be assigned than there is space available, the space planner can remove articles from the planogram. Conversely, he can add further articles (existing articles) if space is available.
10. Release optimized planogram to planning
Following successful optimization, the space manager sends the planogram (assortment version) back to SAP MAP. The assortment version received from the SOP is saved as a separate plan version so that you can compare the differences with the original version sent from SAP MAP to the SOP.
11. Optional: Check optimized assortment version
You check the changes that have been made as a result of the optimization. If you do not wish to accept this version, you now have the facility to make new changes to the assortment version and to release these changes for optimization to the SOP. That is, the communication between SAP MAP and SOP can occur as often as necessary so that you finally have an acceptable version.
12. Release to merchandising system
The assortment version is finally accepted and released with all required data to SAP ECC.
Result
At the end of assortment planning, you have defined and released your required assortments and assortment versions. The corresponding objects (layout module and layout module versions) are created in SAP ECC on release in the BI system. There you can maintain them further in the Operational Assortment Management business process, if necessary. You have also defined the required assortment assignments (layout modules) to stores and transferred them to SAP ECC. You have also released the planned articles and created them in SAP ECC.
Assortment Planning Fashion
Purpose
You use this business process in order to carry out assortment planning for fashion. The business process is made up of strategic and operational planning. The strategic part (defining assortments, planning of objectives) takes place in the BI system. The operational part (determining articles/colors/sizes, planning of quantities, and determining prepack information) can take place in the BI system or in SAP ECC. If quantity planning takes place at article, color, and size level in SAP BI, the planned data can be released to SAP ECC and the planning can be continued and supplemented there.
You can create assortments by strategic perspectives and assign them to stores in the BI system, and then release this information for operational use in SAP ECC. You can use up to three freely definable criteria (dimensions, such as presentation capacity, price level, or delivery region) to plan the assortment assignments. To classify the stores with regard to the individual dimensions, you can analyze InfoCubes in the BI system, for example, and/or use custom-defined algorithms.
These assignments of the stores to assortments are time-dependent and refer to individual merchandise areas to be planned such as category or subcategory in the article hierarchy. This approach lets you respond to seasonal changes in individual stores by changing the assortment assignments accordingly over time.
Before you start the assortment definition process, you can run capacity planning, in which you distribute the available presentation capacity at a store to the individual merchandise areas. You can map this capacity using the fixture which is available in the MAP content as an InfoObject. You can then derive a total presentation capacity from the number of fixtures that are assigned to a merchandise area (article hierarchy node) and the defined capacity of each fixture. The number of fixtures for each merchandise area can change over the course of a season or year, which means planning occurs with a time reference. The fixtures are also as master data objects in SAP ECC. In SAP ECC the fixtures are created and then extracted into SAP BI by way of standard extractors.
In strategic assortment planning, the targets are planned for operational assortment planning. The operational assortment planning (planning of quantities for each assortment at article, color, and size level) can be carried out either in a planning scenario in SAP BI or in the SAP ECC transaction operational assortment planning and control. In the latter case, the targets planned in SAP BI can be released by way of the Release Workbench to SAP ECC where they can then be drawn on in operational assortment planning and control (OAPC) for the target plan comparison.
Due to the characteristics of fashion merchandise, the planning aspect is much more important for assortment creation than for other types of merchandise. Where fashion merchandise is involved, assortment planning is much more dependent on creativity, the analysis of fashion trends, and the ability to modify existing plans as quickly as possible. The focus with respect to materials/fabrics, colors, styles and so on must be determined and adjusted to the target groups. It forms the basis for the article shells (planned articles) and their attributes, which will be planned subsequently.
It is often the case that the specific articles do not even exist in the system at the time of planning. Accordingly, assortment planning initially involves “ideas” or “shells” of articles, which then take shape progressively through the course of the planning process. An important task of these planned articles is to reserve capacities at a time when the actual articles are not yet known.
You can carry out this "creative" assortment process in SAP BI. You are able to do the following:
· You can complete assortment planning within the BI system as soon as the targets are transferred and you can carry out the operational part in the SAP ECC transaction OAPC (see the business process Assortment Management Fashion),
· You can carry out the operational assortment planning (or at lease certain process steps) in the BI system: These are:
· Determining the correct product mix for the assortment,
· Creating new planned articles,
· Selecting colors and sizes for an article,
· Planning quantities. This can be done down to the level of the article/color/size.
Example scenario "Anna": Within quantity planning, you plan the quantities for your "T-shirt Anna" down to the color level:
T-Shirt Anna: 40 units
20 units in red
20 units in blue
Example scenario "Bella": Within quantity planning, you plan the quantities for your "T-shirt Bella" down to the color/size level:
T-Shirt Bella: 40 units
20 units in green: 10 units in M, 10 units in L
20 units in yellow: 10 units in M, 10 units in L
· Prepack generation information: This includes:
Defining pack size and
Entering information for distribution of quantities to the different sizes (for example, by assignment of a quota scale)
Example scenario "Anna": From quantity planning, you already have the quantities for each color. In this step, you enter a quota scale (which is created in SAP ECC) and you use this in the purchasing list inbound process to distribute the quantities to the sizes. You also enter a lot pack size for example, so that prepacks of 10 are to be made:
T-Shirt Anna in red:
Quantity 20,
Prepack size: 10
Quota scale 50-50 (50 % in size M, 50 % in size L)
T-Shirt Anna in blue:
Quantity 20,
Prepack size: 10
Quota scale 20-80 (20 % in size M, 80 % in size L)
Later, by way of the purchasing list inbound process in SAP ECC, the quantity of the sizes is calculated as follows and the prepacks are created accordingly:
T-Shirt Anna in red (quantity 20, prepacks of 10, quota scale 50-50)
® 1 prepack with red T-shirts. This contains 5 units of size M and 5 units of size L. The prepack is assigned to the assortment twice.
T-Shirt Anna in blue (quantity 20, prepacks of 10, quota scale 20-80)
® 1 prepack with blue T-shirts. This contains 2 units of size M and 8 units of size L. The prepack is assigned to the assortment twice.
Example scenario "Bella": From quantity planning, you already have the quantities for each color and size. You now enter a lot pack size for example, so that prepacks of 20 are to be made. The quantities at size level are already available
T-Shirt Bella in green:
Quantity: 20
Size M: 10 units
Size L: 10 units
Prepack size: 20
® Using this information, SAP ECC creates the following: prepack of 20 with green T-shirts. This contains 10 units of size M and 10 units of size L. The prepack is assigned to the assortment once.
T-Shirt Bella in yellow:
Quantity: 20
Size M: 10 units
Size L: 10 units
Prepack size: 20
® Using this information, SAP ECC creates the following: prepack of 20 with yellow T-shirts. This contains 10 units of size M and 10 units of size L. The prepack is assigned to the assortment once.
You can enter prepack generation information, for example, on the following levels: article, article/assortment, article/color, article/assortment/color. This way it is possible, for example, to specify different quota scales for various colors in order to handle classic colors differently to fashion colors.
Prerequisites
To use integrated assortment planning (MAP Integration with SAP ECC), you will need at least SAP NetWeaver 2004s usage type Business Intelligence, with BI Content 7.03 Support Package 9 and SAP ECC 6.0 Enhancement Package 3.
Process Flow
The following process steps run in the BI system:
...
Optional: Capacity planning
In capacity planning, for example, you distribute the fixtures that are available in the individual merchandise areas and derive the presentation capacity with a time reference.
Optional: Store segmentation
When you use store segmentation, you can classify the stores according to various criteria (dimensions; maximum of 3), to assign stores with the same dimension values to a common assortment. You can perform store segmentation with the Analysis Process Designer (APD) prior to assortment definition. You can use the result of segmentation in the assortment definition. Alternatively, you can start segmentation directly from assortment definition.
Assortment Definition
For each merchandise area (any article hierarchy level), you define assortments and assign the assortments to stores that have identical dimension values. Optionally, this assignment can occur time-dependent. You can calculate these dimension values either in the APD (see Store segmentation) or using a custom-defined algorithm that you can implement in a Business Add-In (BAdI). To make the assortment assignments you planned in the BI system available to the operational processes, you have to release them to SAP ECC with the Release Workbench (message type LOCGRP), either manually or in background processing.
Target planning
You plan the receipt units for the fixed allocation of initial buy and putaway as the targets for Operational Assortment Planning and Control (OAPC). You plan these targets at the level of the article hierarchy node, assortment type, assortment, season, season year, and rollout. You transfer the targets to OAPC in SAP ECC using the Release Workbench manually or in background processing. There these targets can be drawn on for the further details of your planning.
You can now proceed as follows: After transfer of the targets, you finish the assortment planning within SAP BI and you continue the operational part in the OAPC. Or you carry out the operational assortment planning (or at lease certain process steps) in the BI system.
Optional: Create planned articles
For the correct product mix in your assortment planning, you may require new articles. You create these planned articles (generic articles) by entering some article information. You also define the colors and sizes in which you wish to procure the article. Normally, all planned articles are not included in the final assortment plan. Determination of the correct product mix is usually an iterative process. The information on the article and the actual article planning usually develops during the process of assortment planning.
Optional: Carry out quantity planning
You can plan, for example, at the article level or the article/color level or the article/color/size level. Here you plan the receipt units for fixed allocation of initial buy and putaway for both planned and existing articles.
Optional: Create prepack generation information: You can determine the prepack size and assign a quota scale for the distribution to the sizes.
Release to Merchandising System
The release of the assortment plan can take place at the following levels: article hierarchy node, article, rollout, season year and season category.
This process is supported by following SAP MAP templates, which are based on Integrated Planning technology:
1. Cluster Plan (for the targets, plan on assortment level). Use this template to:
1. Plan receipt in units and value per cluster (assortment) and store. It becomes the target that this assortment should try to reach in the Option Plan or Size Plan steps.
1. Option Plan (plan at the article/color level). Use this template to:
Create the planned articles (styles)
Create the colors
Assign a color to an article
Assign a pack size/quota scale for each color
Plan receipt in units and value at the article/color level per cluster and store
1. Size Plan (plan at the article/color/size level). Use this template to:
Create the sizes
Assign an article to a specific size
Plan receipt in units and value at the article/color/size level per cluster and store
Result
At the end of assortment planning, you have assigned stores to your assortments time-dependently for each merchandise area, and released the assortments and assignments to SAP ECC. You have also determined the quantities to be planned in OAPC and transferred them to OAPC in SAP ECC. Based on this information, you can now plan the articles and their order quantities in OAPC, assigning further articles to the assortments. This process is described in the Assortment Management business process.
Assortment Management
Purpose
This business process lets you use additional functions in the assortment planning. You can use the following process variants for basics and for fashion merchandise:
Assortment Management Basics
Purpose
You use the business process for basics in order to implement assortment planning for layout modules (LM) in SAP ECC.
This process enables you to create and maintain layout modules and layout module versions. A layout module contains articles that will be presented together (products from one merchandise area, for example). Layout module versions let you model the different designs of a layout module with the articles to present over time.
The maintenance of layout module versions consists of assigning articles and entering the placement data for these articles. You can assign articles by criteria such as merchandise area (category or subcategory, for example). You can also use an external space management program to assign articles and maintain the placement data.
The process lets you run store capacity checks and article capacity checks. In this case, you have to assign fixtures to the layout module versions. Please note that SAP does not provide any Business Content for store capacity planning or the store capacity check; however, they are supported by the master data object Fixture, which SAP provides.
You conclude the process by releasing a layout module version. This is usually followed by automatic replenishment, which ensures sufficient presentation and/or stocking of the articles of a layout module in the stores.
As shown in the scenario description Merchandise and Assortment Planning, this business process can either follow the Assortment Planning Basics business process or run independently in SAP ECC.
As a result, the following variants of this business process are possible:
· ● Assortment Management Basics in an integrated scenario
If you want to use this business process in the integrated scenario, you have to execute the Assortment Planning Basics business process and then release the planning results to SAP ECC.
· ● Assortment Management Basics in SAP ECC
Alternatively, you can run this business process solely in SAP ECC. In this case, you perform all the process steps in SAP ECC.
Prerequisites
This business process requires direct assignment of layout modules to assortments. You also have to use fixtures instead of shelves in the Layout Workbench.
Process Flow
The following business process runs in SAP ECC:
1. Create and maintain layout modules and layout module versions
Create the required layout modules for each merchandise area. Create layout module versions for the layout modules and assign them to the fixtures. In the integrated scenario, you can also revise the planning or maintain the fixture assignments.
You can optionally implement a custom store capacity check. This check allows you to determine whether the required number of fixtures is available in the stores where a layout module is to be presented. Therefore, custom store capacity planning is a prerequisite for running a store capacity check.
2. Article assignment to layout module versions
You use various selection criteria to assign articles to the layout module versions. You can assign and maintain the placement data manually or with an external space management program.
You can also run an article capacity check for each layout module version and fixture. The article capacity helps you detect whether the articles assigned to a fixture exceed that fixture's capacity.
3. Store assignment
When you start assortment planning in SAP ECC, you use assortment assignment to define the time-dependent store assignments for the layout modules. If you performed assortment planning in the Assortment Planning Basics business process, you have already completed this step. If necessary, you can revise the store assignments created in the Assortment Planning Basics business process.
You can optionally implement a custom store capacity check, like when you create and maintain layout modules and layout module versions. As a result, you can run a capacity check of the store assignments you created or maintained in this step.
4. Release layout module versions
Releasing a layout module version completes the Assortment Management Basics business process. Automatic replenishment ensures that the products in a layout module are presented in sufficient quantities.
Result
At the end of the Assortment Management Basics business process, you have completed merchandise and assortment planning, with the planning of layout modules, layout module versions (including article assignments and placement data), and store assignments of the layout modules.
Assortment Management Fashion
Purpose
This process enables you to perform Operational Assortment Planning and Control (OAPC) in SAP ECC. OAPC is an application within Assortment Planning Fashion with which buyers define specific articles that are to be procured in the selected period and shipped to stores.
This process is the operational part of integrated assortment planning, which takes place in SAP ECC. The strategic part (planning the targets) of integrated assortment planning takes place in the BI system. In addition, process steps in operational planning can also have taken place in BI. In some cases, with sufficient data entry and detailed planning, the operational assortment planning process has been completed entirely in BI and you merely run the Assortment Management Fashion process in order to release the planning data to the operational follow-on processes (such as ordering, for example).
You can also perform Operational Assortment Planning and Control without the strategic part.
Prerequisites
You have already performed the upstream business processes Merchandise Planning (including OTB), Capacity Planning, Assortment Definition, and Strategic Assortment Planning and possibly also process steps in operational assortment planning. The data is available to OAPC as a basis / target.
Process Flow
Due to the characteristics of fashion merchandise, the planning aspect is much more important for assortment creation than for other types of merchandise. Where fashion merchandise is involved, assortment planning is much more dependent on creativity, the analysis of fashion trends, and the ability to modify existing plans as quickly as possible. The focus with respect to materials/fabrics, colors, styles and so on must be taken into account and adjusted to the target groups. It forms the foundation for the article shells (planned articles) and their attributes, which will be planned subsequently.
Often enough, the specific articles do not even exist yet when planning is performed. Accordingly, assortment planning initially involves “ideas” or “shells” of articles, which then take shape progressively through the course of the planning process. An important task of these planned articles is to reserve capacities at a time when the actual articles are not yet known.
You can carry out this "creative" process to determine your final assortments in the SAP BI system.
Once you have completed the upstream business processes in the BI system, you can execute the Assortment Management Fashion business process in the Operational Assortment Planning and Control (OAPC) application.
In OAPC, you distribute the planning data from the upstream planning processes for each article hierarchy node/season/season year/rollout/general assortment (or DC assortment -> putaway quantity) for generic articles or single articles (if this has not already taken place in SAP BI).
You define the following in the OAPC:
· ● A hierarchy node in the article hierarchy (you configure the relevant planning level of the article hierarchy for OAPC in transaction WRFAPC21)
· ● A season / a season year
· ● A rollout – you can define this as monthly, for example
· ● An assortment type (see business process Assortment Definition) and restriction to individual assortments
· ● Or alternatively, you enter only the number of an existing purchasing list.
You can add existing generic/single articles to a purchasing list that has been planned in OAPC. You can also create new, planned generic/single articles (article shells) and use PRICAT article data.
You can plan three key performance indicators within the purchasing list:
· ● Fixed allocation of initial buy (IF):
You plan new merchandise that will be procured on a capacity basis. The planned quantities are fixed and cannot be changed, as you already know that the required capacities are available. (Each store in an assortment is allocated the same quantity.)
· ● Reallocation of initial buy (IV):
You plan new merchandise that will be procured on a sales basis. The capacities required to present these goods only became available through forecast sales, and are therefore subject to a degree of uncertainty. (The merchandise is distributed to the stores using allocation tables. As a result, the stores in an assortment can be allocated different quantities.)
· ● Putaway quantity (PA):
You plan a planned order quantity of the article that is not to be shipped directly to the stores, but instead will remain at a distribution center at first. This merchandise can be delivered to the stores that report the appropriate requirements, either through replenishment or via allocation table (using allocation strategies). This process involves the replenishment of merchandise that has already been distributed to stores through the fixed allocation/reallocation of initial buy.
You can replace the abbreviations such as "IF" with other abbreviations more commonly used in your organization. The technical abbreviations mentioned above are only used if no (language-dependent) abbreviations are specified in Customizing.
Direct delivery to the stores can be effected by an indicator attached to the item or it can be triggered directly from the purchasing list.
The following business process runs in SAP ECC:
The planning process within OAPC can roughly be divided into the following areas (process sections); the process steps Quantity Planning, Detailed Article Planning, and Prepack Planning can be performed in any order:
...
1. Add articles to purchasing list:
Use:
· ● Planned articles: You can create single or generic articles in the purchasing list.
· ● Already existing articles (also structured articles if these have already been created)
· ● PRICAT data
Optional: If you have created and assigned articles already planned in BI, or have added already existing articles, you can delete or change these in this step if necessary.
2. Execute quantity planning
Planning of the quantities for each assortment at the level of generic article/color/size or single article.
Optional: If the quantities have already been planned in BI and released to the OAPC, you can change these again here.
3. Execute detailed article planning
· ● Attribute maintenance (purchase list overview): for example, vendor
○ Maintain the article details
Only for planned articles [markdown profile, distribution profile, article hierarchy node, base unit of measure, market buying number]
○ Maintain the purchasing/sales view
Only for planned articles [vendor, purchase price in vendor currency, basic purchase price converted in local currency, markup 1 (percentage), net/net purchase price, markup 2 (percentage), sales price (for each different distribution chain)]
○ Maintain a description
Only for planned articles [short/long texts in multiple languages]
○ Maintain the item details
Presentation date or delivery date and the other dates determined using the procurement data of the scheduling function (consignment, direct delivery or function No Cross-Docking with Prepacking)
○ You can display the cumulated quantities
Comparison of the planned quantity, assigned quantity, and actual quantity at the variant-creating characteristic level
○ You can display the logistics view
You see the controlling screen, in which the downstream processes (procurement, allocation table) post their relevant data (assigned quantity, planned DC, alternate DC, actual quantity, purchase order document (incl. item number), allocation document (incl. item number), presentation date, delivery date in store and DC, net price, currency, order unit)]
Optional: If the planned articles have already been created in BI and released to the OAPC, the article information can be changed again or supplemented here.
4. Execute prepack planning (generic articles only)
Define the prepack, assign a prepack view, and assign a variant:
○ In the prepack definition, you can define any number of prepacks for each generic article (fashion articles are usually ordered in prepacks, to minimize merchandise logistics costs). The lots are defined to enable an optimized distribution of the planned quantities among the stores (suitable size/color composition). You can use quota scales to distribute a quantity entered for the main characteristic (such as “color”) to the different values of the secondary characteristic (such as “size”). You can set the indicator for planning support if you do now wish to create master data for a prepack. In this case, the system splits the prepack into its variants, if you release the purchase list items, and it creates order list entries for each variant.
Optional: If the prepacks have already been generated in the inbound process on release from BI, they can be changed again in the OAPC or prepack information can be supplemented.
○ In the prepack assignment, you assign the prepacks (and the planning-supporting prepacks) to the assortments by planning the quantities for each assortment. You can plan quantities for each key figure (IF, IV and PA). The key figures are also handled differently in the following processes.
Optional: If the prepack assignments have already been generated in the purchasing list on release from BI, they can be changed again here or supplemented.
○ In the variant assignment view, you can assign a component (variant) directly to a key performance indicator and an assortment with quantities.
5. Release the planned articles and release the purchasing list item
Release the objects as described below. You must always perform step a) before step b).
...
1. a. Once you have created a new article that did not exist previously (planned article) and completed it to the point that nothing else has to be added in planning, you release the article. The system then creates the corresponding master data fields, info records, and so on.
You set a release indicator in the purchasing list. Then you call the release transaction. This can also be scheduled as a background job.
You can also force the release and thus carry out the release transaction without setting the release indicator.
2. b. Once you decide that your planning is complete for a generic/single article and you want to procure this article, release the purchasing list item that contains this article and its planned quantities. This data is then passed on to the downstream procurement processes.
You set a release indicator in the purchasing list. Then you call the release transaction. This can also be scheduled as a background job.
You can also force the release and thus carry out the release transaction without setting the release indicator.
Result
At the end of the Assortment Management Fashion business process, the relevant information is available for the subsequent procurement (purchase order list, grouped purchase order document, purchase order) and allocation table business processes.
