Continuous Business Engineering

In today’s fast-moving, ever-changing business climate, companies are in a constant state of flux and their mission-critical applications must adapt and evolve at the same speed. If software cannot grow with the needs of a company, the company will quickly find itself in a straight jacket.

Furthermore, an ERP application needs to let you move forward fast, knowing that you can roll back changes without downtime.

An enterprise's organizational structure and the corresponding R/3 implementation created using the Business Engineer are not "set in concrete", they can be modified at any time. Examples of possible changes, which can be made rapidly include the following:

• Addition or removal of entities within the organization structure (for example, business units, production plants, warehouses, etc.)
• Introduction of new staff, promotion, reallocation of work tasks, and maintenance of authorization profiles

• Changes to the reporting or cost/profit center structure

• New and concurrent currencies
• Accommodation of changed legal requirements (for example, new tax rates, new employment legislation)
• Activation or deactivation of R/3 functions
• Optimization of business processes
• Support for new and multiple versions of R/3

In addition, SAP offers a range of services if you want support for some of these changes, for example, conversion services to support mergers and acquisitions. Standard Euro services are a further example of the available services.

AcceleratedSAP and R/3 Business Engineer take the hassle out of implementation procedures and change management. Modifications can be made at any time, and the compatibility of changes can be verified with other configuration decisions, thus supporting their smooth, trouble-free introduction into the productive system.

Available Tools for SAP implementation

An implementation project requires a lot of careful thought beforehand. We need to think about what we want to accomplish, the optimum sequence, and the business cases that are best suited to our needs. But SAP has already done a lot of the thinking for you and packaged its findings in the following tools. They are then described in more detail in the following chapters organized according to the corresponding

Accelerated SAP phases.

Accelerated SAP (ASAP): A comprehensive solution for the introduction of the R/3 System in your enterprise. ASAP and most of its tools can be used independently of an R/3 installation.

The tools available for Accelerated SAP are:

·    The Project Estimator, an internal SAP tool which enables SAP consultants to accurately gauge the required resources, the costs and the time frame of implementation. The Project Estimator takes into account the project scope and several project and risk factors.

·      The Concept Check Tool, a tool enabling carry out quality checks on the project preparation, technical infrastructure and R/3 configuration settings. This is done mainly during the first two implementation phases of the R/3 project. In this way you are alerted to potential data volume and configuration conflicts that could lead to performance issues if not addressed.

·    The Implementation Assistant: The ASAP navigation tool that accompanies you through the five phases of implementation down to the task level. It includes a description and a detailed "how-to" for each task in the Roadmap. Along with that, many tools, templates and documents are hyperlinked to the task.

 The Implementation Assistant contains the following elements:

ASAP Implementation Roadmap and Project Plan. The Roadmap contains the five phases, from which you can drill down into work packages, activities and tasks. The Project Plan contains three components, a budget plan, a resource plan and a work plan.

The ASAP Roadmap is the successor of the R/3-based Procedure Model, which was used until Rel. 3.1 in R/3 implementation projects.

Knowledge Corner, containing tips and tricks for configuration from consultants, detailed documentation on SAP’s implementation services, information on technical tools, as well as simplification guidebooks and R/3 Customizing wizards.

Question and Answer Database (Q&Adb). Using the R/3 Reference Model structure, the Q&Adb is used to assist in gathering requirements for business processes, conversions, reports, interfaces, enhancements and authorizations. The database provides useful questionnaires to help you define the process needs and also serves as a repository for all this information. Since it is a database, it allows for flexible reporting. The business requirements generated from the Q&Adb are collectively known as the Business Blueprint.Business 

Process Master List, to manage configuration, testing and the creation of end user documentation. The Business Process Master List is linked to pre-written Business Process Procedures (BPPs), detailled end-user documentation for R/3 transactions.

Issues Database: supporting project management, this database supports the entering, monitoring and managing of issues that come up during the project.

R/3 Business Engineer: The implementation tools for the high-quality configuration of the R/3 System are:

R/3 Reference Model: Comprehensive graphical process flows describing the R/3 functionality from different points of view. It contains scenarios, processes and functions, as well as components. The R/3 Reference Model can be viewed using SAP's Business Navigator and the Business Navigator Web, or using third-party modeling tools available from modeling partners.

Implementation Guide (IMG): Used to configure all system parameters for the business processes in R/3. It contains project management functionality and a menu-driven view of all R/3 Customizing activities. Every activity can be documented in detail, and responsibilities and statuses can be assigned.

Preconfigured systems:

• Preconfigured US and Canadian clients: Provides a head start on baseline configuration. It includes a preconfigured US/Canadian chart of accounts, print forms, account determination, units of measure, etc. The predefined test sequences that are included can be a starting point for integration testing.

• Preconfigured industry systems: A number of complete preconfigured clients consisting of an industry-specific model and preconfigured business processes for the needs of a particular industry in R/3 are available. For more information on preconfigured systems, see the description of Phase 2, Business Blueprint

Change and Transport System

Change and Transport System

The CTS is the central tool for managing changes to customizing and repository data that we make in the IMG or ABAP workbench.A Tansport request can be either customizing request or ABAP workbench request.

ABAP workbench request.

An ABAP workbench request can be created by ABAP workbench tool. Any changes or objects we develop through ABAP workbench are stored in Repository tables of SAP database.

As an ABAP developer will be working with ABAP workbench and thus you create work bench requests.

Customizing request

A customizing request can be created by the customizing tool IMG.

A functional consultant works with configuration tool IMG (SAP Implementation Guide) T-code SPRO, thus creating customizing requests.

Transport organizer: Transation Code SE10

Transport organizer is the tool provided by SAP which records and documents all changes to objects in the repository and customizing. The transaction code for transport organizer is SE10 or SE09.

Transport organizer is fully integrated with ABAP workbench and customizing tool IMG. That means you can navigate in both directions from transport organizer to ABAP workbench and reverse also.

Development class:

Development classes are used to group similar work objects that are being developed in a project.

While creating development class we must assign it to the transport layer.

All the objects assigned to that development class can be transported according to the routes defined in the transport layer.

Defining transport layer and routes is SAP BASIS administrator job. The transport layer defines transport 

route between the systems included in system landscape.

The development classes are themselves objects in the ABAP workbench.

Change Request:
Information source in the transport organizer that records and manages all changes made to repository
objects and customizing settings during a development project.
Task:
A task is assigned to a change request.

It is the information carrier in the transport organizer for entering and managing all changes to repository
objects and customizing settings performed by employees within a development project.

Sales information System

Sales information System

The Sales Information System (SIS) is a tool which helps to collect, consolidate and utilize data from Sales and Distribution processing. It can be used as a planning and control instrument at different levels in the decision-making process. It enables you to track and trace the economic trends, market developments, demand & supply trends, and sales trends early in the Supply chain and take appropriate measures.

It helps to collect and consolidate actual data from Sales and Distribution processing. Using this information you can also create your own planning data. Comparison of actual data and planning data assists in decision making. From the huge amount of data which exists in the SD System, you can filter out the most important information using the aggregation functions, tailored to your needs. It depends on the user’s requirement to determine the depth of information.

The procedures included in sales information system are:

• Initial download by setting up the statistical data
• Synchronization by doing a comparison of stock levels

The purpose of Sales Information System (SIS) is to help generate key MIS and Analysis reports. To enable this, an information system first collects and aggregates transaction information into information structures. A typical structure should consist of the following:

1.Characteristics, which is, the basis on which data is to be aggregated, such as the sales organization, the distribution channel, the customer group

2.Key figures which are nothing but statistics such as the order quantity, the net value, and the gross value), and

3.A period unit, which is, a time element such as daily, weekly, or monthly

The values of the key figures are aggregated at a regular time interval specified by the period unit for each characteristic in the information structure. This enables to generate analysis reports such as the total monthly order value) by the sales organization

There are 4 broad activities for the Sales Information System sub process

1.  Information Structures

2.  Characteristics and Key figures

3.  Updating Sales Information System

4.  Standard Analyses

 The core master data has to be defined for the following master data:

Ø  Material Master

Ø  Customer master records

Ø  Pricing condition records

The SIS tables and info structures should be activated and the transaction updates to them should be enabled. Apart from the standard info structures, customized Info Structures can also be defined and reported using Sales Information System.

SIS Information Structures

The Information structures resemble a table for collection of data. We have to define the information structure as per our system requirement. Various standard structures are available in SAP which can be used directly or we can customize them as per the requirement. The standard information structures available in SAP sales information system are as follows:

Ø  S001 - Customer

Ø  S002 - Sales office

Ø  S003 -Sales organization

Ø  S004 - Material

Ø  S005 - Shipping point

Ø  S006 - Sales employee

These information structures form the data basis for the respective standard analyses of the same name. Apart from these Master Sales Info structures, there are a few internal information structures which are used by system to update transaction data. For example, S066/67 is used for Credit Management; S060 is used for rebate processing and S009/14 for sales support.

There are sets of rules defined to update the information systems.

SIS Characteristics and Key figures             

Characteristics can be defined as the criteria which the user specifies to collect data on a certain entity or dimension. Examples of characteristics of Info-structure S001–Customer are Sales Organization, Distribution channel, Sold-to-party, Material. The structure is updated with this dimension of data at these key characteristics to perform analysis as required.

The users normally require sales information on sales organizations, sales offices, customers, and materials. A period unit is also a criterion used in information structures. The user can set the Information system to update the Information structures in the frequency of the specified period unit for the characteristics. You can collect data for a particular period, for example, for a day, a week, a month, or a posting period.

The Key figures are performance measures. They provide important business information or the transactional information specific to a characteristic. Few important key figures for the info-structure S001 on the dimension of characteristic Sales area are Quantity of Incoming orders, sales volume, returns, Invoiced Sales, Credit memo, etc.

Updating Sales Information System

Data analysis in the Sales Information System is based on statistical data that has been updated from Sales and Distribution transactions to the information structures.

The following data from the sales and distribution processes update the information structures:

·         Sales documents (for example: orders, returns, requests for quotation, quotations)

·         Deliveries

·         Billing documents (debit memos, credit memos, cancellations)

The data flows from the document structure to the information structures. Whenever there is a change in these documents it is reflected in the information structures.

You can use Statistics groups to filter the data that is updated in the information structure. For example, you don’t want to update the information regarding sales on the promotion material, you can use a statistical group filter for materials. Similarly, you may want to segregate sales document types and item categories (such as regular orders and return orders).

The statistics groups are freely definable. There are statistics groups for materials, customers, sales documents, and item categories. You can add new groups as per your requirements. Then assign the statistics groups to sales documents and item categories. Similarly, customer master and material master data have to be updated with the appropriate value in the statistics group field. Statistics groups are also linked to update groups and these groups control the updates to information systems.

 Standard Analyses

The data stored in the information structure can be queried and accessed based on the reporting requirements. In the standard system, the standard analyses that are available in the Sales Information System are:

·         Customer: used to access data directly from the customer statistics

·         Material: used to access specific statistical data that is directly linked to a material

·         Shipping Point: analysis is based on data that has been updated from the creation of the delivery note

·         Sales Office: used to analyse the sales volume for a certain sales group achieved in a certain division

·         Exception Analysis: display Exceptions defined using the Early Warning System

SD Organization Structure

Intercompany Stock Transfer

 Inter company stock transfer involves transfer of stock from one plant to another wherein the plants belong to different company codes.

•          The ordering/receiving plant places a stock transport order on the delivering plant.

•          The delivering plant then creates a delivery document on the basis of the purchase order received.

•          The delivering plant then bills the receiving plant by means of inter company billing.

•          An incoming invoice with reference to the purchase order can be posted in the following ways -

•          Manually, after the invoice has been checked.

•          Automatically, with an internal billing document via SAP EDI.

•          As the supplying and receiving plants belong to different company codes, document type – NB, is configured for the required combination of supplying and receiving plants.

•          A physical stock transfer is then carried out with delivery and billing document.

•          Depending on the supplying and issuing plants, the stock transfer can be executed according to the one-step or two-step procedure.

•          With the one-step-procedure, the goods receipt in the receiving plant is posted at the same time as the goods issue in the issuing plant.

•          With the two-step procedure is to be used, the goods receipt is posted as soon as the goods are received in the receiving plant

•          Configurations are done to determine whether an SD delivery is to be created in the case of a PO for the required combination of supplying plant and document type.

•          Delivery type is assigned to replenishment delivery for cross-company stock transfer.

•          The delivery type determines how a delivery is to be handled.

•          In case, stock transfers are created with a billing document, the delivery type 'NLCC' is used. The delivery type 'NL' is used for stock transfers without a billing document

Before processing inter company stock transfer ,Transnational data needs to maintain as  below

•          Assign Internal Customer number:

            An internal customer number for the particular sales area is assigned to the receiving plant. This customer number is used to represent the plant when an inter company invoice is created.

•          Define Shipping Data for Plants:

            The shipping data is maintained for plants for stock transfer processing. Sales area is defined for the supplying plant, with the help of which the system determines the shipping data for the material to be transferred (e.g. the shipping point).

Third-party order processing

Third-party order processing

In third-party order processing, the business passes the order from the customer, to a third-party vendor who then ships the goods directly to the customer and bills the business.

•          When a third party order is saved, purchase requisition is automatically created and forwarded to the purchase department.

•          The purchase department then creates the purchase order on the third-party vendor indicating that all goods are to be delivered directly to the customer.

•          The vendor delivers the goods to the customer and bills the business for the same.

•          The business then bills the customer for the goods delivered by the vendor after verifying the invoice receipt.

The processing of third-party orders is controlled via material types which define whether a material is produced only internally, can be ordered only from third-party vendors, or whether both are possible.

•          If a material is always delivered from one or more third-party vendors, material is maintained as third-party item. BANS is entered in the Item category group field in the Sales 2 screen of the material master record. System determines the item category as TAS while processing the material in the order.

•          In the case of a material that business delivers itself but occasionally orders from a third-party vendor, the item category of the material is manually changed from TAN to TAS during sales order processing.

Maintain Schedule line cateogories

•          Third-party items are processed by creating a normal sales order.

•          The system uses TAS as the standard third party item category.

A sales order may consist partly or wholly of third-party items

1.  Purchase requisition is automatically created in purchasing once the sales order is saved.
2. Each third-party item in a sales order automatically generates a corresponding purchase requisition item.
3. If a third-party order item has more than one schedule line, the system creates a purchase requisition item for each schedule line.
4. Purchase requisition is automatically created in purchasing once the sales order is saved.
5. Each third-party item in a sales order automatically generates a corresponding purchase requisition item.
6. If a third-party order item has more than one schedule line, the system creates a purchase requisition item for each schedule line.
7. Once the goods have been delivered to the customer by the vendor, the business then bills the customer.
8. No delivery exists in the system for third-party order items.
9. The system is set for order related billing during selection of the documents to be billed.

Free Of Charge Delivery & Subsequent Delivery Free of Charge

     Free Of Charge Delivery

A Free of Charge Delivery is basically used to send samples or free products to the customer free of charge.

•          The customer is not billed for the goods delivered.

Subsequent Delivery Free of Charge

Subsequent Delivery Free of Charge involves the delivery of goods free of charge in response to the complaints raised by the customers  with respect to the quantity or quality differences.

•          A subsequent delivery of charge is usually created with reference to the previous order.

•          The transaction is not relevant for pricing and hence no billing takes place.

•          The transaction wherein the business send samples or free products, free of charge, is recorded using the order document type – FD.

•           The delivery is actually only relevant for deliveries and not invoicing. The delivery     type used is the standard delivery type- LF.

•           The item category – KLN is not relevant for billing and pricing.

•          A free of charge subsequent delivery document-SDF is used to send products later to the customer free of charge against any complaints made by the customer.

•          The standard delivery type – LF is configured for this transaction.

•          The transaction is not relevant for billing as the items are free.

•          The standard item category- KLN is used which is not relevant for billing and pricing.

Refer to the below Order Type Configuration

Item Categories setting would be 

Consignments Sales Process

Consignment refers to those goods which are stored at the customer’s location but are owned by the business. For example pharmaceutical company’s store they are medicine in a retaileri

Benefits of Consignment Sales as below

• The consignment quantity is monitored and controlled separately from the rest of the stock.
• The customer pays only for those goods used or consumed from the consignment stock.
• The customer can usually return consignment goods which are not required.

There are four main transactions for processing consignment stock -

1. Consignment Fill-Up
2. Consignment Issue
3. Consignment Returns
4. Consignment Pick-Up

Consignment Fill-Up

When consignment stock is shipped to the customer, the transaction is referred to as consignment fill-up. In consignment fill-up, goods are delivered to the customer but they remain the property of the business.The transaction is not relevant for pricing and billing. Hence no invoice is generated

Basic setting for Consignment Fill ups 

•  Consignment fill-up is represented by the order document type – CF.
•  Standard delivery type – LF is used.
•  The document is not relevant for billing. Hence no values are maintained for delivery and  order-related billing types.
•  The standard item category used by consignment fill-up – KBN is not relevant for pricing and  billing.
•  The consignment fill-up uses the schedule line category E0 or E1.
•  Schedule line category E1 is used with MRP and uses availability checking.
•  Availability check is carried against the stock in the delivering plant.
•  Movement Type-631 enables the posting of the goods into a special consignment category in the delivering plants stock for that particular customer and material.
• The consignment fill-up order type is then followed by a standard delivery – LF.
• The document is relevant for Picking and PGI as it ensures the creation of consignment special stock for the customer 

When the goods issue is posted –

1. A special stock is created for the customer.
2. The order quantity is moved from unrestricted use stocks in the plant and added to the special stock for the customer.
3. The goods remain in the possession of the customer.
4. The total valuated stock for the plant remains the same

Consignment Issue

Consignment issue enables the customer to take consignment goods from the special stock for their use.The customer or the consignee may use the stock at his site and indicates the business of the same.The consignment stock that is used now becomes the property of the customer.The customer pays only for those quantity of goods consumed by him.

• The consignment issue uses standard sales order document type – CI.
• It is followed by standard delivery type – LF.
• A delivery related billing type – F2 is defined for this order type
• The standard item category used is KEN.
•  The item is relevant for pricing as well as billing-delivery related.
• Special stock indicator-W is maintained
•  The consignment issue uses the standard schedule line categories  - C0 and C1.
• Schedule line C1 performs MRP and availability check.
• The goods movement type-633 checks for the available consignment stock at the customers place.
• The business issues the sale, for the quantity consumed, to the customer thru the order type – Consignment Issue, CI.
• The consignment issue order type is followed by a standard delivery – LF.
• The document is not relevant for Picking as the goods being dealt  are from the special stock already marked for the customer.
•  The goods issue triggers the transfers of goods ownership from the business to the consignment consumer.

When the goods issue is posted –

1. The order quantity is deducted from both the customer’s special stock and the business own total valuated stock.
2. The goods become the property of the customer.

Consignment Return 

Consignment Return involves the return of already issued consignment goods, by the customer, back to the consignment stock.

•          The transaction is not relevant for billing as the returned stock was regarded as part of business inventory.

•          The customer may then request for a credit note for returns.

•          The sales order document type – CONR is used for consignment returns.

•          The order is assigned returns delivery document type – LR.

•          The order is relevant for order related billing type-RE.

Billing block is proposed to check if the credit is authorized and valid

•          Consignment returns uses item category -  KRN.

•          Special stock indicator – W is maintained indicating consignment process.

•          The item is relevant for pricing and order relevant billing based on the order quantity.

•          The standard schedule line category used for consignment returns is D0.

•          The schedule line used standard movement type – 634.

•          No transfer of requirements and availability check are carried out as the goods are being received back to the consignment stock at the customers site.

•          The faulty materials returned back by the customer is represented by the sales order document type- CONR.

•          The returns are recorded in the standard returns delivery document type– LR.

•          PGR causes the stock to move back into the customers consignment stock.

The ownership of the goods is passed from the customer back to the business

• When goods receipt is posted, the returns quantity is added to the customer’s special stock at the plant where the goods are returned.

Thus the customers consignment stock will increase by the returns quantity

Consignment Pick-up 

Consignment Pick-up  involves the return or reposting of any unused consignment goods stored at the customer’s place, back to the business warehouse.  The transaction is not relevant for billing as the returned stock is regarded as part of business inventory

• Consignment pick-up is represented by the order document type – CP.
• Standard returns delivery type – LR is configured.
• The transaction is not relevant for billing. Hence no values are maintained for delivery and order-related billing types.
• Consignment Pick up uses the standard item category – KAN.
• The item is not relevant for billing and pricing as the stock is coming back into the warehouse and hence there is no change of the ownership.
• The consignment pick-up uses the standard schedule line categories – F0 and F1.
• The schedule line category F1 is relevant for transfer of requirements and availability check.
•  Availability check is carried against the stock on the customers consignment.
• It has standard movement type - 632.
• All the excess material lying unconsumed and any faulty material at the customers site are brought back to the business using the order document type –CP
•   Delivery is carried out using the standard returns document type-LR.
• Goods receipt posts the stock back to the business warehouse.

 With the PGR the quantity gets deducted from the customer’s special stock and is added back into the regular stock at the plant where the goods are returned.

The total valuated stock remains the same since the returned stock was regarded as part of the business own inventory even while it was at the customer’s premises