SAP Blog

A Dream – A Reality

16 May, 2009 3 Comments

I want to keep this note on this historic day of May the 17th of 2009. My dream of living in a united country, free from war is not anymore a dream. Today it became a reality. Throughout last night I was looking at my mobile screen to see any news update about the situation in the country, I was virtually sleepless like most of the Sri Lankans I know of. Early in the morning today entire country was filled with the sounds of fire crackers for the historic moment of HE Mahinda Rajapakse, beloved president of Peoples Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka arriving to country from G11 summit. As he promised, he stepped in to a country which is free from terrorism and united after 500 years.

From the day I was born, I was hearing horror stories about the war and lived in fear. When I was small I remember how nervous I was when we knew there was a bomb blast in Colombo. We used to pray till my father came home from work. I know many people died in the trains and buses and on roads due to the bomb blasts. Among those died there were Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils. Of course the bomb did not know to target only people it wanted. I know many people died for the motherland in SL Army. Although I know most of them by their name and most of them I know personally very well, Raja Ayya is one of the closest to my heart. He is the one used to take me to the school when I was small and he loved me very much. Later he joined army. He visited my place and he liked food cooked by my mother a lot. He made the ultimate sacrifice for the motherland after helping some of the wounded in the battle field. I wish today the nation paid him the due respect. I feel very sad for all the Tamil youth died too, although they were fighting an unnecessary war. Probably they might not had any choice.

As most of my close friends would know, I wanted to see the change in this country and wanted to be an eye witness for that change. This with some other reasons I refused most of the offers came to me from all over the world. I am proud today to achieve what I wanted to achieve.

I must Thank the HE the president, Secretary of Defense and Commanders of Army, Head of Police and each and every soldier fighting, fought and made the ultimate sacrifice.

Lets work together and make the country proud. Sinhalese, Muslims, Tamils all are children of mother Sri Lanka. We are one nation.

SAP AFS 6.0 – Are you there?

5 Feb, 2009 1 Comment

SAP AFS 6.0 is not the latest version to talk about. But most of the organizations are looking at AFS 6.0 due to many reasons. The process of migrating from earlier versions (like 3.0 and 5.0) of AFS to this version is simplified with the use of simplified upgrade process. Unless if you have a real requirement to change the processes of your business and reporting, migration will help you to change your version without much trouble. This makes much more business sense since there is no much of a cost involved. It also will help businesses to change their SAP versions within a limited period of time without major cutovers and transition downtimes.

As I have discussed earlier in this blog major benefit from an operational point of view is the addition of Quality Management module in AFS 6.0. While this is a macro level benefit AFS 6.0 comes with one very significant change in category structures (if you are migrating from 3.0 environment to the6.0 environment). Configuring categories is simplified in this version. But the operational use will not change. This change will throw you some complications when you try upgrading the system. Standard categories in particular will not be transported (or you will have to make additional efforts in doing so) as you would like them to do. So I advise all of you to read the related notes before you attempt a migration from 3.0 to 6.0.

Another problem we encountered is on screen sequences. You might find some standard screens like AFS Valuation and costing 1 and 2 missing when you try creating materials after you complete your upgrade. This is because some of the settings related to screen sequence are not getting transported properly. You can check the screen sequence configs for understand this. Again SAP has a note addressing this question. It will populate the values to required tables in order to make the additional screens to appear. This error might occur even in fresh 6.0 installations with our experience.

Please always remember these problems can be sorted by SAP with their subsequent upgrades. So by the time you read these advise you might not need them

I think this information will save you at least few days which will otherwise be wasted in searching and figuring out the problems and answers. If you faced any other issues please let me know. Please leave your comments by clicking the comments link below.

SAP AFS Solutions for apparel industry

15 Mar, 2008 3 Comments

SAP solutions needs money, time and effort. This can be a small investment for some organizations, but for most of the apparel manufacturers and even for some retailers this can be quite a big investment. So in SAP AFS, the cost factor and recovering that cost can be much more significant than in some other industries. As an AFS consultant we should be aware of this.

Apparel trade is very volatile in nature. Markets are affected by many factors and the trade needs to adjust very quickly. Fluctuations can be high and hence the predictability is low. Industry changes day by day. SAP AFS needs to be very flexible in this aspect. Solutions need to be developed in reasonably short timelines.

With the challenges unique to the industry, the solution development has its own set of challenges. By its nature apparel industry is very labor intensive. Industry also works on a shorter cycle times. Changes are higher between products and even within the same product. All these together creates the requirement for a system which is simple to use, easy to maintain and highly flexible.

Every SAP AFS consultant must have these in back of their minds when they design a system for the apparel and footwear industry. Simplest systems will run longer with minimal intervention. Identifying the key reporting requirements and key processes and their requirements, analyzing them will give any consultant a good insight to the customer’s requirements. An AFS consultant can add great value in explaining and convincing the customer by weighing their complex reporting and operational requirements against the complexities created in the system and long term sustainability of the system. Simple systems are generally easy to maintain and upgrade. They are very flexible and can be automated easily.

I will go for a simpler system if it can cover 80% of my requirements, if accommodating the remaining 20% is going to complicate my system by another 80%. Here the customer will have to do some compromises as well. But they will enjoy more benefits in long term like accuracy of data, ease of maintenance and flexibility for the business to grow with a simpler solution.

How to write an InfoSet Query

17 Jan, 2008 4 Comments

As I promised last time, I am going to teach all of you about writing queries. There are three main types of SAP queries. They are;

SAP Standard query
SAP InfoSet Query
SAP Quick Viewer Query

For this exercise I am going to create an InfoSet query. We will be pulling data about purchasing which are in three tables using this query. Every step is explained with a screenshot. So I do not think anyone will have a problem in following the example.

When I started taking the steps down and attaching the screen shots to the document, it became too large to be published on my website. So I compiled the data into a PDF document. This is the link to download the ebook.

If you have any question about SAP queries leave a comment or contact me.

Some interesting special features of SAP AFS

15 Dec, 2007 2 Comments

At last found some time to write about SAP and SAP AFS. I was little busy last few days. I have been doing some experiments with SAP and AFS special features. I had few fundamental questions to answer for some time. I tried answering them for past few weeks.

In the apparel industry one of the main raw materials is the fabric. Fabrics are characterized with many subjective parameters like color, color shading and the types of fabric faults. On the other hand when it comes to storing of these fabrics we store them in rolls, while all the other transactions like purchasing and payments happens in length(M, Yd) or in weight(Kg, pound) units. Also we have an interesting question in classification of these materials.

I was working on warehouse management module of AFS. And found a simple and creative way of answering one of my questions listed above. In WM I was able to configure the roll level stock handling capability using Storage Unit management functionality. So there is no requirement to have one to one relationship between the roll and the length it contains. We can manage them separately.

It is not possible to have AFS special features enabled in quality management for the AFS versions before 6.0. But the basic quality allocation and releasing and blocking can be made available using simple IM functionality. Although very simple technically this is a very important functional step for the business.

On top of all these I was invited by ITToolBox to start an AFS blog there. So you can read my blog posts on ITToolBox by visiting this link ( The SAP AFS Blog ).

So some thoughts about the future posts. Most of my friends have asked me how they can write a query in SAP. So I though of publishing my next few posts on the topic how to write a SAP query. See you with interesting blog posts in near future.

Another SAP AFS Special feature: AFS Categories

24 Nov, 2007 1 Comment

In apparel and footwear industry it is very important to categorize materials based on various common features. For an example if you manufacturer a shirt, it can be categorized into high quality and low quality based on the quality of the product. If you manufacturer the same product for two or three countries the common industry practice is to have the same style, color and construction but the languages on the label, or packing items might vary according to the country the product is shipped. In this case the products are categorized by country.

It is very important to differentiate the different categories of products within the same product range. This is achieved with the usage of categories in SAP AFS. Basically categories can be used to group any set of data which have common features. For an example Quality and Country of shipment are features that can be used to categorize the product manufactured in above examples.

Categories need to be configured in the IMG. Then category indicators need to be assigned to the materials in order to make the materials category relevant. When this is done, the stock keeping strategy for these materials will change. Your stock will be categorized with the category it is assigned to. In other words there will be an additional level in defining stock. For an example if you had a finish good stock in batch “XS”, Special Stock “E” for the order “23000” in storage location “1100” of Plant “1000” with the introduction of categories you can further classify your stock to “Quality A” and “Quality B” for an example.

On the other hand the requirement calculation in MRP will also be based on the category. You can define requirement fulfillment strategy in customizing. For an example you can ask your MRP to fill the requirement with “Quality A” goods and then with “Quality B” goods in customizing.

Category is a functionality which can be used very creatively based on the requirement. On the other hand usage of categories must be evaluated very carefully. This change the stock and requirement creation strategy for the category enabled materials. On the other hand there are some limitations to the category enabled materials. Customizing of categories involved many steps. I will discuss this in my future posts.

If you have any problems you can email me on the email address shown in the introduction. Or leave your question as a comment to this post.

SAP Industry Solutions

13 Nov, 2007 No Comment

By S.Suren

It is a known fact that SAP caters to different industry verticals by providing industry specific solutions. In this post I would like to give you an insight into how these industry specific solutions are developed for the different product offerings SAP have.

For instance when it comes to SAP Business One solution, when there is a need to cater to the requirements of a particular industry vertical, the separate add on for this vertical needs to be purchased by the customer. This add on is often a separate development of one of SAP’s Development Partner who have been doing SAP Consulting for the industry clients. This add on developed by the partner is later sent for approval to SAP AG where the solution is tried and tested before being available as a genuine SAP Add on for the particular industry vertical.

For SAP All in One solutions, that is for the higher end of the medium sized companies, the requirements (best in class practices) of the particular vertical is also preconfigured into the solution. This preconfiguration is submitted to SAP AG by the relevant development and/or channel partner and a certificate is obtained from SAP AG, certifying that this preconfigured solution is accepted to cater to the best in class practices of the proposed industry vertical.

As for R/3, the industry solutions are seamlessly integrated with the standard SAP components. This is then configured based on the requirements of the particular client. Therefore the client when purchasing SAP will be buying the relevant SAP Industry Solution suite.

Hope this post provided you with an insight into how SAP IS works.

Send in your comments and suggestions at ssurenlk@msn.com.

Have a nice day!!

S.Suren

Grid value conversion facility in SAP AFS

10 Nov, 2007 1 Comment

This is another AFS Special article in the series on Grids. I have already introduced you to the grid functionality and usage of 3D Grids. There is another special functionality in AFS which solves a unique problem to the apparel and footwear industry.

Apparel is a global industry. Orders comes from one part of the world, manufacturing of raw material happens in some other place and garment manufacturing will happen in another part of the world. Some buyers refer their product sizes as “Small (Size S), Medium (Size M),…” and so on. Some refer their sizes as “10, 12,…). On the other hand some suppliers of raw materials will call Size S as 14” depending on the product you order and the place from which the supplier operates. So every apparel manufacturer faces the problem of communicating with external parties in the same language they do.

AFS has adopted a creative method of solving this problem. This is by using grid conversions. We will maintain grids internally as we identify them. But displayed grid values will differ based on the Customer, Supplier or Material. For an example supplier will refer the product size as 14” and customer will see their document as Size S while we maintain it as ST internally for manufacturing purposes.

This requires maintaining the grid conversion in the customizing. Here in customizing all the conversions will be maintained for Customer, Vendor and Material. Then we have to make the conversions available for particular customer, supplier and material in master data maintenance. If all three are maintained system will take the Customer as the first preference then the vendor and material in last and grids will be displayed accordingly.

I find this function really useful in operation. But again I do not think this functionality is used for its fullest potential. If you are using it and if you have any comments leave it here by adding a comment to this post.

I will show you how to configure this functionality in my future posts. If you have any questions or suggestions pleas contact me on the email in the introduction above.

Birth of SAP AFS

29 Oct, 2007 1 Comment

By S.Suren

Many people wonder how SAP AFS IS was conceptualized. There needed to be some sort of an activity that spurred the development of the SAP AFS Industry Solution.

This initiation was taken by Dr.Peter Zencke in January 1996. Dr. Peter Zencke, a mathematician and economist, joined SAP in 1984. As a member of the Executive Board of SAP AG since 1993, he has led major development areas for SAP R/3 and SAP industry solutions.

In January 1996, he called on the SAP Munich development group to develop an industry solution to cater to the needs of the apparel and footwear industries and this was to be delivered by December 1997 and voila the SAP Apparel and Footwear Solution was born.

The new solution was developed in conjunction with such industry leaders as Reebok International Ltd and VF Corp and today this solution is being used by more than 60+ SAP AFS Customers worldwide.

There you go, thanks to initiatives taken by people like Dr.Peter Zencke that SAP Continues to dominate in the world of ERPs and consistently spring out solutions for emerging industries.

Hope this has given you an insight into the how SAP AFS came to be, I shall update more on the future of SAP AFS very soon.

Have a nice day!!

S.Suren

ssurenlk@msn.com

SAP AFS enhancements in SAP R/3 Standard

28 Oct, 2007 No Comment

For any new comer to an SAP AFS Environment, the first question that would pop up, is “What are the new enhancements in SAP R/3 that caters to the AFS Industry?”, in this post, I intend to provide a brief overview of the new AFS enhancements in the SAP Standard R/3 functionalities and thereby help to answer the above.

In IS AFS 5.0, the specific functionalities that have been included in the SAP R/3 are:

In AFS Master Data:

Material Grids (refer to the earlier post on “Using 3D Options in SAP AFS”, by Azwath for more information on this enhancement)

Categories - AFS materials are based on a large volume of data. To order this data volume, AFS uses categories. Categories are used to logically segment materials. You can enter a specific schedule line for a material per grid value. You can distinguish a material by color and size, for example. Using categories you can also order the grid values at different quality levels, customer segments, and countries of origin

Seasons - In the fashion industry, seasons are an integral part of the business processes. Previously, seasons were only available in Sales and Distribution (SD). In SAP AFS, you can have a season at the stock side. It has been enhanced so that it can also be used for Material Management (MM), Production Planning (PP), and Inventory Management (IM).

In Sales & Distribution

Value Added Services – Some of your customers might request that you add customer-specific services to the goods they ordered before they are delivered. Customers frequently request special labels, packing according to certain criteria, or other special services for their goods.

Depending on what kind of service and how complicated it is, you will need materials, know-how and/or more personnel to provide the service. An added service that you provide upon customer demand is therefore not free of charge, but rather it increases the value of the goods that you will deliver. You can calculate price markups that your customer has to pay, to reimburse you for your resources and materials.

You can map these requirements including their costs as value-added services in the AFS system.

Multi-store orders – The multi-store order (MSO) facilitates the mapping of business processes in which a corporation requires goods from you for any number of stores You can process all stores in one single order.

You explode the MSO document in the following process steps. The system creates individual sales documents.

This allows you to make specific and clear changes to the order quantity for certain stores.

Available to Promise (ATP) – The AFS availability check is carried out in the order entry to see whether the desired AFS material is available for the requested delivery date in, for example, the selected color or size. During the order entry you check if there is enough stock to fulfill the order at the requested delivery date. If the order cannot be delivered immediately, the ATP specifies when enough goods are available and confirms this date as the delivery date.

Allocation Run – The special situation of the apparel and footwear industry requires an optimization of the assignment of existing stock to open requirements. If a stock shortage occurs, the allocation run ensures an optimal assignment of stock to the open requirements. The allocation run distributes the currently available stock to due sales orders according to certain calculation logics at a specific time. If the ordered quantities are larger than the actually available stock, you can use the allocation run to reach the best customer satisfaction under the given circumstances in your business.

In Production

Markers Production Lots

Combined Orders – With this function you can group several production orders. The combined production orders can use the same component or have the same operation in the routing.

The functions you can execute for combined production orders include:

releasing combined production orders at the same time
posting the goods issues for all component quantities from the combined orders at the same time
confirming operations at the same time that are carried out for the combined orders

For more information on these features, I urge you to visit http://help.sap.com/saphelp_afs50/helpdata/en/b2/53ae56cda511d2aca20000e829fbfe/frameset.htm

Hope you found this post useful, feel free to send me your comments and suggestions to ssurenlk@msn.com

Have a nice day !!

S.Suren

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