This blog will provide an insight of the creation of an Article and Fashion Bill of Material (BOM) along with the specific business requirements. The design of Article creation process as well as Fashion BOM creation process is very unique to Fashion industry. This is a 3-part blog. This part will focus on basic set up required before we create an article in SAP S/4HANA Fashion & Vertical Business. Please visit the next parts through the following link.
Part 2: Variant class & assignment to material group – https://blogs.sap.com/2023/05/11/set-up-behind-article-creation-in-sap-s-4hana-fashion-vertical-business-part-2-of-a-3-parts-blog/
Part 3: Article & Fashion BOM creation – https://blogs.sap.com/2023/05/12/article-fashion-bom-creation-in-sap-s-4hana-fashion-vertical-business-part-3-of-a-3-parts-blog/
Let’s start with the understanding of the business requirement. The fashion products mostly sold through 3 channels now. These are wholesaling, Retailing and e-commerce. The growth of the fashion business depends on capturing ever changing consumer trend and deliver product to them as quickly as possible. Thus, when a new product is conceptualized, the first decision a merchandiser* takes that the product is made for what kind of customers. To exemplify it, the color and size choice of European women are very different from the choice of Asian women. The consumer perception of the product varies across geographies. Furthermore, the next decision point is that how fast they can ensure the availability of this product to consumer. The wholesaling or retailing or e-commerce channel mainly depends on basic Distribution Centre (DC) to Stores mapping. The network of DC-Stores will ensure the correct product and right time. Therefore, the choice of selling channels and the selection of target consumer geographies are the fundamental aspects of article creation. If we conceptualize a fashion product for European women, we will define the measurement of that product by European standard sizes and the best trend of color selection. This means that merchandisers choose size and color aspect of an article very logically.
Core Solution
SAP S/4HANA Fashion & Vertical Business evolved on the concept of SAP IS Retail article creation. The article creation deals with 2 major dimensions; colors & sizes, since then. However, there are fundamental set up required to ensure that a merchandiser will create an article by selecting merchandising category which is meant for a specific DC-Store network. This combination of merchandising category enablement with DC-Store network widely known as Assortment. We need to perform DC & Store creation fist and then assign the merchandise categories to the right Distribution Centers. Thus, a merchandiser creates an article in SAP S/4HANA Fashion & Vertical Business, he/she will select the obvious merchandiser category for the product which in turn will ensure correct consumer geography.
The following step wise guide will elaborate the solution further.
Step 1: Assignment of Sales Area while creation of Distribution Centre. A sales area indicates the correct sales organization, division and distribution channel. The distribution channel will indicate the relevant channel of sales like wholesaling, retailing or e-commerce platform.
Image 1: Assign sales area in Distribution Centre
Step 2: Selection of Listing procedure which enables merchandisers to extending the articles with its variants to proper plants & stores. We can create custom listing procedures for every region like USA, Europe and Asia for assignment.
Image 2: Listing procedure assignment
Step 3: On the below screen of Distribution Center creation, click on ‘Go to Material Group’.
Image 3: ‘Goto Material groups’ option on tool bar of Distribution Center creation
Image 4: Assign material group in DC
Step 4: Check the assortment created for the distribution center. We can create assortment for DCs and Stores through transaction WSOA1. We need to select the type of assortment in this transaction to mention whether we are creating for DCs or for stores. The assortment for DC 1010 (shows as plant in all above pictures) is 10411010. We need to create this assortment and assign it during DC creation or it can be automatically created during DC creation.
First step is to provide all basic details to assortment.
Image 5: The Assortment
Second step is to mention the right sales area in assortment as per the assignment in DC.
Image 6: Sales Area in assortment as per the assignment in DC
Third step is to mention the right material group (merchandise category) in the assortment.
Image 7: The material groups assignment in Assortment
Additional step for Article creation: In SPRO, under Logistics General, there is Basic Data Retail which has a node General Control, Retail Master data. Please go to this node and assign a Dc as reference DC. The need of reference DC comes from the requirement when an article code needs to be created before deciding the channel of sales. Also, it helps to determine the reference article as a template for new article creation.
Image 8: Assign DC as Reference DC
Conclusion
SAP S/4HANA Fashion & Vertical Business caters exact need of business requirements of fashion product development. The deep understanding of correlation between SAP S/4HANA Fashion & Vertical Business solution offering and the business requirements behind it help adopt the system in more effective way.
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