Different shades of SAP – Manufacturing vs Retail

Different shades of SAP – Manufacturing vs Retail

After 20 years of manufacturing experience when I joined Retail and oil & Gas, it felt like I walked into a whole new world. First few weeks were brutal trying to learn the company lingo and the industry lingo. The only way I could deal with this was come up with a cheat sheet of mapping. And then I got access to SAP. I am not a veteran of SAP by no means, far from it. My experience is solely in Manufacturing industry. So, imagine opening SAP and nothing much makes sense. I drilled down logistics and came across Retailing. Makes sense. I am in retailing business … Then went to my favorite master data and then my frustration started… what is site data? What is its counterpart for Manufacturing. What is article master and why cannot I do much thru MM02, what is the difference between Retailing and Store Retailing?

The result of my journey is this blog. This is neither exhaustive nor is this a training document. This blog is to give a sense of balance and links to other documents on the web that can be useful.

Here is a link to SAP Help –

https://help.sap.com/doc/erp2005_ehp_06/6.0.6/en-US/04/1b754276e4c153e10000000a1550b0/frameset.htm

For SAP Hana – https://help.sap.com/doc/9771f35768c4f132e10000000a441470/1610%20000/en-US/d8968357e4879f2de10000000a44147b.html

When someone talks about SAP they are in general talking about Standard SAP. When we are in a specific line of business T-codes, looks and / or labels are different. MIGO does not only look the same but behaves the same in both versions. But MRP Area or Material Ledger cannot be used when the system is set as IS Retail. MRP can still be run as Retail is nothing but trading and trading requires purchase orders.

SAP Retail is based on the retail supply chain process. Stores will raise a PO to the distribution Center and DC would place a PO for the Vendors to maximize the discounts. Vendors might directly deliver to Stores or back to DC depending on the transportation setup. ERP is usually the final step in the process. Layouts (physically where the product is placed), F & R and PoS (Point of Sales) trigger and feed what happens in ERP.

Retail uses Class and Characteristics concept with different names. There are Retail specific Class type available.

One other thing that is important to note is once the system is turned Retail, there is no going back. This results in certain tables are “turned active”. Certain fields make more sense like Seasonal Promotions. There are specific tables that are available to use with the Retail setup … WLK1; WAKH; WAKP etc. configuration can now be master data. Site in Retail is master data where as its counterpart, Plant is configuration.

To check if the system is set as retail execute SPRO / IMG / Activate Business Functions.

 

 

What helped me the most is standing behind the counter and watching the product move. It was literally following the bread crumbs.

Different shades of SAP – Manufacturing vs Retail | SAP Blogs