Article Hierarchy

The article hierarchy allows you to group articles according to customer-specific criteria. Thereby, often sales-relevant aspects are taken into account, such as brands, how merchandise is presented on the sales floor, forms of packaging, and so on, while the merchandise category hierarchy is oriented towards the material attributes of the article (food/non-food, perishables (fruit and vegetables), frozen foods, and so on).

The article hierarchy is taken into account in planning, in operational processes and in reporting.

For example, the article hierarchy can be structured in such a way that it corresponds to the presentation of the merchandise in the shop - for, example by shelf (section), or by sales floor areas.

It is also possible to link shops with the article hierarchy in order to map the different merchandise areas in a department store.

An article hierarchy structure is created top-down. On the Node Assignments tab, define the top node (root node) and specify a description for this node. You can assign an unlimited number of nodes to the top node, select descriptions for the nodes and define the node characteristics on the Node Attributes tab. On the Article Assignments tab, you can assign articles to every node of the hierarchy. On the Language-Specific Texts tab, you can maintain language-dependent node descriptions for each node, and on the Free Text tab, texts can be defined for each node.

The article hierarchy maintenance offers the following access options to the detail view:

Access with Node ID Only:

If you want to navigate to the detail maintenance with a hierarchy node, you can use the node search help to select a node or enter a node ID and a key date directly (in the case of a scheduled hierarchy).

Access with Article Only:

If you want to navigate to the detail maintenance with an article of the hierarchy, you can use the article search help to select an article or enter an article number and a key date directly (in the case of a scheduled hierarchy). The detail maintenance is always accessed with the parent node of the articles's directly assigned node.

Access with Node ID and Article:

If the user wants to navigate to the detail maintenance with an article of the hierarchy, and wants to restrict the search for an article (because, for example, he/she always works with articles of a certain node), then this node can be selected as an additional selection criterion.

Within the article hierarchy maintenance: By setting the Operative indicator, the Valid From date of the node assignment is set to the current date.

By setting the Deletion Flag indicator, the Valid To date is set to the current date. The logically deleted node assignment can be physically deleted on the end date (for example, by a scheduled deletion report).

Every article hierarchy is created with the status planned. Time-dependent node and article assignments can be defined in this status, but these changes do not affect the operational assignments. An article hierarchy can be activated and in this way used operatively as soon as the planning of the assortment structure is complete, or, if an active hierarchy already exists, then the new planned article hierarchy structure could be copied to the active hierarchy for activation and operational use.

Once the hierarchy is activated, only limited changes can be made to it. In an unscheduled article hierarchy, only article assignments can be changed. In a scheduled hierarchy, only the future structure and article assignments can be deleted manually.

An active article hierarchy should not be deactivated, as this could have a substantial impact on other processes. Deactivated article hierarchies cannot be changed or re-activated.

The article hierarchy is included as a node search help in many SAP Retail processes (including Price Planning Workbench, Purchase Order).

The following Attributes can be defined for a new article hierarchy that is to be created:

• Distribution Chain (Sales Organization and Distribution Channel)

  If a BW update is set, you can only activate one distribution chain independent article hierarchy (i.e. one client-wide) or distribution chain specific article hierarchies with a different distribution chain each.

• BW

  This indicator specifies whether the article hierarchy should be transferred to SAP BW/4HANA. Specification is optional.

• Multiple Material Assignment

  If the "Multiple Material Assign." indicator is set, an article could be assigned multiple times: It is possible to assign it then once within each category node (represented by a shop in the department store / shop concept) of the article hierarchy.

• Scheduling

  By setting the "Structure Scheduling" indicator, structural changes can be scheduled on a time-basis, in other words, the change becomes valid when the "Valid From" date is reached. With that, for example seasons with seasonal merchandise assignments can be mapped in the article hierarchy.

• Language-Specific Hierarchy Descriptions

The article hierarchy automatically has the status planned. To use the hierarchy in operative processes and to extract the hierarchy into SAP BW/4HANA, the hierarchy must be activated.

To make it easier to navigate in the article hierarchy, you can define a hierarchy level semantic (description of the hierarchy level) in Customizing. The levels are defined top down, in other words, the first level in the hierarchy structure corresponds to the top node level of the article hierarchy, the second level corresponds to the child node level of the top node, and so on. Furthermore, one level of the article hierarchy can be defined as the category level in the customizing table.

Once the hierarchy level descriptions have been defined, they can only be changed if no article hierarchy exists yet in the system.

In the Customizing table, (IMG:→Logistics General→Article Hierarchy→Edit Hierarchy Levels)), you can maintain an article hierarchy level as a category level - as mentioned before. When a hierarchy node is created (in the hierarchy maintenance or from an external system by means of the BAPI interface), the system checks whether it is a node from this category level. Defining nodes or an article hierarchy level as a category means that:

• The category is the root node of the assigned Consumer Decision Tree (CDT).

• The category defines the uppermost assortment-forming node.

• In Category Management, the category is the uppermost relevant node for the update into SAP BW/4HANA.

• If multiple article assignment is used, the category is the node to resolve the multiple assignment. Within the category, the article is always assigned uniquely.

• If multiple article assignment is used, the category is the node to determine the department store-shop assignment.

• Pre-defining a category level in customizing makes it easier to maintain the categories in the application, as automatically all nodes of that level will be defined as categories. Alternatively, if no level is pre-selected as category level in customizing, you can manually maintain hierarchy nodes as categories in the application. A plausibility check ensures that only one level can be defined as a category level.

You can only change the category indicator if there is no article hierarchy in the system.

For the dialog screen, you can create an Event pushbutton for every level of the article hierarchy; this will allow you to navigate to every other program or every other transaction without making any modifications (BAdI: Hierarchy Levels). At this point, you can determine a description for the Event pushbutton.

If an internal number range interval is globally defined for the article hierarchy, the internal number assignment in Customizing can be overridden by an external number assignment on a level-specific basis.

The following additional Customizing settings IMG:→Logistics General→Article Hierarchy→Edit Control Parameters) can also be checked:

• Change Documents

  When the change document flag is set, change documents are generated when articles and nodes are changed in active article hierarchies.

• Check End Nodes

  If the Check End Nodes indicator is selected, the system performs a check for value-only articles in an active article hierarchy which ensures that the articles are only attached to end nodes.

• Delete Check

  If the Delete Check indicator is activated, node assignments can only be deleted if no other nodes or articles are assigned to that node.

• CDT Update

  You can use this parameter to control the update of the master data of the article hierarchy in SAP BW/4HANA. If the parameter is activated, the master data is updated in SAP BW/4HANA without scheduling information, provided also the indicator for the BW update is set for the hierarchy. If the parameter is not activated, the master data of the article hierarchy (up to ten levels) is updated in SAP BW/4HANA including scheduling information (validity periods of scheduled article hierarchies).

• Number Range Interval

  You can use this parameter to globally specify an internal or external number range interval for the article hierarchy on a customer-specific basis. The number range interval, which you could assign in this view, is created via transaction SNUM. The object is: WMATGRP_NC.

• Sorting

  You can use this parameter to define the sorting within the tree display. By default, the article hierarchy is sorted by the technical node ID. However, you can also define sorting by the node description.

Individual tree columns can also be hidden in the article hierarchy dialog maintenance. In the case of an internal number assignment, by hiding the non-descriptive "Node ID" column, for example, you can use the article hierarchy nodes description to navigate. The related customizing setting is under IMG:→Logistics General→Article Hierarchy→Define Tree Columns.