Navigating the Product Sourcing Dashboard

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to examine the Product Sourcing Dashboard features and functions.

Dashboard Overview

The SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite solutions package includes the Product Sourcing Dashboard, which is one of the main features for direct material sourcing. The Product Sourcing Dashboard displays BOM and material related information and links you can use to perform tasks.

Your Product Sourcing Dashboard:

  • becomes visible to users with Product Sourcing permissions once the dashboard features have been turned on by SAP Ariba Customer Support.
  • can be based on the default dashboard template, or on a template created by someone in your organization.
  • displays BOM and material related information and links you can use to perform tasks.

Access to the Product Sourcing Dashboard is given to the user based on their site permissions. If the user has one of the product sourcing specific permissions and the Product Sourcing Dashboard is turned on (via a feature that SAP Ariba Customer support needs to enable) the user sees the dashboard at the top of the SAP Ariba page.

Dashboard Navigation

The image below represents an example of a product sourcing dashboard. Depending on your site permissions or realm enablement the product sourcing dashboard might look different for you.

Image of a Product Sourcing Dashboard with numbers identifying each of the areas listed below the image.

  1. Dashboard tabs.
  2. Search bar where you can search for BOMs, materials, owner, supplier, part type, and category. You can filter search results in the BOM or materials list.
  3. Your name, with logout, preferences, visual design theme settings, search, print, notifications, and help icons.
  4. Recent, Manage, and Create drop-downs.
  5. The notification bell icon. Click the notification bell icon to see the reports you downloaded. Reports still being processed in the background show a status of Created. After the download completes, you see a Success message.
  6. Select the Edit icon to rearrange or hide the action tiles.
  7. Action tiles. If you select an action tile, the filter information (8) is updated and the data table (9) shows the items that meet the criteria defined by the action tile, such as Materials without owners.
  8. Filter information (only present if you select an action tile). Describes the filter used to select items shown in the data table. Remove the filter to see all BOMs or materials by choosing the X.
  9. Data table. Contains BOMs or materials. If you select an action tile, the items are filtered according to the criteria defined by the action tile.
  10. Identifiers for the BOMs or materials in the data table. Clicking an identifier opens a drop-down menu with selections to view more information about the item or set options for the item. To see a hierarchical view of a BOM with numbered hierarchy levels and arrow icons to expand or collapse levels, click the BOM ID or name and choose View BOM Details.
  11. Show All Rows link and table menu. The Show All Rows link is shown only if there are additional items that meet the criteria for the data table. This link loads up to 2000 items for viewing (if more than 2000 items meet the criteria, only the first 2000 are shown; you can refine your filter criteria to decrease the number of items). Use the table menu to show or hide table columns in the data table.

The action tiles displayed on your dashboard depend on your group membership but Materials Viewer users can only see materials they own.

Note

It is possible to search for materials or BOMs using text matches in the ID or name field. Alternatively, you can use the Advanced Search to search using other data fields with choosers. The Advanced Search can also be used to search using a list of multiple material IDs.

Note

If the material was integrated from the ERP, values to fields such as Item ID, Material Group or Contract Manufacturer come from the ERP. Information such as Owner, Tags, usually comes from SAP Ariba.

Play the video for an overview of the Product Sourcing Dashboard.

BOM Detail View

The BOM detail view provides the overview of the BOM related information existing on the SAP Ariba realm. You can see data such as:

  • Item ID
  • Contract Manufacturer – for realms integrated to SAP S/4HANA this field contains the Plant value. The field label can be changed to Plant during realm enablement.
  • Total cost
  • Version number

The BOM Detail View page contains several main areas:

BOM buy view: The BOM buy view filter displays the BOM buy view one level at a time and enables buyers to expand the complete BOM view. Essentially, it allows you to see all assemblies and materials that are part of the BOM.

Total cost trend: The Total cost trend tab of the BOM details page provides a graphical representation of the total projected cost trend for the BOM.

Change logs: you can view the changes, such as additions, deletions, modifications, that are made to a BOM through a change number. The changes are color-coded for ease of viewing.

From the BOM Detail View you can also initiate sourcing events for the bill of material either as a finished product (material quote), or as a list of items (BOM quote). Also, material managers can use this page to assign owners to the bill of materials. The owners are usually the buyers who run the sourcing strategy, organize sourcing events, and interact with suppliers.

Screenshot of the BOM Details page

BOM Comparisons

Material Managers can also initiate BOM comparisons from the BOM Detail View page. They can compare:

  • Two distinct bills of material
  • Different versions of the same bill of material

Note

You can compare BOMs based on any combination of Plant and Date.

The BOM history is used to compare two versions of the same BOM. If there are multiple updates during the day, the last update for the day is stored as history and used when comparing BOMs for past dates.

Note

The ENABLE_ITEM_VERSIONING parameter enables item versioning to store the history of BOM changes. Item information such as ownership, price, splits, and costing level are stored.

Item 360° View

From the Product Sourcing dashboard, you can select the Item ID and then access the View Item 360° screen. Here you can find comprehensive information on the item, including both data coming from the ERP and SAP Ariba Sourcing. To access the Item 360 View, you must be a member of the Materials Manager, Materials Viewer, or Item360 Viewer group to see material information.

You can customize the material 360° view and hide content, such as the Sourcing activity, PIR activity, and Contract information tables in the Activity section. You can also choose to hide the Activity, Pricing / Splits, Cost Group, and Audit Log sections. SAP Ariba Customer Support can enable a series of ITEM_360_WIDGETS and ITEM_360_SECTIONS.

By default the material 360° view shows the material details, such as sourcing events, contracts, PIR activity, AML suppliers, and a price trend graph. By default, the material 360° view displays the price trend graph and the following sections:

Pricing Trend

The Pricing trend section in the View item 360° page displays the prices accepted by various suppliers for a material in the form of a line graph. The line graph displays the estimated price and contracted price for each supplier. You can choose to view the pricing trends for the desired time period and for a specific plant.

View of the Pricing Trend for a bicycle frame.

Activity

The Activity   section in the View item 360°  page displays three subsections:

  • The Sourcing activity section provides information about the sourcing events associated with the material, such as the Event ID, date of the event, and the supplier who was awarded. You can navigate to the associated sourcing event directly from this section.
  • The PIR activity section displays information about the purchase information records initiated by buyers for the material.
  • The Contract information section displays information about the contracts initiated by buyers for the material. You can navigate to the associated contract workspace directly from this section.

Pricing/Splits

The Pricing/Splits  section contains an item view table that provides information about the prices accepted by suppliers based on monthly splits for a specific material. Buyers can assign owners and request quotations for the material from suppliers. This section is used to navigate to the Item Information page, which contains detailed information about the material. You can also allocate the split percentage, in case of multiple suppliers in the Item Information page.

View of the Pricing Splits section where the item related information such as material group, item name, item ID, plant and supplier are displayed in columns.

The Supplier column displays the name of all suppliers linked to a particular material. The suppliers are split into two categories:

  • AML suppliers: is a manufacturer or supplier that is an approved provider for a given item, as specified in the Approved Manufacturer Parts List (AMPL) master data.
  • Ad-hoc suppliers: is a manufacturer that is not part of the AML list in the ERP, but has been linked to the material after bidding for it in previous events.

Audit Log

Audit logs related to actions on material items are captured and displayed in the Audit Log section of the View item 360° page. You can find information on assignment of owners, updates to contracted prices, and creation of purchasing information records (PIRs).

Cost Group

The Cost Group section of the View item 360° page displays the cost groups defined for the material. The Cost Group section is displayed only if the ITEM_360_SECTION.ENABLE_CLEAN_SHEETS site parameter is enabled. Contact SAP Ariba Support to enable the ITEM_360_SECTION.ENABLE_CLEAN_SHEETS parameter.

Screenshot of the cost groups where each group is displayed in colorful blocks arranged in columns.

Price by Revision

From the View item 360° page, you can compare the estimated and contracted prices of an item across revision levels. By default, the page displays the estimated and contracted prices from a supplier for the selected item. You can add more revisions to the list and view a comparison of prices from the selected supplier for the specified item.

Screenshot of colorful graphs depicting price trends based on item revisions.

Lesson Summary

  • The Product Sourcing dashboard provides access to BOM details, material data, sourcing events, and supplier-related information.
  • The BOM Detail View enables users to review, compare, and manage BOMs, as well as initiate sourcing events.
  • View Item 360 displays comprehensive material insights, including pricing trends, sourcing activity, contracts, and cost breakdowns.
  • Users can customize the material 360° view by enabling or hiding specific sections and widgets with SAP Ariba Support.
  • Pricing and item versioning allow comparisons of costs, revisions, and historical data across BOMs and materials.

Learning

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