Using Analytical Apps for Inventory Management

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to use overview pages and analytical apps for inventory management

Overview Pages in Inventory Management

In SAP S/4HANA, different SAP Fiori apps are available for analysis for Inventory Management.

These also include two overview pages, which summarize the most important information and tasks for a user, depending on the role. The information is displayed on a set of actionable cards. This allows you to concentrate on the most important tasks and thus make decisions more quickly and take immediate action.

The dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of inventory management, detailing warehouse throughput, stock values, material documents, overdue orders, and purchase order item monitoring for streamlined operations.

You can customize the overview pages by rearranging cards and by hiding or showing them:

If you want to hide a card, select the User icon in the header bar. Then select Manage Cards, and use the switch control to hide the relevant card.
If you want to rearrange the cards, drag and drop a card to the place you want.

The filter of an overview page is applied to all displayed cards. The plant is a single-value and mandatory filter for both overview pages. In addition, you can restrict the analysis to specific storage locations and materials.

For list cards, selecting the header of a card brings you to the app itself, while selecting an item brings you to more detailed item information. For graphical or analytical cards, selecting the card brings you to more detailed analytical information.

Overview Inventory Processing

This overview page is included in the user role SAP_BR_WAREHOUSE_CLERK.

The following table describes the various cards that are displayed on the Overview Inventory Processing page.

Card Name	Description
Recent Inventory Counts	Shows you detailed information up to the item level of a specific material to support you in making decisions for different kinds of physical inventory strategies, such as annual, continuous, and cycle counts. Priority is sorted by count date. Selecting the header brings you to the Physical Inventory Document Overview app, while selecting an item brings you to that item in the Physical Inventory Document app.
Warehouse Throughput History	Shows you the goods movements in your company. You can choose from many different available dimensions and key figures and drill-down to the individual material document item you are looking for. Selecting the header or the chart brings you to the Goods Movement Analysis app with the corresponding parameters.
Recent Material Documents	Shows you a list of the last posted material document items. Priority is sorted by posting date, and material document number. Selecting the header brings you to theMaterial Documents Overview app. Selecting a material document item displays that material document in the Material Document app. Here you can see more details for the goods movement or reverse the goods movement if necessary.
Monitor Purchase Order Items	Using the view switch, you can view overdue items and items in approval. Priority is sorted by overdue days and item value. Selecting the header brings you to theMonitor Purchase Order Items app, while selecting an item brings you to that item in the same app (filtered by the selected item).
Overdue Materials - GR Blocked Stock	Shows you the overdue materials for which a goods receipt (GR) was posted into the non-valuated GR blocked stock. Priority is sorted by posting date (GR). Selecting the header brings you to the Overdue Materials - GR Blocked Stock app, while selecting an item brings you to that item in the same app (filtered by the selected item).
Outbound Delivery List	Shows you completed outbound deliveries and outbound deliveries that are still open. The outbound delivery list is the result of a collective processing of deliveries and used for obtaining information on general shipping processing. Priority is sorted by planned goods issue date. Selecting the header brings you to the Outbound Delivery Monitor app, while selecting an item brings you to that item in the same app.
Inbound Delivery List	Shows you completed inbound deliveries and inbound deliveries that are still open. The inbound delivery list is the result of a collective processing of deliveries and used for obtaining information on general shipping processing. Priority is sorted by delivery date. Selecting the header brings you to theInbound Delivery Monitor app, while selecting an item brings you to that item in the same app.
Overdue Materials – Stock in Transit	Displays the top 10 items of stock transport orders with the highest time delay for which a goods receipt process has not been completed yet. Priority is sorted by days since posting date and PO quantity. Selecting the header brings or the graphic brings you to the Overdue Materials – Stock in Transit app with the corresponding parameters.

Overview Inventory Management

This overview page is included in the user role SAP_BR_INVENTORY_MANAGER.

The Overview Inventory Management page contains the following cards, which are also displayed in the Overview Inventory Processing:

Recent Material Documents
Overdue Materials - GR Blocked Stock
Warehouse Throughput History
Monitor Purchase Order Items
Overdue Materials – Stock in Transit

The following table lists the additional cards that are displayed on the Overview Inventory Management page.

Card Name	Description
Stock Value by Stock Type	Shows you an overview of your material stock values by stock types. Selecting the header brings or the graphic brings you to theStock - Multiple Materials app with the corresponding parameters.
Stock Value by Special Stock Type	Shows you an overview of your material stock values by special stock types. Selecting the header or the graphic brings you to the Stock - Multiple Materials app with the corresponding parameters.

Further Analytical Apps

In addition to the analytical apps included in the overview pages, there are other apps that help you monitor your processes and inventory. Some of them are listed following.

Stock – Single Material

The app offers the following features:

Barcode scanning of material numbers with internal and external scanner devices. There are two types of scanning options: Smartphone camera or external scanner.
Compare stock data with the values for safety stock and minimum safety stock defined for the material. Note that you can only access the safety stock using stock history.
Display the stock history for each plant or storage location for the last 11 calendar months. You access the stock history of all visible stock in the table by clicking on the micro chart.
Presentation of a first-level drill down to stock history (day-end closing) as a time series.
Presentation of a second-level drill down to material document item postings for each day showing the key figures of each posting.
Personalization of stock types and futher display settings: You use the Settings function to define which columns and therefore which stocks are displayed in the results list and the stock history. However, you can also use the settings to hide the stock history column or all columns or rows with zero stocks, for example.

Stock – Multiple Materials

This app gives you an overview of the stock situation of one or more materials on a reporting date that you have specified. You can also select additional filters, such as plant, storage location, material group, or shelf life expiration date. If you do not enter a reporting date, the system displays the material stock on the current date.

The app offers the following features:

Personalization of the display:
You use the Settings function to specify the columns that the system displays in the results list.
Display the value of stock:
The app calculates the stock values based on the stock quantity of the selected reporting date multiplied by the current material price. This means that the app always calculates using the current material price, irrespective of the reporting date you have selected. The associated fields begin with Current value of ...
In addition, in theStock - Multiple Materials app, you can display the result of a calculation method based on the historical prices at the time of the related material postings. The associated fields begin with Value of ...
Note that these two calculation methods lead to different results. SAP recommends that you use the main calculation method based on the current material price, because this method leads to faster results and is optimized for stock analysis.
Export the result list to a spreadsheet.

Slow or Non-Moving Materials

With this app, you can monitor and make time-dependent investigations of the slow or non-moving materials in your stock. Based on these results you can react immediately with follow-on activities such as scrapping or stock transfers.

A non-moving material represent a combination of material and plant/storage location for which the stock level is not zero and no consumption postings occurred for a defined period of time. With this app it is also possible to track slow-moving materials.

Dead Stock Analysis

With this app, you can monitor and make time-dependent investigations of your dead stock.

Dead stock represents a combination of materials and plant/storage location where the stock value has increased over a defined analysis period despite existing consumption postings within that period.

The analysis of the dead stock identifies materials that could potentially have a negative impact on the company’s cash flow and profitability. Based on these results, you can react immediately with follow-on activities and decide whether a material should, for example, be discontinued, discounted, or transferred to a different location.

Analyze Stock in Date Range

With this app, you can analyze and monitor goods movement postings for one or more materials in a defined date range. The app displays stock quantities and values on the defined analytical start and end date. The detail page provides a comprehensive analysis of all goods movements that happened within the defined date range.

You can immediately start your search in the stock analysis with one of the 3 predefined use-case-specific filter variants:

Standard (takes all important stock quantity and stock value fields into account)
Stock Quantity (takes Net Goods Receipt Quantity and Net Goods Issue Quantity into account)
Supplier Consignment Stock (takes Special Stock Type Supplier Consignment (K) into account)

In addition, you can build your own filter view from the pool of existing filter criteria.

By selecting a line item on the Main Page, you can navigate directly to the Detail Page to see further information regarding the material posting history.

For more information about the apps listed previously and other apps, see the SAP documentation (help.sap.com) for SAP S/4HANA under Enterprise Business Applications→Supply Chain→Inventory→Inventory Management and Inventory→Fiori Apps in Inventory Management→Inventory Analytics and Control.

Use Analytical Apps for Inventory Management

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