Creating Products for Retail (3I1)

The figure shows the basic set-up of a Retail organization with the headquarters (US Retailer Inc.), and their distribution centers and stores. Additionally, there are the (external) business partners: suppliers for merchandise procurement, and customers (wholesale, re-sellers,..), and consumers on the sales side.

This unit focuses on the headquarters processes, which cover site maintenance, setting up merchandise categories, and creating retail articles, including vendor data. Furthermore, assortment modules are created, connecting sites and articles. To complete master data maintenance, sales prices are created. With that, the basis for retail operations are set.

In solution process Sites for Retail (3I3), sites are set up across SAP Central Business Configuration, retail-specific product configuration, and master data maintenance in the application. Site groupings are created for use in reporting, as selection criteria in various applications, and to select sites in various applications. The merchandise category hierarchy, covered in solution process Product Taxonomies for Retail (5FJ), is the central classification for the retail articles. Characteristics can be used to define attributes for information purposes, but can also be assigned to classes, which are then used to define the variants of generic articles. The solution process Products for Retail (3I1) explains the retail article categories single article, generic article, and structured articles, and how to maintain vendor-article specific data in purchasing info records. It also introduces functions for managing retail article master records, such as data creating via interface, mass maintenance, discontinuation. The Assortments (3I5) solution process introduces the maintenance of assortment modules, which are used to connect articles and sites, which includes the creation of article-site specific data in the background. With that, the articles are ready to be ordered, received, and sold in the sites. Actually, to be sold, a sales price has to be defined for the articles. The system supports the creation of sales prices for the articles on different pricing levels in the sales price calculation function, as explained in solution process Sales Pricing for Retail (3I4).

Each solution process represents a lesson in this unit, and can be completed individually.

This lesson covers the solution process Products for Retail (3I1).

In the retail industry, specific terms differ from the standard terms used in other lines of business. The following terms are used synonymously in this document:

The article, alternatively named material, or product, or sometimes also generally referred to as merchandise, is the smallest unit or customer pack that can be ordered independently and that cannot be split into smaller units. It is the central object for a retailer, touching all steps of the supply chain, starting with the procurement from an external supplier, to distribution center handling, through selling in the store to customers / consumers. To support all these processes, data at various levels is needed, including basic data (different units of measure with dimensions and Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN), description in multiple languages, validity periods, and so on), purchasing data for external suppliers (purchasing info records), sales data (sales prices at different levels), point-of-sale (POS) data, and logistics/replenishment data for distribution centers and stores, including stock and valuation figures. If necessary, an article can also be blocked temporarily at various levels. A sophisticated referencing and defaulting mechanism allows for efficient data maintenance for all relevant levels. Furthermore, mass processing apps are available to efficiently change article master data. Integration scenarios are available that allow the import of article master data and the distribution to satellite solutions.

The article master record contains:

• descriptive data, such as the article short text in different languages, dimensions, weight info per defined unit of measure
• control data, such as the article type, tax categories
• automatically updated data, such as the stock and valuation data for the sites

In order to support retail-specific requirements and processes, different article categories are available:

• Single articles (article category 00) are articles that are traded individually, and might exist in different units of measure. They can be considered a standard material, which is sold to the customer, for example, a 250g packet of chocolate chip cookies.
• A Generic article (article category 01) is an abstract (non-operational / dummy) header article, which is sometimes also referred to as style (in fashion retailing). Generic articles have variants (sold to the customer / consumer), that only differ from one another in certain characteristics values (such as colors or sizes) but typically are identical in most other data. For example, a round-neck T-Shirt (generic article/style) exists in different color and size combinations, such as blue / medium, or red / small.
• Structured articles consist of several different articles. These are entered as components with their respective quantities in the bill of material (BoM), and are supported in all logistics processes. There are several structured article categories:

  Displays (article category 12) are a set of articles that are bought together, but sold individually, including special packaging for presentation in the store. For example, a display carton containing various chocolate items.

  Sales sets (article category 10) are a set of several articles that are bought individually by the retailer, but sold together to the consumer, for example a shirt with a matching tie at a special price.

  Prepacks (article category 11) are a set of variants of one or more generic articles that are bought together, but sold individually. For example, a sneaker in different sizes (variants), which should be ordered in different quantities to create the initial stock for the stores.

Additionally, the bill of material concept is used for full products and empties: The empties are assigned to full products, using an empties bill of material on unit of measure level.

More details on the specific features and functions of the generic and structured articles are provided later in this lesson.

Article maintenance in SAP Retail always starts with assigning an article number. It can be assigned automatically by the system, using an internal number range, or externally, e.g. specified manually by the user, based on an external number range. Further mandatory, unique assignments with control functions are the article type, the merchandise category, and the article category.

The article type actually hosts the number ranges for the internal and external article number assignment. It also controls if the stocks are managed on a value basis and/or on a quantity basis, and it determines, which data can be maintained for the relevant article: Different departments of a retail company work with the same article, but each department requires different information on the article. Therefore, the article data is subdivided into different areas, or user departments. For all, on client-wide level, there is the basic data, or general information. And then, the data in an article master record is subdivided by user department, for example there is specific data for purchasing, for sales, for logistics, and for the connected store systems (point-of-sale). Furthermore, the article type controls, if the articles of this article type can be ordered externally (usually in retailing), or are produced internally. SAP delivers predefined, but editable article types such as HAWA (Trading Goods), VERP (Packaging Materials), VOLL (Full Products), or EMPT (Empties).

The merchandise categories are used to group the retail article master records, and serve as search criteria for products in all areas in the system. For that, they are pulled into all documents, where the articles are assigned, such as purchase orders, sales orders, article documents, and so on. Merchandise categories are also used to provide default (reference) data for the article creation, as explained further down.

Then, at first, the basic data of the article is created. This is where general information, which is valid client-wide / across departments, is stored. Here, you for example find the article number and description, the article category, the merchandise category assignment, and further general settings. Also, very important, the units of measure, which are relevant for the article, are defined. Note: Other, (non-SAP) retailing systems may create a separate article master record for each unit of measure.

Inventory management is carried out in this unit of measure. The base unit of measure is normally the smallest possible unit in which an article can be sold.

The unit of measure in which the article is usually ordered. In the basic data, one of the defined units of measure is marked as the default order unit of measure for purchasing info records. This means it is defaulted, when a purchasing info record is created for the article. However, the explicit order unit of measure can be maintained individually in each purchasing info record, and additionally, it is possible to allow further logistics units of measure defined for the article in purchasing. For example, the explicit order unit of measure is case, but the article can also be ordered in layers and pallets.

The unit of measure normally used when an article is sold to consumers, typically this is the base unit of measure. The sales unit selected in the basic data is the suggested unit of measure for the retail (store) distribution chains. There, the explicit sales unit can be maintained separately for each distribution chain. However, usually variable units of measure are allowed in sales.

The unit of measure in which the article is normally delivered from a distribution center. It is defaulted for the distribution center (DC) and wholesale distribution chains in sales, and maintained for each site (logistics data).

When defining the units of measure for an article, you must also enter their conversion factors. It is possible to enter the conversion data referencing the base unit of measure, or referencing an alternative unit of measure, as indicated in the previous figure, Units of Measure. In that example, the unit of measure piece is defined as the base unit of measure. The sales unit box contains 4 pieces, the delivery unit layer contains 16 pieces, and the order unit pallet contains 64 pieces - or, alternatively, you could specify that the layer contains 4 boxes, and the pallet contains 4 layers, or 16 boxes.

Accordingly, a GTIN (global trade item number), is not defined on article level, but on unit of measure level in each retail article master.

Since 2009, the GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is the successor of EAN (European Article Number) and UPC (Universal Product Code). However, the term "EAN" is still widely used, both in business language, and in the system.

GTINs are used to identify articles in a certain unit of measure (UoM). The GTIN number and corresponding barcode are usually attached to the products and their logistics units of measure - either directly printed on the article (and often also on the shelf-edge label), or attached using labels / stickers. This enables the use of barcode scanners in all processes, above all in the retail sales process at the checkout (point-of-sale), but also in all logistics processes. This includes identifying the products at goods receipt, in the warehouse, in physical inventory processes, and so on. Therefore, usually own GTINs are assigned to each article and unit of measure. It is possible to assign several GTINs to the same article and unit of measure. In this case, one GTIN per unit of measure is defined as the main GTIN. For example, if different vendors use their own GTINs, they are all defined for the relevant unit of measure in the article master. In this case, for the relevant unit of measure, you can define the main GTIN for each vendor, which will then be used by default in purchase orders for this vendor.

(EAN) GTIN categories are used to distinguish different types of GTINs, for example, in-store and perishables GTINs. The GTIN category allows you to:

• assign a number range for internal and external number assignment
• assign a check digit algorithm
• assign prefixes for perishables GTINs
• define length of the GTIN

You can use the generic article for assigning individual GTINs for each variant. Technically, it is possible to use one (the same) GTIN for all variants of a generic article, but typically each variant has an own GTIN.

For the product master, various configuration options are available. Some examples: You can create and assign internal and external number ranges for product numbers, you can define the GTIN number ranges and attributes, you can also configure the article (material) types. Furthermore, you can make valuation-relevant settings, such as defining valuation classes and account category references. Other settings are available for the field selection control, that is, to decide if a field in the article master should be suppressed, or a display only, or required or optional field. Additionally, SAP delivers a default setting for each field regarding the referencing behavior, but that can be changed customer-specific. More details about the reference handling can be found further down.

In the following, we'll see that there are 2 possibilities for creating, maintaining, and displaying an article online. An additional option is loading article master data into the system using an interface.

You can use the Manage Product Master Data (F1602) app to search, display, edit, create, and copy master data for articles effectively and quickly. This means, it allows you to create the basic, logistics, and POS specific data, as well as general settings for purchasing and sales. To complete the product master then for use in logistics processes, further apps are available for:

• maintaining purchasing info records (for more info, see further below)
• creating sales prices (for details, please refer to solution process Sales Pricing for Retail (3I4))
• assigning the article to assortments (for details, please refer to solution process Assortments (3I5)).

Additionally, the Manage Product Master Data app allows you to assign product images. The product fact sheet (object page), which is accessible from this app, displays comprehensive article-related data, such as purchase orders, allocation tables, and promotions, and it allows you to access related apps - for example, to maintain purchasing info records, to display the stock overview, or to post a goods movement, to perform a sales price simulation, and so on.

The following figure, Manage Product Master Data, shows you the most important settings and options available with this app.

The upper part of the figure shows the comprehensive search function, which enables you to find the product(s) using various selection criteria. It allows you to define search variants for your defined combination of search fields.

The lower part shows the result list for the products. Here, you click the relevant item line to display the product detail view. Additionally, you can choose to create a new product, or use the copy function to create a new product.

The (partial) detail view in the figure, Manage Product Master Data app, shows how the data is structured, starting with General Information, such as the relevant units of measure for this article. From the detail view, you can branch to other operational apps, as well as the product fact sheet.

When you choose to create an article, the app automatically stores a draft of your entries, without creating an actual article master record in the system. This is particularly useful, if you close the browser session intentionally or accidentally, or if you want to keep your entries for completing the data at a later stage, as you can get back to the app at any time and continue working on the draft. Only when you choose to save, then the actual article master data is created. In this case, the draft version is automatically deleted from the database. You can also discard a draft by choosing delete or cancel.

The purchasing info record stores vendor - article specific data, such as planned delivery time, minimum order quantity, article-specific purchasing conditions, and so on. The app Manage Purchasing Info Records (F1982) is available to create and maintain that data on purchasing organization, vendor, and article level. Optionally, a site-specific purchasing info record can be created (for example, for a DC to maintain different minimum order quantities, values, price, and so on). Additionally, you specify the relevant purchasing info record category: Standard, or Consignment are typically used in Retail. From the basic/general data, the system defaults the order unit. Then, you maintain the planned delivery time in days, and the standard order quantity, and for example also a confirmation control key as well as other purchasing related settings. After the basic purchase price condition is created, you can save the purchasing info record. You can create as many purchasing info records for an article as necessary; for example, if you can procure the article from 3 different vendors, you create 3 purchasing info records. Alternatively to the Manage Purchasing Info Records app, the Create Purchasing Info Record (ME11) and Change Purchasing Info Record (ME12) apps can be used.

Due to the large amount of data that is generated in article maintenance, reference data is available when creating article master records. This keeps the time required to enter data to a minimum. Changes made to the reference data can also be automatically copied to existing, dependent data records. Reference articles can and should be used to provide default values when you create an article master record.

Reference articles provide default values when you create and enhance article data. Data that has been created for the reference article is suggested as default, except global trade item numbers (GTINs), consumption and forecast values, and prices and conditions (for Purchasing and Sales). The merchandise category reference article is the standard reference for all articles created in that merchandise category, as it is automatically determined from the merchandise category when a new article is created. You can overrule this merchandise category reference article by specifying another (active) article as an explicit reference article.

When using the copy function of the Manage Product Master Data app, please consider that only an active article can be copied. The app preselects organizational level data (distribution chains, distribution centers, stores) from the master record that you have chosen to copy from. You can deselect them - or some of them - based on your requirements. As soon as you start the copy function, the system creates a draft product master record, which you can discard, or choose to save as a new product master record.

The referencing behavior in the retail article master is quite comprehensive, and supported on various levels. For example, data from the supplier master is defaulted for the purchasing and logistics data of an article. Specific data, which is maintained in the Basic / General data of an article can be defaulted in other areas of the same master record, for example in purchasing, sales, logistics and accounting data, as well as listing/Point-of-sale (selling period). A further aspect of the reference handling is that data maintained on generic article level is always inherited by the variants of that generic article. As mentioned before, it is advisable to use a reference article (explicit or merchandise-category reference) when creating or extending an article. However, changes to a reference article are not copied further on to existing articles created from them. Some article data is automatically defaulted from configuration, such as data maintained in the Define Attributes of Article Types configuration (e.g. valuation type). Last but not least, some article fields are populated from constants, for example specific parameter settings for forecasting. However, the Manage Product Master Data app does not use all the constants that the Create and Maintain Article apps use:

Currently, for expert users, the Create / Maintain / Display Article (MM41 / MM42 / MM43) apps are available for a comprehensive maintenance of article data, for example including article/site specific consumption and forecast values for requirements planning functions. This app also allows maintaining purchasing info records and creating sales prices. Then, after having assigned the article to the relevant assortment(s), it is ready for use in the logistics processes.

One of the first steps required when putting your system into operation is to transfer article data from the legacy system. This is because usually, there are so many of them that it is not possible to recreate them manually. If you use a distributed system, data also needs to be shared between the individual SAP and non-SAP systems. The following scenarios are relevant for the distribution of article master data.

• Transfer of article data from an SAP system.

• Distribution of changed and/or recreated article data between SAP systems; for example, an information system located on a separate computer

• Supply of legacy systems or non-SAP systems with changed and/or recreated article data

• Supply of data to sites with a separate system, for example, when commissioning a store

• Transfer of data from data pools

• Targeted distribution of articles (manual sending)

For example, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) with SOAP services are available for the replication of product master data.

Due to typically large data volumes in a SAP Retail system, mass maintenance tools are important to easily and efficiently update master data and documents.

For the mass maintenance of existing purchasing info records, and for creating new purchasing info records, you can use the Mass Changes to Purchasing Info Records (F2667) app. This app provides an online mode with the mass edit and apply mass changes features, as well as an offline mode using Microsoft Excel. With the Monitor Mass Changes – Purchasing Info Records (F4394) app, you can monitor jobs that were created and scheduled using the before mentioned app (F2667). It allows you to monitor these jobs, display job results, as well as copy and cancel jobs.

For the mass maintenance of Products, the Master Data Governance, Consolidation (F1047A) app is available as the Manage, or Start Mass Maintenance - Products versions. As a starting point for offline mode, you can download product data to an Office Open XML (.xlsx) file, or to a compressed CSV (.zip) file using the Export Master Data - Products (F3251) app. After completing your data maintenance (changes) in the file, you can use the before mentioned apps to upload the file, and process the changes. In online mode, you use the Manage Mass Maintenance - Products app to select the tables and fields relevant for the changes, select the products, and enter the data directly, and finally you post the changes.

After the general introduction of the SAP Retail article master, now the specific features and functions of the Generic Article with their Variants are going to be explained.

If certain articles only differ in their characteristics, for example color, size, or flavor, the individual articles can either be created as single articles, but also as variants of a generic article. This means the generic article concept is not limited to fashion articles, where they are heavily used, but can also be used for non-fashion merchandise.

The generic article concept can be used to efficiently create and maintain articles, which only differ in characteristic values, for example colors, sizes, flavors, scents, and so on.

When you create a generic article and its variants, you create both an article master record for the generic article (dummy header article), which is sometimes called 'style' in fashion retailing, and an own article master record for each individual variant (operational article).

Using generic articles makes data maintenance easier, as the data that is valid for all variants only needs to be entered once for the generic article, and is then inherited by the variants. The variants are defined by selecting the relevant characteristic value combinations.

The variants represent the actual physical articles (operational articles) used in all business processes, from planning to purchasing, logistics and sales. The generic article (dummy header article) serves as selection and entry help in system transactions and documents.

In order to create generic articles, some preparation is necessary: Characteristics have to be defined with their characteristic values - for example, characteristic color with the values white, yellow, green, blue, and so on.

Then, these characteristics have to be assigned to a class of variant configuration class type 300.

The configuration class then has to be selected when creating a generic article. To create the variants, you can first select the specific characteristic values from the assigned characteristics, which you need for this generic article. This reduces the possible characteristic value combinations in the variant matrix to only those which are relevant. In the variant matrix, you then choose the characteristic value combinations. For each selected combination, a variant is created: The variant matrix is a grid of the characteristic value combinations. It is recommended to not use more than three variant-creating characteristics. A typical example in fashion with three characteristics are denims with color, waist (size 1), and length (size 2). Note: From a technical point of view, you can use up to five variant-creating characteristics. However, it is important to keep the number of resulting variants in mind. The generic article object should still be manageable.

A specific aspect of the generic article concept is that the header (dummy) article can be used as a kind of mass maintenance option. This means, there are many fields in the generic article master, for which a double-click opens the variant matrix, so that you can maintain variant-specific data, without having to open each variant master explicitly. Also, for the sales price calculation of the variants, a specific control setting is available on the generic article, the pricing profile. With that, you can control if all variants should have the same sales price (as the generic article), or if variants are priced individually, or if several variants should have the same price. An example for the latter: all black and white variants have a different price than all other color variants. Details can be found in solution process Sales Pricing for Retail (3I4).

In this section, the specific features and functions of the Structured Articles with their Components, maintained in a Bill of Material (BoM), are going to be explained.

Structured Articles are used in SAP Retail to group articles for specific purposes. The display, set, and prepack articles are (dummy) header articles. The operational articles are assigned to the header article as components of a retail bill of material (BOM).

A display consists of a number of single articles or variants of one or more generic articles, and is purchased as an individual article. A display therefore has its own article number, purchase price, and purchasing conditions. Displays are typically made up by the manufacturer or supplier, and often come with packaging that can be used to present the merchandise on the sales floor. In a retailer's supply chain, usually the distribution centers manage the inventory on display level, as they ship complete displays to stores or wholesale customers. Stores usually manage inventory on component level, as they sell the individual components to consumers.

A sales set consists of a number of single articles or variants of one or more generic articles. A sales set has an own article number, sales price, and sales conditions. Usually, the components are purchased individually, maybe even from different vendors, but are then offered together at a set sales price. The set components may be packaged together (for example, a body care set), or just offered together via the joint sales price (for example, a table and 6 matching chairs). It is still possible to sell the components individually. With that, both individual component sales, as well as sales of the set article, are possible.

A prepack consists of a number of variants of one or more generic articles. Also, the prepack components must belong to the same merchandise category as the prepack itself. The whole prepack is purchased as an article, and therefore has an article number, a purchase price and purchasing conditions. For inventory management, usually the prepacks are configured in the same way as displays, that is, with inventory management on the header article (prepack) in distribution centers, and at component level in stores.

The previous figure, Structured Article - Example and Configuration, shows a display article, for which a bill of material was created. In the system configuration, it is possible to determine the inventory management level along the supply chain, that is, if inventory management should be done at header level (as usual in distribution centers), or at component level (as usual for stores). Besides the level of inventory management, it is also possible to decide, if the bill of material components should be displayed in a purchase order as statistical sub-items, or if it should only contain one line item for the header article.

An empties article is a form of returnable transport packaging or sales packaging that is usually subject to a deposit. Empties are assigned to a full product per unit of measure. In SAP Retail, you create empties as single articles of the article type EMPT (Empties (Retail)), and you assign sales item category group EMPT as well.

The full product - article type FULL (Full Products) - can be created for the article categories single article, or variant of a generic article. This means, the individual empties bill of material (BOM) components, and the full product itself all have their own article master record. For full products, you use sales item category group FULL.

In order to define an empties bill of material for a full product, you have to set the "Has Empties" flag in the Manage Product Master Data app, or set the "W/ Empties BOM" flag in the Create / Maintain Article app.

When assigning the empties articles to the full product, the full product and its unit of measure together make up the BOM header. In the previous example, the mineral water (full product) is maintained in units of measure piece (single bottle), and crate (crate containing 6 bottles). So, two empties bills of material are created: one for unit of measure piece, with one empties bottle, and another one for unit of measure crate, with one empties crate, and 6 empties bottles.

If you are listing a full product with an empties bill of material, the system also lists the empties automatically. You can only post goods movements with tied empties when you have activated empties processing in Customizing. The inventory management for empties distinguishes between tied stock (empties stock containing the relevant full product), and untied stock (empties stock which for example can be returned to the supplier for re-fill), as you can see in the Display Empties Stock (WBF1) app.

It is possible to create structured articles (displays, sets) with components that are full products, including empties bills of material. Typical examples are a display of different flavors of yogurts (full product), with the yogurt glasses as the empties articles, or a mixed pallet (display) of various beverages such as sodas in different flavors (full products) with their empties (bottles, crates). Also, for example, a sales set containing beverages (full products with empties BOM) and a drinking glass can be created. As a prerequisite for using the 2–level bill of material in sales orders, you assign item category group LUMF in the sales view of the header article (display, set).

Due to typically large numbers of articles in a retail system, the article data base should be regularly cleared from obsolete articles. This is especially relevant for retailers with mainly seasonal merchandise, as for each season, new articles are created, like in fashion retailing. However, there are different levels of discontinuation, which means not always the whole article master record needs to be discontinued, but only parts of it. For example, when one of your suppliers goes out of business, but other suppliers still deliver these articles. Therefore, the following article discontinuation options are available:

• Partial Discontinuation: Article/Site

  The article may no longer be procured internally or externally for specific sites, or sold in them beyond the order and sales block dates you specify in the discontinuation workbench. There, several site selection options are available: Individual sites, sites of a distribution chain, and the article (material) status. That status can be set in the article master to prevent the article from being ordered through the requirements planning process. When you execute the discontinuation process, the system performs various checks, for example, for assortment assignments (listing conditions), open purchase orders, stock on hand, and so on. The remaining stock may be sold off until the sales block date is reached, if the POS sales period is maintained accordingly. After a partial discontinuation, the article master record is still there, and active for the other sites.

• Partial Discontinuation: Article/Supplier/(Site)

  It is also possible to discontinue article data for a specific supplier, or several suppliers. With that, the article may no longer be procured from that / those specific suppliers for any of the sites, but they may still be ordered from other suppliers. It is also possible to discontinue a supplier for specific sites only. It is also possible to select specific sub-ranges of a supplier for discontinuation. Also in this case: after a partial discontinuation, the article master record is still there, and active for other suppliers / sites.

• Discontinue Article (client-wide):

  The consequences of discontinuing an article completely, that is client-wide, are much greater than for partial discontinuation. When an article is fully discontinued, the article master record will be deleted from the database along with all the article data that belongs to it, for example including purchasing info records and listing conditions. The discontinuation workbench then also sets the deletion flag in the article master.

Depending on the selected level of discontinuation, the system performs the discontinuation checks as appropriate, such as a check for listing conditions, stocks, purchasing info records, open documents (e.g. purchase orders), and so on.

The relevant apps for article discontinuation are WRF_DIS_SEL, WRF_DIS_MON, WSE8

• Discontinue Article (WRF_DIS_SEL)

  This is the Discontinuation Workbench, where you enter your selection of articles to be discontinued, plus - for partial discontinuation, the relevant supplier(s) and/or site(s). Also, the purchasing / sales block dates are set. You can choose to start the discontinuation in online or offline mode.

• Display Discontinuation Status - Article (WSE8)

  This app provides a quick overview of the discontinuation status for the selected article(s). Additionally, you can narrow down your selection by specifying a supplier, a purchasing organization, and/or a site. Note: If you only want to see your selected data, remove the defaulted flag "Check all material data". The discontinuation status shows, if the deletion flag is set - and when, if the discontinuation process was started, the technical status, and if physical deletion is planned.

• Monitor Status - Article Discontinuation (WRF_DIS_MON)

  The Discontinuation Monitor allows you to display and process worklists that you have created and saved in the Discontinuation Workbench. The worklist also serves as a discontinuation log for controlling discontinuation runs.

Summary

The key process flows covered in the tutorials for this process are to:

• Create a new Article
• Change an existing Article
• Manage a Purchasing Info Record
• Use Mass Processing for Products
• Discontinue an Article