Performing In-Store Purchase Order Management (5FY)

All parties are involved in this unit. For every brick-and-mortar Retailer, Store Operations is at the heart of the enterprise. A wide range of processes ensures that merchandise is available for sales during opening hours, with excellent customer service. Specific apps are available to support the store manager, and the store associate roles. Note: The Store Operations apps require the user assignment to a specific store. Activities in the store include merchandising functions such as ordering and receiving goods, inventory management including physical inventory, and consumer/customer sales via point-of-sale systems (POS) and sales orders. Store connectivity comprises outbound and inbound message transfer between the retailer's central system(s) and the store's POS system. For example, the POS systems are regularly updated with article and price information so they are ready to handle sales transactions, and in turn, for example sales and goods receipt/movement data is transferred from the store to the central systems.

The 4 solution processes shown in the figure, Overview: Store Operations, are the starting point to cover the wide range of available applications for store operations. The solution process 5FY, covered in this lesson, explains how the ordering and receiving apps are used. Solution process, 5FW, mainly looks at the store manager role. The manager assigns the store associates to the store, determines the picking sequence for click-and-collect or click-and-reserve customer orders, and uses the My Store Overview app for the real-time monitoring of current store processes. The Look Up Retail Products and Print Labels apps, covered in solution process 3HQ, are essential in the daily work of store associates. To connect store sales and online commerce, solution process 5FZ for example introduces the click-and-collect scenario.

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

This lesson covers the solution process In-Store Purchase Order Management (5FY).

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:

Store employees - both managers and associates - need to have access to comprehensive, consistent, and real-time information about products and their availability through permanent connectivity to a back-end system. They should also be able to provide services such as ordering a product for a customer. Everyday tasks, such as goods receipt posting, and tasks like posting stock adjustments or inventory counts, have to be executed in a simple way using desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. These devices allow the store associates to be on the sales floor, rather than spending too much time in the back office at a desktop computer.

The SAP Fiori and SAP Mobile Platform technology supports a retailer's store operations. It includes functions and information from different business areas, such as In-Store Merchandising, HR, Finance, Analytics, and so on, with a consistent user experience for the in-store merchandising applications. Furthermore, the technology supports the requirements for retail stores, such as online and offline support, camera scanning, laser scanning, RFID, and device management.

Specific SAP Fiori apps for Retail Store Operations are available to provide the store employees the technology, features, and functions they need for their daily work.

As mentioned at the beginning, having the merchandise available for sales during the store's opening hours is essential. Solution Process 5FY introduces the Order Products, and the Receive Products apps, which are assigned to the Store Associate role. However, as a general prerequisite for using the Store Operations apps, the users have to be assigned as follows:

• To their relevant In-Store Merchandise and Inventory Management role(s): Store Associate, Store Manager

• To their store

My Store Assignment app:

The employee (user) - store assignment is usually done centrally, or by the store manager. However, it can be done by the individual user via the SAP Fiori app My Store Assignment (F4334). With this app, store associates can check their current store assignment, but also re-assign themselves to another store. With that, this app is particularly useful for store employees who regularly work in different stores (such as stand-by employees).

The figure, My Store Assignment, shows that the user is currently assigned to store 1740. To change the assignment, the new store can be explicitly searched for, or directly found in the list, which displays all stores sorted by the description. Selecting the new store then activates the Assign Me option.

The My Store Assignment app is a variation of the Assign Associates to Stores app (F4334), which is used by the store manager to assign several users to their respective store. This app will be introduced in the next solution process, My Store Management (5FW).

Order Products app:

Typically, stores are replenished centrally. Store personnel can be involved in the process by reviewing and adjusting the current order proposals. In addition, ad-hoc manual ordering is available, for example allowing mitigation of exceptions. For both scenarios, the app helps the store personnel to decide on the right order quantities by providing information such sales history, current stock, promotion periods, and open order quantities. The reviewed / adjusted, or newly created purchase requisitions are then the basis for creating standard purchase orders for external suppliers, or for generating stock transfer orders for shipment from distribution centers.

The Order Products app (F0572) gives store associates the ability to order products in one of the following ways:

• By manually entering a quantity into the open input field for each product
• By reviewing order proposals

For the review process, the order proposal quantities are taken from current purchase requisitions, which were, for example, generated from a requirements planning or store replenishment run, or manually created.

When proposed quantities are changed, the relevant document is updated accordingly.

For a clear overview of the stock situation, the Product Details area displays the Sales/Deliveries calendar view. The periods are defined by the period indicator for the site in the article master record. In the example shown in figure above, Order Products, the period indicator is the week.

In general, the Sales/Deliveries calendar shows the average sales quantities of the previous period. In the figure above, Order Products, the current day is Monday, 15th: The current day is indicated via the soft double line. Promotion days are indicated by a coins-icon.

The number of future periods displayed in the table are controlled by the Planned Delivery Time defined for the article and the store, or by the scheduled delivery date of a current order proposal (purchase requisition). Within that future time horizon, open purchase order quantities are displayed at their planned delivery date.

Receive Products app:

With the Receive Products app (F1248), you can receive products in stores for various reference documents. The app is also optimized for use with mobile devices and scanners. There are two app variations:

• The Receive Products app for regular receiving with checks on item level
• The Receive Products - Trusted for receiving on document level, using a mobile device

For regular receiving, you select the relevant reference document, and the system lists the document items, so you can perform the goods receipt check for each item, and for example maintain individual item quantity variances. In the trusted receiving process, which is supported using mobile devices with scanners, the goods receipt posting takes place in the background as soon as the reference documents are scanned. This means, by using the trusted mode, you assume that the products and the quantities delivered to your store are correct. As an example, this could be the case for shipments from your own DC, or from a supplier that you trust based on previous experience. In this case, there is no need to view the document on item level before posting the goods receipt.

Goods receipt reference document types are:

• Handling Unit
• Purchase Order
• Inbound Delivery
• Outbound Delivery

Besides the document type, additional filter criteria for selecting the goods receipt reference documents are: expected delivery date, processing state, supplier category, supplier.

In the figure above, Receive Products, the Checked slider can optionally be set by the user to mark the already processed items. The Delivery Completed slider closes the item, for example even in case of an underdelivery. No further good receipt is then expected for this item.

The Receive Products app provides additional configuration options: In the app configuration, the movement types for goods receipts using a purchase order-related reference document, and for goods receipt using a document (delivery, handling unit) without purchase order reference, are maintained. Furthermore, you can determine if the system should show the expected quantity in the received quantity field, or not (zero quantity). If the expected quantity is not shown, you can set the GTIN Scan Increases Count indicator. Then, with every scan, the received quantity field is updated. In case the quantity is shown, then the GTIN scan initiates the search for the product, and if available, highlights the item. In case of partial deliveries, the system only shows the (remaining) expected quantity a couple of hours after the last (partial) goods receipt posting: according to the Proposed Received Qty Time for Pur. Order (defined in hours). You can also control which unit of measure the Receive Product app displays for the item: the unit of measure of the purchase order, of the (reference) document, or the sales unit of measure of the article.

With the app Schedule Clean Up of Operational Data - Receive Products (F5595), you can delete operational data from the tables of Receive Products application. It shows the number of documents processed for deletion, and deletes them. To select the relevant documents, you specify the number of days, for which documents were not processed in the Receive Products app. The simulation option allows you to first check, how many documents are affected.

Summary