Figure 30: Master Data Objects in the Supply Chain
The master data objects for the supply chain are usually created in SAP ECC.
Master data objects include plants, distribution centers (DCs), vendors, and customers. Supply chain planning uses materials that are defined as material masters. In addition to creating the materials for planning, you need to create
Unit 2: Master Data and Transaction Data in SNP SCM230
resources, Bills of Material (BOMs), and routings for plants that produce and plan.
In SAP SCM, you define transportation lanes between the individual supply chain locations, such as plants and suppliers. These transportation lanes determine the flow of material through the supply chain.
Even when you use an SAP SCM system for supply chain planning, you create master data in the running ECC systems and then transfer this data to SAP SCM.
Only master data that exists in SAP SCM and not in SAP ECC is created in the ECC system.
In SAP SCM, transportation lanes connect locations so that stock transfers can be planned between these locations. In SAP ECC, corresponding lanes can be maintained, for example, in the form of special procurement keys that are transferred to the transportation lane as a product-specific entry.
The supply relationship between a vendor and a plant is created in SAP ECC in the form of a purchasing info record or outline agreement. When you transfer these external procurement relationships to SAP SCM, they are displayed as external procurement relationships that are created as a product-specific entry in the appropriate transportation lane.
Figure 31: Master Data Maintenance in SCM
As the management of master data in SCM is different for every master data object with regard to models and versions, the slide provides an overview of the ways of maintaining the different master data:
Locations are normally transferred from SAP ECC and assigned automatically to model 000. They are not model-specific and can be maintained version-specific with the exception of a few TP/VS fields.
SCM230 Lesson: Working with Master Data
Products are normally transferred from SAP ECC and assigned automatically to model 000. Location product master records can be created and changed in relation to a specific version (option Choose Planning Version).
Resources are normally transferred from SAP ECC, assigned automatically to model 000, and created for all versions of model 000. For this purpose, in ECC define whether the resource is to be transferred as a single, mixed, or bucket resource.
Caution: If you do not change a resource for the version, the resource is only changed globally and not for each version.
Plans (production process models - PPMs) are normally transferred from SAP ECC and assigned automatically to the model 000. They cannot be maintained per model or per version. SNP plans (PPMs) can be generated from PP/DS plans and are automatically assigned to Model 000.
PP/DS and SNP production data structures (PDS) are transferred directly from SAP ECC and can only be changed in the source system.
Transportation lanes are created in the SCM system for a specific model. External procurement relationships and special procurement keys are normally transferred from SAP ECC and automatically assigned to the transport lane of the active model. Certain product-specific fields can be changed respective to their version.
Quota arrangements are created in the SCM system for a model or a version.
A quota arrangement specifies which proportion of the required quantity of a product is to be procured from a source of supply (incoming quota arrangement) or supplied to a location (outgoing quota arrangement). Quota arrangements can be maintained for the model or the version.
Figure 32: Locations in the Supply Network
Unit 2: Master Data and Transaction Data in SNP SCM230
You would normally decide first which location types are to be transferred from ECC. In any case, you would transfer the plants and distribution centers that you want to plan in SCM. If you want to plan according to storage location, you need to define storage location MRP areas in ECC and transfer such as an individual location with location type 1007. You only transfer vendors for whom you want to run a source determination in SCM. Customer locations are only transferred when VMI customers are involved, i.e. customers for whom SCM is to automatically create sales orders in ECC. Subcontractor locations are only transferred when subcontracting is to be planned in SCM. If needs be, you can use transportation zones in SNP for grouping in the TLB. None of the other location types have a part to play in SNP.
Hint: In SNP you can plan every location, regardless of the location type. The concept is also more general than in ECC, where you can only plan plants and MRP areas.
Caution: Please note that the location type is not part of the location key. Because of this, you cannot transfer customer 0000001000 and supplier 0000001000: in this case you must add prefixes, for example C for customer and S for supplier.
Production, shipping, and warehouse calendars can be defined for each location.
You can assign handling or storage resources to locations to display aggregated handling or storage capacities.
The geographic data is used to position the location on the geographic map of the Supply Chain Engineer and to calculate the transport duration of the means of transport in the transport lane. If you enter this data during location data maintenance, you can specify where you want the location to be positioned on the map. If you leave these fields blank, they are filled automatically when you place the location on the map.
The VMI Cust, tab page only applies to location type '1010 Customer.' Here, you store the sales data for creating the sales orders in ECC. In addition, there are also application-specific settings and enhancements in Customizing for the VMI scenario.
The TDL tab page is only activated when you select location type 1020 (carrier) and is only required for transportation planning (TP/VS) in SCM. There are some input fields activated for location type, 1007 MRP area, which are not available to the other location types.
SCM230 Lesson: Working with Master Data
Figure 33: Plants and Distribution Centers
A plant is an organizational unit that subdivides an enterprise according to production, procurement, stockholding, or material planning. A plant can produce materials or provide goods and services. The address, language, country assignment, and factory calendar (if defined in SCM) from SAP ECC are transferred to SCM for the plant.
A distribution center (DC) is also a plant in ECC that mainly sells products and distributes goods. There is no functional difference in SNP between plants and DCs. Different icons are only used in the supply chain to distinguish between plants and DCs. If you want to transfer ECC plants into DCs, create an appropriate entry in SAP-ECC-Customizing IMG → Production Distribution Resource Planning (DRP) → Basic Settings → Maintain Assignment of Node Type - Maintain Plant. This means that plants also have the entire sales and distribution function of DCs. Analogously, DCs in SNP also have production capabilities. However, certain functions, such as packaging in DCs in PP/DS, can lead to problems.
In SAP ECC, one or more storage locations can be defined within a plant. A storage location specifies where a material is stored and enables material stocks to be differentiated within a plant. If you want to plan according to storage location, you need to define storage location MRP areas in ECC and transfer such as an individual location with location type 1007.
Unit 2: Master Data and Transaction Data in SNP SCM230
Figure 34: Customers and Suppliers
Customers and suppliers are defined as business partners in SAP ECC; they allow sales and purchasing processes to be controlled.
Sales and distribution processing as such plays no role in SAP SCM. You cannot create sales orders in SCM. Customer locations are only transferred when VMI customers are involved, i.e. customers for whom SCM is to automatically create sales orders in ECC. If you want to be able to plan the transportation of a product to a customer in TP/VS, transfer the customer master record to SCM as a corresponding location.
The source of external procurement can be determined using SAP ECC or SAP SCM. Supplier master records can be transferred to the SAP SCM system for planning in SAP SCM. In this case, the purchaser works in SCM and can also convert purchase requisitions to purchase orders in SCM. Purchase order handling, goods receipt, and invoice verification take place in SAP ECC.
SCM230 Lesson: Working with Master Data