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former_member335292
Contributor
Overview

Inventory visibility is one of the key modules within SAP CAR that can provide near real time inventory information at store/article level. Current stock position is calculated with the help of inventory updates from SAP ECC into SAP CAR(through SLT) and also by considering the unprocessed sales in POSDTA that is stored in /POSDW/TLOGUS table.

Prerequisites

1.SLT(SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server) is enabled for replication of inventory data from SAP ECC into SAP CAR

2.Connectivity is enabled between POS/Online systems to provide sales information into SAP CAR using any middleware(SAP PI has been the preferred middleware in most of the retailers)

3.Worklist configuration is in place in CAR-POSDTA to update TLOGUS table with the unprocessed sales(This is required for /POSDW/TLOGUS table updates before and after outbound Idocs processing and confirmation post billing processing)

4.POSDTA outbound task(s) for sending the outbound Idocs into ECC should have “Idoc confirmation” setting enabled.

Dataflow Diagram



 

1.SAP PI is depicted as a middleware in this diagram, however other middleware may also be used depending on the retailers’ system landscape.

2.For online sales, sales orders may be integrated directly into SAP ECC, in which case VBAP/VBUP/VBFA tables(Sales Document item/Item status/Document Flow) will also be considered for data replication through SLT. In the above diagram it is assumed online sales data is sent directly to SAP CAR via the middleware and subsequently Idocs are sent from SAP CAR into SAP ECC.

3.Some Retailers may only be using WPUUMS Idocs(Aggregated sales) due to the sheer volume of Idocs, however in some specific business scenarios there may be a need to send WPUBON Idocs(Sales per receipt) as well(Hence both WPUUMS and WPUBON Idocs are being considered in the diagram).

4.STPO/MAST tables(BoM/Material to BoM Link tables) may also be required to be replicated into SAP CAR in case of structured articles.

 

Example snapshots(from SAP)

Stock position before sales(Store 1101 , Article 293)



Sales transactions in POSDTA(2 different sales transactions for Article 293)



 

Stock position after sales(Post idoc processing in SAP ECC)



 

As part of CARAB 4.0 FPS01 three new fields are introduced in /POSDW/TLOGUS table

1.Batch id (for example pharmaceutical products )

2.Serial number (for example electronic items)

3.Item quantity of measured/weighed articles(for example deli, seafood etc)

 

Inventory Visibility Analysis

1.Standard SAP HANA VDMs(Virtual Data Models) are available for inventory visibility

->Current Inventory Position – Processed and Unprocessed sales

->Cross Company Stock in Transit - This query utilises some additional tables in ECC such as EKPO/EKKO/EKET(Purchasing Document Header/Item/Scheduling agreement) and this is primarily applicable when both the issuing location and receiving locations belong to different company codes.

2.SAP Lumira which comes with the prebuilt report

->Inventory Visibility Report by Store

NOTE : Omnichannel Article Availability and Sourcing is another feature that comes along with Inventory visibility that supports Click & Collect and Click & Ship scenarios.

 

Thanks,

Aram Kalyanasundaram.
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