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Architecture Governance and Standards
THE ARCHITECTURE OF SAP ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP)SAP ARCHITECTURE BLUEBOOK
Find more Information in the Architecture Library: https://portal.wdf.sap.corp/go/architecture-library
Materials
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THE BEST-RUN BUSINESSES RUN SAP
This book provides the first comprehensive description of the architecture concepts of SAP
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). It is an extended compilation of the Architecture
Bluebooks about SAP ERP Operations, SAP ERP Financials, and SAP ERP Human Capital
Management (HCM) written by the following authors:
Satish Karthik (SAP ERP Operations) joined SAP Labs India in 2003 and has been working
as a Solution Architect in IMS development support India for Materials Management (MM). In
the past years, Sathish also worked across development areas such as consulting, custom
development, or product management within SAP.
Currently, Sathish is working in the SAP APO (Advanced Planner & Optimizer) area at SAP
Labs Palo Alto.
Sushil Kumar (SAP ERP Financials) started in SAP IMS development support India in 2005
with the FI Business Warehouse topic and has become an expert of the financial
inconsistencies area which deals with database corrections for customer financials data.
In his current role as an Associate Architect he has overall responsibility for various financials
topics which are supported in India, including GL inconsistencies, archiving, and analytics.
Sagar Joshi (SAP ERP HCM) joined SAP Labs India in 2000 and since then worked in the
HCM Development team. In the initial years with SAP, he focused on the HCM country
version for India and was a key contributor to delivering the payroll and HR localization to
Indian customers. Since 2004, Sagar is working as Architect on various topic in the area of
HCM self services and shared services. His current responsibility is the renovation of HCM
user interfaces.
i
Jochen Bder, Bernhard Grne (Editors)
Sathish Karthik R, Sushil Kumar, Sagar Joshi (Authors)
The Architecture of SAP Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP)
SAP Architecture Bluebook
Internal
Version 1.0
December 2010
SAP Architecture Bluebook: SAP ERP
ii Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
2010 SAP AG. All rights reserved.
SAP, R/3, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, PartnerEdge, ByDesign, SAP BusinessObjects
Explorer, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their
respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and
other countries.
Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports,
Crystal Decisions, Web Intelligence, Xcelsius, and other Business Objects products and
services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Business Objects Software Ltd. in the United States and in other countries.
All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective
companies. Data contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National
product specifications may vary.
These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by
SAP AG and its affiliated companies (SAP Group) for informational purposes only,
without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for
errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP Group
products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements
accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as
constituting an additional warranty.
SAP Architecture Bluebook: SAP ERP
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal iii
Table of Contents
Foreword ............................................................................................................ 1
Preface ................................................................................................................ 2
1 Architecture of SAP ERP .............................................................................. 3
1.1 SAP ERP Overview ............................................................................................... 4
1.2 SAP ERP Operations ............................................................................................ 4
1.3 SAP ERP Financials ............................................................................................. 5
1.4 SAP ERP Human Capital Management .............................................................. 6
2 SAP ERP Operations ..................................................................................... 7
2.1 Introduction of SAP ERP Operations ................................................................. 9 2.1.1 Master Data and Reuse .........................................................................................10 2.1.2 Integration with SAP Business Suite ......................................................................13
2.2 Material Master ................................................................................................... 16 2.2.1 Architecture Overview ............................................................................................16 2.2.2 The View Concept of Material Master ....................................................................17 2.2.3 Database Design of Material Master ......................................................................20
2.3 Business Partner Master Data .......................................................................... 22 2.3.1 Partner Determination ............................................................................................22
2.4 Sales and Distribution ....................................................................................... 24 2.4.1 Architecture Overview ............................................................................................24 2.4.2 Integration ..............................................................................................................27 2.4.3 Pricing ....................................................................................................................28 2.4.4 Availability Check ...................................................................................................36
2.5 Production Planning .......................................................................................... 43 2.5.1 Master Data ............................................................................................................43 2.5.2 Integration ..............................................................................................................44 2.5.3 Planning Functions .................................................................................................45 2.5.4 Production Execution .............................................................................................51
2.6 Materials Management ....................................................................................... 56 2.6.1 Procurement of Materials .......................................................................................57 2.6.2 Procurement of Services ........................................................................................58 2.6.3 Integration ..............................................................................................................58 2.6.4 Framework-Based Implementation of Purchase Requisition ..................................60 2.6.5 Pattern-based User Interface .................................................................................64
2.7 Logistics Execution ........................................................................................... 70 2.7.1 Architecture Overview ............................................................................................70 2.7.2 Integration ..............................................................................................................71 2.7.3 Inbound Delivery Processing ..................................................................................71 2.7.4 Outbound Delivery Processing ...............................................................................72 2.7.5 Transportation Management ..................................................................................76 2.7.6 Warehouse Management .......................................................................................79
2.8 Quality Management .......................................................................................... 83
SAP Architecture Bluebook: SAP ERP
iv Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
2.8.1 Quality Planning .................................................................................................... 84 2.8.2 Quality Inspection .................................................................................................. 86 2.8.3 Quality Control ....................................................................................................... 88 2.8.4 Quality Notification ................................................................................................. 88 2.8.5 Quality in Procurement Processing ....................................................................... 88 2.8.6 Quality Certificate Processing ................................................................................ 89
2.9 ERP OPS Further Reading .................................................................................91
2.10 ERP OPS Glossary .............................................................................................92
3 SAP ERP Financials .................................................................................... 93
3.1 Introduction to SAP ERP Financials .................................................................95 3.1.1 Overview of SAP ERP Financials .......................................................................... 96 3.1.2 Financial Accounting ............................................................................................. 96 3.1.3 Management Accounting ....................................................................................... 98 3.1.4 Financial Supply Chain Management .................................................................... 99 3.1.5 Treasury .............................................................................................................. 100 3.1.6 Accounting Interface ............................................................................................ 100 3.1.7 Deployment ......................................................................................................... 101
3.2 Recording Financial Transactions Using the Accounting Interface ...........102 3.2.1 Create Interface ................................................................................................... 103 3.2.2 Post Interface ...................................................................................................... 105
3.3 Financial Accounting .......................................................................................107 3.3.1 The Financial Document ...................................................................................... 108 3.3.2 Financial Interface ............................................................................................... 109 3.3.3 FI Document Posting ........................................................................................... 110 3.3.4 New General Ledger Accounting ......................................................................... 113 3.3.5 FI Document Processing with NewGL ................................................................. 115 3.3.6 Sub-Ledger Processing ....................................................................................... 116 3.3.7 Clearing ............................................................................................................... 122 3.3.8 Tax Accounting .................................................................................................... 123 3.3.9 Periodic Processing ............................................................................................. 125 3.3.10 Asset Accounting ................................................................................................. 129 3.3.11 Special Purpose Ledger ...................................................................................... 131
3.4 Management Accounting .................................................................................134 3.4.1 Management Accounting ..................................................................................... 135 3.4.2 Profitability Analysis ............................................................................................. 137 3.4.3 Profit Center Accounting ...................................................................................... 138
3.5 Financial Supply Chain Management .............................................................141 3.5.1 Collections and Dispute Management ................................................................. 141 3.5.2 Biller Direct .......................................................................................................... 143 3.5.3 Credit Management ............................................................................................. 145
3.6 Treasury .............................................................................................................147 3.6.1 Treasury and Risk Management: ......................................................................... 147 3.6.2 Cash and Liquidity Management ......................................................................... 148 3.6.3 In-House Cash ..................................................................................................... 152
3.7 Outlook: Other topics of ERP Financials .......................................................154
3.8 ERP FIN Further Reading .................................................................................155
SAP Architecture Bluebook: SAP ERP
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal v
3.9 ERP FIN Glossary ............................................................................................. 155
4 SAP ERP Human Capital Management .................................................... 157
4.1 Introduction to SAP ERP HCM ........................................................................ 159 4.1.1 Supported Business Processes............................................................................159 4.1.2 Layers of HCM Applications .................................................................................160 4.1.3 Scope of the Document ........................................................................................162
4.2 HCM Core Applications ................................................................................... 163 4.2.1 Personnel Administration (PA) .............................................................................163 4.2.2 Personnel Development (PD) ...............................................................................164 4.2.3 Organizational Management ................................................................................166 4.2.4 Personnel Time Management ..............................................................................167 4.2.5 Payroll ..................................................................................................................169 4.2.6 Appraisals, Evaluation and Survey Engine ...........................................................172
4.3 HCM Extension Applications .......................................................................... 174 4.3.1 Talent Management Overview..............................................................................174 4.3.2 Career and Succession Management ..................................................................176 4.3.3 Compensation Management ................................................................................178 4.3.4 Performance Management ...................................................................................179 4.3.5 E-Recruiting..........................................................................................................180 4.3.6 Enterprise Learning ..............................................................................................182
4.4 HCM Service Delivery Applications ................................................................ 185 4.4.1 Self Service Applications ......................................................................................185 4.4.2 HCM Processes and Forms .................................................................................192 4.4.3 Employee Interaction Center (EIC) .......................................................................194
4.5 Enterprise Services in HCM ............................................................................ 199 4.5.1 Service Enabling in HCM .....................................................................................199
4.6 ERP HCM Further Reading .............................................................................. 201
4.7 ERP HCM Table of Acronyms ......................................................................... 202
5 Appendix .................................................................................................... 203
5.1 ERP OPS Appendix .......................................................................................... 204 5.1.1 Material Master .....................................................................................................204 5.1.2 Sales and Billing ...................................................................................................205 5.1.3 Production Planning .............................................................................................206 5.1.4 Materials Management .........................................................................................208 5.1.5 Logistics Execution ...............................................................................................209 5.1.6 Quality Management ............................................................................................212
5.2 ERP FIN Appendix ............................................................................................ 214 5.2.1 Accounting Interface .............................................................................................214 5.2.2 Financial Accounting ............................................................................................214 5.2.3 Financial Supply Chain Management ...................................................................217 5.2.4 Treasury ...............................................................................................................219 5.2.5 Debit Credit in Financial Accounting .....................................................................223
5.3 ERP HCM Appendix ......................................................................................... 226 5.3.1 Software Components in SAP HCM .....................................................................226 5.3.2 PD Objects in HCM and Organizational Management .........................................227
SAP Architecture Bluebook: SAP ERP
vi Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
5.3.3 PD Objects in E-Recruiting .................................................................................. 228 5.3.4 Business Object Models in SOA .......................................................................... 228
SAP Architecture Bluebook: SAP ERP
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal vii
Table of Figures
Figure 1-1 Overview of SAP ERP ................................................................................... 4
Figure 2-1 Architecture Overview of SAP ERP .............................................................. 9
Figure 2-2 Architecture Overview of SAP ERP OPS.................................................... 11
Figure 2-3 Integration Overview of SAP ERP OPS ...................................................... 14
Figure 2-4 Overview of Material Master ....................................................................... 16
Figure 2-5 Screen Sequence in Material Master .......................................................... 18
Figure 2-6 Views and Maintenance Status ................................................................... 19
Figure 2-7 Database Table Structure of Material Master (see also Appendix 5.1.1) ... 20
Figure 2-8 Partner Determination and Address Management used in SD ................... 23
Figure 2-9 Architecture Overview of Sales and Distribution ......................................... 25
Figure 2-10 Condition Technique Example ................................................................. 30
Figure 2-11 Architecture of Pricing ................................................................................. 32
Figure 2-12 Reuse of Condition Determination Technique ............................................ 33
Figure 2-13 Conditions Customizing for Pricing ............................................................. 34
Figure 2-14 Output Control ............................................................................................. 35
Figure 2-15 Control Parameters for Availability Check in SD ........................................ 39
Figure 2-16 Architecture of ATP Logic ........................................................................... 40
Figure 2-17 Architecture of ATP Server ......................................................................... 41
Figure 2-18 Architecture of Production Planning and Production Execution ................. 45
Figure 2-19 Material Requirement Planning ................................................................... 49
Figure 2-20 Architecture of Production Execution .......................................................... 53
Figure 2-21 Architecture of Production Order Confirmation Processing ........................ 55
Figure 2-22 Architecture of Materials Management ....................................................... 56
Figure 2-23 Business Entities and Dependencies .......................................................... 60
Figure 2-24 Architecture of Purchase Requisition Framework ....................................... 62
Figure 2-25 Preconditions and Dependencies of Validation Rules ................................ 63
Figure 2-26 Enjoy Transaction User Interface Layout ................................................. 65
Figure 2-27 Enjoy Transaction - Architecture Overview ................................................. 66
Figure 2-28 Business Logic Extensions ......................................................................... 68
Figure 2-29 Processing Purchase Order Extensions ..................................................... 69
Figure 2-30 Architecture of Logistics Execution ............................................................. 70
Figure 2-31 Shipping Point Determination ..................................................................... 73
Figure 2-32 Route Determination ................................................................................... 75
Figure 2-33 Inbound Shipment Cost Processing ............................................................ 77
SAP Architecture Bluebook: SAP ERP
viii Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
Figure 2-34 Outbound Shipment Cost Processing .........................................................78
Figure 2-35 Outbound Processing in LE.........................................................................81
Figure 2-36 Architecture Overview of Quality Management ...........................................84
Figure 3-1 Architecture Overview of SAP ERP ............................................................95
Figure 3-2 Architecture Overview of SAP ERP Financials ...........................................97
Figure 3-3 SAP ERP Fin Software Components ........................................................101
Figure 3-4 The Accounting Interface as Integration Hub ............................................102
Figure 3-5 Data Flow in Accounting Interface ............................................................104
Figure 3-6 Financial Accounting Overview .................................................................107
Figure 3-7 Financial Interface .....................................................................................110
Figure 3-8 FI Posting (Classic) ...................................................................................111
Figure 3-9 FI Posting (NewGL) ...................................................................................114
Figure 3-10 Dunning .....................................................................................................118
Figure 3-11 Automatic Payment ...................................................................................120
Figure 3-12 Clearing .....................................................................................................122
Figure 3-13 Tax Accounting ..........................................................................................124
Figure 3-14 Foreign Currency Valuation .......................................................................126
Figure 3-15 InterCompany Reconciliation ....................................................................128
Figure 3-16 Asset Accounting .......................................................................................129
Figure 3-17 Special Purpose Ledger ............................................................................132
Figure 3-18 Cost Objects Relation ................................................................................134
Figure 3-19 Management Accounting ...........................................................................135
Figure 3-20 Profitability Analysis ..................................................................................137
Figure 3-21 Profit Center Accounting ...........................................................................139
Figure 3-22 Collections and Dispute Management ......................................................141
Figure 3-23 Biller Direct ................................................................................................144
Figure 3-24 Credit Management ...................................................................................146
Figure 3-25 Treasury and Risk Management ...............................................................147
Figure 3-26 Cash Management ....................................................................................149
Figure 3-27 Liquidity Planner ........................................................................................150
Figure 3-28 In-House Cash ..........................................................................................153
Figure 4-1 SAP ERP ...................................................................................................159
Figure 4-2 Architecture Overview SAP ERP HCM .....................................................161
Figure 4-3 Architecture of Time Management Application .........................................167
Figure 4-4 Architecture of Payroll Application ............................................................169
Figure 4-5 Schema and Rules Relationships .............................................................171
SAP Architecture Bluebook: SAP ERP
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal ix
Figure 4-6 Architecture of AES Engine ...................................................................... 173
Figure 4-7 Adobe flash Islands in Web Dynpro .......................................................... 175
Figure 4-8 Architecture overview of Career and Succession Management. .............. 177
Figure 4-9 Architecture overview of Compensation Management ............................. 179
Figure 4-10 Architecture of E-Recruiting ...................................................................... 180
Figure 4-11 Architecture of Enterprise Learning .......................................................... 183
Figure 4-12 Architecture of ESS WD ABAP Applications (Portal Agnostic) ................. 187
Figure 4-13 Architecture of WD ABAP Application based on BOL (e.g. Personal Information Scenarios in ESS) .................................................................. 188
Figure 4-14 Architecture of ESS and MSS Applications .............................................. 189
Figure 4-15 Detailed View of Floor Plan Manager WD Java for ESS and MSS .......... 190
Figure 4-16 Architecture of HCM Processes and Forms.............................................. 193
Figure 4-17 Architecture of EIC (based on CRM) ........................................................ 195
Figure 4-18 Architecture of EIC (based on ECC) ......................................................... 197
Figure 5-1 T Accounts ................................................................................................ 224
Figure 5-2 Software Components used in SAP ERP HCM ........................................ 226
Figure 5-3 PD Objects in HCM and Organizational Management ............................. 227
Figure 5-4 PD Objects in E-Recruiting ....................................................................... 228
Figure 5-5 Business Object Models in SOA ............................................................... 229
1
Foreword
SAP ERP (and the former SAP R/3) is the product which was the main reason for
success and growth of SAP in the past. The excellent implementation of functional and
quality requirements of our customers business in software was crucial for this success.
This book provides the first comprehensive architecture description of the concepts of
SAP ERP.
An important feature of enterprise standard software is to cover the requirements of many
customers in a flexible way, allowing on the one hand standardized processes and
standardized software, on the other hand flexibility to tailor the processes to the individual
needs. A number of concepts have been developed and combined in SAP ERP to allow
both, standardization and flexibility.
Also in future, many products and solutions will use SAP ERP functionality via interfaces,
either directly or indirectly. Therefore basic knowledge about the architecture concepts of
SAP ERP is a prerequisite to develop new products in time and ready for the market.
Documenting architecture is much more than just abstracting source code in various
types of diagrams. Source code and data type definitions contain no information about
development or architecture decisions, and it is very hard to recognize business
abstractions in the implementation. This book provides these reasons and business
abstractions and fills the gap between user documentation and implementation.
Like software, this book is not complete and finished follow-up editions are planned
which will provide additional information such as the central data model of SAP ERP.
Gordon Mhl
Head of Architecture Governance and Standards
SAP Architecture Bluebook: SAP ERP
2 Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
Preface
Architecture Bluebooks have a long tradition at SAP. Twenty years ago, in 1990, work on
the first bluebooks about the architecture of the R/3 basis system started. Since then, an
impressive number of internal technical reports about products and technology in SAP
were written by skilled writers with deep technical and architectural background.
In 2006, the scope of architecture bluebooks was widened to also cover the architecture
of SAP business applications. With the architecture bluebooks about SAP ERP
Operations, SAP ERP Financials, and SAP ERP Human Capital Management, all major
business applications of SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) have been covered
with a bluebook. The content of the three architecture bluebook has been combined in
this book, which provides the first comprehensive architecture overview of SAP ERP.
Surely you cannot expect learning all details of these applications that took thousands of
man years to program and refine. Nevertheless, you will learn a lot about the various
business problems and the architecture of the applications that solve these problems.
The appendix provides more details and references to further information.
Although this book is about the architecture of SAP ERP, a reader will require some basic
knowledge of SAP technology such as the Application Server ABAP or the Enqueue
mechanism. All architecture diagrams show models following the TAM (Technical
Architecture Modeling) notation.
This book provides five parts:
Part 1. Architecture of SAP ERP, provides an architecture summary of SAP ERP and
its main components.
Parts 2. SAP ERP Operations, 3. SAP ERP Financials, and 4. SAP ERP Human
Capital Management describe the architecture of the corresponding SAP ERP
components.
Part 5. Appendix provides additional information for each SAP ERP component, such
as concrete program names or database tables.
The editors want to thank the three authors for their excellent work and their managers for
their support. Big thanks also go to the subject matter experts and reviewers. Since
readers are always interested in contacts for further questions, the names of the
colleagues involved in the architecture bluebooks are listed in each part separately.
Finally, the editors want to thank our board and senior management who support our
long-term goal to make architecture knowledge tangible.
The Editors
Jochen Bder, Bernhard Grne
Architecture Governance and Standards
3
1 Architecture of SAP ERP
1 Architecture of SAP ERP SAP ERP
4 Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
1.1 SAP ERP Overview
SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) embraces SAP ERP Operations (ERP
OPS), SAP ERP Financials, and SAP ERP Human Capital Management, complemented
by common Corporate Services. Most industry solutions use or extend SAP ERP
functionality.
SAP ERP integrates with many other systems, such as SAP Customer Relationship
Management (SAP CRM). Figure 1-1 gives an overview of SAP ERP and the most
important integration systems.
Figure 1-1 Overview of SAP ERP
1.2 SAP ERP Operations
SAP ERP Operations (SAP ERP OPS) is SAPs core solution for procuring, selling,
producing, stocking, shipping, and transporting of material.
Using Sales and Distribution (SD), products are sold and sent to business partners or
services are performed for them. Data about products, services and business partners
are the basis for sales processing. The sales process is based on a set of business
documents such as customer inquiry, quotations, and most important the sales order.
These business documents are maintained and stored by SD. Follow-up activities are
triggered based on them. The calculation of prices for material and services is based on
the condition technique.
Production Planning (PP) supports the development and execution of efficient production
plans, which takes warehouse, material, and production capacity information as well as
SAP ERP
Operations Human Capital
Management ( HCM)
Financials
Financial Accounting
(FI)
Management
Accounting (CO)
Financial Supply Chain
Management (FSCM)
Treasury
Industry-Specific Functionality
Sales and Distribution
(SD)
Materials Management
(MM)
Production Planning
(PP)
Logistics Execution
(LE)
Quality Management
(QM)
HCM Core
(Payroll, ...)
HCM Extensions
(E-recruiting, ...)
HCM Service Delivery
(ESS, ...)
Co
rpo
rate
Serv
ices
SAP SCM
(Supply Chain
Management)
SAP CRM
(Customer Relation-
ship Management)
SAP SRM
(Supplier Relation-
ship Management)
SAP NetWeaver BW
(Business
Warehouse)
SAP MII (Manufactu-
ring Integration and
Intelligence)
SAP NetWeaver PI (Process Integration)
SAP GRC
(Governance & Risk
Compliance)
R
Text
Corporate Services
Operations
Human Capital Management ( HCM)
SAP ERP
Financials
Financial Accounting (FI)
Management Accounting (CO)
Financial Supply Chain Management (FSCM)
Treasury
Industry-Specific Functionality
Sales and Distribution (SD)
Materials Management (MM)
Production Planning (PP)
Logistics Execution (LE)
Quality Management (QM)
HCM Core (Payroll, ...)
HCM Extensions (E-recruiting, ...)
HCM Service Delivery (ESS, ...)
SAP SCM (Supply Chain Management)
SAP CRM (Customer Relation-ship Management)
SAP SRM (Supplier Relation-ship Management)
SAP NetWeaver BW (Business Warehouse)
SAP MII (Manufactu-ring Integration and Intelligence)
SAP NetWeaver PI (Process Integration)
SAP GRC (Governance & Risk Compliance)
14-SAP ERP Overview.vsd
SAP ERP 1.3 SAP ERP Financials
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal 5
sales planning into account. When the production plan is transformed to a production
order in order to trigger execution, PP reserves and procures required raw material using
MM.
Materials Management (MM) provides the functions that are necessary to deal with the
inbound flow of goods and services. MM supports procurement using the business
documents purchase requisition and subsequently purchase order. The arrival of the
ordered goods results in a goods receipt and is handled by the inventory management.
MM maintains the central inventory for the complete enterprise, which means that also
outgoing material movements are communicated to MM. MM provides a pattern-based
user interface implemented in ABAP Dynpro. The purchase requisition functionality is
based on a framework.
Logistics Execution (LE) controls and organizes the movement of material within the
enterprise (warehouse management), but also transportation between enterprises. The
central business documents which are maintained and stored by LE are the delivery, the
shipment document, and the transfer order. They are used to trigger and control material
movement.
Quality Management (QM) allows planning and conducting inspections to check the
quality characteristics of material. It is integrated in procurement, production, and sales
processes.
To support reliable business processes across the different ERP OPS components based
on consistent data, they are closely integrated using database integration. Based on the
same mechanism, SAP ERP OPS communicates with SAP ERP Financials. All compo-
nents share the same material master data.
The functional scope of SAP ERP OPS can be extended by integrating it with the other
applications provided by SAP ERP Business Suite, such as SAP Customer Relationship
Management, SAP Supply Chain Management, and SAP Supplier Relationship
Management.
1.3 SAP ERP Financials
SAP ERP Financials (SAP ERP FIN) is SAPs core solution for financial accounting,
controlling, financial supply chain management and treasury functions. SAP ERP FIN
consists of the following application components:
Financial accounting (FI) records, classifies, and summarizes the financial transactions of
a company. For this purpose financial accounting provides general ledger, accounts
payables and receivables, and asset accounting. Financial accounting records business
transactions, such as customer invoice, vendor invoice, payment, and clearing, as
financial documents. Based on Transaction Figures / Balances on these documents,
financial accounting periodically generates the balance sheet as well as profit and loss
financial statements which are then reported to the government, investors, and other
interested parties.
1 Architecture of SAP ERP SAP ERP
6 Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
Management accounting (CO) is used for internal accounting within a company to
prepare operating data such as product costing, cost of goods sold, overheads, and
actual costing of inventory. This operative data is used for the business analysis of the
company and to support management decisions.
Financial supply chain management (FSCM) processes accounts receivables and
accounts payables to ensure a smooth inflow of funds. In addition, it contains collection
management, dispute management, online payment facilities for customers (Biller Direct)
and vendors (Payer Direct), and credit management to check on credit awarded to a
customer.
Treasury applications ensure proper cash flow and liquidity of the company for smooth
day-to-day operations. Funds, derivatives, securities, loans, financial stocks and market
risks are also managed within treasury.
1.4 SAP ERP Human Capital Management
SAP ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM) is the SAP solution for
managing the people working for an organization. SAP ERP HCM is part of SAP
Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP), but it can be deployed separately from the
other ERP applications to protect sensitive employee data.
SAP ERP HCM is split into three layers of applications. The foundation are the HCM core
applications which implement the core HR processes such as organizational
management, personnel administration, payroll, personal development, and time
management. They provide data and functions, which are reused by HCM extension
applications which support additional processes such as e-recruiting and enterprise
learning. On top reside the HCM service delivery applications, which enable users to
interact with the HCM applications via different channels and media, for example self-
services, employee interaction center and online forms.
The HCM data model is based on infotypes. One infotype defines the data structure for
semantically related data, which is stored together on the database and also displayed
together on the user interface. Infotypes support the time-dependent storage of data,
which is important in HCM processes.
HCM processes are typically country-specific and have to comply with many legal
requirements. Infotypes support different country-specific variants of UI logic. Also the
business logic can be extended for processing of country-specific logic. In payroll country-
specific payroll drivers have been introduced to provide country-specific payroll runs.
2 SAP ERP Operations
Author: Sathish Karthik R (IMS Logistics)
2 SAP ERP Operations SAP ERP
8 Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
Acknowledgement
This bluebook was created during my fellowship with the Office of the CTO - Architecture
Excellence team. The following colleagues contributed in various ways to make this or
previous editions of the document possible:
Rdiger Buck-Emden, Jochen Bder, Bernhard Grne, Wolfram Kleis (Office of the CTO),
and Ralf Mller (Development Architect)
I would like to thank in general the following colleagues
Ursula Nani
Sven-Eric Eigemann
Frank Nuxol
Thomas Christ
For PP topic I would like to thank mainly the architects
Thomas Lehnecke
Andreas Siebel
For MM topic I would like to thank mainly the architects
Markus Wolf
Sven Richter
Marcel Kieser
For SD topic I would like to thank mainly the architects
Manfred Hirn
Martin Arzt
For LE topic I would like to thank mainly the architects
Volker Barth
Martin Beykirch
Thomas Steiner
For material master topic I would like to thank mainly the architects
Carsten Pluder
Rolf Walthemathe
For QM topic I would like to thank mainly the architect
Holger Ulrich Eisele
I would also like to thank the following colleagues for acting as additional reviewers
Thomas Gruber
Andreas Kasper
Michael Eyd
Satish Karthik
SAP ERP 2.1 Introduction of SAP ERP Operations
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal 9
2.1 Introduction of SAP ERP Operations
Enterprises want to provide the right products and services at the right price, to the right
customer at the right time. To achieve this kind of operational excellence business
processes in procurement, in logistics execution, in product development, in
manufacturing, as well as in sales and service have to work hand in hand. To support
end-to-end processes across these areas SAP provides SAP ERP Operations (SAP ERP
OPS) as part of the application SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) as shown
in figure 2-1.
All applications share one common database. However, it is possible to deploy SAP ERP
HCM on a separate system with its own database. SAP ERP FIN, SAP ERP OPS, and
corporate services always run on one system.
Figure 2-1 Architecture Overview of SAP ERP
The functionality of the SAP ERP OPS is bundled into the following components (see
figure 2-2):
Sales and Distribution (SD) which includes creation of sales orders, checking the
availability of the requested products, price calculation, and finally delivery and billing.
Materials Management (MM) which includes creation of purchase orders for procuring
material and services from external vendors, verifying incoming invoices, and
managing the inventory.
Production Planning (PP) which includes planning the production of the materials and
execution.
SAP ERP
Operations
Human
Capital
Manage-
ment
(HCM)
Financials
Industry-Specific Functionality
Sales and Distribution
(SD)
Materials Management
(MM)
Production Planning
(PP)
Logistics Execution
(LE)
Quality Management
(QM)C
orp
ora
te S
erv
ice
s
SAP SCM
(Supply Chain
Management)
SAP CRM
(Customer Relation-
ship Management)
SAP SRM
(Supplier Relation-
ship Management)
SAP NetWeaver BW
(Business
Warehouse)
SAP MII (Manufactu-
ring Integration and
Intelligence)
SAP NetWeaver PI (Process Integration)
SAP GRC
(Governance & Risk
Compliance)
R
Text
Corporate Services
Operations
Human Capital Manage-ment (HCM)
SAP ERP
Financials
Industry-Specific Functionality
Sales and Distribution (SD)
Materials Management (MM)
Production Planning (PP)
Logistics Execution (LE)
Quality Management (QM)
SAP SCM (Supply Chain Management)
SAP CRM (Customer Relation-ship Management)
SAP SRM (Supplier Relation-ship Management)
SAP NetWeaver BW (Business Warehouse)
SAP MII (Manufactu-ring Integration and Intelligence)
SAP NetWeaver PI (Process Integration)
SAP GRC (Governance & Risk Compliance)
19-SAP ERP Overview-OPS.vsd
2 SAP ERP Operations SAP ERP
10 Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
Logistics Execution (LE) which controls and organizes the movement of material1
Quality Management (QM), which includes quality planning, quality inspection, and
quality control during sales, production and procurement.
For application-to-application-communication (A2A) between the different sub-
applications as there are SD, MM, LE, PP and quality management - database
integration is used. In addition SAP ERP OPS and SAP ERP FIN are integrated in the
same way. In database integration the sending and receiving application share database
tables. To transfer data the sending application creates records in these tables, which
triggers then follow-up processing in the receiving application. The sending application
creates the records in the transfer tables within the same logical unit of work as it stores
the business data processed in the transaction. This makes database integration very
reliable. Data transfer only happens, when the business transaction can be processed
successfully.
2.1.1 Master Data and Reuse
Within SAP ERP OPS the most important master data is the material as it is shared
across SD, MM, and LE (see figure 2-2). The material master data has a set of attributes
which are common and separate sets to cover the specific requirements of sales,
logistics, and procurement. Business partner information, such as vendor or customer
master data, is not shared. So MM and SD store their own master data versions of their
respective business partners. Besides material master the most important master data for
PP is the bill of material (BOM), which lists all components required to manufacture a
certain product. Routing master data is also used by PP which has information about the
operations need to be performed to produce the finished product.
1 In this context material is the general term. It includes products (material which is build from pieces to
be sold), goods (material to be shipped), raw material and parts (material as input for production). If a
dedicated type of material is intended, we use the corresponding term.
SAP ERP 2.1 Introduction of SAP ERP Operations
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal 11
Figure 2-2 Architecture Overview of SAP ERP OPS
Reuse components which are used across all SAP ERP OPS applications are provided
either by the general functions, by the cross-application components or within the basis
which is part of SAP NetWeaver (see figure 2-2).
ERP Database
Application Data
ERP Central Component
ERP OPS
General
Functions
Batch
Management
Serial Number
Processing
Handling Unit
Management
Logistics
Information
Systems
ERP OPS Applications
QM
PP
Production Planning
MMSD
Sales Order
Processing
Delivery
Processing
Billing
Production Execution
Purchasing
Inventory
Management
Invoice
Verification
LE
Transportation
Management
Shipment Costs
ProcessingShipping Processing
Sales
Orders
Deliveries
Purchase
Orders
Production
Orders
Master Data
Material BOM
Routing
CustomerVendorCustomizing
Data
Cross Application Components
Classification SystemDocument Management
System
Inspection Lot
Processing
Inspection
Planning
BASIS Components
Central Address
Management
Workflow
Functions
Change
Documents
Functions
Archiving
Functions
R
R
R
R
R
R
Master Data
MM
SD
QM
PP
Production Planning
Production Execution
Application Data
General Functions
Batch Management
Serial NumberProcessing
Handling Unit Management
Sales Order Processing
Logistics Information Systems
DeliveryProcessing
Billing
Purchasing
InventoryManagement
Invoice Verification
Material
BOM
Routing
Customer
Inspection Lot Processing
Vendor
Inspection Planning
BASIS Components
Classification System
Shipping Processing
TransportationManagement
Shipment Costs Processing
Central Address Management
Workflow Functions
Change Documents Functions
Archiving Functions
ERP OPS
ERP OPS Applications
LE
ERP Central Component
Sales Orders
Deliveries
Purchase Orders
Production Orders
21-SAPERP_Overview_ECC2_JB.vsd
2 SAP ERP Operations SAP ERP
12 Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
General functions provide additional functions to support specific processes in the
supply chain. Examples are batch management, variant configuration, handling unit
management, and logistics information systems (LIS).
Cross-application components provide reuse components for all SAP ERP functions.
It includes the classification system which allows maintaining characteristics of a
material, and the document management system (DMS) for attaching documents
(e.g. design or engineering diagrams) to objects (e.g. material master or business
documents).
The basis component provides central address management, workflow, change
document functions for writing the change documents in the transactions, and
archiving functions.
Enterprises adapt the software of SAP ERP to their individual requirements by
maintaining customizing settings. At runtime the customizing data influences the
execution of SAP ERP OPS.
All application data, master data, and customizing data created and used by SAP ERP
OPS is stored in the central database of SAP ERP.
2.1.1.1 General Functions
The general functions of SAP ERP OPS provide specific functions to handle material.
Enterprises can activate general functions if required. The activation is typically enabled
by configuration of the material master. The most often used general functions are
described below, however the details of their architecture are not covered within the
scope of this book.
Batch Management
In various industries particularly in the process industry, there is a need to work with
homogenous partial quantities of a material or product throughout the logistics supply
chain. This homogenous partial quantity is called a batch. Managing material in batches
is required for the following reasons:
Legal requirements, for example the guidelines set out by GMP (Good Manufacturing
Practice or regulations on hazardous material
Defect tracing, callback activities, and regression requirement
The need for differentiated quantity-and value-based inventory management, for
example, due to heterogeneous yield/result qualities or varying constituents in
production.
Differences in usage and the monitoring thereof in materials planning in SD and PP
Production or procedural requirements, for example settlement of material quantities
on the basis of different batch specifications
Batch management is integrated in all applications of SAP ERP OPS to support the
management and processing of batches in all operational business processes.
SAP ERP 2.1 Introduction of SAP ERP Operations
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal 13
Serial Number Processing
Serial number processing is used to identify individual items of material by consecutive
identifiers. It supplements the material master record, which contains the attributes which
describe the material and are required to manage it. The serial numbers are used in
various business procedures within logistics. For each material with a serial number,
serial number processing creates a transaction history and tracks its status.
The serial numbers can be used within the following business processes:
Component involved Business procedure or operation
Production Planning Production order
Sales and Distribution Sales order, inquiry, quotation Delivery and returns delivery
Completeness check for deliveries and
returns deliveries
Quality Management Original value recording of inspection lots
Inventory Management and Physical
Inventory Goods movements,
Entering the physical inventory count
Posting inventory differences
Handling Unit Management
When using handling unit management (HUM) multiple materials are can be combined to
a handling unit, which movements are tracked within the logistics processes. Goods
movements processing deals then with the entire handling units and the materials they
contain instead of tracking the movement of each material individually.
Handling unit management works together with the existing packing function in shipping
and warehouse processing in the warehouse management system.
2.1.2 Integration with SAP Business Suite
To support end-to-end business processes, SAP ERP Operations is closely integrated
with the other SAP Business Suite applications using RFC (see figure 2-3).
The functionality of SD can be extended by SAP Customer Relationship Management
(SAP CRM) which provides additional pre-sales functions, and supports marketing and
sales order management. Sales orders created in SAP CRM are transferred to SD for
further processing such as delivery and billing. In addition SD can be extended by SAP
Global Trade Services (SAP GTS) which automates global trade processes in imports
and exports. SAP GTS provides tools to exchange required information with government
and custom authorities electronically.
MM can be integrated with SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) which
provides additional procurement functionalities such as shopping cart, maintaining
2 SAP ERP Operations SAP ERP
14 Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
catalogs for products, contract management, and sourcing. MM and SD can also be
integrated with SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer (SAP APO). SAP APO provides
additional planning functionalities such as demand planning, forecasting the requirements
for materials, and global availability check for materials.
Figure 2-3 Integration Overview of SAP ERP OPS
SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) provided by SAP Supply Chain
Management (SAP SCM) enhances LE with functionalities to effectively manage the
operations in a warehouse.
Transportation management system (TMS) is a part of the SAP SCM solution that
provides functions to support the planning and the execution of the transportation of the
goods or materials from the shipper to the consignee (party who receives the goods;
usually the buyer). Some of the functions include for example service provider
management, transportation forecasting, freight order tracking, freight cost calculation
and settlement.
Supply Network Collaboration (SNC) is a part of the SAP SCM solution that provides a
platform for vendors to manage the inventory and handle special processes like
SAP ECC (ERP Central Component)
ERP OPS
Cross Application Components
BASIS Components
ERP data
SD
(Sales and
Distribution)
SAP SCM (Supply
Chain Management)
SCM data
SAP APO (Advanced
Planner and Optimizer)
SAP GTS (Global
Trade Services)
SAP EWM (Extended
Warehouse Managem.)
SAP TMS (Transportat.
Management System.)
SAP SNC (Supplier
Network Collaboration)
LE (Logistics Execution)
PP
(Production
Planning)
QM
(Quality
Management)
MM
(Materials
Management)
SAP CRM
(Customer Relationship
Management)
CRM data
SAP SRM
(Supplier Relationship
Management)
SRM data
SAP NW BI
(Business
Intelligence)
BI data
Integration
SAP MII (Manufactu-
ring Integration and
Intelligence)
SAP NW PI (Process
Integration)
PI data
MII data
To external Systems
and Devices
R
Text
R
SAP ECC (ERP Central Component)
ERP OPS
Cross Application ComponentsBASIS Components
ERP data
SD (Sales and Distribution)
SAP SCM (Supply Chain Management)
SCM data
SAP APO (Advanced Planner and Optimizer)
SAP GTS (Global Trade Services)
SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Managem.)
SAP TMS (Transportat. Management System.)
SAP SNC (Supplier Network Collaboration)
LE (Logistics Execution)
PP (Production Planning)
QM (Quality Management)
MM (Materials Management)
SAP CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
CRM data
SAP SRM (Supplier Relationship Management)
SRM data
SAP NW BI (Business Intelligence)
BI data
Integration
SAP MII (Manufactu-ring Integration and Intelligence)
SAP NW PI (Process Integration)
PI data
MII data
To external Systems and Devices
24-SAPERP_Overview_ECC4BG.vsd
SAP ERP 2.1 Introduction of SAP ERP Operations
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal 15
subcontracting and consignment stocks. Consignment stock is any stock that the vendor
has placed in the warehouse of the manufacturer without charge until the stock is used.
For analyzing SAP ERP OPS data, SAP NetWeaver Business Information can be
connected to the system. Business data is replicated to the business information
warehouse, where it is prepared for analysis and reporting.
SAP ERP OPS provides business application programming interfaces (BAPI) and
enterprise services to access the functionality from outside. Non-SAP applications can be
integrated with SAP ERP OPS using SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (formerly
known as SAP NW XI) for message transfer, routing, and mapping..
SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP MII) can be used to integrate
external devices such as barcode scanners to track material along the supply chain.
For more details about enterprise service provisioning of SAP Business Suite please refer
to the bluebook on mySAP Service Provisioning [SAP06].
2 SAP ERP Operations SAP ERP
16 Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
2.2 Material Master
Almost all business operations in a company deal with material. Material is procured,
produced, stocked, sold, delivered, and transported. As it is typically the same material
which is produced, stocked, sold, and so on, it has been decided to maintain common
material master data to be used by MM, SD, PP, LE, QM, and SAP ERP FIN (financials,
controlling, see figure 2-4). This approach avoids redundant storage and maintenance of
material data and ensures consistency within end-to-end business processes. In addition
industry or company-specific extensions to material master data structure can be done at
a single place.
2.2.1 Architecture Overview
Material master data record consists of common attributes shared by all applications and
processes, such as material id, name, base unit of measure, and application-specific
attributes which are used only in a certain context, for example the cost price of the
material which is maintained in the material master is used by the pricing application, the
country specific tax details are maintained in the material master is used by SD
applications for tax calculation. Similarly production planning makes use of certain
attributes of material master like goods receipt processing time and whether the material
should be produced in-house during the planning phase.
Figure 2-4 Overview of Material Master
In SAP ERP OPS material master is a set of database tables for storing material master
data together with a set of read interfaces and maintenance transactions. The common
SAP ERP
Material Master DataMaterial Master Data
Maintenance
COFIQM
SD
SAP CRM SAP SCM
Plug In
UpdateStock/Price/Forecast/
Consumption
MM PP
R
Text
R
R
R
FI
QM
PP
MM
SD
SAP ERP
SAP CRM
SAP SCM
Plug In
Update
Stock/Price/Forecast/Consumption
Material Master Data Maintenance
Material Master Data
CO
26-SAPERP_Material_master_Overview.vsd
SAP ERP 2.2 Material Master
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal 17
attributes are stored in a set of tables, which are separated from the tables which store
sales relevant data, purchasing relevant data, and so on.
Creation and update of material master data can only be performed using the
maintenance transactions of material master. These transactions provide the necessary
user interface screens, validate the input data, and manage the database access for
creating and updating material master data.
In general the different applications, which make use of material master, have only read
access using the corresponding interfaces. They are only allowed to update some
context-specific attributes of material master data, for example MM updates the stock and
price information and PP maintains the forecast and consumption data.
When SAP ERP is used together with other SAP applications such as SAP SCM and
SAP CRM at an enterprise, material master data is created and updated centrally in SAP
ERP and data is replicated to SAP CRM and SAP SCM. The material master data in SAP
ERP corresponds to the product master data in SAP CRM and SAP SCM.
In both cases the exchange of material master data is performed using the plug-in, which
exchanges iDocs with SAP CRM and synchronous RFC calls to communicate with SAP
SCM. When material master data is updated in SAP ERP OPS business transaction
events (BTE) are called which trigger communication with the external systems.
2.2.2 The View Concept of Material Master
As mentioned material master data has a set of common attributes as well as application-
context specific attributes. Altogether to create one material master data instance a lot of
attributes have to be maintained. For displaying and maintaining the attributes on the
user interface they are grouped in views. One view embraces a set of semantically
related attributes, for example a set of sales-specific attributes or a set of common
attributes. Every view is implemented as an ABAP Dynpro screen and displayed as a tab
in a tab strip control.
2.2.2.1 View Sequence
Which views and also which fields need to be maintained to create a material master data
record depends on the intended usage of the material, which is influenced for example by
the following factors:
Material type2 to which a material is assigned. If, for example, the material is a raw
material, the sales screens are not displayed because raw materials are not sold.
Industry sector of the enterprise: for example in chemicals industry other attributes
need to be maintained than in automotive or retail sector.
2 Material master data is categorized by material type, for example raw material, finished good, and
variant material. All material master data instances of one material type share a set of properties, for
example raw material cannot be sold or finished goods are produced in-house. Enterprises can create
additional material types if required.
2 SAP ERP Operations SAP ERP
18 Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
Organizational level at which data is entered. If, for example, data is entered at plant
level only, storage-location-specific fields are hidden.
Used SAP application components: in case a company does not use the warehouse
management component, the warehouse management views do not appear.
So, when creating a material master record the maintenance transactions need to
determine which views need to be maintained. As certain attributes depend on each
other, also the sequence in which the views are displayed needs to be evaluated. Both
are done by the view sequence controller. It determines the next view that needs to be
displayed based on the specific material type and the industry sector.
Figure 2-5 Screen Sequence in Material Master
The material master maintenance transactions provide the following view sequence (see
figure 2-5):
1. First the initial screen is displayed for entering basic material data, such as material
type and industry sector. This information influences which additional views need
to be maintained.
2. The view sequence controller triggers the display of the view selection popup. The
user can select multiple views which should be maintained for the material
3. The view sequence controller checks whether the selected views require the
maintenance of additional organization-specific data. If yes, a corresponding
maintenance view is displayed. For example if the purchasing view is selected
plant data needs to be maintained and for sales views a sales organization is
required.
4. Now the view sequence controller displays the main maintenance screen, which
consists of a sub-screen for material master header data and a tab strip offering
Material Master Data Maintenance
Tabs for Multiple View
Initial
ScreenViews
Selection
UI Org Units Specific
Subscreen Area 1
Subscreen Area 2
Subscreen Area 10
Subscreen for Header Data
1
3
23
4
R
Text
R
R
R
Initial Screen
ViewsSelection
UI Org Units Specific
Subscreen Area 1
Subscreen Area 2
Subscreen Area 10
Tabs for Multiple View
Subscreen for Header Data
Material Master Data Maintenance
1
3
2
3
4
28-SAPERP_Material_master_Screen_Flow.vsd
SAP ERP 2.2 Material Master
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal 19
multiple views. Each view is implemented by an ABAP Dynpro screen, which
consists of one or more sub-screens. The sub-screens are used to group fields.
The relationships between the views, screens, and sub screens are defined in
customizing. The customizing also allows creating industry-specific materials, such as
article in retail.
When displaying a view the field selection logic determines the properties of the fields. In
customizing every field is assigned to a field selection group which defines whether the
field is hidden, displayed, mandatory, optional, and so on.
2.2.2.2 Authorizations
Typically in enterprises the material master data maintenance is distributed across
different departments. For example the sales department is responsible to maintain the
sales attributes and the purchasing department maintains the purchasing views of
material master.
Figure 2-6 Views and Maintenance Status
Thus it is required that certain views and even attributes are only maintained by certain
users. To do so, all views and attributes which should be accessible altogether share the
same maintenance status (see figure 2-6). For example all views which display sales
attributes have the maintenance status sales.
Maintenance statuses are also defined for individual attributes. For example the attribute
purchasing group belongs to purchasing and is not relevant for sales. Hence this field
will not appear on a sales view. But if purchasing group needs to appear on an
View Sequence
View
Additional Data View
Sub Screen
Standard Program or Extensions
Dynpros
Program
1
1..*
Screen ContainerMaintenance
Status
1..*
1
1..*
1
1
1..*
1..*
1
User
1
1..*
1..*
1
1..*
11
0..*
1
1..*
{}
role
1..*
role
1..*
View Sequence
View
Sub Screen
Standard Program or Extensions
Dynpros
Additional Data View
Program
Maintenance Status
1
1
Screen Container
29-SAPERP_Material_master_Class_diagram_Cust.vsd
2 SAP ERP Operations SAP ERP
20 Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
accounting view for some reason the field has the maintenance status of both purchasing
and accounting.
At runtime when performing authority checks a user can only see and maintain the views
and attributes which are assigned to him using the maintenance status.
2.2.3 Database Design of Material Master
The database design of material master reflects the view concept (see figure 2-7).
Figure 2-7 Database Table Structure of Material Master (see also Appendix 5.1.1)
There is one central table (MARA) which stores the material ID and references multiple
tables with more specific data (see figure 2-7). These tables can be categorized in three
types:
Basic data: these tables store the header data of material master, such as material
group and dimensions of the material (gross weight, net weight, volume).
Additional data: these tables store specific common attributes, where a material has
typical more than one values. For example there is a table to store all units of
measures and another for storing material short texts in multiple languages.
Application-specific data: these tables store attributes relevant for a specific
application context. Typically these tables correspond to views or sub-screens on the
UI. Examples are sales data, plant data, and storage location data.
In addition the organizational structure of the enterprise influences how material master
data is distributed across different tables. For example the basic data and the additional
data are common across all organizational units. The application-specific data is
Material
Sales Specific
Data
Plant Specific
Data
Storage Locn
Specific Data
Additional DataApplication-Specific Data
Language
Organization Data
ClientSales
Organization
Purchasing
OrganizationPlant
Storage
Location
Short Text
Data
Unit of
Measure Data
Basic Data
R
Short TextData
30-SAPERP_Material_master_single_obj.vsd
SAP ERP 2.2 Material Master
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal 21
maintained based on the selection of the organizational unit chosen from the view popup
(see figure 2-5). If for example the plant 0001 is entered, meaning the material can be
maintained only for the plant 0001 and the plant specific tables are affected. This data
however can be accessed only if the plant 0001 is used by the application. The same
holds true for all other organizational units like sales organization and storage location.
The view together with the organizational data determines which tables store the
information of the material.
2 SAP ERP Operations SAP ERP
22 Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
2.3 Business Partner Master Data
A company has different business relationships with different business partners. In
dependence of the relationship the business partner acts as a customer, vendor,
employee, or contact person. Within a business transaction a specific business partner
can fulfill multiple functions. For example SD deals mainly with selling products and
services to the customer. The different functions of a customer in a sales process are the
following:
Sold to party
Bill to party
Ship to party
Payer
In SAP ERP OPS these functions are called partner functions. They are assigned to a
partner type, which is for example customer, vendor, and logistic provider.
The different SAP ERP OPS applications store the business partner master data for their
partner type separately. So SD owns the customer master data, MM owns the vendor
master data, LE owns the logistic provider master data, and so on. There is no central
business partner storage and maintenance like for material master data (see chapter 2.2).
However there is some central functionality which is re-used by the master data of all
partner types:
Partner determination
Address management
Partner determination is used to determine the partner functions and their values which
are required by a business transaction. For example sales order processing triggers
partner determination to get the mandatory partner functions that includes sold to party,
bill to party, ship to party and the payer and other partner functions (like forwarding agent)
if determined and also the corresponding partner address that needs to be used.
Address management is a framework for storing and retrieving address data which
belongs to business partner master data.
2.3.1 Partner Determination
As the partner functions vary for different business document types the superset of
partner functions for a specific business document type is defined by a so-called partner
determination procedure. At runtime partner determination determines the partner
functions required in the specific business context.
Partner determination is called during the processing of header of business documents,
such as sales order, purchase order, and delivery. In the following we use sales order
processing as an example to describe the architecture of partner determination.
SAP ERP 2.3 Business Partner Master Data
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal 23
When a sales order is created, the customer name is entered as sold-to party. To do so,
the user can select an existing customer master data record or create a new one. Then
sales order processing calls partner determination, which performs the following steps
(see figure 2-8):
Partner procedure determination selects the partner procedure which is valid for sales
order
Sales order header processor triggers partner determination logic for the selected
partner procedure
Partner determination logic evaluates customizing rules to identify which partner
functions are required for the current sales process, for example ship-to party, bill-to
party, and payer and what is the data source (for example customer master) to
determine each partner function.
Partner determination logic calls central address management to retrieve the address
data which correspond to the address numbers.
The data is copied to the sales order document.
The partner functions can also be passed on to pricing or output determination for further
usage.
Figure 2-8 Partner Determination and Address Management used in SD
Logic for Partners
Partner Determination
Logic
Customer Master
Data
Partner Buffer Data
Sales Document Processing
Address Data
Header Processor
Partner Procedure
Determination
Central Address Management
R
R
Ad
dre
ss
Nu
mb
er
Operational
Customizing
Data
Sales
Document Data
R
R
Central Address Management
Sales Document Processing
Address Number
Operational Customizing Data
Sales Document Data
Address Data
Header Processor
Partner Procedure Determination
Logic for Partners
Partner Determination Logic
Partner Buffer Data
Customer Master Data
33-SAPERP_ERP_SD_Partners.vsd
2 SAP ERP Operations SAP ERP
24 Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010
2.4 Sales and Distribution
The Sales and Distribution (SD) application of SAP ERP OPS provides the necessary
functionalities to sell products and services to customers. This includes sales order
processing, creating delivery and shipment documents, delivery monitoring, billing, and
also returns handling.
2.4.1 Architecture Overview
To provide the required functionality SD contains four main components (see figure 2-9):
Sales order processing
Delivery processing
Outbound shipment processing
Billing
Sales order processing is responsible for creation, update, and persistence of the sales
order documents. It triggers availability check and pricing calculations as well as delivery.
Delivery processing creates delivery documents for a sales order document. It triggers
shipment, monitors the delivery, and finally initiates billing.
Outbound delivery processing takes care of the transportation of the ordered products to
the customer.
Billing creates and sends the customer invoice. It is closely integrated with the SAP ERP
FIN application, where the received payments are tracked.
All sales documents such as sales order, delivery, and invoice use material and customer
master data.
In the following the SD architecture is explained by describing a standard sales process.
2.4.1.1 Pre-Sales Processing
SD allows sales departments to perform pre-sales activities via inquiries and quotations.
If a potential customer asks for example about the details of a product or price, the sales
department creates an request for quotation (RFQ) document (also known as inquiry)
using the pre-sales processing component (see figure 2-9). The response of the sales
department is documented as quotation with a reference to the RFQ document. The
quotation contains already information such as price of the product and discounts. Output
determination (see chapter 2.4.3.3) is used to identify the communication channel (e-mail,
letter, fax, B2B message) with which the quotation is sent to the customer. In addition SD
provides functions for maintaining the sales activity data, contact persons, interested
parties, promotions, and competitor data.
SAP ERP 2.4 Sales and Distribution
Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal 25
Figure 2-9 Architecture Overview of Sales and Distribution
2.4.1.2 Sales Order Processing
The most important activity in the sales process is the creation of the sales order
document which is the first step towards the actual sale of a product. The sales order
Materials
Management
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PP
Sales and
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