Inventory Management with SAP S4HANA (Bernd Roedel Johannes Esser) (z-library.sk, 1lib.sk, z-lib.sk)

📄 File Format: PDF

💾 File Size: 42.5 MB

📖 Read Online ⬇️ Download

Registered users can read the full content for free

Register as a Gaohf Library member to read the complete e-book online for free and enjoy a better reading experience.

📄 Page 1

(This page has no text content)

📄 Page 2

SAP PRESS is a joint initiative of SAP and Rheinwerk Publishing. The know-how offered by SAP specialists combined with the expertise of Rheinwerk Publishing offers the reader expert books in the field. SAP PRESS features first-hand information and expert advice, and provides useful skills for professional decision-making. SAP PRESS offers a variety of books on technical and business-related topics for the SAP user. For further information, please visit our website at: http://www.sap-press.com. Bhattacharjee, Khandalkar, Thompson, Vazquez Logistics with SAP S/4HANA: An Introduction (3rd Edition) 2022, 602 pages, hardcover and e-book www.sap-press.com/5509 Markin, Sinha, Chandna, Foster SAP Integrated Business Planning: Functionality and Implementation (3rd Edition) 2021, 526 pages, hardcover and e-book www.sap-press.com/5338 Justin Ashlock Sourcing and Procurement with SAP S/4HANA (3rd Edition) 2024, 705 pages, hardcover and e-book www.sap-press.com/5773 Jawad Akhtar Production Planning with SAP S/4HANA (3rd Edition) 2025, 1084 pages, hardcover and e-book www.sap-press.com/6031 Saueressig, Stein, Boeder, Kleis SAP S/4HANA Architecture (2nd Edition) 2023, 544 pages, hardcover and e-book www.sap-press.com/5675

📄 Page 3

Inventory Management with SAP S/4HANA® Bernd Roedel, Johannes Esser

📄 Page 4

Imprint This e-book is a publication many contributed to, specifically: Editor Megan Fuerst Copyeditor Karen Strong Cover Design Graham Geary Photo Credit iStockphoto: 184139768/© sitox Layout Design Vera Brauner Production E-Book Hannah Lane Typesetting E-Book III-satz, Germany We hope that you liked this e-book. Please share your feedback with us and read the Service Pages to find out how to contact us. The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Control Number for the printed edition is as follows: 2025034763 ISBN 978-1-4932-2736-5 (print) ISBN 978-1-4932-2737-2 (e-book) ISBN 978-1-4932-2738-9 (print and e-book) 2nd edition 2026 © 2026 by: Rheinwerk Publishing, Inc. 2 Heritage Drive, Suite 305 Quincy, MA 02171 USA info@rheinwerk-publishing.com +1.781.228.5070 Represented in the E.U. by: Rheinwerk Verlag GmbH Rheinwerkallee 4 53227 Bonn Germany service@rheinwerk-verlag.de +49 (0) 228 42150-0

📄 Page 5

(This page has no text content)

📄 Page 6

Contents Preface ....................................................................................................................................................... 15 1 Introduction to SAP S/4HANA and SAP Fiori 21 1.1 SAP HANA Database ............................................................................................................. 22 1.1.1 Basics .......................................................................................................................... 22 1.1.2 In-Memory Database Limitations and Mitigation Strategies ................. 24 1.1.3 Database Benefits and Features ....................................................................... 26 1.2 A New Data Model ................................................................................................................ 27 1.2.1 Material Documents (Table MATDOC) ............................................................ 27 1.2.2 Precompacting and Purging Data (Tables MATDOC and  MATDOC_EXTRACT) .............................................................................................. 32 1.2.3 Accounting Documents (Table ACDOCA) ....................................................... 34 1.3 Functional Changes .............................................................................................................. 35 1.3.1 Simplification List ................................................................................................... 35 1.3.2 Industry Solution Retrofitting ............................................................................ 36 1.3.3 Clean Core ................................................................................................................. 36 1.4 SAP Fiori ..................................................................................................................................... 36 1.4.1 A New User Paradigm ........................................................................................... 36 1.4.2 SAP Fiori Applications ........................................................................................... 38 1.4.3 SAP Fiori Launchpad .............................................................................................. 45 1.5 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 56 2 Inventory Management Basics 57 2.1 Inventory as a Staple of the Supply Chain ................................................................. 57 2.2 End User Role Templates .................................................................................................... 60 2.3 Key Considerations ............................................................................................................... 61 2.3.1 Service Levels, Inventory Costs, and Operational Profit ............................ 61 2.3.2 Lot Sizes, Replenishment Times, and Safety Stocks .................................... 62 2.3.3 Local versus Global Inventory Management ................................................. 65 2.3.4 New Technologies .................................................................................................. 667

📄 Page 7

Contents2.4 Inventory Optimization in SAP S/4HANA ................................................................... 75 2.4.1 Optimization Schema ........................................................................................... 75 2.4.2 Plan and Adjust ....................................................................................................... 77 2.4.3 Execute ....................................................................................................................... 78 2.4.4 Analyze ....................................................................................................................... 79 2.5 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 80 3 Configuring Inventory Management 81 3.1 Implementation Guide Configuration ......................................................................... 81 3.1.1 Implementation Guide Overview ..................................................................... 82 3.1.2 Organizational Units ............................................................................................. 84 3.1.3 Inventory Management ....................................................................................... 89 3.1.4 Procurement ............................................................................................................ 107 3.1.5 Logistics Execution ................................................................................................. 110 3.1.6 Production Planning .............................................................................................. 111 3.1.7 Stock Transport ....................................................................................................... 117 3.2 Cross-Topics ............................................................................................................................. 122 3.2.1 Batches ....................................................................................................................... 122 3.2.2 Serial Numbers ........................................................................................................ 124 3.2.3 Handling Units ........................................................................................................ 125 3.2.4 Split Valuation ......................................................................................................... 126 3.3 Generic Cross-Functions ..................................................................................................... 127 3.3.1 Date Functions ........................................................................................................ 127 3.3.2 Responsibility Management ............................................................................... 129 3.3.3 Situation Handling ................................................................................................. 131 3.3.4 Barcode Scanning ................................................................................................... 137 3.3.5 Extensibility .............................................................................................................. 140 3.4 Servers ........................................................................................................................................ 152 3.4.1 Frontend .................................................................................................................... 153 3.4.2 Backend ..................................................................................................................... 155 3.5 Basic Interfaces ....................................................................................................................... 156 3.6 SAP Fiori ..................................................................................................................................... 158 3.6.1 SAP Fiori Entities ..................................................................................................... 158 3.6.2 Roles and Users ....................................................................................................... 160 3.6.3 SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library ....................................................................... 162 3.7 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 1648

📄 Page 8

Contents4 Planning and Adjusting Inventory 165 4.1 Planning Strategies .............................................................................................................. 166 4.1.1 Production Planning .............................................................................................. 167 4.1.2 Discrete versus Process Manufacturing ......................................................... 170 4.1.3 Demand-Driven versus Plan-Driven Planning .............................................. 170 4.2 Production Master Data Overview ................................................................................ 172 4.3 MRP Overview ......................................................................................................................... 173 4.3.1 Generic Capabilities ............................................................................................... 174 4.3.2 Planning Process ..................................................................................................... 174 4.3.3 MRP Live ..................................................................................................................... 177 4.3.4 DDMRP ....................................................................................................................... 177 4.4 Kanban Overview .................................................................................................................. 178 4.5 Capacity Planning and Production Master Data ..................................................... 179 4.5.1 Manage Work Center Capacity .......................................................................... 180 4.5.2 Display BOM, Display Multilevel BOM Explosion, and Find BOM  for Components ...................................................................................................... 181 4.5.3 Display Routing/Display Master Recipe .......................................................... 185 4.6 Make to Order and Make to Stock ................................................................................. 187 4.7 MRP Live .................................................................................................................................... 190 4.7.1 Monitor Requirements and Material Coverage ........................................... 190 4.7.2 Manage Planned Orders ....................................................................................... 202 4.7.3 Convert Planned Orders ....................................................................................... 203 4.7.4 Schedule MRP Runs ............................................................................................... 204 4.7.5 Display MRP Key Figures ...................................................................................... 207 4.7.6 Display MRP Master Data Issues ....................................................................... 209 4.7.7 Monitor External Requirements ........................................................................ 210 4.7.8 Monitor Internal Requirements ......................................................................... 212 4.7.9 Detect Unnecessary Supply Elements ............................................................. 215 4.8 DDMRP ....................................................................................................................................... 219 4.8.1 Configuration Process ........................................................................................... 219 4.8.2 Buffer Profile Maintenance ................................................................................. 219 4.8.3 Product Classification: Mass Maintenance of Products ............................ 220 4.8.4 Buffer Adjustment ................................................................................................. 222 4.8.5 Product Classification: Schedule Product Classification ........................... 223 4.8.6 Buffer Positioning ................................................................................................... 225 4.8.7 Schedule Lead Time Classification of Products ............................................ 227 4.8.8 Schedule Buffer Proposal Calculation ............................................................. 229 4.8.9 Manage Buffer Levels ............................................................................................ 231 4.8.10 Planners Overview ................................................................................................. 2369

📄 Page 9

Contents4.8.11 Replenishment Planning ...................................................................................... 236 4.8.12 Replenishment Execution .................................................................................... 239 4.9 Kanban ....................................................................................................................................... 240 4.9.1 Manage Control Cycle ........................................................................................... 240 4.9.2 Summarized JIT Call Scheduler .......................................................................... 243 4.9.3 Kanban Calculation ............................................................................................... 245 4.10 What’s Ahead for Inventory Planning and Adjustment? .................................... 246 4.10.1 Prerequisites ............................................................................................................ 246 4.10.2 Schedule Predictive MRP Simulation Creation ............................................. 247 4.10.3 Process Predictive MRP Simulations ................................................................ 250 4.11 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 252 5 Goods Receipt 253 5.1 Purchase Order ....................................................................................................................... 253 5.1.1 Purchase Orders for Inventory ........................................................................... 254 5.1.2 Stock-Related Procurement ................................................................................ 257 5.2 Inbound Delivery ................................................................................................................... 261 5.3 Production Order ................................................................................................................... 262 5.4 Goods Receipt without Reference ................................................................................. 263 5.5 Post Subsequent Adjustment .......................................................................................... 265 5.6 Process Variants ..................................................................................................................... 265 5.6.1 Batch-Managed Materials ................................................................................... 266 5.6.2 Serial Numbers ........................................................................................................ 267 5.6.3 Goods Receipt Blocked Stock .............................................................................. 269 5.6.4 Mandatory Quality Inspection ........................................................................... 269 5.6.5 Decentralized Warehouse Management ....................................................... 271 5.6.6 Direct Posting with Embedded EWM .............................................................. 271 5.6.7 Return Delivery ........................................................................................................ 271 5.6.8 Single- or Multi-Account Assignment ............................................................. 272 5.6.9 Split Valuation ......................................................................................................... 273 5.7 Real World Scenarios and Best Practices .................................................................... 274 5.7.1 Implementing Simple Warehouse Management with  Storage Bins .............................................................................................................. 274 5.7.2 Simplifying Inbound Quality Control with Goods Receipt-Blocked  Stock ........................................................................................................................... 275 5.7.3 Scanning Barcodes to Speed Up Goods Receipt ........................................... 27510

📄 Page 10

Contents5.8 What’s Ahead for Goods Receipt? ................................................................................. 276 5.9 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 277 6 Core Inventory Management 279 6.1 Monitoring Core Inventory Documents ...................................................................... 279 6.1.1 Material Document Components ..................................................................... 280 6.1.2 Use Enterprise Search to Identify Inventory Documents .......................... 280 6.1.3 Material Documents Overview .......................................................................... 282 6.1.4 Analyze the Document Flow via the Material Document  Object Page ............................................................................................................... 286 6.2 Stock Identification .............................................................................................................. 288 6.2.1 Stock – Single Material ......................................................................................... 289 6.2.2 Stock – Multiple Materials .................................................................................. 293 6.2.3 Analyze Stock in Date Range .............................................................................. 296 6.2.4 Display Stock Overview ........................................................................................ 296 6.3 Stock Transfer ......................................................................................................................... 298 6.3.1 Stock Transfer – In-Plant ...................................................................................... 298 6.3.2 Transfer Stock – Cross-Plant ............................................................................... 302 6.3.3 Post Goods Movement ......................................................................................... 304 6.3.4 Working with Stock Transport Orders ............................................................. 306 6.3.5 Advanced Intercompany Stock Transport ...................................................... 307 6.4 Initial Entry and Scrapping ................................................................................................ 308 6.4.1 Manage Stock .......................................................................................................... 309 6.4.2 Post Goods Movement ......................................................................................... 313 6.5 Reversals .................................................................................................................................... 314 6.5.1 Reversals within the Material Document Object Page .............................. 314 6.5.2 Partial Material Document Reversal ................................................................ 314 6.6 Physical Inventory ................................................................................................................. 315 6.6.1 Physical Inventory Phases .................................................................................... 316 6.6.2 Create Physical Inventory Documents ............................................................ 317 6.6.3 Manage Physical Inventory Count .................................................................... 322 6.6.4 Process Physical Inventory Count Results ...................................................... 325 6.6.5 Manage Physical Inventory Item List ............................................................... 326 6.7 Cross-Topics ............................................................................................................................. 328 6.7.1 Batches ....................................................................................................................... 328 6.7.2 Serial Numbers ........................................................................................................ 330 6.7.3 Handling Units ........................................................................................................ 33111

📄 Page 11

Contents6.8 Real-World Scenarios and Best Practices .................................................................... 331 6.8.1 Scanning Barcodes to Speed Up Inventory Management ........................ 331 6.8.2 Managing Product Lifecycle State with Split Valuation ............................ 333 6.8.3 Converting Materials into Different Materials ............................................ 334 6.8.4 Fine-Tuning Inventory with Custom Movement Types ............................. 334 6.9 What’s Ahead for Core Inventory? ................................................................................ 338 6.10 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 338 7 Production Execution 339 7.1 Working with Reservations .............................................................................................. 340 7.1.1 Automatic Creation of Reservations ................................................................ 340 7.1.2 Manual Reservation Management ................................................................... 341 7.1.3 Manage Reservation Items ................................................................................. 342 7.2 Scheduling and Manufacturing Execution ................................................................. 344 7.2.1 Capacity Scheduling Table .................................................................................. 344 7.2.2 Capacity Scheduling Board .................................................................................. 346 7.2.3 Stock Requirements List ....................................................................................... 348 7.2.4 Display Planned Orders, Production Orders, and Process Orders ........... 349 7.2.5 Manage Change Requests ................................................................................... 352 7.2.6 Check Material Coverage ..................................................................................... 355 7.2.7 Monitor Production Orders and Process Orders .......................................... 355 7.2.8 Manage Production Orders ................................................................................. 359 7.2.9 Confirm Production Operations ........................................................................ 365 7.2.10 Create Goods Receipt for Production Order .................................................. 366 7.3 Production Performance Monitoring ........................................................................... 366 7.3.1 Material Scrap ......................................................................................................... 367 7.3.2 Operation Scrap ...................................................................................................... 367 7.3.3 Scrap Reason ............................................................................................................ 368 7.3.4 Excess Component Consumption ..................................................................... 370 7.3.5 Monitor Production Execution Duration ........................................................ 371 7.4 Working with Kanban ......................................................................................................... 372 7.4.1 Display Kanban (Demand View) ........................................................................ 372 7.4.2 Display Kanban (Supply View) ........................................................................... 374 7.4.3 Due Replenishment Elements ............................................................................ 375 7.4.4 Correct Kanban ....................................................................................................... 378 7.4.5 Unlock Kanban Container .................................................................................... 379 7.4.6 Set Kanban Container Status ............................................................................. 37912

📄 Page 12

Contents7.5 What’s Ahead for Production Execution? .................................................................. 380 7.6 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 381 8 Inventory Analysis 383 8.1 Inventory Analytics in SAP S/4HANA ........................................................................... 383 8.1.1 Advances in Analytics ........................................................................................... 384 8.1.2 Choosing the Right Analytics Tool .................................................................... 385 8.2 Posted Stock Change Analysis ......................................................................................... 385 8.2.1 Stock Single Material and Stock Multiple Materials ................................... 385 8.2.2 Analyze Stock in Date Range .............................................................................. 386 8.2.3 Schedule Export of Inventory Analytics and Display Inventory  Analytics Jobs ........................................................................................................... 390 8.2.4 Goods Movement Analysis .................................................................................. 392 8.2.5 Physical Inventory Document Analysis ........................................................... 396 8.3 KPI Monitoring and Analysis ............................................................................................ 397 8.3.1 Overview Pages ....................................................................................................... 397 8.3.2 Inventory Turnover Analysis ............................................................................... 401 8.3.3 Inventory (Multiple) KPI Analysis ...................................................................... 405 8.3.4 Material Valuation ................................................................................................. 409 8.4 Process Analysis Tools ......................................................................................................... 410 8.4.1 Dead Stock Analysis ............................................................................................... 410 8.4.2 Slow or Non-Moving Materials .......................................................................... 412 8.4.3 Overdue Stock in Transit ...................................................................................... 415 8.4.4 Overdue Goods Receipt Blocked Stock ............................................................ 417 8.5 Custom Queries ...................................................................................................................... 417 8.6 Real-World Scenarios and Best Practices .................................................................... 422 8.6.1 Analyzing Your Serialized Stock ......................................................................... 422 8.6.2 Controlling Inventory ............................................................................................ 424 8.6.3 Monitoring Shelf Life ............................................................................................. 425 8.7 What’s Ahead for Analytics? ............................................................................................ 426 8.8 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 42913

📄 Page 13

Contents9 Inventory Management in SAP Business Suite 431 9.1 Extensibility ............................................................................................................................. 432 9.1.1 SAP S/4HANA Extensibility ................................................................................. 432 9.1.2 SAP Business Technology Platform .................................................................. 435 9.1.3 SAP Business Accelerator Hub ............................................................................ 435 9.2 SAP S/4HANA Cloud ............................................................................................................. 441 9.2.1 Solution Scope ......................................................................................................... 442 9.2.2 Implementation Methodology .......................................................................... 445 9.2.3 Configuration and Fine-Tuning ......................................................................... 447 9.2.4 Update Cycle ............................................................................................................ 451 9.3 Hybrid Deployment .............................................................................................................. 452 9.3.1 SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud ......................................................... 452 9.3.2 Decentralized Warehouse Management with SAP S/4HANA ................. 455 9.3.3 SAP Extended Warehouse Management for SAP S/4HANA  Cloud Public Edition ............................................................................................... 457 9.4 Cloud Solutions ...................................................................................................................... 457 9.4.1 SAP Integrated Business Planning .................................................................... 457 9.4.2 SAP Digital Manufacturing ................................................................................. 460 9.4.3 SAP Business Network for Procurement ......................................................... 460 9.4.4 SAP Business Data Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud ..................................... 461 9.5 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 462 The Authors ............................................................................................................................................. 463 Index .......................................................................................................................................................... 465 Service Pages .....................................................................................................................................  i Legal Notes .........................................................................................................................................  i14

📄 Page 14

Preface Welcome to the comprehensive book on inventory management in SAP S/4HANA, now in its second edition. With SAP S/4HANA as the SAP HANA-based, next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) offering, SAP has also refactored core parts of SAP ERP, namely, finance and logistics. Although SAP S/4HANA may appear just to be SAP ERP on SAP HANA, much has been changed underneath. Moreover, SAP has created a rich set of applications that can be combined with SAP S/4HANA and together form SAP Business Suite. Whereas six years ago, the first and most important question was about the deployment model (on-premise versus cloud), this question has nowadays become less prominent. It has become common to combine cloud and/or on-premise deploy- ment into a business suite to serve all IT-related requirements within an enterprise. This book again focuses on SAP S/4HANA, because it’s the primary persistency of inventory data in SAP Business Suite. First, this book will shed some light on changes of the data model. Second, SAP S/4HANA entails some impressive user interaction technologies often summarized as SAP Fiori. This book will explain SAP Fiori and the advantages it brings to your daily work. We’ll also get a glimpse on how artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance usability. Third and most important, this book will describe the latest capabilities of SAP S/4HANA with respect to inventory management. We understand inventory management as the following: ▪ Logical structures to manage a company’s inventory ▪ Procedures to track and document physical and logical inventory changes ▪ Services used by value-adding processes such as procure to pay, plan to deliver, sell from stock, and so on ▪ Key differentiators when balancing service level versus capital lockup ▪ Parts of the production planning and execution processes Looking at the evolution of ERP software, we see the next quantum leap happening right now. The first (pre-) ERP systems were built on batch run processes and offered just a few capa- bilities to business users to interact with the system. The second-generation ERP systems started by clustering business processes into transactions so that business users could display or manipulate data in the system in real time. The primary value add of such an ERP system was to have all data integrated into one database instance that could be used by any business transaction, presenting a tight integration of business processes. The third-generation ERP systems outsourced some business processes to separate sys- tem instances such as the data warehouse, customer relationship management system, and supply chain management system due to a high demand for processing power or large data volumes. Sometimes, this was referred to as the best of breed approach if each system instance ran on a different vendor’s software.15Personal Copy for Rubens Lenzi, tosose7562@datehype.com

📄 Page 15

PrefaceNow, new developments in hardware and software technology allow us to create fourth-generation ERP systems that are built on one database instance while offering the processing power of separate systems enriched with new methods for smart user interaction, collaboration, built-in machine intelligence, and natural language interac- tion. Therefore, this generation of ERP systems is called the intelligent ERP. Because it comes with different deployment models, such as on-premise, cloud, and hybrid, the intelligence may be embedded or side by side, and therefore, it’s called SAP Business Suite. Intelligence is a keyword, since we see a rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) mostly in connection with large language models (LLMs) and the therein embedded (learning) algorithms. Their capabilities grow so quickly that when you read this sen- tence, it’s very likely already outdated. We promise that everything you read in this book is a direct product of the human brain, especially the next sentence. We consider “intelligence” in the context of an IT system mainly as a capability to boost its user’s productivity. Intelligence doesn’t depend on buzzword technology. Nevertheless, LLMs give us software engineers an opportunity to think about solutions that we didn’t dare to dream of five years ago. Especially the rich set of semantic data within SAP Business Suite, which can be collected in SAP Business Data Cloud, provides an ideal foundation upon which to build an AI-supported IT system. It’s a safe bet that SAP would like the CIOs of every company to queue up in front of its Walldorf-based headquarters to make sure that their company is the first to get the latest release of SAP S/4HANA. The inventory management functionality and improved logis- tics system, which we’ll explore in this book, are key reasons that the line may start to form. Who This Book Is For This book addresses anyone who is interested in SAP S/4HANA with a logistics focus. The book offers a lightweight technical background to system administrators, consul- tants, and key users on the SAP HANA database, SAP Fiori, and side-by-side or on-stack extensibility. For experienced SAP users in the area of logistics, this book explains the difference SAP S/4HANA makes when it comes to designing logistics processes, which will motivate you to rethink the current logistics implementation in SAP and to strive for improvements. To all new SAP users, this book is a good starting point to get to know the SAP S/4HANA terminology and directly start with modernized logistics, avoiding implementing a third-generation ERP system on a fourth-generation platform. If you’re a solution architect or a system architect, you might be interested to get a glimpse of where ERP is heading to in the future. As end users in logistics, you should be thrilled by all the new features—such as the intuitive user interface (UI), the collaboration and knowledge-sharing tools, mobilized applications, embedded analytics, and smart assis- tance systems described in this book—and immediately start to think on how to lever- age them. As an active user of SAP S/4HANA, you’ll find the practical instructions and 16 © 2025 by Rheinwerk Publishing Inc., Boston (MA)

📄 Page 16

Prefacehints for managing inventory in SAP S/4HANA in this step-by-step guide. If you like to think big, because you’re a CIO, the last chapter may inspire you how to build your com- pany’s SAP Business Suite. We are convinced that the main benefit of SAP S/4HANA is to run your core logistics processes better with less effort compared to any other ERP system. How This Book Is Organized This book contains nine chapters. We recommend reading them sequentially from Chapter 1 onward to get a comprehensive overview from technology to configuration to inventory management and beyond. Figure 1 shows how the chapter contents relate to each other. The light-colored boxes refer to content that is created on the scaffold of inventory management processes. The darkest box contains content explaining the planning processes, the medium-dark boxes contain content detailing the execution processes, and the lightest box covers the analytic processes. The book suggests organizing inventory management on the basis of a continuous improvement process cycle, with the following three steps: plan/ adjust (dark), execute (medium), and analyze (light). If you follow the content map while reading, it may help you find solutions for dedicated areas. Figure 1 Content Map Chapter 3 Configuration: Explaining All Required System Configuration Steps Chapter 9 Inventory Management in SAP Business Suite Keeping Inventory Low and Service-Level Agreements High Execute Analyze Plan/Adjust Chapter 1 Introducing the SAP S/4HANA Paradigms: • Real-Time Inventory • SAP Fiori User Interface Chapter 5 Executing Inbound Inventory Processes Chapter 6 Executing Core Inventory Processes Chapter 7 Executing Production Planning Processes Chapter 4 Planning/Adjusting Inventory Chapter 8 Analyzing Inventory Processes Chapter 2 Inventory Management Basics: Establishing a Feedback Loop of17Personal Copy for Rubens Lenzi, tosose7562@datehype.com

📄 Page 17

Preface Further Resources For each app that we discuss, you can use the related SAP Fiori ID (for example, F0843— Post Goods Receipt for Purchase Order) or SAP GUI transaction shown in parentheses for deeper analysis in the SAP Fiori apps reference library at http://s-prs.co/v489206. Let’s review what is covered in each chapter of this book: ▪ Chapter 1: Introduction to SAP S/4HANA and SAP Fiori This chapter introduces the SAP S/4HANA database and explains how its in-memory architecture is leveraged in the refactoring of core logistics. This chapter also explains the SAP Fiori UI paradigm, which is designed to simplify and streamline system–user interaction. ▪ Chapter 2: Inventory Management Basics This chapter focuses on core inventory management basics and positions inventory management within supply chain planning from the technical and end user role per- spectives. The chapter also introduces the idea of SAP S/4HANA as an intelligent ERP system supporting inventory optimization. ▪ Chapter 3: Configuring Inventory Management In this chapter, we walk through the configuration steps in an SAP S/4HANA system, which consist of the SAP IMG, business process extensibility, and setting up user roles regarding technical interfaces. ▪ Chapter 4: Planning and Adjusting Inventory This chapter covers the inventory planning part of the inventory optimization cycle. Different planning strategies are mentioned, and the key SAP Fiori apps in SAP S/4HANA supporting these strategies are explained in depth. ▪ Chapter 5: Goods Receipt This chapter belongs to the execution part of the inventory optimization cycle and covers the SAP Fiori apps used in the inbound processes of inventory management. ▪ Chapter 6: Core Inventory Management This chapter belongs to the execution part of the inventory optimization cycle and covers the SAP Fiori apps used in the core processes of inventory management (stock transfer posting, physical inventory, and more). ▪ Chapter 7: Production Execution This chapter belongs to the execution part of the inventory optimization cycle and covers the SAP Fiori apps used during production execution. ▪ Chapter 8: Inventory Analysis This chapter belongs to the analysis part of the inventory optimization cycle and presents all kinds of real-time analytical SAP Fiori apps, ranging from simple use cases to professional use cases and from operational reporting to strategic analytics.18 © 2025 by Rheinwerk Publishing Inc., Boston (MA)

📄 Page 18

Preface▪ Chapter 9: Inventory Management in SAP Business Suite This chapter explores the inventory management capabilities across SAP Business Suite. After introducing extensibility topics, we'll focus on SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). We'll provide some concrete examples of hybrid deployment scenarios with various SAP Business Suite products, including SAP Integrated Business Planning (SAP IBP) for automatic, large-scale inventory opti- mization. Disclaimer Throughout this book, the terms “material” and “product” are used as synonyms as are “vendor” and “supplier”; however, SAP S/4HANA often replaces “material” with “prod- uct” and replaces “vendor” with “supplier.” Inventory management is a central part of the core logistic processes. In this book, we look at inventory management from a production planning perspective. Therefore, external procurement-related or subcontracting-related processes aren’t covered in detail. Furthermore, the newly embedded SAP S/4HANA warehouse management capa- bilities aren’t part of this book, as they are downstream of inventory management. All three topics deserve their own book. In the last six years, we’ve received feedback via different channels and worked on improvements and new features for this book. If we thought a certain implementation pattern was worth mentioning, we’ve added it at the end of each chapter in new sections on best practices. We’ve written this book to be up to date for modern SAP S/4HANA systems: release 2025 for on-premise/private cloud and release 2508 for public cloud. The majority of screen- shots are taken using an SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2508 system to represent the most up-to-date features. Most of the features we have described are available across the different SAP releases and deployment models; however, some features may only be available in the public cloud or in the private cloud/on-premise. Inventory man- agement capabilities in the SAP landscape are constantly evolving; we recommend referring to https://me.sap.com/ for the latest information on feature availability. Acknowledgments For the first edition, we were supported while writing this book by many colleagues at SAP. We would like explicitly to thank the following colleagues for actively reviewing this book with us (in alphabetical order): Thomas Friedrich, Bernhard Lokowandt, Michael Philipp, Benjamin Ringl, Manish Saraswat, and Bernhard Trebels.19Personal Copy for Rubens Lenzi, tosose7562@datehype.com

📄 Page 19

PrefaceIn the course of writing single chapters of the first edition, we received additional sup- port from the following colleagues (in alphabetical order): Bince Mathew, Peter Gussmann, Thomas Hensel, Heike Hoffmann, Alexander Krasins- kiy, Katja Mueller, Carsten Riemer, Michael Schmidt, Jochen Strobel, Hardeep Tulsi, Christine von Crailsheim, and Martin Wilmes. During the writing of the second edition, we were supported by our direct managers, Jochen Strobel and Benjamin Ringl. Special thanks also to the Office of Ethics & Compli- ance and the SCM Planning Solution Management for the continuous feedback as well to Markus Oertelt, Jerry Lowery, and Christoph Fritzsche. We would also like to thank Emily Nicholls and Megan Fuerst at Rheinwerk Publishing. Last but not least, our respective families have co-invested considerable effort into this book by freeing their husbands/fathers/son for writing. Both authors pay back now with this acknowledgement to (in alphabetical order): Alexandra, Esther, Hannah, Helga, Jan, Jonathan, and Rebecca. In case we omit a colleague, we promise to correct this in the third edition. Many screenshots are taken from test and demo systems. Without our colleagues hav- ing created the demo data, this book wouldn’t look as it does right now. Thanks very much! Conclusion Reading this book will provide you with a comprehensive guide to inventory manage- ment in SAP S/4HANA. This book will serve as your foundational knowledge source when planning your SAP S/4HANA implementation with a focus on inventory. Let’s get on board now and proceed to Chapter 1 with a first glance at SAP S/4HANA.20 © 2025 by Rheinwerk Publishing Inc., Boston (MA)

📄 Page 20

Chapter 1 Introduction to SAP S/4HANA and SAP Fiori Let’s begin with the basics—what is SAP S/4HANA, what is SAP Fiori, and how does inventory management fit in? In this chapter, we’ll build up the foundations of inventory management in SAP S/4HANA. When talking about IT systems, solution architecture, or business processes, we often face the situation that business analysts and end users use a different terminology than IT people, which leads to misunderstandings and confusion during implementa- tion projects. This chapter will shed some light on the latest IT terms introduced with SAP S/4HANA in general and within inventory management in particular. An IT system is supposed to collect, store, compute, and present information to its users. To separate these tasks a little bit, IT systems are constructed as layers, as shown in Figure 1.1. Figure 1.1 Software Architecture of an ERP System ABAP SAP Fiori SAP S/4HANA Architecture Collect and Store Compute Present User Interface Layer Application Layer Database Layer Task Software Architecture Term SAP S/4HANA System Web Browser HTTP(S) SAP HANA Database Frontend Backend21Personal Copy for Rubens Lenzi, tosose7562@datehype.com