SAP S4 Hana Tutorials: Some Changes in Simple logistics

Changes in Simple Logistics Material Master

Master Data:

The first type of change is associated with the Master Data. Here the main idea is that using HANA; SAP can try out processing on a much larger scale and provide better performance as well.

Customer Master:

Management of customer and vendor Master Data in S/4 is by utilizing the business partner approach.  Therefore, the conventional transaction code such as XD01, XD02, XD03 or VD01, VD02, VD03 is redundant in S/4. Similar is the case for XK01, XK02, XD03 and MK01, MK02 and MK03. Hence, an enterprise migrating to S/4 needs to ensure that it is properly analyzed and that SAP S/4HANA conversion process is carried out in their entirety.

Material Master:

The material master field has been stretched up to forty characters, this is the major single change in the material master. Earlier it was 18 characters in the ECC. Therefore, an enterprise which has several systems in landscape exchanging material data must take this into account. Not only this, but there are a few more changes presented in S/4HANA. Here, the foreign trade fields within Master Data are unattainable and for this crow, Global trade service or CTS is the suggested solution.

The menu path to check the flag for an extended material field is  

SPRO –> IMG –> CROSS-APPLICATION FUNCTIONS –> GENERAL APPLICATION FUNCTIONS –> FIELD LENGTH EXTENSION –> ACTIVATE EXTENDED FIELDS 

Introduction of a New Material Type  

A new material type, SERV, is available in SAP S/4HANA for services. The views available are:

Basic data

Sales view

Purchasing view

Accounting

Changes with Simple Logistics Material Ledger 

The material ledger is now mandatory for material valuation.

Changes with Foreign Trade Data 

Foreign trade data is no longer relevant in S/4HANA. It is now a part of GTS. 

Business Suite Modules:

SAP S/4HANA enterprise management has been improved by recombining sections of SAP SRM, CRM, and SCM into the solution.  SAP S/4HANA enterprise management is also available on-premise as well as in the Cloud with nearly equal efficiency.  This relies on varying subscription or licensing models. The SAP S/4HANA solution can be a Cloud solution or can also be implemented as an on-premise system such as SAP ERP.

The latest releases in May and June 2016 for S/4HANA packages both on-premise and Cloud has seen significant improvements and extensions in terms of functionalities under Logistics.  The business value of such enhancements under supply chain and manufacturing, procurement, and Sourcing along with other key functionalities offered in S/4HANA is considerable. The functional aspects of both on-premise and Cloud solutions are similar.

SAP has said that SAP S/4HANA is a completely new product offering and solutions suite and not the successor of business suites that have come before it. The type of functionality that is covered under S/4HANA enterprise management can lead one to conclude that if they migrate to S/4HANA they will have to abandon the pre-existing business suite for optimal performance. But this does not have to be the case and migration can be a gradual process, continuing certain elements of legacy systems.