This post is in response to the mails I have got from my readers, to list out the key features of SAP AFS IS that distinguishes it from the standard SAP R/3 offerings.
SAP® Apparel and Footwear (SAP® AFS) is SAP's solution for the apparel and footwear industry, which meets challenges in the trade like managing the enormous volumes of data that come with ever-increasing design variations, the changing seasons, and huge numbers of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). Challenges like creating effective marketing strategies that convince business customers and consumers to buy your lines despite increasing competition and price transparency. Challenges like managing collaborative business scenarios, partnerships, and licensing agreements. And challenges like dealing with vertical integration as manufacturers venture into retailing and as retailers expand into production.
SAP Apparel & Footwear Solution
Industry Introduction
The Apparel & Footwear Industry is a challenging industry where trends are created overnight and fashion changes very variably, there is growing pressure on the companies involved in this industry to efficiently manage all the networks and interlinks of the supply and value chain and related operations that go into delivering the final product to consumer at the right time.
The AFS Industry puts a considerable strain on the monitoring of domestic and foreign production thereby creating a complicated value chain that can be the deciding factor in determining the bottom line.
The AFS Industry puts a considerable strain on the monitoring of domestic and foreign production thereby creating a complicated value chain that can be the deciding factor in determining the bottom line.
A common practice in this industry has been the outsourcing process powered by high levels of division of labour. These practices have been the greatest cost-cutting drivers in the production process of companies in this industry.
With a spread out of production sites around the world, the importance of supervising and monitoring these production sites have become more challenging, especially with the increase in transport costs and meeting sales deadlines.
The core processes in this industry such as raw material planning & procurement, new product designs & innovations, production efficiency, coordination and control, are taking on more and more importance and therefore more often than not are centralized.
Initiation of SAP AFS Industry Solution
In January 1996, the SAP Munich development group began developing an industry solution to cater to the needs of the apparel and footwear industries and this was to be delivered by December 1997 and that was when SAP Apparel and Footwear Solution was delivered.
The new solution was developed in conjunction with such industry leaders as Reebok International Ltd and VF Corp and today this Industry Solution is being used by more than 60+ SAP AFS Customers worldwide.
SAP AFS enables you to benefit from the latest SAP technology and infrastructure enhancements. It continues to be the obvious choice for companies operating in the apparel and footwear sector.
SAP AFS Solution Characteristics
- Ability to Handle Grids
The main addition that SAP AFS gives to the standard SAP Solution is the ability to handle sizes. This is defined in the system as Grids. SAP AFS is also designed keeping in mind the details involved in production, procurement, sales & distribution and materials in an Apparel Environment.
SAP AFS is presently been categorized under the “Consumable Products” in SAP’s List of Products. Though SAP AFS Solution is primarily used in the Apparel & Footwear sector, given its design the features it also serves other industries such as jewellery and furnitures as the solution provides the ability to handle sizes.
- Seasonality in SAP AFS
Season play a very important role in the product life cycle of the apparel industry. Since apparel is very much dependant on the season, the planning and production carried out needs to be aligned with the demand of the relevant season.
The seasonality functionality is an integral part of the Sales & Distribution Module in the SAP AFS Solution. This functionality is integrated together with the ability to handle grids, thereby providing a broader usage scope of the functionality itself.
Seasons in AFS also include the ability to maintain collections and themes for each season. The presence of these features help in further classification of the offering for a season apart from providing a concept for each category of product offering.
- AFS Categories
It’s a known fact that there are large volumes of data involved with maintaining AFS Materials. This is where categories come in to logically segment materials. The categories that are usually maintained in the AFS Industry is based on the quality level, type of customer and regional requirements.
These categories are of 2 types:
• Requirement Categories
• Stock Categories
These categories are used in the Material Master with the coverage strategy assigned to it. The coverage strategy determines how the requirements categories are assigned to the stock categories. This assignment takes place during the availability check, the MRP and the allocation run.
The 3 main characteristics above is what distinguishes the highlighting features that SAP AFS IS has when compared to standard SAP R/3.
I hope you found this post, informative and interesting. Your suggestions and queries are welcome at suren@erparena.com.
A few Other SAP AFS Article on this site :
For more SAP AFS Artciles click on the labels section (right hand side).
Have a nice day!!
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