SAP Community - SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management

Must-See Supplier Sessions at SAP Ariba Live Amsterdam 2018

2018-04-18T01:32:55+02:00

With SAP Ariba Live Amsterdam kicking off next week, I wanted to make sure you had a list of the top sessions for suppliers that you won't want to miss!

Click the link on the session title to learn more and add it to your agenda!

Top Supplier Sessions

Best Practices in Catalog Integration and Data Governance | Data governance is a key challenge for both buyers and suppliers when it comes to electronic procurement and supply chain processes. Come hear from our customer experts about the importance of data governance and best practices in integration on Ariba Network.

Buyers and Suppliers Debate Disruption, Consumerization, and Other Trends | Join this fireside chat featuring three customers sharing their perspectives as buyers/suppliers on Ariba Network. The moderated panel explores the customer journey of business transformation with Ariba Network as well as the potential impact of business networks.

Hands-On Lab for the Cloud Integration Gateway Capability | Take this opportunity to see how the self-service cloud integration gateway capability allows you to integrate with Ariba Network. This session will benefit suppliers that want to take the next step in their integration journey or enhance their existing Cloud Integration Gateway implementation.

Customer Deep Dive: Supplier Innovations | Join us for an in-depth review of innovations coming for suppliers. This session will cover an overview of supplier solutions, catalogs and APIs.

Supplier Value and Buyer Expectations for Supplier Enablement | Many suppliers realize great value transacting with multiple buyers on Ariba Network, yet supplier enablement is a key challenge for buyers. Hear from suppliers about what it takes to make transacting with multiple buyers work, as well as buyer expectations for success with supplier enablement.

Coming Soon: Supplier Experience Innovation | The new supplier portal is a central place for suppliers to manage their profile, registration, qualification, invoices, collaboration, and other tasks needed to do business with a buyer. This session will provide more details on what lies beneath the new supplier portal, and we welcome your feedback on how to improve the user experience.

As always, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @SAPAriba, and at the hashtag #SAPAribaLive.

See you in Amsterdam!

@eamonida

Employee as a Business Partner and Synchronization with HCM Data

2019-07-17T11:07:30+02:00

Hello All,

In this blog will see how to create Employee as a Business Partner which involves HCM Module as well, let me quickly explain why it's required to create employment as a BP.

As with 1511 onwards, BP is mandatory and also Employee with User ID assignment is mandatory for a few of the Fiori Apps like Work Flow & Supplier Evaluation, so that's the reason Employee has to be created as BP and Syncronized with HR Data

Now, let us start the process.

- 1. Go to PA30

2. Select Actions Infotype and click create

3. Enter the Parameters as shown Below

4. Click save it will name next screen

5. Maintain Employee details

6. Click on save will take to next screen

7. Enter sub-area

8. Save

9. Maintain Address

10. Select main back (0)

11. Save

12. In the highlighted area select info type "communication" and sty "00001"

13. Click on Create

14. Enter the USER ID and save

NOW Employee is created with Personnel Number

15. BP Creation Go to BP T.Code

16. Select BP Category as Person and BP Grouping as "BPEE"

17. Enter all the Parameters as per the requirement as shown Below

18. Once all details are filled click on check to validate details.

19. Go to Identification Tab

20. In ID Type enter HCM001 and previously created personal number in PA30 and click save

21. Now select FLNV00 role and click company code

22. Enter CC and Reconciliation account and scroll down

23. Enter the personal number and save

24. Now select FLVN01 Roll and select Pur.Org

25. Enter Pur.org and Order Currency and save

26. Now Select FS0000 roll and open company code and check its extended or not and save

27. Select BUP001 Role and check all address details are populating or not and save

28. With this BP is created

Now Synchronization with EMP and BP

- 1. Open SA38 Transaction
  2. Enter Program Name /SHCM/RH_SYNC_BUPA_EMPL_SINGLE
  3. And execute
- 4. Give the personal number which is created in PA30 and run the program
- 5. Now will check log in SLG1 Transaction
- 6. Main below data in object and subobject fields

Object SHCM_EE_INTEGRATION

Subobject BUPA_SYNC

7. Once object & Sub-Object are maintained as shown Above execute the log.

8. Now EMP ID and BP have Synced.

9. Open SU01 Transaction

Its Synced with BP as shown

Now Fiori Apps Like Manage Work Flow or Manage Purchasing Categories your Employee ID with USER ID details will be shown or else we can't perform those activities as Fiori is the only option to perform those activities these steps are mandatory

Thank you. please provide your feedback and Share with Others as well ?

SAP S/4Hana Data Migration - LTMC / Cockpit Insights and Master Data -Business Partner

2019-09-24T17:14:02+02:00

SAP S/4HANA Data Migration Cockpit

Hi 🙂 ,

Welcome to Migration cockpit World...

After huge success of SAP Data Services, SAP introduces another good product for data migration called- Migration Cockpit(MC).

Data migration is a process of transforming data from heterogeneous systems to heterogeneous targets with lots of information.

Data Migration is one of the keys and complex areas in an SAP implementation project.

So the Data Migration process includes:

Extraction of data from the source system

Transformation of the data to SAP format

Loading of data into the corresponding SAP module

Introduction:

In a new implementation of SAP S/4HANA system, data is migrated from the SAP system/Non-SAP system to SAP S/4HANA system.

SAP S/4HANA provides comprehensive migration solutions with no programming requirement by the customer, automated mapping of data between source and target system, predefined templates, easily integrated custom objects, reduce test effort and minimize downtime.

Following are different options available for data migration in SAP S/4HANA on-premises:

SAP DATA Services (SAP DS)

SAP Rapid Data Migration Content

SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit with Migration object modeler

SAP Data Services:
SAP DS is an ETL tool from SAP, which was a huge success for Dataware house and data migration which follows the methodology as E-T-L (Extraction, Transformation, and Load). It also provides data quality management and text data processing. The ETL capabilities of the tool can be used free of charge, but the data quality features require a Data Services license.

SAP Rapid Data Migration:
The rapid data migration to SAP S/4HANA solution enables you to realize the full benefits of our next-generation business suite even faster. It accelerates the process of cleansing, validating, transforming, and migrating your data from any system to SAP S/4HANA.

SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit(MC):
Here we will discuss data migration in SAP S/4HANA system using Migration Cockpit and create a sample business partner-Supplier.

- SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit is an automated migration tool provided with preconfigured content and mapping for each migration object. For all major functional areas like a business partner, product, customer, bank, profit center, cost center, plant, GL, etc.
- Migration objects are predefined and their sequence and dependency are also defined. Each migration object contains its own predefined template in which source data is uploaded. Automatic mapping is done in source and target structures using the template. Migration programs are automatically generated for validating data, simulating data and loading into the target system

Key Features of Migration Cockpit:

This tool is embedded and delivered with SAP S/4HANA system

No programming is required by the customer

This tool is used to migrate data from SAP or Non SAP system to SAP S/4HANA

This tool has a predefined migration object which contains a mapping for all master/transactional data. It reduces migration cost and time

Migration activities are predefined and easy to use

The Actual technical part is here:

Let us start how to deal with migration cockpit:

Go to transaction codeL LMTC --> It will open MC on a new web browser.

Step 1:

The Web browser has been opened with the above transaction:

Step 2:

Here, to start with a new project, please click on the “Create” button as highlighted in below screen and it will pop-up with project details to-be filled screen.

Step 3:

Please enter Project name and Default view as shown below:

The main thing is Master Transfer ID: it generated automatically based on existing projects count, If you want your own customized ID, Please click on “Generate New Mass Transfer ID”.

This Transfer ID has its own interesting part at code movement between different systems.

Note: It should be same and unique across all environments.

Example: If DEV-008 then TEST and QUALITY should be 008.

Let’s create Project:

Step 4: Project has been created successfully.

Step5: Go to LTMOM and select the object level information:

Step 6: Now create a migration object here:

Step 7: Creating a Migration object

Step 8: Select the created project from LTMC

Step 9: Select your object- here I have selected Supplier

Step 10: You can check the status of creation as highlighted in below screen, Once the object is selected, go for the further steps:

Step 11: Check the source structure

Step 12: Check the target structure

The important thing here: It displays which function module it uses.

Step 13: Now click on Generate object button highlighted below:

Step 14: Finally, Object has been generated with source and target structures.

Step 15: Now go back to MC and select the generated object:

Step 16: Now download the template:

Step 17: Download template

Step 18: Once the template is downloaded, ensure it is relevant one.

Step 19: Fill the values(sample values been portrayed here)

Note: you need to fill all the sheets whatever been selected at the time of creating the project in LMTC and MC.

Step 20: Upload The filled template

It is uploaded

Step 21: Activate it

Step 22: It is activated and then please click “start transfer”

Step 23: start transfer (results)

Step 24: click next for convert values

Step 25: Results of Start transfer

Step 26: Follow convert values and simulate report

Step27: Click next and start “Execute import”

Once this step is done, click on FINISH and check results in SAP S/4 HANA.

In the next blog posts, we can discuss more on processings.

That’s all about this blog post.

Happy Learning!!! 🙂

SAP S/4HANA - Supplier Evaluation by Questionnaire

2020-03-30T11:45:19+02:00

Hey there!

This blog post will give an insight of the new evaluation method of suppliers by questionnaire (soft facts) which is a part of 'supplier and category management' in SAP S/4HANA.

Theme: SAP S/4HANA Supplier Evaluation by Questionnaire

FIORI Apps:

Manage Questions

Manage Questionnaires

Supplier Evaluation by Questionnaire

Manage Templates

Evaluate Supplier

Monitor Responses

The supplier evaluation by questionnaire app will determine the scores of suppliers based on the questionnaires and responses.

The KPI is displayed in the following views:

By Supplier

By Purchasing Category

Document

For relevant roles to be enabled in both front-end and back-end please refer to FIORI apps library.

Process:

Manage Questions:

In order to create questions, we need to create a group, then create a section under a group and then create questions under the sections.

In the below tab, create a group for grouping of similar category of questions for evaluation

Then, create a section under a group to have further sub-divisions of questions

Then create the questions and scoring method for any of the available types - yes/no, single answer, multiple answer and free text

Manage Questionnaires:

In manage questionnaires app, click on create and fill in the basic details such as the questionnaire name and purchasing category.

In the questions tab, the section and relevant questions under the section to be added.

Once all the details are set up, click on 'Release'.

Manage Templates (Group Based Evaluation):

In this app, create a template and maintain the list of appraisers, supplier peer group and attach the questionnaire created in the previous app.

Once all the details are set up, please click on 'Release'.

Click on 'Start Group-Based Evaluation' to initiate the evaluation request creation. Enter the period to be evaluated and click on 'Submit Evaluation Request' to trigger the notification and request to the appraisers.

Evaluate Suppliers:

Click on the open evaluation request and navigate to the questions tab to participate the survey and submit the responses.

Based on the answers, the score is calculated.

Monitor Responses & Display Scorecard:

In these apps, all the responses along with the status and scores can be monitored.

Supplier Evaluation by Questionnaire:

Once all the responses are received, the supplier scores can be determined in this app.

The other relevant FIORI applications on supplier evaluation are -

Supplier Evaluation by Price

Supplier Evaluation by Quantity

Supplier Evaluation by Time

Supplier Evaluation by Quality - Inspection Lot

Supplier Evaluation by Quality - Notifications

Operational Supplier Evaluation

Overall Supplier Evaluation

Thank you and hope this blog post could have helped you to set up the questionnaire method of supplier evaluation with ease!

Have a great day ahead!

SAP S/4HANA Supplier Evaluation Steps

2020-04-10T12:17:30+02:00

Dear SAP Friends,

Welcome to another interesting topic i.e., Supplier Evaluation Steps,

With continuation to my previous blog Overview of Supplier Evaluation

List of Apps Required

Manage Purchasing Categories

Supplier Evaluation Weighting and Scoring.

Supplier Evaluation by Quality – Inspection Lot.

Adjust Operational Supplier Evaluation Score.

Manage Questions - Evaluation.

Manage Templates - Evaluation app.

Evaluate Suppliers app.

Display Scorecards - Evaluation Questionnaire

Monitor Responses – Evaluation

And roles required

Buyer	SAP_BR_BUYER /SRMSMC/BG_SUP_EVAL_BUYSIDE
Buyer	SAP_BR_BUYER Add additional role /SRMSMC/QUESTIONNAIRE_MANAGER /SRMSMC/CATEGORY_MANAGER in the backend system for S/4HANA only
Employee Procurement	SAP_BR_EMPLOYEE_PROCUREMENT Add additional role /SRMSMC/EVALUATION_APPRAISER in the backend system for S/4HANA only
Purchaser	SAP_BR_PURCHASER

Open Manage Purchasing Categories

2. Choose Create.

3. In the General section, make the following entries:

- Name : enter a name for the purchasing category, e.g. Test_PurchasingCategory

- Purchaser Responsible : User ID

Assign Suppliers

In the Suppliers section, choose Add Supplier

And add required suppliers which you want to evaluate

Assign Team Employees

In the Team section, Choose Add Employee, In the search help Add Employee, choose Go.

In the search result list, select an employee and choose OK.

Assign Material Groups

In the Material Groups section, choose Add Material Groups and enter following data in the dialogue box :

Material Group ID: Choose as per requirement GO button.

Choose Save.

Open Supplier Evaluation Weighting and Scoring

Create new weighting and scoring, Choose Add to add new weighting and scoring for a specific purchasing category

In the GENERAL INFORMATION section, enter the following information:

Purchasing Category: <select a purchasing category from the dropdown list.

In the CRITERION section, check all the check box in the column Active, then enter the weighting value below:

Inspection Lot: <For example, 10%>

Quantity:<For example, 20%>

Time: <For example, 20%>

Price: <For example, 20%>

Questionnaire: <For example, 20%>

Quality Notification: <For example, 10%>

Adjust Quantity Scoring data

Select the entry Quantity.

Choose the field Quantity. Choose Edit.

Adjust the value of the Variance Percentage and Variance Score if necessary.

Save the data.

Open Manage Questions - Evaluation.

Go to the tab Sections and Select New to create several sections.

Enter the Section Details (at least the mandatory fields).

For easy identification purpose given both same values

Save the entries.

No Go to the tab Questions. And Select New to create several questions. Create at least one question for each question type.

They are 4 type of questions we can create as per requirement.

I select Yes / No with is easy 😛

Enter the Question Details. Ensure that some questions allow attachments and/or comments.

I have maintained Question Ariba and going to ask Supplier that whether he is using Ariba network or not along with that I have enabled comments to he can say version and any other if required

Score selected as Yes as correct answer

Choose Save.

Manage Questionnaires - Evaluation app.

Select Create.

Maintain new questionnaire by entering at least a questionnaire name, external name, sections and questions. Assign purchasing categories by choosing one of purchasing category from the dropdown list, then choose Add

Several purchasing categories can be assigned. Not only one

Now go to Questions tab and need to maintain overall target score & overall minimum score

To decide Pass or fail ?

Search for your previously created sections and questions.

Add questions of all types. Mark some questions as mandatory. For questions of type Yes/No, mark some of them as disqualifying and enter weighting factors.

If you have created questions of type Single Answer, maintain the scores and weighting factors.

Go to Language for external questionnaire Name and maintain previously created Question Name which you maintained in Basic Data Tab

Save the entries. & Select Release.

Manage Templates - Evaluation app

Choose Create button. Maintain the new group-based evaluation template by entering at least a name, an external name, an appraiser (for example: employee_procurement) and a supplier and by assigning your previously created evaluation questionnaire.

Go to Appraiser Tab Ensure that you add an appraiser for which you have a user with a maintained e-mail address.

Go to Supplier Peer group and select Suppliers for whom this template need to be assigned

Go to Questionnaire Tab. And add score information and at least one questionnaire created previously.

Go to Communication with Appraisers tab and maintain template name

Save the entries. And Choose the Release button to release the group-based evaluation template.

After released Choose Start Group-Based Evaluation.

Maintain the group-based evaluation request by entering at least an Evaluation Request Name and a Period to Be Evaluated.

Choose Submit Evaluation Request.

Evaluate Suppliers app.

Select the corresponding evaluation response with status New which has the same name as your group-based evaluation request.

Answer the questions.

This is how question paper looks once all the above steps done properly means

Once Answered all the questions Save your changes and Choose Submit.

That’s it completed Passed ?

Open Display Scorecards - Evaluation Questionnaires app.

Find the corresponding group-based evaluation response in the list and check the status.

Drill down into details of sections and questions.

Open Supplier Evolution by Questionnaire App it’s a Report

We can see beauty of Fiori Analytical reports as below

In this way, we can evaluate suppliers without any business use or copy of data

Also, refer to https://blogs.sap.com/2020/02/11/supplier-evaluation-steps/ to see demo video of supplier evaluation

Please share, Like and Comment anything else you want to share or add points.

Thanks & Regards

Ruthvik Chowdary

SME – S/4HANA Logistics

SAP Ariba P2P

S/4 HANA Article Master – Listing article-Part3

2020-07-03T11:22:34+02:00

SAP S/4HANA Article Listing – Part3

Hi ?,

Welcome back to the S/4 HANA blog post series.

This blog post is the continuation of the below blog posts:

SAP S/4 HANA Material Master Introduction

SAP S/4 HANA Material Master Views

S/4 HANA Article Master – Listing article-Part1

S/4 HANA Article Master – Listing article-Part2

In previous blog posts, we have discussed

Material/Article

Article types

Article Categories

Article Various views

creation of the views

the linkage between the Material master views

article Listing methods/approaches
1. we have defined 3 approaches/MethodsMethod1
  1. Create an assortment module and assign materials
  2. Assign the module(s) to the assortment (s)
  Method2
  1. Promotional modules, rackjobbres
  Method3
  1. Layout
    1. Create layout Modules and assign Materials
    2. Assign Layout Modules to layout
    3. Assign Layout to assortments

we have already discussed Method1 in S/4 HANA Article Master – Listing article-Part2.

Let us Discuss on another Method - Direct creating individual article listing against the assortment

Let us start -

Prerequisites -

we must have created Assortment and Modules as shown in previous sessions in S/4 HANA Article Master – Listing article-Part2.

Go to Transaction - WSP4 to create Individual Listing article or navigate as below:

Direct creating individual article listing against the assortment

Once you enter WSP4 - Create, you will be asked with Article and Assortment details -Please enter.

create Individual Listing article

Give the article and assortment details, listing procedure, and other details and save. Listings is created.

Then we check on WLK1 entries-

WLK1 entries

Entries found in WLK1 - means Listing of that particular Materials is done.

WLK1 - Entry Found

The articles are listed successfully.

Now we can check whether the listing is successful or not via sales order.

TCODE: ME21N

Sales Order

the sales order is generating for the listed articles to particular sites/plants.

Sales Order – created via listings

This is another way of creating an article Listing using the Direct method.

we will cover via the Layout method in the next parts.

In the next blog posts, we can discuss more on processing.

S/4 HANA Article Master – Listing article-Part4

That’s all about this blog post.

Thanks for reading, please provide your feedback. ?

Happy Learning, see you in my next blog post ?

Thanks,

Venkatesh Golla

S/4HANA Supplier Evaluation by Questionnaire (Soft Facts)

2020-11-19T09:28:20+01:00

Contents:

Overview

Business Scenario

Overall Supplier Evaluation

Process Flow

Technical Information

Roles – Prerequisites

Configuration setup

Conclusion

1. Overview

To ensure sustainable supply base, supplier management and their development are continuous activities. Here, Supplier evaluation helps to understand the performance and identify areas of improvement for suppliers. Suppliers can be assessed based on following parameters under two categories:

Quantitative (Hard facts) => Evaluation by quality, delivery time & quantity and price

Qualitative (Soft facts) => Evaluation by questionnaires. For example: Quality certifications, compliance, CSR, strength, weakness etc

This document covers insights and related processes associated with Supplier Evaluation by Questionnaire in S/4HANA.

2. Business Scenario

Supplier Evaluation by Questionnaire is a standalone process to assess suppliers based on set of pre-defined questions related to the situation or scenario. This evaluation can be done as and when required. Following are possible scenarios where supplier could be evaluated by soft facts.

Supplier Audit

Quotation Comparison

Supplier Onboarding

Separate Questionnaire can be prepared based on the context for evaluation. Scores and weightages are assigned to questions which is the base for evaluation.

Also Minimum accepted score can be given for both question and questionnaire. Results are in RED when it’s below minimum accepted score, GREEN when its 100% or Target Score and ORANGE when it’s below 100% or Target Score & above minimum accepted score.

Results are viewed real-time in app like Display Suppliers at the “Evaluations” tab

Evaluation Scores at the Display Supplier Fiori App

3. Overall Supplier Evaluation

Evaluation by Questionnaire can be looked upon individually or overall with other hard fact criterions also. First of all, switch on “Supplier evaluation by purchase category” and then, the weightage can be given for “Questionnaire” along with other hard facts criteria like quantity, time, price, inspection lot and quality notification in the app “Supplier Evaluation Weighting and Scoring”.

Supplier Evaluation Weighting and Scoring Fiori App

Note: Purchase categories are grouping of material groups (1:1) and suppliers (N:N) using app “Manage Purchase Categories”

SPRO > Materials Management > Purchasing > Supplier Evaluation > Supplier Evaluation by Purchasing Category > Switch to Supplier Evaluation by Purchasing Category

Configuration for Switching to Supplier Evaluation by Purchasing Category

4. Process Flow

Below process flow chart explains various steps in the process along with important apps used for monitor & analysis purpose.

Process Flow of SE by Questionnaire

Step 1: App: Manage Questions

Role: /SRMSMC/QUESTIONNAIRE_MANAGER

Create Sections can be used to group the type of questions based on the nature of the questions or simply the questions belonging to similar topics are divided into sections.

Create Groups: Groups are broader classification of the sections and questions. For example in a Quality related questionnaire, the Group can be “Quality”, the section can be “Quality Certification”, and the questions under this section can be related to various ISO certifications.

Step 2: App: Manage Questions

Role: /SRMSMC/QUESTIONNAIRE_MANAGER

Create questions and assign to groups. Following are 4 types of questions. Only 1 & 2 are considered for scores and scores are be given during the question creation. Other types of questions, 3 & 4 are used to record information.

Yes/No question => considered for scoring. Attachments and comments from recipients can be added. Only this type of question can be defined as disqualifying question.

Single Answer question => considered for scoring. Attachments and comments from recipients can be added.

Multiple Answer question => record information and not considered for scoring. Only attachments from recipients can be added.

Free text question => record information and not considered for scoring. Only attachments from recipients can be added.

Note: For instance, for a Yes/No question that is marked as disqualifying, if the answer from the appraiser is not the answer what is expected then the activities to improve the performance of the supplier can be initiated.

Questionnaire with Mandatory and Disqualifying Questions

Mandatory and Disqualifying Question information during Evaluation

Step 3: App: Manage Questionnaires

Role: /SRMSMC/QUESTIONNAIRE_MANAGER

Create Questionnaire: Assemble individual questions & sections created in the previous step as a Questionnaire. Here, questions can be set “mandatory”, “disqualifying” and “Dependent questions”. Weightage is assigned to questions and sections. Questions can be made Mandatory which appraiser cannot submit without answering. Further, questions can be defined as having Dependent questions where the appraiser should answer dependent question based on the choice of answer. This is allowed only for questions type 1 & 2 mentioned above.

For example, for the question “Are you a ISO certified?”, when the appraiser chooses “Yes”, then the branching/dependent question like “Since when?” can be displayed as there is no point in displaying this question when the answer for the main question is “No”.

Now, the questionnaire is in “Preparation” status and a questionnaire manager (role) can “Release” it. Purchasing Categories can also be assigned (optional) to the questionnaire as it serves the purpose of retrieval of the questionnaire during the template creation (next step).

Step 4: App: Manage Templates

Role: /SRMSMC/CATEGORY_MANAGER

The Category Manager (role) creates the evaluation templates from the released questionnaires and add list of suppliers and appraisers to it. Further, the template has details of purchasing category, purchaser responsible, number of days until response and deadline for evaluation. More than one questionnaire can be added to the evaluation template along with weightage. Also if there are multiple suppliers, appraisers and questionnaires in the evaluation template, we can assign all or subset of the suppliers and questionnaires against an appraiser in the “Assignment” tab of this app. The evaluation template is “Released” for creating evaluation requests. The status of the evaluation template will then change from “In Preparation” to “Released” when it is released. These templates can be used repeatedly to create evaluation requests when the need for evaluation has similar properties.

Step 5: App: Manage Templates

Role: /SRMSMC/CATEGORY_MANAGER

Create Group-based evaluation: Now, a new group based evaluation request can be generated and sent to the appraiser via email from the released evaluation template in the above step. The body of the email sent to appraiser can be given in the “email invitation” field. In this app, changes can be made to the list of suppliers, appraisers and the assignment of appraisers to suppliers and questionnaires (if required). New questionnaires other than already available cannot be added here. Response deadline date is proposed based on the number of days entered in the evaluation template and the same can also be modified.

Starting Group Based Evaluation Request

Submitting Group Based Evaluation Request

Step 6: App: Evaluate Suppliers

Role: /SRMSMC/ EVALUATION_APPRAISER

Evaluation of Suppliers: Each appraiser will receive as many evaluation requests as the number of suppliers and questionnaires assigned. Now, the appraiser has to answer the questions and the responses are submitted. While submitting the evaluation response, the appraiser can see the score. The status of evaluation request will change from “New” to “In-Process” and finally to “Submitted”.

Step 7 (i): App: Display Scorecards

Display Scorecards gives the entire evaluation details under section and further it can be drill down to questions and respective answers provided by the appraiser (role).

Step 7 (ii): App: Monitor Response

Monitor Response of the appraisers by Purchaser (role). The status will change from “Pending Reply” to “In-Process by Appraiser” then to “Returned” after submission. The responses from appraiser cannot be revoked once submitted.

Step 7 (iii): App: Supplier Evaluation by Questionnaire

Supplier Evaluation by Questionnaire fiori app gives analytical view of the scores obtained by the suppliers.

5. Technical Information

Following are few tables used in the supplier evaluation by questionnaire process

/SRMSMC/D_QLBRT - Question Library Root Node

/SRMSMC/D_QLBSEC - Question Library Section Node

/SRMSMC/D_QLBSET - Section Master Title

/SRMSMC/D_QLBQST - Question Library Question Node

/SRMSMC/D_QLBVAL - Question Library Question Value Node - Scores for each question options

/SRMSMC/D_QLBVLN - Question Library Question Val. Name Node - each question options

/SRMSMC/D_SRS_QN - Question node

/SRMSMC/D_SRS_QR - Questionnaire node

6. Roles – Pre-requisites

1. Assign Business Roles based on users responsibility

Role: Strategic Buyer: SAP_BR_BUYER <=> App: Supplier Evaluation by Questionnaire

Role: Purchaser: SAP_BR_PURCHASER <=> App: Supplier Evaluation by Questionnaire

Role: Employee Procurement: SAP_BR_EMPLOYEE_PROCUREMENT <=> App: Evaluate Suppliers

2. Additional PFCG roles required are:

Role: Questionnaire Manager: /SRMSMC/QUESTIONNAIRE_MANAGER <=> App: Manage Questionnaires & Manage Questions

Role: Appraiser: /SRMSMC/EVALUATION_APPRAISER <=> App: Evaluate Suppliers

Role: Category Manager: /SRMSMC/CATEGORY_MANAGER <=> App: Manage Templates

3. Synchronize SAP users ID to Employee as BP (Tc: PA30)

7. Configuration setup – Pre-requisites

Number range for Questions, Sections, Questionnaire, Template & Request, Responses & Scorecard (mandate)

IMG- Materials Management –Purchasing –Supplier and Category Management –Supplier Evaluation –Number Ranges for Supplier Evaluation

Number Range Configuration for SE by Questionnaire

Question Library Creation (Language specific) (mandatory)

IMG > Materials Management > Purchasing > Supplier and Category Management > Supplier Evaluation > Basic Settings for Supplier Evaluation > Create Question Library for Supplier Evaluation

Question Library for SE

8. Conclusion

Supplier evaluation by Questionnaire in SAP S/4HANA is a simplified process that facilitates recording of evaluation by soft facts without having to rely on external questionnaire tools and can be considered for Overall supplier evaluation along with hard facts.

Smart and intelligent Data migration framework for SAP supplier management solutions

2021-08-02T12:08:42+02:00

Business case:

An organization is in the process of implementing a new supplier management solution (viz. Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance). The Ariba SLP needs to connect to multiple ERPs(S4HANA and ECC) and non-SAP systems as data source for suppliers. The current architecture employs a MDM system connected to multiple ERP systems for managing the supplier master data. The organization is looking to efficiently migrate the existing supplier master data from its legacy MDM and/or ERP systems and non-SAP systems to the newly implemented supplier management solution (viz. Ariba Supplier Lifecycle Performance) as part of overall implementation program.

Challenges:

The challenge is to migrate 100k+ supplier master records(in ERPs) along with supplier risk records (not part of supplier master data and currently maintained in non-SAP system) to supplier management solution (in this case Ariba SLP) with following key things in mind:

Reduce time and cost of such large-scale migration

Ease of approach and methodology

Mitigate risk of duplication of supplier objects/data loss.

There are 2 different types of supplier related data which are in the scope.

Supplier business partner data

Supplier risk records (not part of BP)

The key is to address all 3 important aspects of data migration as shown below. There is currently no tool to facilitate the migration with this organization.

3 key aspects of data migration

Architecture:

Based on customer requirements, a tool is designed to exploit capabilities of MDG. SAP MDG-S being the only solution for integrating Ariba SLP to multiple ERPs, is also a perfect 'fit gap' for data migration. The overall architecture of the supplier management solution post implementation would look like below. The risk shown here is not related to Ariba Supplier risk module but is a data point within Ariba Supplier Lifecycle Performance module captured for suppliers in the various external and internal questionnaires’ responses in the registration/qualification phase..

Overall integration architecture of supplier management suite of applications

Data migration strategy:

SAP MDG can address the data consolidation and distribution challenges using the CVI. It facilitates the consolidation of the master data from the decentralized data sources and/or centrally governs the data.

Customer Vendor Integration (CVI) in MDG

CVI is SAP's way of converting business partner data into customer and vendor master data, and vice versa

CVI component ensure the synchronization between the BP object and the Customer/Vendor objects.

SAP MDG capabilities

There are 2 options available in MDG for customer vendor integration

Method 1: BP creation in source

CVI sync configuration in respective ERP

BP IDOC from ERP to MDG

Any Cleansing & Enrichment needed

Overlapping number range for Suppliers to be managed

BP number range to be aligned with existing ERP’s BP

Needs multiple iterations to get perfection

Key Advantage: Incorrectly created BP can stay in source system and selective migration can be done with clean data in new system

Method 2: BP creation in Target

CVI sync configuration in MDG

Supplier IDOC from ERPs to MDG

Cleansing & Enrichment happens in staging

Overlapping number range for Suppliers to be managed

BP number range to be aligned with existing ERP’s BP

Needs multiple iterations to get perfection

Key Advantage: Better control during transformation as cleansing and enrichment happens at one place during staging.

The major hurdle here is that the target system is Ariba SLP (cloud solution outside firewall) and it doesn’t use idoc, To facilitate such data migration, we need to have a smart and intelligent data migration tool with a framework which bridges the gap between multiple sources & complements the MDG consolidation for efficient data migration to Ariba SLP.

The migration framework for the newly designed tool looks like below

Smart data migration framework

While designing this framework, we need to keep in mind two different approaches and evaluate which one is simpler and cheaper to implement on case-to-case basis. The below diagram depicts we have two different paths to achieve the migration and they are usually mutually exclusive.

Design - Intelligent Smart data migration framework

The supplier risk records are not part of supplier master data but are maintained as separate records in on cloud non-SAP systems. The supplier risk records can also be uploaded into the supplier management solution (viz. Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance) using an RPA bot.

Automation framework for supplier risk data migration

Conclusion:

With the advent of new age cloud solutions for supplier lifecycle management (in our case Ariba SLP), we need to innovate for addressing real life problems like devising smart data migration tools. The conceptualization and design of smart and intelligent data migration framework is the main ingredient of our data migration strategy and we should try to exploit the existing capabilities of source, target and intermediate systems to achieve our goal.

Automation in data migration is now need of the day and we need to continuously look for automation opportunities throughout the program lifecycle & beyond.

Caveat:

In our case if we are also replacing SAP MDM with MDG as part of the project, we also need a transition phase strategy to minimize impact and mitigate business disruption risks. I will cover this in a separate blog post.

Request you all to provide comments to improve this blog post.

I would highly encourage everyone to follow the topics related to data migration into supplier management solutions and make the community more engageable.

https://community.sap.com/topics/supplier-relationship-management

Request you to please follow my profile on SAP community for more blog posts and insights.

Charge vendors for non-compliance or issues identified during GR via SD

2021-09-02T10:13:36+02:00

Introduction: In this post, I will elaborate on how to charge suppliers for non-compliances or issues found after an inspection via SD.

Business process overview: Once goods receipt is posted in SAP if the material/article master has inspection activated, then SAP will create an inspection lot to be processed for that PO line item. If material is found defective and I need to rework it, user will log defects and a quality notification can be created automatically with defects found after user saves inspection results. Coordinator will have the item reworked and then assign to vendor compliance to charge vendor for defective inventory, after corrective action has taken place. I will bill supplier via SD debit memo.

Problem: Per standard practice I can activate QM order. This talks to Controlling cost collector for non-conformities (Issues identified during GR). Problem with this is I am not able to generate an invoice or debit memo to bill suppliers. Therefore, I will go via SD and create a debit memo and post it to supplier’s customer account.

Currently if I have a quality notification I cannot create a sales document (DR - Debit memo) as there is additional configuration that SAP is looking for.

SAP output sales order creation is not possible for this notification type. SAP is looking into table TQ80. SAP requires a value against notification in table TQ80-SDAUART. Since this is blank, I will get below message.

SAP is checking table TQ80-SDAUART. Per below screen shot there is no sales document assigned to quality notification. This blocks me from integrating with SD.

Configuration requirements:

Quality Notification type (I will configure a new notification type just so I have standard to always reference back to).
1. I can use exiting notification F2 and only do following configurations:
  - Step 2 in config
  - Step 4 in config
  - Step 5 in config

Quality Notification action box (Optional) I will skip this config

Inspection type (assignment of notification type to inspection type)

Master Data requirements:

Material/Article master - must exist for sales area

Vendor master – Business partner needs to exist for following roles:
1. FLVN00
2. FLVN01
3. FLCU00
4. FLCU01

- For GR/IR clearing vendor must be assigned to customer and customer to vendor in general data
- Clearing flag must be set in the payment transaction views of supplier and customer accounting roles. Also, payment method needs to be same for both roles. FLCU00 and FLVN00

Below steps are needed to configure Quality Notification Type in SAP

Step 1 – Create/Define Notification type

1.1 – Path- QCC0 --> Quality Notification --> Notification Creation --> Notification Type --> Define Notification type.

Select F2 and click on copy as I will create my own notification type.

My Notification type will be Z9. Notification origin should be “Q2 Complain against vendor”. Assign number range. Save --> Back.

1.2 – Path- QCC0 --> Quality Notification --> Notification Creation --> Notification Type --> Define Number Ranges. Define number ranges and the assign to notification type refer to 1.1

1.3 – Path- QCC0 --> Quality Notification --> Notification Creation --> Notification Type --> Define Screen Templates.

To copy from existing notification, click on select “Copy Screen Areas from the Standard System”.

Double click on Define Screen Areas and Tabs. Select notification type Z9 and double click on “Notification Header: Screen areas”. Maintain same values as F2 notification type and save back.

Now I need to define initial screens of quality notification.

I can test if all the screens I want to copy are ok by leaving X in test once ok remove X and execute. Save Back.

Step 2 – Define and Assign Partner determination

2.1 – Path- QCC0 --> Quality Notification --> Notification Creation --> Partners --> Define Partner Determination Procedure --> Define Partner Determination Procedure

Select quality management click on change Partner

Select Q2 and click on copy as

Select name for description than save output to copy all entries.

Select Z9 notification type and double click on “Functions in determination procedure”

Make sure sold to Party, Supplier, and Coordinator Partner Functions are flagged so I will not forget to maintain value during notification creation. If any other is required should be maintained here than Save and back.

Double click on “Assign partner functions to notification type”

I will select my notification type and click on details

Assign sold to party and Supplier partner functions and all the others that are required in appropriate field. Since I mentioned in the partner functions that Sold to party, Supplier, and Coordinator are required, I need to mention those here so SAP can determine and require user to input partners (Value in partner functions). Now save and back.

Step 3 – Define Priorities

3.1 – Path- QCC0 --> Quality Notification --> Notification Processing --> Response Control --> Define Priorities --> Priority type for Notification type

I will select my Notification type Z9 and click on details

Assign priority type QM to notification. Save and Back

Step 4 – Assign Notification type to Inspection type

Now assign notification type to Inspection type to automatically create notification during results recording. QCC0 --> Quality Inspection --> Inspection lot Creation --> Maintain inspection types. Since I will be doing charge back against goods receipt, I’ll select 01 inspection type (Goods Receipt Insp. for Purchase Order) click on details and I will maintain my newly configured notification type. Save and back

Step 5 – Assign Sales order type to Quality Notification type

To assign sales order type, I must make the notification type as customer facing. Otherwise, I won’t be able to see and maintain any value against notification type. Currently I don’t see it per below snapshot of Tcode - OIM9 (Path: SPRO --> Plant Maintenance and Customer Service --> Maintenance and Service Processing --> Maintenance and Service Notifications --> Notification Creation --> Notification Types --> Define Order Types and Special Notification Parameters).

Configuration – B:

5.1 – Path- QCC0 --> Quality Notification --> Notification Creation --> Notification Type --> Define Notification type. Select Z9 and click on details.

Change Notification origin to Q1 Customer Complaint and Save and back.

5.2 – Path SPRO --> Plant Maintenance and Customer Service --> Maintenance and Service Processing --> Maintenance and Service Notifications --> Notification Creation --> Notification Types --> Define Order Types and Special Notification Parameters (tcode – OIM9). Now my notification Z9 will be visible I will select and click on detail

Assign a sales document type (any sales document). I will assign DR (Debit Memo) as this is the one I will be utilizing this process for now Save and back.

5.3 – Now I need to change the notification back to complaint against vendor, as my notifications will be created once GR is posted against PO/inbound delivery. Go back to path QCC0 --> Quality Notification --> Notification Creation --> Notification Type --> Define Notification type. Select Z9 and click on details. I will change notification origin to Q2 Complaint against vendor and save.

5.4 – Table TQ80 now has value DR that I just assigned.

Step 6 – Test:

6.1 now I will use notification 200000049 I created earlier to test if SAP allows me to create a debit memo. In QM02 I will input my notification number and enter.

6.2 Now to create a debit memo click on More --> Notification --> Functions --> Sales Order --> Create Selection of order type

6.3 Enter sales org. distribution channel and division than click on ok or enter.

6.4 I will select order type DR by double clinking for debit memo. SAP will allow to create any sales document if the Material/Article master has appropriate sales area as well as vendor.

6.5 SAP will open VA01 transaction to allow me to create a debit memo. I will enter article with issues, quantity, and order reason. For pricing, please reach out to your SD consultant. To do billing against debit memo I need to remove billing block. Now go back and in notification click on save. SAP output sales order has been created.

6.6 Now go to back to Change notification QM02 document flow. More --> Extras --> Notification Documents --> Document Flow--> List.

SAP will give show all the documents that were created with reference to this notification.

6.7 Now do billing in VF01 and save. Let’s go back to Quality notification document flow. I can double click and view debit memo request or any of the documents mentioned here.

In Conclusion: SD document type DR can be used to bill supplier for issues found during receiving. This will give supplier visibility what is the reason for this debit memo on their account. Below is business process flow that I can support.

QM consultant must:

Involve SD consultant for pricing procedure and customer master, MM for vendor master, and FI for accounting.

Any comments and concern please let me know. Thanks!

Special thanks to:

Peter Fisher

Christian Fuchs

Dhanamma Hiremath

Ariba SLP to MDG Integration & replication troubleshoot

2021-09-22T15:05:08+02:00

Summary:

This blog post would help you save time and effort and not reinvent the wheel. We have penned down general areas where all SAP-MDG projects struggle with Ariba Integration. If we observe more scenarios will create a version 2.

Below are the frequent and important scenarios faced while working with Ariba SLP <--> MDG.

Scenario 1:

How do we create a Change Requests (diff for create/change) from the payload incoming from Ariba SLP?

Solution 1:

Implement BADI MDG_SE_BP_BULK_REPLRQ_IN, in method INBOUND_PROCESSING write below code:

- Define internal table with type MDG_USER_PROXY_SETTING_T.

- Append Line 1

FIELD_NAME = "PROXY_PERSISTANCE".

FIELD_VALUE = "1".

- Append Line 2

FIELD_NAME = “SUPPLIER_CHANGE”

FIELD_VALUE = <CR Type>

- Call method: CL_MDG_BP_BUPA_SI_IN=>IF_MDG_UPLOAD_PROXY~SETUP_FOR_FILE_UPLOAD ( Exporting IV_INSTANCE = 1 IT_USER_SETTING = <Above Internal Table> )

******************************************************************************************************************

Scenario 2:

Once we enable DRF to Ariba from MDG, how does the Business Partner number flow back to SLP post BP is created in MDG to enable Bi-Sync?

Solution 2:

Implement BADI MDG_SE_BP_BULK_REPLRQ_OUT, in method IF_MDG_BP_BULK_REPLRQ_OUT~OUTBOUND_PROCESSING

Get current Business Partner Id from OUT-BUSINESS_PARTNER-INTERNAL_ID or OUT-BUSINESS_PARTNER-SUPPLIER-INTERNAL_ID.

Ensure both Internal Ids are same (i.e. contains BP number).

Read Key mapping data to get Supplier Id via below APIs

CL_MDG_ID_MATCHING_API_BS=>GET_INSTANCE

IF_MDG_ID_MATCHING_API_BS=>QUERY_OBJECTS

Fill Supplier Id in OUT-BUSINESS_PARTNER-RECEIVER_INTERNAL_ID & OUT-BUSINESS_PARTNER-SUPPLIER-RECEIVER_INTERNAL_ID

Also, ensure UUID fields are in sync.

******************************************************************************************************************

Scenario 3:

Supplier getting replicated from Ariba SLP but CR or BP is not created in SAP-MDG?

Solution 3:

We have observed error logging during creation process is not readable, and we need to debug it’s API related methods and below are the places where setting a breakpoint during replication process would get us error message in general.

If processing is not real time via service and works based on batch job of Pull program (/ARBA/SM_BUSINESS_PARTNER_PULL) then place additional breakpoint in this program to check if the process is pulling payload data from Ariba or not.

For all scenarios, below methods help a lot to gather error message:

CL_MDG_BP_BUPA_SI_IN=>DO_SAVE

CL_MDG_BP_BUPA_SI_IN=>DO_SEND_CONFIRMATION

NOTE: these are the frequent places where I’ve encountered error, incase it’s not appearing here more detailed debugging would be needed.

******************************************************************************************************************

Putting down few links from which I felt are quite enlightening from other bloggers/experts:

Experience Seamless Supplier Integration with SAP Ariba Powered By Master Data Governance | SAP Blogs

SAP MDG-S Integration with Ariba-SLP | SAP Blogs

Integration of SAP Master Data Governance (MDG) with SAP Ariba Supplier and Lifecycle Performance (SLP) | SAP Blogs

Please feel free to add comments or more scenarios & solutions herein.

Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz

2021-12-17T19:53:38+01:00

Am 1. Januar 2023 tritt das Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz in Kraft. Erfahren Sie, wie Unternehmen mögliche Risiken vermeiden und Chancen nutzen können.

Ich habe gemeinsam an diesem Whitepaper mit folgende Autoren gearbeitet: Dr. Jan Herrmann, Patrik Spalt, Jillian Abele und themmert .

Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz: Chance für mehr Resilienz und Vertrauen

Rund 80 % der in Deutschland ansässigen Unternehmen mit mehr als 500 Beschäftigten kommen ihren Sorgfaltspflichten in puncto Lieferketten bisher unzureichend nach. Das geht aus dem Abschlussbericht des „Monitorings zum Stand der Umsetzung der fünf Kernelemente des Nationalen Aktionsplans Wirtschaft und Menschenrechte“ hervor, den die Bundesregierung im Oktober 2021 vorgelegt hat.

Menschenrechte stärken und Unternehmensinteressen berücksichtigen

Der gesellschaftliche Trend zur zunehmenden Verantwortung und daraus resultierend, Transparenz in Bezug auf die drei ESG-Eckpfeiler – Umwelt (Environmental), Soziales (Social) sowie verantwortungsvolle Unternehmensführung (Governance) – führen weltweit zu neuen gesetzlichen Regulationen. Beispielhaft sind menschenrechtliche Sorgfaltspflichten Teil der zweiten Säule der UN-Leitprinzipien und in einigen Ländern durch entsprechende Gesetze bereits reguliert. Mit dem Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz werden sie nun auch in Deutschland verpflichtend. Der Bundestag hat das Gesetz am 11. Juni 2021 verabschiedet; am 1. Januar 2023 wird es als Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz (LkSG) in Kraft treten.

Das LkSG soll Lieferkettentransparenz erhöhen, Menschenrechte stärken und zugleich Unternehmensinteressen berücksichtigen.

Unternehmen drohen drastische Strafen bei Verstößen.

Gemeinsame Lösung von PwC und SAP für mehr Lieferkettentransparenz – Unternehmen können Vorgaben sicherstellen und dabei Mehrwerte generieren.

Wer vom LkSG betroffen ist

Das LkSG betrifft alle in Deutschland ansässigen Unternehmen mit mehr als 3000 Beschäftigten. Ab dem 1. Januar 2024 wird dieser Schwellwert auf 1000 Mitarbeitende sinken. Das Gesetz betrifft indirekt auch KMU, da sich die Sorgfaltspflichten ebenfalls auf Zulieferer erstrecken.

Das LkSG definiert Pflichten und Verantwortungen für Unternehmen in der Lieferkette. Es regelt die Achtung international anerkannter Menschenrechte. Dies soll die Rechte der von Unternehmensaktivitäten betroffenen Menschen stärken und zugleich die Interessen der Unternehmen an Rechtssicherheit und fairen Wettbewerbsbedingungen berücksichtigen.

Europäisches Lieferkettengesetz ist in Vorbereitung

Ein Gesetz der EU-Kommission für ein europaweit geltendes Lieferkettengesetz soll bis 2024 verabschiedet werden. Die Pläne der EU-Kommission sehen schärfere Regeln als die des deutschen LkSG vor; dazu zählen insbesondere ein größerer Anwendungsbereich, Sorgfaltspflichten jenseits direkter Lieferanten sowie eine zivilrechtliche Haftung.

Was das LkSG für Unternehmen bedeutet

Mit dem LkSG müssen Unternehmen menschenrechtliche Sorgfaltspflichten einhalten sowie Verbote achten:

Kinderarbeit, Zwangsarbeit, Sklaverei

Missachtung des Arbeitsschutzes

Missachtung der Koalitionsfreiheit

Diskriminierung

Vorenthalten angemessener Löhne

Widerrechtliche Zwangsräumung, Entzug von Land, Wäldern und Gewässern

Beauftragung und Nutzung privater sowie öffentlicher Sicherheitskräfte unter Missachtung der Menschenrechte

Sonstiges Verhalten, das geschützte Rechtspositionen schwerwiegend beeinträchtigt.

Darüber hinaus müssen Unternehmen umweltbezogene Pflichten wahrnehmen und Verbote zum Umweltschutz einhalten:

Schädliche Verunreinigungen von Böden, Gewässern und Luft sowie schädliche Lärmemissionen und übermäßiger Wasserverbrauch

Verbot der Herstellung, Verwendung und Behandlung von Quecksilber (Minamata-Übereinkommen)

Verbot der Produktion und Verwendung persistenter organischer Schadstoffe (Stockholmer Übereinkommen, POPs-Übereinkommen)

Verbot nichtumweltgerechter Handhabung, Sammlung, Lagerung und Entsorgung von Abfällen (POPs-Übereinkommen)

Verbot der Ausfuhr und Einfuhr gefährlicher Abfälle (Basler Übereinkommen).

Verstoßen Unternehmen gegen das LkSG, müssen sie mit – zum Teil beträchtlichen – Konsequenzen rechnen. Möglich sind beispielsweise Zwangsgelder von bis zu 50.000 Euro und Bußgelder in Höhe von bis zu 2% des Jahresumsatzes bei fehlenden Abhilfemaßnahmen, wenn Unternehmen einen Jahresumsatz von mehr als 400 Millionen Euro erzielen. Es drohen bis zu 8 Millionen Euro Bußgelder bei fehlenden Präventionsmaßnahmen oder Beschwerdeverfahren sowie bis zu 5 Millionen Euro bei fehlender Risikoanalyse.

Darüber hinaus können Unternehmen bis zu drei Jahre lang von der Vergabe öffentlicher Aufträge ausgeschlossen werden. Möglich ist auch ein Eintrag ins Wettbewerbsregister. Unternehmen sind außerdem zur Auskunft und Herausgabe von Daten sowie zur Durchführung von Korrektivmaßnahmen verpflichtet.

Zusätzlich sind Kunden und die Öffentlichkeit mehr sensibilisiert auf das Thema Nachhaltigkeit so dass Unternehmen bei Verstößen einen großen Imageschaden riskieren würden.

Chancen für mehr Resilienz und Vertrauen

Das LkSG stellt Unternehmen hinsichtlich der Transparenz ihrer Lieferketten vor verschiedene Herausforderungen. Gründe für fehlende Transparenz sind unter anderem der enorme Aufwand, mangelndes Know-how zur Umsetzung sowie fehlende Technologien. Dazu kommt sicherlich auch die mangelnde Bereitschaft von Lieferanten, Sichtbarkeit in ihre Lieferkette zu geben.

Gerade weil Lieferketten stets komplexer werden, gewinnt die „Multitransparenz“ über die gesamte Lieferkette hinweg zunehmend an Bedeutung – und dies nicht allein aufgrund neuer Gesetze. Ein wichtiger Faktor ist auch die zunehmend hohe Erwartung vieler Konsumenten an eine ökonomische, soziale sowie ökologische Lieferkette. Gestiegen ist in den vergangenen Jahren auch das Marken- und Reputationsrisiko, insbesondere durch die wachsende Bedeutung der sozialen Medien und der damit einhergehenden weltweiten Verbreitung von negativen Nachrichten in Echtzeit.

PwC sieht im LkSG die Chance für Unternehmen, direkten Mehrwert zu schaffen, und zwar über die bloße Einhaltung der Vorschriften bzw. die Vermeidung von Strafzahlungen hinaus.

So stehen Unternehmen vor der Wahl. Sie können den Mindestanforderungen nachkommen, die für die bloße Einhaltung des neuen Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetzes notwendig sind oder dieses als Chance nutzen, direkten Mehrwert – in Form von gesteigertem Vertrauen, geringeren Kosten, zusätzlichem Wachstum sowie vollständiger Transparenz – zu schaffen.

PwC Transformationsansatz

Der von PwC entwickelte Transformationsansatz kann zwar auch genutzt werden, um die Mindestanforderungen einzuhalten, er schafft bei der LkSG-Einführung aber insbesondere einen direkten Mehrwert durch gesteigertes Vertrauen, reduziertes Risiko, zusätzliches Wachstum sowie verringerte Kosten. Der praxiserprobte Transformationsansatz besteht aus fünf aufeinander aufbauenden Phasen.

Die Herausforderungen und Risiken rund um das Thema LkSG sind vielfältig und Verantwortlichkeiten typischerweise über eine Vielzahl von Unternehmensfunktionen verteilt. Daher basiert der Transformationsansatz von PwC auf acht Umsetzungsdimensionen, die Unternehmen dabei helfen, LkSG Projekte zielgerichtet und effizient im Kontext ihrer Risikomanagementsysteme durchzuführen.

Hinsichtlich der drei Dimensionen „Technology & Data“, „Business Partner“ sowie „Supplier Risk Management“, der acht von PwC definierten Dimensionen, bietet SAP eine umfassende Lösungsplattform für den erfolgreichen Umgang mit dem LkSG.

Umsetzung des LkSG mit Hilfe von SAP-Technologien

Zwar fordert das LkSG die Einführung eines effektiven Risikomanagement-Systems, spricht jedoch nicht zwingend von einer Software-Lösung. Insbesondere Unternehmen mit breiter, internationaler Lieferantenbasis benötigen jedoch digitale Lösungen, um effektiv Risiken zu managen.

Die relevanten Prozesse sind in den meisten Unternehmen in der einen oder anderen Form bereits etabliert. Es geht jetzt darum, diese systematisch zu erweitern, um den neuen Anforderungen aus dem LkSG gerecht zu werden.

SAP sieht dabei im Wesentlichen die Prozesse des Lieferanten-Risikomanagements, und des Lieferanten Managements sowie am Rande auch die Prozesse des Sourcings, Vertragsmanagements und der Bestellabwicklung betroffen. SAPs zahlreiche Kunden in Deutschland erwarten eine pragmatische Lösungsantwort auf die Anforderungen dieses Gesetzes.

Mit SAP vom Lieferantenmanagement zum Lieferkettenmanagement

Um den Anforderungen des LkSG in komplexen Lieferketten gerecht zu werden, sind digitale Lösungen hilfreich, die folgende Komponenten berücksichtigen:

Risikobasierter Ansatz zur Identifikation von Hotspots in der Lieferkette

Individuelle Lieferantenansprache zur Daten- und Informationslieferung

Wirksamkeitskontrolle über klar definierte Indikatoren

Bewertung, Priorisierung und Segmentierung von Lieferanten

Übergreifende Workflows

Transparenz entlang der Lieferkette

Kontinuierliches Risikomanagement

Datensammlung zur Dokumentation und Berichterstattung

Als Fundament einer digitalen LkSG Lösung sehen wir das SAP Ariba Supplier Management, SAP Ariba Supplier Risk Management und das SAP Business Network. SAP findet dabei auch eine pragmatische LkSG-Compliance Antwort für Kunden, welche bereits andere Procurement Lösungen einsetzen.

Darüber hinaus adressiert SAP weitere Compliance-Anforderungen für bestimmte Branchen und Materialgruppen. Dazu zählen Lösungen, wie SAP S/4HANA Product Compliance, SAP Fieldglass, SAP Strategic Sourcing Suite und SAP S/4HANA EHS.

Lieferanten-Repository und ein digitales Lieferanten Lifecycle Management

Das Fundament für ein Risiko Management System ist ein zentrales, vollständiges und aktuelles Lieferantenverzeichnis.

Mit Hilfe eines zentralen Lieferanten-Repository und eines digitalen Lieferanten Lifecycle Managements wird Transparenz über direkte Lieferanten geschaffen, sowie der Lieferanten Lifecycle Prozess, von der Lieferanten-Registrierung, Onboarding, Qualifizierung bis zur Segmentierung unterstützt. Dabei können entsprechende Nachhaltigkeitsthemen und Risiko Assessments bereits beim Onboarding berücksichtigt und relevante Zertifikate geprüft werden.

Über das SAP Business Netzwerk bietet SAP Lieferanten einen zentralen Ort für die Verwaltung seiner Lieferanten Daten, (z.B. Stammdaten, Fragebögen, Zertifikate) für alle Kunden, die das SAP Business Netzwerk nutzen. Die zentralen Änderungen des Lieferanten können dann von den Kunden in Ihre SAP Ariba Supplier Management Lösung und darüber auch an ihr Backend System übertragen werden. Zusätzlich unterstützt die SAP-Lösung die Anbindung von Drittdatenquellen für den effizienten Datenaustausch mit einer breiten Lieferantenbasis.

Dank dieser Funktionen können Einkäufer effizient und auf verlässlicher Informationsbasis, die am besten geeigneten Lieferanten für eine Sourcing-Initiative zusammenstellen.

Supplier Risk Management

Mit SAP Ariba Supplier Risk können Risiken und Störungen durch eine in dem Beschaffungsprozess integrierte Risikoprüfung von Lieferanten vermieden werden.

Die wesentlichen Aktivitäten des LkSG konformen Prozesses werden dabei von Ariba Supplier Risk unterstützt. Systematische Risikoanalysen werden einerseits durch die Überwachung Ihrer Lieferanten mit Risikowarnungen auf Grundlage von 130 Risikovorfällen und mit einem Zugriff auf mehr als 600.000 Nachrichtenwebseiten, Behördendaten und Katastropheninformationssystemen sowie anderen öffentlichen und privaten Quellen gewährleistet.

Zusätzlich können weitere nachhaltigkeitsrelevante Datenquellen sehr einfach aktiviert sowie kundenspezifische Inhalte über strukturierte Fragebögen erfasst werden. Die marktführende Lösung von SAP für die Steuerung von Lieferantenrisiken ermöglicht es, maßgeschneiderte Risikosichten und Warnmeldungen einzurichten – für jede Lieferantenbeziehung und abgestimmt auf Ihre Rolle. Zudem können Lieferanten auf Basis ihres Risikopotenzials segmentiert werden. Dank der vollständigen Sicht auf jeden einzelnen Lieferanten werden zeitnahe, kontextbezogene und präzise Entscheidungen getroffen und die Zusammenarbeit mit Geschäftspartnern verbessert werden.

Die für das LkSG wesentlichen Aktivitäten in Bezug auf Präventionsmaßnahmen, Abhilfemaßnahmen und Beschwerden werden ebenfalls in der Ariba Supplier Risk Lösung bearbeitet.

Im Kontext des übergreifenden Beschaffungsprozesses ist wichtig, dass Genehmigungsworkflows über Bereichsgrenzen hinweg schnell durchlaufen. Die effektive Verankerung des Risikomanagement Prozesses sollte sicherstellen, dass keine Bestellungen mehr gegen aus Risikoaspekten geblockte Lieferanten getätigt werden können.

Branchenspezifische Erweiterungen

Abhängig von der Branche und Geschäftsmodell ergeben sich einige zusätzliche Funktionen, welche im Kontext des Lieferkettengesetz relevant sind.

Mit SAP S/4HANA Product Compliance können produzierende Unternehmen Compliance Informationen für ihre Produkte verwalten, ihre Produkte gemäß Gefahrgutvorschrift klassifizieren, Sicherheitsdatenblätter und Etiketten gemäß Chemikalienverordnung und anderer gesetzlicher Anforderungen erstellen. Die Compliance Informationen können genutzt werden, um für bestimmte Lieferanten und Materialgruppen auch die Umweltgesichtspunkte systematisch abzudecken.

SAP S/4HANA Environment, Health and Safety (SAP S/4HANA EHS) bietet eine umfassende Lösung für das Nachhaltigkeitsmanagement und den Umwelt-, Gesundheits- und Arbeitsschutz für die eigenen Mitarbeiter und Fabriken im Produktionsnetzwerk.

Unternehmen mit einem großen Anteil von externen Mitarbeitern hilft die SAP Fieldglass Lösung, Transparenz über Zeitarbeitnehmer, Freiberufler sowie Dienstleister wie Beratungsunternehmen und Marketingagenturen zu schaffen. Mit SAP Fieldglass können z.B. Stichprobenkontrollen bei einzelnen externen Mitarbeitern durchgeführt und sichergestellt werden, dass alle vorübergehend Beschäftigen die entsprechende Schutzausrüstung und Sicherheitstrainings bekommen haben, sowie im Rahmen der zeitlichen Vorgaben tätig waren und marktüblich bezahlt werden.

Manche Unternehmen im Handel oder produzierenden Gewerbe legen großen Wert auf Transparenz bis hin zu mehreren Stufen von Vorlieferanten oder auf Lieferanten-Werksbasis. Die geplante SAP 3rd-Party-Factory-Funktion sammelt diese Information im Sourcing-Prozess strukturiert ein, und stellt sie in den Arbeitsbereich für Folgeverträge und schließlich dem SAP Backend System zur Verfügung. Vollständige Transparenz zur Produktherkunft über mehrere Lieferkettenstufen können außerdem mit Blockchain-basierten SAP LBN Material Traceability oder Green Token Lösungen erreicht werden.

Die einzelnen SAP-Lösungen bieten umfassende Reporting Funktionalitäten. Für das unternehmens- und nachhaltigkeitszielübergreifende interne sowie externe Reporting bietet der Sustainability Control Tower ein geeignetes Instrument.

Lieferkettengesetz: Menschenrechte bei Lieferanten UND in der eigenen Organisation schützen.

2022-03-28T09:45:09+02:00

Kontext

Das Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz (LkSG) ist in aller Munde. Dieses verpflichtet zukünftig Unternehmen, ein effektives Risikomanagementsystems für Menschenrechte in die Lieferkette einzuführen. Oft denken wir bei der Verletzung von Menschenrechten nur an Arbeitsbedingungen bei Lieferanten. Aber das Gesetz adressiert die gesamte Lieferkette und damit auch alle Vorgänge im Unternehmen selbst.

In diesem Blog Post erklären wir, wie Unternehmen sich der Herausforderung systematisch stellen können, an welchen technischen Lösungsansätzen SAP arbeitet, sowie welche Projektansätze sich vorbereitend empfehlen.

Menschenrechtsverletzungen als weltweite Herausforderung

Seit Jahren ist die systematische Verletzung von Menschenrechten weltweit ein großes Problem: Kinderarbeit und Zwangsarbeit, aber auch Umweltverschmutzungen, die die Lebensbedingungen vor Ort erschweren.

25 Mio. Zwangsarbeiter weltweit

75 Mio. schulpflichtige Kinder, insbesondere in der Nahrungsmittel- und Bekleidungsbranche, die arbeiten müssen, um den Lebensunterhalt der Familie zu sichern.

Selbst in Europa gibt es immer wieder Verstöße, z.b. bei der Verfolgung von Homosexuellen.

Was ist das LKSG? Was sind die wichtigsten Inhalte des LkSG und der neuen EU Richtlinie?

Seit 2011 gibt es die UN Leitprinzipien für Wirtschaft und Menschenrechte. Hierüber möchten Regierungen gezielt den Einfluss von Unternehmen zur Verbesserung von Menschenrechten und Umweltrisiken nutzen. Zur Umsetzung haben viele Länder auf der Welt Maßnahmen abgeleitet. In Deutschland gab von 2016 – 2021 eine Selbstverpflichtung der Wirtschaft, welche jedoch nicht effektiv genug funktionierte.

Deshalb verpflichtet des neue LkSG mittlere und große Firmen in Deutschland, ab 2023 ein Risikomanagement System für Menschenrechte in der Lieferkette aufzubauen. Dieses muss innerhalb des Jahres 2023 in Betrieb genommen werden. Ein erster Abschluss-Report ist dann bis Ende März 2024 zu erstellen.

Die Art des Reports und die zugrundeliegenden Prüfstandards sind leider derzeit (März 2022) noch unklar. Wir hoffen im Sommer 2022 hier auf eine klare Aussage des Bundesamts für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle (BAFA).

Konkret fordert das LkSG, folgende Bausteine einzuführen:

(Quelle: SAP)

Der LkSG Anwendungsbereich bezieht sich dabei nicht nur auf unmittelbare Lieferanten, sondern auch auf den eigenen Geschäftsbereich (eigene Werke im In- und Ausland) sowie teilweise mittelbare Lieferanten.

Die zukünftige EU Richtlinie zu Menschenrechtsverletzungen wird wahrscheinlich noch ambitionierter als das LkSG:

(Quelle: SAP/econsense)

Die wesentliche Unterschiede zwischen der EU Verordnung und dem LkSG:

Die Kreis betroffener Unternehmen wird maßgeblich vergrößert durch die Herabsetzung der Schwellwerte auf 250 Mitarbeiter und 40m€ Umsatz in Risikosektoren.

Ganzheitlicher Lebenszyklus: nicht mehr nur Upstream auf der Beschaffungsseite, sondern auch Downstream richtung Kunden.

Noch ist nicht klar, wie und wann die Richtlinie umgesetzt wird. Wir rechnen derzeit mit einer Umsetzung ab dem Jahr 2025/26.

Es wird sich zeigen, wie die einzelnen Länder die Richtlinie adaptieren. Auf Basis vergleichbarer Vorgänge aus der Vergangenheit nehmen wir aber an, dass Deutschland sich wieder nah an die EU Vorgaben hält.

Jenseits dieser gesetzlichen Treiber gibt es weitere gute Gründe für den Aufbau eines soliden Lieferketten Risikomanagement Prozesses zum Schutz der Unternehmensreputation:

Kunden werden für soziale Themen immer sensibler

Soziale Medien ermöglichen die globale Verteilung von rufschädigenden Informationen in Echtzeit

Der Mehrwert der Beschaffung wird zunehmend mit dem Aufbau einer resilienten und nachhaltigen Lieferkette in Verbindung gebracht

Herausforderung für Unternehmen bei der Adressierung des LkSG

Aus unserer bisherigen Erfahrung liegen die wesentlichen Herausforderungen der Unternehmen bei der Adressierung des LkSG in den folgenden Bereichen:

Lieferanten-Stammdaten:
- Inkonsistente, veraltete und unvollständige Lieferanten-Stammdaten, ggf in verschiedenen Systemen erschweren den effektiven Einstieg in das Risiko Management
- Die systematische Berücksichtigung von ausgewählten mittelbaren Lieferanten stellt eine zusätzliche Herausforderung dar.

Risikoanalyse:
- Das LkSG erfordert die systematische Risikoanalyse über die gesamte Lieferantenbasis, welche oft zwischen 10-200.000+ Einheiten umfasst.
- Einerseits darf nicht über Risikoklassen (z.b Kinderarbeit vs Umweltrisiken) priorisiert werden, andererseits ist eine pragmatische Segmentierung nach Risiko (Einfluss x Wahrscheinlichkeit) über die gesamte Lieferantenbasis unabdingbar.
- Ab Inkrafttreten des LkSG kann sich ein Unternehmen bei einem Regelverstoß eines Lieferanten nicht mehr auf im Vertrag geschlossene Code of Conducts zurückziehen, sondern muss umfangreicher seine Risikomanagement Bemühungen transparent machen.

Prozessmanagement:
- Nach der effektiven Risikoanalyse müssen Findings sytematisch innerhalb der oft komplexen Organisation über viele Fachbereiche und über Landes- und Organisationsgrenzen sowie gemeinsam mit Lieferanten abgearbeitet und ihre Lösung dokumentiert werden.

Reporting:
- Die BAFA Reporting Standards sind noch nicht bekannt. Grundsätzlich nimmt die Bedeutung der nicht-finanziellen Berichterstattung jedoch zu.
- Letztlich sollte das Management der Menschenrechts- und Umweltrisiken auch seinen Platz im Rahmen des unternehmensübergreifenden ESG Steuerungssystems finden.
- Aus Lieferantensicht kann das LkSG Reporting richtung der Kunden zu erheblichen Mehraufwänden führen, insb. falls unterschiedliche Reporting/Fragebogen-Standards und Kommunikationskanäle genutzt werden.
- Gerade bei kleineren internationalen Lieferanten kann das Reporting Enablement zu größerem Trainingsaufwand führen.

Lösung: Welche Prozesse sollten für die LkSG Compliance zur effektiven Vermeidung von Menschenrechtsverletzungen digital unterstützt werden?

Bei einer Unternehmens-Umfrage haben wir neulich die wesentlichen Werttreiber / Funktionalitäten für eine LkSG Lösung erfragt:

Es zeigt sich, dass ein offener Austausch von Lieferantendaten und Risiken zwischen den beteiligten Systemen als wichtigster Aspekt für eine nahtlose digitale Unterstützung des Risikomanagement Prozess gesehen wird.

Auch die digitale Kollaboration innerhalb der Organisation sowie mit Lieferanten ist ein wesentliches Thema für die meisten Unternehmen.

Bei gut 20% der befragten Unternehmen sind jedoch auch Integrationspunkte mit dem externen Mitarbeitermanagement sowie der Product Compliance unter die Top 3 Werttreiber gefallen.

Diese Lösungspräferenz spiegelt sich gut mit SAPs ganzheitlicher LkSG Lösungsvision, welche auf modularen Komponenten und branchenspezifischen Erweiterungen basiert:

SAP LkSG Lösungsvision

Der Lieferantenmanagement Prozess bildet die Grundlage für ein effektives LkSG Risikomanagement. Uns ist bewusst, dass viele unterschiedliche Prozesse und Lösungen, ggf auch für übergreifendes Stammdatenmanagement, bei Unternehmen im Einsatz sind.

Auf diesem Prozess setzt das Risikomanagement auf. Hier werden die wesentlichen Aktivitäten des LkSG konformen Prozesses durchgeführt, von der Lieferanten Risiko Analyse, über Maßnahmen für Prävention und Abhilfe, bis zum Beschwerdemanagement von internen und externen Betroffenen.

Über das Geschäftsnetzwerk erfolgt die digitale Zusammenarbeit mit Handelspartnern. Neben dem SAP Business Network (ehem. Ariba Network) sehen wir auch die große Bedeutung externer Datenanbieter für die schnelle und validierte Transparenz über die Lieferantenrisiken.

Das Berichtswesen liefert zielgruppengerecht, für die operative Prozesssteuerung, die organisatorisch Verantwortlichen sowie die externen Adressaten Transparenz über die Zielerreichung bei der Reduktion von Menschenrechtsrisiken.

Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt dieses Blog Posts liegt auf der internen Risikosicht zu Menschenrechtsrisiken bei Mitarbeitern, welche durch branchenspezifischen Erweiterungen adressiert werden:

Umwelt, Gesundheit und Sicherheit (EHS) und Zeitarbeit

Das LkSG erfordert die Einhaltung der Menschenrechte von eigenen und externen Mitarbeitern auch in eigenen und von Lohnfertigern betriebenen Werken weltweit. Das Unternehmen muss sicherstellen, dass interne und externe Mitarbeiter im Rahmen zeitlicher Vorgaben arbeiten, angemessen bezahlt werden und notwendige Trainingscheine und Zertifikate vorhalten. Die relevanten Dokumentationsanforderungen liegen meist schon digital vor, z.b. in einer Environment/Health/Safety (EHS) Lösung.

Daher stellt sich die Frage, inwieweit diese Informationen nicht systematisch genutzt werden könnten. So wäre es gut vorstellbar, schon beim Onboarding des Lieferanten und der externen Mitarbeiter gemäß der gesetzlichen Vorgaben die notwendigen Nachweise digital zu erfassen und in das EHS System weiterzuleiten.

Produktkonformität (Product Compliance)

Viele Unternehmen, z.B. in der Diskreten Fertigung oder auch in der Chemiebranche müssen umfangreiche Produktkonformitätsanforderungen erfüllen. Dies beinhaltet zum Einen die elektronische Übermittlung von Daten an Behörden, zum Anderen die Kommunikation zu Kunden, z.B. in Form von Sicherheitsdatenblättern oder Compliance-Zertifikaten.

SAP beschäftigt sich derzeit mit der Frage, inwieweit digitale Kommunikationskanäle vom Lieferanten zu beschaffenden Unternehmen gebündelt werden können, um sowohl den Produktkonformitäts- als auch den LkSG Berichtspflichten nachzukommen. Häufig ist ja schon eine Product Compliance Lösung im Einsatz, welche als Basis dafür genutzt werden könnte.

Die Kunden hätten dadurch eine einheitliche Sicht zur Lieferantensituation auf Basis konsistenter Daten sowohl aus Produkt- als auch Werksperspektive.

Der Lieferant hätte weniger Aufwand, wenn er einen zentralen Kommunikationskanal wie das SAP Business Network in Richtung seiner Kunden für das Reporting nutzen könnte.

Verfolgung mehrstufiger Lieferketten

Die vollständige Lieferkettentransparenz ist aus Risikomanagement Perspektive der Kunden oft ein Traum, aber aus Sicht der Lieferanten ein Alptraum. Viele Lieferanten sehen zunehmende Transparenz gegenüber ihren Kunden zu ihren Vorlieferanten oft als Risiko für eine schwächere Verhandlungsposition oder Verstöße gegen bestehende Lieferantenverträge.

Einige Kunden fragen derzeit nach der fallbezogenen Möglichkeit für Behörden und auch Kunden, um bei bekannt gewordenen Menschenrechtsverletzungen eines Unternehmens zu prüfen, ob dieses in einer vorgelagerten Stufe Teil der eigenen Lieferkette ist.

SAP arbeitet mit Greentoken und Logistics Business Network Material Traceability (LBN MT) an Netzwerklösungen, welche auch über mehrere Lieferkettenstufen hinweg die Produktgenealogie und den digitalen Zertifikateaustausch gesichert und teil-anonym ermöglicht. Diese Zertifikate können übrigens beliebige Inhalt abdecken, z.b. über die Echtheit von Materialien, den Co2 Gehalt bestimmter Produkte oder einer extern validierten Aussage zur Konformität mit Menschenrechtsregularien.

SAP arbeitet bereits an einigen Lösungsbausteinen zur Umsetzung dieser Vision

Seit einiger Zeit werden die SAP Supplier Management und SAP Risk Management Lösungen bereits um LkSG relevante Funktionen erweitert. Derzeit werden die Funktionen entwickelt, wobei vorgesehen ist, dass die ersten Funktionalitäten im Q4 2022 bereitgestellt werden. Abhängig vom Kundenbedarf und seiner IT Landschaft ist angedacht, verschiedene Varianten dieser Lösung bereitzustellen. Da die Produktbeschreibungen und Marketingmaterialien gerade erst erstellt werden, handelt es sich in diesem Blog Post eher um ein unverbindlichen Blick auf die aktuellen Entwicklungsschwerpunkte.

Die Übersicht aktuellen Themenschwerpunkte in der SAP Produkt Entwicklung

Lieferantenmanagement

- Zugriff auf übergreifende Lieferantenbasis in Quellsystemen (ERPs, oder Supplier Management Lösungen) für einen unkomplizierten Abzug relevanter Lieferanten-Stammdaten für die weitere Analyse.

Risiko Evaluierung
- Risiko der Lieferanten einschätzen
  - In verschiedenen externen Datenquellen nach relevanten Risikoinformation für Lieferanten suchen und in Risikobewertung betrachten. (z.b. Ecovadis, oder auch andere externe Datenquellen für Lieferantenrisiken).
  - Zusätzlich gibt es über das SAP Business Network für Lieferanten die Möglichkeit, zentral einen standardisierten LkSG Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) zu befüllen, der entweder im eigenen Profil veröffentlicht wird, oder ausgewählten Kunden bereitgestellt wird.
  - Der SAQ wird aus Buyer-Sicht um weitere Risikodimensionen erweiterbar sein, die nur für bestimmte Branchen/Unternehmen relevant sind

- - Ausserdem wird eine Risiko Segmentierung der gesamten Lieferantenbasis ermöglicht über eine Risikomatrix für Länder, Warengruppen und später individuelle Kriterien.
  - Systematische Sentiment Analyse auf Basis von 600k+ internationalen Nachrichtenquellen.
  - Bei Lieferanten mit auffälligen Risikoprofilen wird es die Möglichkeit geben, in einen digitalen Followup Dialog mit dem Lieferanten einzusteigen.
  - Die aggregierten Risiko-Scores pro Lieferant werden in einem Dashboard in verschiedenen Sichten konsolidiert dargestellt.
  - Die pro Lieferant ermittelten Risiko Scores stehen perspektivisch für die Nutzung in SAP Ariba Sourcing und Buying Systemen zur Verfügung, z.b. um bei Sourcing/Buying Entscheidungen mit berücksichtigt zu werden.

Risiko Minderung und Beschwerdemanagement

- Effektive Zusammenarbeit mit Lieferanten auf Augenhöhe
  - Digitale Kollaboration mit Lieferanten zur Maßnahmenumsetzung.
  - Bei erfolgreicher Umsetzung wird der Risikoscore des Lieferanten aktualisiert.
  - Transparente Projektsteuerung und Maßnahmen-Reporting

Reporting

- Erweiterung des internen/externen Reportings (Management und Operativ) um LkSG relevante Ziele und KPIs in umfassendem Nachhaltigkeitsreporting.
- Sobald die die BAFA Anforderungen im Sommer 2022 klar sind, werden die Reportingsichten entsprechend konzipiert.

Für das Unternehmens- und Nachhaltigkeitsziel-übergreifende interne sowie externe Reporting bietet der SAP Sustainability Control Tower perspektivisch ein geeignetes Instrument.

Wie kann sich ein Unternehmen heute schon auf das LkSG vorbereiten?

Anbei eine Zusammenstellung wichtiger Schritte, ohne Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit:

Vorbereitende Schritte für das LkSG (beispielhaft)

Weitere Informationen:

SAP Roadmap Explorer

Vem aí, mais uma sessão imperdível da SAP: Conheça como a Qualificação de Processo pode te ajudar a ampliar a flexibilidade na sua gestão de fornecedores

2022-05-12T20:45:41+02:00

Olá,

Junte-se a nós nesta sessão para ver como a nova funcionalidade de Qualificação de Processo (“Process Framework˜) aprimora o fluxo de trabalho de qualificação do fornecedor no SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance (SLP) e permite que você crie processos separados e independentes para gerar uma experiência de habilitação exclusiva para seus fornecedores.

Saiba como usar Projetos de Processo para criar fluxos personalizados, como por exemplo qualificações de fornecedor de material direto ou avaliação de diversidade e sustentabilidade.

Além disso, exploraremos onde e como os modelos e projetos de processo estão situados e configurados no aplicativo SLP.

17 de Maio de 2022 - 10h30
(Horário de Brasília)

Duração: 1h

Inscreva-se já!

Audiência:

Esta sessão foi desenvolvida para atender às necessidades específicas das equipes de gestão de fornecedores, administradores do sistema e governança de dados do fornecedor. No entanto, são incentivados a participar todos os usuários que desejam aprender mais sobre a qualificação de fornecedores por processos e seus benefícios.

Using Ariba for getting Supplier inputs for the calculation of the Greenhouse Gas emissions

2022-10-14T19:45:05+02:00

Introduction

In this article, I am presenting a Solution Concept – how to use Ariba to support Sustainability topics. I am addressing some of the common problems related with acquiring Suppliers’ specific inputs, necessary for the calculation of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. I will present some Solution Concept(s) how Ariba Procurement and/or Ariba Supplier Lifecycle Management (SLP) products can join “force” with SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) in resolving these problems.

This article is not about Solution itself, but more about Architectural Thinking – reviewing Problem Context, and ideating on possible Solution Concept(s).

Problem Statement

Let’s start with explaining the greenhouse gas “problem”…

When talking about Sustainability and Sustainability reporting, under greenhouse gas emissions, we are basically referring to gasses which are causing the, so-called, greenhouse effect. Now, greenhouse gasses are not something new. They were always present in the atmosphere, but in much lower concentrations. Human activities since the beginning of the industrial revolution have caused an increase of over 50% of the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide [1], which is the principal contributor to the greenhouse effect. Most carbon dioxide emissions come from combustion of fossil fuels; principally coal, petroleum (including oil) and natural gas. All this is used in various operations; like production of electricity which is then used in many other operations; or production of the raw materials or (semi-)finish goods; or it is used in transport and logistics; etc.

Of course, it is not only carbon dioxide (CO₂) which causes the greenhouse effect. Other gasses are contributors as well like methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O) etc. To simplify the calculation, the potential of each greenhouse gas to cause global warming is expressed in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), so in general when saying “carbon emissions” we actually mean “carbon dioxide equivalent emissions” [2].

But why is all this important?

As stated above, greenhouse gas emissions are causing the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when energy from the Sun goes through Earth's atmosphere and heats the surface, but greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere prevent some of the heat from returning directly to space, resulting in a warmer planet [3]. At current greenhouse gas emissions rates, temperatures could increase by 2 C in the next thirty years, which the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) marked as an upper limit to avoid "dangerous" levels [4]. As per Paris Agreement [5] the goal is “to limit global warming to well-below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C”.

And how do we measure greenhouse gas emissions?

To be able to control greenhouse gas emissions rates, we are implementing protocols to measure CO2e emissions, like Greenhouse Gas Protocol [6]. As per Greenhouse Gas Protocol, depending on the operations, we recognize three scopes of the emissions:

Scope 1: all carbon emissions from own operations, like factories and intra logistics.

Scope 2: all carbon emissions related to purchased energy

Scope 3: all external emissions:

Furthermore, operations may be upstream or downstream:

Upstream: emissions related to all procured goods and services

Downstream: emissions related to lifecycle emissions of finished products

This article will address, as examples, carbon emission from the consumed electricity (Scope 2, but also relevant for Scope 3 – e.g. operations of leased outlets) and carbon emission from the raw materials (Scope 3).

Problem Context

While for many activities (or operations in general) it is quite possible to calculate carbon emission from internally acquired data e.g. purchased goods and services, for some key operations and/or production activities, we must rely on Supplier provided data e.g.

% renewable electricity (out of overall consumed/acquired electricity)

% recycled content of the raw material (in packaging)

While carbon emission from consumed electricity can be fairly easily calculated (by applying specific emission factors from the Country, Region or Supplier), all renewable energy should be subtracted from that formula, since carbon emission of the renewable energy is set to zero. Obviously consumed electricity (as a non-stock item) is acquired either through invoicing from the Suppliers or based on (self-)metering. However, it should be noted, in many practical situations % renewable electricity would not come as a direct input from the Supplier in the invoicing process, it would usually be obtained indirectly when the Supplier provides respective certificates stating specific volumes of the renewable electricity delivered in the specific period.

For the second case, in packaging, carbon emission would directly depend on the specific raw material used for packaging. However, the problem here is a bit more complex. The raw material used may be a mixture of the “virgin” (newly produced) and “recycled” material. Clearly, the recycled “part” of the material has a different (lower) emission factor than the virgin one. The problem is in getting the correct information about the percent of the recycled material acquired from the Supplier. An ideal scenario where Suppliers would always provide the same percent of the recycled content for the same material, is not realistic. Actually, this percentage will vary over time, and ordinarily, we will always aim for getting higher percent of the recycled content in each new delivery. Obviously, raw materials (as a stock item) are part of the material master, but we may not consider % recycled content as a material characteristic exclusively, as it may differ in different purchases. So, either we create “new” material each time we get different % recycled content for the “same" material; or we link % recycled content with batches – however, data management & data processing of % recycled content in the backend system, is not in the scope of this article (I have covered this in the separate article Enabling Climate Action and Circular Economy with SAP Batch Management).

In both cases, Enterprise or Company has a limited number of Suppliers providing electricity or specific packaging raw materials. This may prove to be a beneficial point – for easier adoption of the digital collaboration within the supply chain– at least with those Suppliers.

Solution Concept(s)

Ariba Invoicing for % renewable energy

Ariba Procurement solution provides number of standard integrations via CIG (Cloud Integration Gateway) enabling collaboration with Supplier (Trading Partner) on POs (Materials, Services, Charges etc.), Inbound/Outbound Receipts, Invoices, Payment Receipts etc.

Figure 1. Ariba CIG integration diagram

An Enterprise or Company reporting greenhouse gas emissions may use Ariba Invoicing solution, to collect electronically breakdown of invoiced volumes (or charges) split on those produced from the renewable sources, and those produced from the other sources.

In all cases, collaboration with registered Suppliers is a key:

Registered Suppliers are contractually obliged to provide in Vendor Invoice breakdown of the delivered electricity produced from the renewable sources, and those produced from other sources. Vendor Invoice itself is based either on charges or non-PO Contract invoice.

Vendor Invoice is approved (or returned).

Through Ariba invoicing integration with the S/4HANA ERP backend system, Vendor Invoice would provide “volumes” (charges) of the delivered electricity produced from the renewable sources (*).

In S/4HANA ERP system, received information on electricity produced from the renewable sources, and those produced from other sources, can be used:
- to generate costing reports (renewable energy cost vs. non-renewable energy cost)
- import into the Emission Management system only volumes of electricity produced from the non-renewable sources.
- etc.

(*) Additional programing in SAP BTP/CPI might be needed to convert received inputs into format needed for further data processing in S/4HANA ERP

Figure 2. Ariba Procurement for % renewable energy

What are the shortcomings of this approach?

Invoicing may be happening in the different time period compared with the sustainability reporting needs, therefore we are dependent on metering (automated or manual) at the specific day in a month. Metering, however, does not provide any information about the source of the electricity consumed.

For outlets (either owned or leased) electrical energy supplied may not come as a separate charge, but rather as a fixed or variable utility charge.

Suppliers may not be willing to provide such breakdown on their own, but they would be willing to provide certificates, proving specific electrical energy volumes are coming from the renewable sources.

Alternative approach with Ariba SLP

To compensate for some of the shortcomings of the previous approach, Ariba SLP provides a “cool” option to collect Suppliers’ certificates using Modular Questionnaire. What does this mean?

For registers Supplier of the electricity, we can launch (automatically or manually) periodically Modular Questionnaires, using certificate question, and set of predefined questions which Supplier must fill-in – e.g. indicating volumes of delivered electrical energy from the renewable sources within specific period (in which this electrical energy have been delivered)

Ariba authorized users will verify the input – if the entered volumes and period corresponds to the attached certificate, Modular Questionnaire responses are approved.

Using existing Supplier Data API With Pagination, we can expose Suppliers’ responses to other systems via SAP BTP/CPI

SAP CPI or SAP BTP app (side-by-side extension of the S/4HANA ERP system) can be used to (*):
- collect automated reading from IoT devices;
- collect manual readings (where no IoT automation is available);
- “convert” Modular Questionnaire provided response on the renewable energy volumes in the appropriate period (in case collection, measurement reading, and reporting periods are not equal)
- share consolidated volumes to Emission Management solution which will be calculating overall carbon emissions for the Company operations. For carbon emission calculations, volumes of the renewable energy are subtracted from the total measured volumes.

(*) Alternatively, above logic can also be built in the Emission Management solution itself.

Figure 3. Ariba SLP for % renewable energy

Ariba Buying for % recycled content

As earlier mentioned, Ariba Procurement solution enables collaboration with Supplier (Trading Partner) on Material POs, Inbound/Outbound Deliveries and corresponding Invoices.

Here as well, collaboration with registered Suppliers is a key:

Registered Suppliers are contractually obliged to provide in the Delivery Document either breakdown of the recycled and virgin raw material and/or % recycled content for each delivery.

Delivery Document is approved (or returned).

Through Ariba integration with the S/4HANA ERP backend system, the Delivery Document would provide either “split” or % recycled content information in the Inbound Delivery Document for each delivered batch (which is linked with the Purchase Document) (*).

In S/4HANA ERP system, received information with % recycled will be used to track recycled content from raw material – Goods Receipt to finish goods – Goods Issues
- general recommendation would be to use SAP Batch Management or similar solution, or any “custom” calculation which will consider % recycled content is not an attribute of the Material Master, but an attribute of the delivered batch.

(*) Additional programing in SAP BTP/CPI might be needed to convert received inputs into format needed for further data processing in S/4HANA ERP

Figure 4. Ariba Procurement for % recycled content

This approach would in general provide all necessary information and full automation. Still, in some cases there might be some challenges:

Suppliers may not be willing to provide such breakdown on its own, they would rather provide only certificates and/or % recycled content indicative “range” for the specific quantities or specific period of deliveries.

The approach with Ariba SLP

To address the issues when Suppliers provide only indicative and periodical information on % recycled content of the raw materials, we can use Ariba SLP and Modular Questionnaires:

Registers Supplier of the specific raw materials(*) will be asked periodically to fill-in Modular Questionnaire –for each raw material (from the group of raw materials of interest) to provide for the specific:
- % recycled content “range” or
- quantities with specific % recycled content or
- any other form of information about % recycled content for the supplier raw materials – based on contractual terms (e.g. split of the costing part for the recycled and virgin part of the raw material);
- in addition, Suppliers may also upload any supporting certificates.

Ariba authorized users will verify the input – if required inputs are correctly entered, Modular Questionnaire responses are approved;
- in case no manual verification of data and certificates is expected, an approval step may be skipped – and responses may be “approved” automatically.

Using the existing Supplier Data API With Pagination, we can expose Supplier responses to other systems via SAP BTP/CPI.

SAP CPI or SAP BTP app (side-by-side extension of the S/4HANA ERP system) can be used to:
- calculate average % recycled content for the specific period – in case only % range is provided in the Modular Questionnaire;
- find all Inbound Delivery Documents in S/4HANA ERP backend for the specific period – based on the Modular Questionnaire input period;
- mark all received quantities for the relevant raw materials with % recycled content attribute;

In S/4HANA ERP system received information with % recycled will be used to track recycled content from raw material – Goods Receipt to finish goods – Goods Issues.
- general recommendation would be to use SAP Batch Management or similar solution, or any “custom” calculation which will consider % recycled content is not an attribute of the Material Master, but an attribute of the delivered batch.

(*) Ariba supports integration of the Material Master from S/4HANA ERP.

Figure 5. Ariba SLP for % recycled content

Conclusion and the outlook

Any of the above ideas can be put into production – with more-or-less effort.

When inputs from Suppliers are needed, collaboration is a key. The good thing in these examples; electrical energy and specific raw materials are usually sources from a limited number of Suppliers – so in many cases we should be able to implement processes with Ariba Procurement or Ariba SLP. Ariba products do have such capability and can help us collect Suppliers’ specific inputs, necessary for the calculation of the greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to this, SAP BTP/CPI has necessary capabilities to either transform inbound data in the format backend S/4HANA ERP might need – using Low-Code/No-Code CPI environment; or to extend backend functionalities – using BTP side-by-side extensibility options,

Other applications for ESG data collection

Getting the information about the renewable energy and the recycled content is not the only information that we need to collect from the Suppliers. For Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) reporting, many Companies may also need to collect from Suppliers:

Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certificates – this is a voluntary certification program providing assurance of proper usage of soil amendments, field sanitation practices, products traceability and food defense etc.

CO2e footprint per raw material – to report CO2e footprint of the individual products placed on the market, we need to collect CO2e footprint for each purchased raw material. Here as well, CO2e footprint for the same raw material may vary from delivery to delivery.

Stay tuned...

Keep following relevant blogs and community resources, post and answer questions, and read other posts on the sustainability topic.

And of course, share your thought and comments on my article, in the comments section.

About the author

I have been an IT professional for more than 20 years, with over 10 years of experience in Enterprise and Solution Architecture. My key focus is Enterprise Integration, of applications, systems, and processes.

Sustainability is obviously a "hot" topics catching my attention lately.

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas

[2] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Glossary:Carbon_dioxide_equivalent

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_effect

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change

[5] https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement

[6] https://ghgprotocol.org/

Enabling Climate Action and Circular Economy with SAP Batch Management

2022-11-09T00:09:06+01:00

Introduction

In my previous article I was ideating on using Ariba for getting Supplier inputs for the calculation of the Greenhouse Gas emissions.

I have already explained the significance of the greenhouse gas emission measurements, as well as the impact of the % renewable energy and % recycled content on the carbon emission calculation. As these inputs would normally come from the Suppliers, I was also presenting various Solution Concepts how Ariba could be used to support data acquisition.

While thus acquired renewable energy volumes may be use directly and included in the calculation of the carbon emissions (actually, excluding volumes of the electricity produced form the renewable sources), for recycled content situation is, once again, a bit more complex.

In this article, I will address the next logical question – how do we manage, in the backend system, inputs we acquired through Ariba – focus is on % recycled content, or the recycled content info in general. While Ariba provides an enabling capability, through collaboration with our Suppliers; the way how we will manage this data in our backend system represents the second part of the foundation architecture for the overall ESG reporting.

Figure 1. Ariba, SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Technology Platform

This article, as well as the previous one, is not about Solution itself, but about Architectural Thinking and ideating on possible Solution Concept(s).

Context: Where do we need % recycled content?

Overall, the usage and placement of the recycled content present a very significant information for both, Climate Action and Circular Economy. If we take simple example of the PET packaging, i.e. we purchase PET bottles as a raw material and use it for the primary packaging of the juice, we need to understand what is the carbon footprint of the purchased raw materials (in this example PET bottles), as well as (non-)recycled content sold-out with the (semi-)finish goods:

For Scope 3 (greenhouse gas) emission calculation – we need to know the ratio of the “virgin” (newly produced) and “recycled” content in the raw material purchased. Why is this important? The recycled “part” of the material has a different (lower) emission factor than the virgin one – usually around four times less. So, this makes a significant impact on the overall calculation of the carbon emissions.

In other cases, we would need to know how much recycled content in our (semi-)finish goods is placed on the market, or in general terms how much recycled content is exiting one plant and entering the other plant (i.e. in case intercompany selling, or through export-import).

An overall input (purchases or imports) of the % (non-)recycled plastic is needed for the calculation of the so called “plastic tax”, i.e. UK Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) came into force in the UK on 1 April 2022 [1]. Basically, it applies to plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled plastic, manufactured or imported into the UK as a raw material, but it also includes packaging on finished goods which are imported into the UK [2]. This implies, any company purchasing, importing or manufacturing either raw materials and/or (semi-)finish goods may need to keep track of overall % recycled plastic. Similar requirements were or will be placed in Italy, and some other countries.

Beside above requirements, additional (in)directly related requirements may also be applicable, like EU taxonomy [3], or in-general financial aspects of the (non-)financial company, reporting specific CAPEX and OPEX activities (detailed overview in this article by denise.iwersen). Companies working with plastic packaging can be in particular affected by these regulations [4], where understanding of the proportion of the recycled plastic used is of immense importance [5]. Of course, every manufacturer would also be interested to see the costing effect – i.e. when purchasing mixed recycled and virgin plastic – obviously the cost of the recycled plastic “part” is higher than the cost of the virgin plastic “part”.

And that’s not the end… The area around Environment and Circular Economy will become more and more regulated, i.e.in EU there is a clear action plan – European Green Deal [6]

Also, in the above example I have used a simplistic approach, where the manufacturer ia buying PET bottle as a raw material, fills-in e.g. juice, and sells it as a finish goods. However, this “simple example” is not really the most common one. Often, the process is much more complex. Ordinarily, the manufacturers would purchase PET resin in the different forms, like PET chips, or PET preforms, from the different Suppliers, mix resins/chips, or “enrich” preforms during blowing etc. during the production of the actual PET bottles. And then, PET bottles are only part of the primary packaging, there are also closures and labels, coming from the different types of plastics. Finally, products or finish goods would be placed to the market, either in secondary, or more often in tertiary packaging, i.e.:

wrapping six pack bottles with plastic shrink film/folia would be secondary packaging,

placing several six-packs on the pallet and wrapping with plastic stretch film/folia would be tertiary packaging.

So, calculating everything for recycled plastic is really a challenge…

And, of course, various plastics are not the only type of the materials which can be recycled.

*) Another EU regulation will be coming in place soon – Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism [7][8] – designated as “carbon border tax”. Currently it is not foreseen to directly affect plastic packaging, but will target (among others) Aluminum, Iron & Steel sectors (check out this post by thijs.elling).

Solution Concept

Okay, challenge is there, but it’s nothing new… How are we addressing this challenge?

One important thing to note – no matter how complex reporting in on the recycled content (or in general on Circular Economy) – it will become more and more complex…

ESG reporting is becoming more and more demanding – so if we want to comply with forthcoming requirements and regulations, we should build proper foundations – proper data model for the recycled content.

Two main options will be evaluated:

% recycled content as a custom attribute of the Material Master

% recycled content as a characteristic of the class within Batch Management

Manage % recycled content on the Material level

We can manage packaging element attributes for each Material which is designated as a (raw) material for packaging. Such Material can be extended for the additional attribute (or in general we can create new classification set for various ESG attributes or for Packaging) which will store/record % recycled content – this is pretty much standard process in SAP S/4HANA (i.e. extending MARA table with the append structure, which will have the custom fields).

In the Bill-Of-Material (BOM) we will maintain different packaging compositions for primary, secondary, or tertiary packaging of the (semi-)finish goods. In the overall production process, there may be several “layers” of BOM – BOM is usually multi-layer, i.e. we can have:

BOM “A” for “intermediary” packaging of the (semi-)finish goods – subject to intercompany move, or export

BOM “B” for a secondary packaging,

BOM “C” for a tertiary packaging,

BOM “D” for repackaging into “different” tertiary packaging – used for placing finish goods on the different market

…etc.

Figure 2. Example of Material Master and BOM

Each BOM by itself is also a Material, just as raw materials, (semi-)finish goods and scrap materials (scrap from the production process during material “conversion”). Through material movements in the Material Document, we can track:

Inbound delivery – i.e. from purchases, imports, or posting good-receipts of newly created goods (from the production, packaging etc.);

Outbound delivery – i.e. releasing to the market, exports;

Stocks transfers – i.e. between Plant and/or Storage Location;

Production – i.e. issues for the production

Write-offs and scrap

… etc.

As BOM has a composition up to the level of the Material(s) in which we want to track the recycled content, we can fairly easily track and report on the recycled content in the various stages – this would provide the foundation for all required reporting.

Figure 3. Example of Material Documents and movement types

The best way to acquire % recycled content for the Material Master

What is the most suitable Ariba product we could use to acquire data for Material Master?

I will not go to details described in my previous article, but in general, two main ideas are:

Goods-Receipts (Ariba Procurement) or

Suppliers’ Certificates (Ariba SLP).

In this approach, we would not be linking % recycled content (or the recycled content in general) with the Material Document, but with the Material Master. Acquiring Suppliers’ inputs through Goods Receipts is possible, but for maintaining the attribute of the Material – it would make more sense to acquire recycled content values via Suppliers’ Certificates – using Ariba SLP.

Figure 4. Using Ariba SLP to acquire the recycled content

Limitation?

Recording % recycled content as the attribute of the Material, would be the most common and the most obvious approach today. This approach might do just fine for smaller Companies, working with a limited number of raw materials, BOMs; conducting a limited number of production & logistical operations. Larger Companies might be facing certain problems with this approach:

Each time the Supplier changes % recycled content (which is stored/recorded as the attribute of the Material), we would need to create new Material, and re-create new BOMs for all subsequential layers containing this Material. This would be a very tedious task when working with many raw materials, many BOMs, and when operating in many countries. This could also lead to the “explosion” or the Material Master table.

New raw materials and new BOMs would in reality have the same visual characteristics as the “old” ones – how can we tell which (semi-)finish goods have been transferred, released to the market, or exported?

Costing split (in case we need costing part of the % recycled content) is not covered by this approach.

We may try to address this by updating existing Material and keep historical values in the reporting system – i.e. implementing in SAP BW time-dependent characteristics for the recycled content. But “update” Material is really not the correct way for many reasons. Among other reasons – we might have an “old” version of the Material in our stocks.

Nevertheless, problems could be partially addressed by implementing programs (either as extensions in SAP BTP or ABAP within SAP S/4HANA):

Recognize when existing Material is being supplied with different % recycled content;

Create “new” Material;

Create “new” BOMs for all subsequential layers containing this Material;

Optionally – disable “old” Material for inbound deliveries from purchases (in case we do not expect additional quantities of the “old” Material).

Thinking outside of the box…

What if we can mix resins to always get the same % recycled content of the Material, and only then use this Material for packaging BOMs? At least, we would not have to change BOMs frequently…

Managing recycled content through Batch Management

When working with heavy and demanding Supply-Chain and Production, SAP Batch Management might provide necessary solutions for tracking raw materials and (semi-)finish goods.

This time, % recycled content is not the attribute on the Material level

Material keeps all relevant characteristics – and it is not subject to change when different % recycled content is provided by the Supplier.

BOMs for all subsequential layers containing this material are constant as well.

Material Documents are tracking movements of the raw materials and (semi-)finish goods.

% recycled content is a characteristic of the Batch – which is related with the Material Master, but also with the Material Documents.

Batch is unique, has characteristics measures, and it is assigned to the respective Material number. Batch contains only data that is unique from the perspective of that Batch. All characteristics which are common for the Material itself, are characteristics of the Material.

How does Batch Management works?

Batch Management is activated under Material Master;

Batch Management enables creation of the characteristics and classes – i.e. we can create characteristics which will hold % recycled content (or the recycled content in general)

Characteristics define “allowed values” of the characteristic itself;

Classes contain list of the characteristics assigned to them;

For the Material(s) which will be managed through Batch Management – it is necessary to check “Batch Management” parameter and maintain (assign) classes;

Batch (as a business object) “inherits” classes of the Material – however, within the Batch we can also assign to each characteristic “specific value” (from the ”allowed values” or create “new value” for % recycled content) – in this way, this value is now assigned to the Batch, not to the Material.

*) This is a simplified view of the Batch Management – I am not discussing Batch levels, Batch Short/Sort Rule, Batch Determinations etc.

Figure 5. SAP Batch Management for the recycled content

With Batch Management, we can capture % recycled content as the characteristic – this recycled content is unique for this Batch – of course, it may be the same as some previous Batch, but it may vary over time – and this is not affecting Material Master:

Batch is created automatically during Goods Receipts;

Batch may also contain purchasing cost – i.e. in case such “split” of costing is provided i during purchase (in the Material accounting view – set standard valuation category to Automatic/Batch);

Batch is linked with Material Document (via Material Number, Plant, Storage Location, and Charge=Batch Number);

We can split Batch, or create new Material (i.e. producing new material from one or more raw materials), and this new Material can also be Batch managed;

However, Batch is not linked with BOM – we cannot “fix” BOM to the specific Batch – for understanding which Branch is used during production or packaging we must perform Batch Determination – either Manually (operator would manually select) or Automatically based on the Sort Rule and Strategy Type (e.g. FIFO per Storage Location);

Figure 6. Example of the Material Document link with Batch

As Batch is linked to the Material(s) in which we want to track recycled content, we can track and report on the recycled content in the various stages – this would provide baselines for all required reporting. Here, we would use reports based either on the Batch Information Cockpit (BMBC), or produce reports on Material Document (for purchases), or produce reports on Batch Stocks Table (MNHB) etc.

It should be noted, standard functionality Batch where-used list of the Batch Information Cockpit requires both, source and target, Materials are Batch managed. To keep a track of the Batch usage up to the finish goods BOM, custom program/reporting logic might be needed:

Basically, we would have to track “Batch” and its usage in the newly produced Material which is the initial BOM layer;

Production of the Material which is next subsequential BOM layer (i.e. secondary packaging) would be based on the initial BOM layer (i.e. primary packaging) – so it would “inherit” choice of the Batch used for the initial packaging;

Custom off-stock movement type and postings can be created to follow raw material Batch usage throughout all produced Materials based on all BOM layers up to the Goods Issues.

Right approach for Suppliers’ inputs

Ariba Procurement?

Yes, of course – we can use Goods Receipts to collect Suppliers’ inputs on recycled content, and Batch can be created automatically.

This is the most logical and the most natural flow of data.

Figure 7. Using Ariba Procurement to acquire the recycled content

Any shortcomings?

Ariba Procurement collaboration with Suppliers, Goods Receipts and Batch Management – is this the “Solution”?

Yes, and no… This might be the “Solution” for large Companies, working with Batch Management. It should be noted, implementation of the Batch Management is much more than just configuration on the backend system – it requires labeling, scanning, tracking all batches in all production steps – which could increase load on the logistic and production workforce. Also, custom program logic to track Batch usage, when using BOMs, might be necessary as well. While, this approach does provide foundation architecture for both, Climate Action and Circular Economy, the investment and operational challenges might be too high for some Companies.

Can we address these challenges?

We have to see things beyond “now”. We have to think in line with the Industry 4.0 [9] – and if do so, some logical actions steps can be put in place:

Automatic Batch Determination – can we even enhance it with ML (Machine Learning) capability(?) – i.e. “train” machine to choose right Batch, understanding all components up to the finish goods, so we are always “bellow” the Plastic Tax threshold;

IoT – labeling and tracking Batch without need for a manual or automatic scanning of barcodes – i.e. using smart tags for labeling;

Automation of industrial process – in logistic and production using M2M (Machine-2-Machine) communication;

… and of course, overall Change Management;

Now, it’s not easy – but, we should understand that Batch Management with the process automation can bring many, many tangible benefits – especially for larger manufacturers.

Other ideas?

The above Solution Concepts were presented with some key assumptions:

There is a need to provide fully accurate reporting on recycled content – no approximations, no averages etc. Or course, under “accurate” emphasis is on accurate as much as Suppliers’ inputs are accurate (i.e. on the recycled content);

Standard and available products – Ariba & SAP S/4HANA (incl. SAP Batch Management);

Solution Concept is only about foundation architecture – data acquisition & primary data management – we must build foundations, and only then, after we build foundations, things will get more exciting with other ESG products and services – SAP Environment, Health, and Safety Management, SAP Sustainability Control Tower; SAP Responsible Design and Production, SAP Product Footprint Management etc.;

Only one use case is addressed – recycled content – but there are other potential use-cases, like carbon footprint per product etc.;

All above solutions might be a good “Solution Concept” for one or the other Company – depending on its size, complexity, industry etc.

Now, at this point of time, we cannot say how strict reporting requirements would be – we cannot say if some approximations (i.e. monthly average) would be acceptable for the regulators and legislators. As reporting requirements and still evolving – current requirements are either not so clear, or not so strict, or still not in place. After all, in the above Solution Concepts, reporting accuracy relay on the accurate inputs – as it is always the case. Can we currently ensure globally (or even regionally) all our Suppliers can provide absolutely accurate inputs up to the “decimals”? No, probably not – for time being providing fairly accurate and auditable monthly averages might be quite sufficient. And if we accept this assumption, a complete range of different Solution Concepts addressing above limitations and/or shortcomings can be “custom” developed. After all, SAP S/4HANA provides excellent extensibility options through SAP BTP…

Stay tuned…

Let me invite you again to keep following relevant blogs and community resources, post and answer questions, and read other posts on the sustainability topic.

And of course, share your thought and comments on my article, in the comments section.

About the author

I have been an IT professional for more than 20 years, with over 10 years of experience in Enterprise and Solution Architecture. My key focus is Enterprise Integration, of applications, systems, and processes.

Sustainability is more than just EA/SA topic – it is a topic of everybody’s interest...

Acknowledgment

This article uses SAP Business Technology Platform Solution Diagrams & Icons as perSAP Terms of Use governing the use of these SAP Materials (please note, newer version of the Solution Diagrams & Icons, as well as Terms of Use, might be in place after the publication of this article).

More guidelines on Solution Diagrams & Icons can be found in this article by bertram.ganz.

References

[1] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-need-to-register-for-plastic-packaging-tax

[2] https://www.pwc.co.uk/services/tax/plastic-packaging-tax.html#:~:text=Plastic%20Packaging%20Tax%20(PPT)%20came,on%20goods%20which%20are%20imported).

[3] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32020R0852

[4] https://www.celsia.io/blogs/can-manufacture-of-plastics-be-sustainable-under-the-new-eu-taxonomy-requirements

[5] https://www.nabu.de/imperia/md/content/nabude/sustainablefinance/210412_nabu_taxonomy_circular-economy.pdf

[6] https://environment.ec.europa.eu/strategy/circular-economy-action-plan_en

[7] https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/green-taxation-0/carbon-border-adjustment-mechanism_en

[8] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_21_3661

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Industrial_Revolution

Sustainable Supplier and Risk Management

2023-01-13T00:52:01+01:00

Dear SAP Community,

Happy New Year and welcome to 2023. During the month of January, our Community Spotlight will be focused on Supplier Management, Supplier Risk and how Sustainability is woven throughout. Given that this topic is pretty broad, let’s start with some definitions.

“Supplier Management” is an umbrella term that covers the supplier lifecycle processes as well as supplier risk management. The topics are interdependent in that, as you ask and learn information about the supplier, it influences the other lifecycle and risk processes. “3^rd Party Risk Management”, on the other hand, is about control, regulatory compliance, brand management, and how best to address both anticipated events and unanticipated surprises as expeditiously as possible.

Because companies have unique stakeholder requirements, each company may have its own definition of “Sustainability”. But regardless of definition, Sustainability usually must be driven into business processes in order to meet organizational Sustainability commitments. When it comes to Supplier and Risk Management, this means finding, vetting, onboarding, and maintaining suppliers that are in alignment with your sustainability goals.

Throughout the month of January, we’ll dive into various aspects of Sustainable Supplier and Risk Management.(To see an intro video by Matt Montgomery, Solution Manager for Supplier & Risk Management, please click here.)

Here’s a glimpse of what you can look forward to this month:

Navigating the Supplier Management Process

In this blog post, we will cover supplier onboarding, supplier qualification, supplier performance evaluation, “off cycle” collaboration with suppliers, risk monitoring, risk assessments, risk findings/event collaboration, and supplier off-boarding. We will also weave in some best practices we have observed from customers globally.

Incorporating Diversity into Supplier Management

In this post, we’ll talk about what kind of Supplier Diversity goals companies have around the world, and then look at every aspect of Supplier Management through the Supplier Diversity lens. And of course we’ll talk about the technology that companies are using to help them achieve their Supplier Diversity goals.

Managing Your Services & External Workforce Suppliers

While Product and Services companies have some similar supplier management components, we’ll dive into a few examples of how services companies may need additional checks and balances to measure against their delivery.

Supplier Risk

In this post, we’ll go deeper into the logic of risk monitoring and the need to ensure that a score is well understood, trusted by the customer, and most importantly relevant for the situation. Monitoring 1 supplier isn’t hard, 10 isn’t too much worse, but as we look at 100 to 100K suppliers (or more!), this topic forces the need for prioritization.

Human Rights Due Diligence in the Supply Chain

While Human Rights Due Diligence (or HRDD) is not a new topic, the number of HRDD regulations coming out, as well as the severity of the consequences for non-compliance, is increasing.

In addition to the upcoming blog posts, we will release a Community Challenge about how to best calculate risk exposure and report on impact / recommended outcomes. With so many variables that can be poured into the formula, we can’t wait to hear your ideas about the industry-specific best practice risk calculations that can be leveraged. Finally, be sure to bring your questions to the YouTube Livestream at the end of the month.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy January. We look forward to spending the month with you!

Warm Regards,

Matt Montgomery - Global Director of Solution Management, Supplier & Risk Management

Kristen Hanel - Global Director of Solution Management, Sustainability

Can we use ChatGPT to enhance Supplier data collection for ESG?

2023-04-03T15:39:16+02:00

Why am I using an image of the electronic circuits, when talking about something so “new” and “modern” like AI or ML?

Well, precisely because of that!

AI is as smart as we build it. An “Artificial” Intelligence is (still), in its essence, build by humans, and run on some electronic “circuits”. Some would even argue – there is no such thing as an “Artificial Intelligence” – there is only “Intelligence” or “no Intelligence”… But this article is not the debate of what AI is – this is not the topic I want to cover. In fact, I do find AI to be very useful for many applications, and in this article, I am exploring one possible use-case of AI – using AI to support ESG data acquisition and thus accuracy of the overall ESG reporting.

Problem to be addressed

In the previous article Using Ariba for getting Supplier inputs for the calculation of the Greenhouse Gas emissions | SAP Blogs I have elaborated few concepts of getting Supplier data inputs relevant for ESG reporting.

If our Suppliers will provide input data in the electronic exchange formats – which we can integrate with our systems, then we have no problems. But in general, this is still not so common. ESG relevant Supplier inputs (e.g. certificates), whether we are connected via Business Network or not, very often would come as unstructured electronic (or even non-electronic) documents. Assuming, majority of Supplier would be able to provide inputs as an electronic document (e.g. PDF), and considering that even non-electronic document (e.g. paper) can be scanned – I will focus only on unstructured electronic input documents.

What kind of Supplier inputs we are talking about?

It could be various ESG relevant inputs, either for GHG reporting, or EPRs, or various ESG frameworks – like GRI or similar:

% or volume of the delivered renewable energy;

% recycled connected with delivered raw materials;

Costing part of the recycled connected within delivered raw materials;

CO2e footprint of the raw materials;

GAP or similar certificates;

etc.

How does ChatGPT fits-in?

Why is generative AI (ChatGPT by OpenAI) better than standard ML recognizing content?

Standard ML for content recognition needs to be trained. If Supplier is changing the layout/format of the document, or if we are bringing different suppliers with different document formats – each time ML model would have to be re-trained.

Large Language Model (LLM) are proven to be very good in providing answers with no or very little learning (basically, unsupervised learning). ChatGPT on the other hand is based on Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) version 3.5 (at the moment this article has been written). It is “more” than LLM. Optimization is achieved using Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback (RLHF) – and this “Human Feedback” means it has been pre-trained on vast amounts of data written by humans. This is what makes it so compelling for humans during the interaction – as it sounds quite human-like.

For the particular problem of recognizing content form the Suppliers’ inputs – the ability to create human-like interaction is irrelevant. However, what is relevant is the ability to recognize the content without the need to be trained on the any Suppliers’ input data forms.

Solution Concept

I am presenting a Solution Concept – an idea of potential use of ChatGPT (or similar AI) model to support the collection of Suppliers’ inputs for the purpose of the ESG reporting. This does not imply ChatGPT is “ready” product for this purpose and can be used out-of-the-box. ChatGPT is primarily designed to “chat”, but the model behind is promising for other uses as well.

The Process steps:

The process would start by collecting Suppliers’ inputs – e.g. via Business Network.

The next steps will be text recognition (OCR) as ChatGPT works with text.

Then, we would have to pass the text and questions to ChatGPT (e.g. this could be a certificate of the overall quantity of the renewable energy delivered by the electrical energy Supplier)

ChatGPT would (ideally) recognize the context, and extract relevant answers from the text (e.g. what was the quantity, in which period etc.)

Finally, ChatGPT provides answers, but those answers would have to be mapped with the specific business content (e.g. by mapping “questions” with specific Business Objects like Quantity, Period, Date; we can map “answers” and assign values to the respective Business Objects).

Note:
Creating human-like responses by ChatGPT in fact would not even be beneficial for this use-case. We are only looking for the ability to recognize the “text” and pull-out the answer from the text – where it was written.

Testing ChatGPT

For testing this Solution Concept, I have used “rich dummy” PDF document – example of Supplier certificate stating, among others, quantity of the renewable energy delivered in the specific period of time.

After OCR of the PDF, I have started new chat by “loading” the text. Below image shows only a portion of the 2-page text.

Then, I have asked several questions about quantity of the renewable energy and the period when it was delivered.

The answer was correct, and it was encapsulated in the first sentence.

The answer was also correct, although the dates are formatted for the human interaction.

The approach with Ariba SLP

If we would like to put ChatGPT (or some performant & capable LLM) in motion for this use-case, some configuration work would still be needed:

Acquisition of the electronic documents from the Suppliers – APIs should be able to fetch the Suppliers provided input documents – e.g. certificates. This however is not a problem if using Ariba SLP Modular Questionnaires – as fetching attached certificates is supported by Supplier Data API with Pagination.

Classification of the document might be needed (e.g. is this certificate for the renewable energy, or GAP certificate) – this is needed in order to ask “right” questions. Either the classification of the documents would happen during the data acquisition, or some training might be needed for AI to understand “what is this document about” and classify it accordingly – and only then “ask” appropriate questions. Again, if using Ariba SLP Modular Questionnaires – either different questionnaires or different questions are used for different certificates, so each incoming document text is already labeled/ classified and thus appropriate questions would be asked.

We do need answers are correctly extracted from the “text”, but we do not need human-like answers. Here, recommendation would be to pre-train model to do what we need.

Business Mapping of the answers with specific Business Objects would need rule-based engine to be built on top of the AI. However, building rule-based business mapping should not present a major configuration task in the SAP Integration Suite (CPI).

High level business process:

*) for additional details, please visit my previous article Using Ariba for getting Supplier inputs for the calculation of the Greenhouse Gas emissions | SAP Blogs

Conclusion

In all examples tested (5 test samples in total), ChatGPT was correctly understanding the questions and extracting the answers – although answers tent to be too human-like (which is expected from ChatGPT). We may ask ourselves, if we do not need this human-like interaction, why don’t’ we just use any other LLM? The thing is, ChatGPT does demonstrate superior quality in understanding the context of the questions – thus easily extracting the correct answers from the large text document. Other models based on the LLM, of course, might also provide similar capability – however, this small showcase is limited to only one AI model which was tested – and for this showcase I have selected “most” mentioned AI model these days – ChatGPT…

In general, this test does demonstrate generative AI can be of use in the enhancing (or overall simplifying?) document Business Content recognition. This is noting unexpected – we do expect AI to be “smart”. However, the main benefit of using “smart” AI like ChatGPT would come from following facts:

superb understanding of the semantics within the “text” – being able to understand the question and extract right answer;

no real learning is needed to recognize specific "text" forms.

Another interesting feature, worth mentioning – I’ve loaded some “certificates” in different languages (e.g. German) – and ChatGPT was processing them without any problem.

Now, the question is – do we want to use ChatGPT for this use-case, or we would rather look to “build” more specific AI models (e.g. LLM or so)?

Stay tuned…

I am inviting you to keep following relevant blogs and community resources, post and answer questions, and read other posts on the sustainability topic.

And of course, share your thought and comments on my article, in the comments section.

Acknowledgment

*) Intro photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

**) This article uses SAP Business Technology Platform Solution Diagrams & Icons as per SAP Terms of Use governing the use of these SAP Materials (please note, newer version of the Solution Diagrams & Icons, as well as Terms of Use, might be in place after the publication of this article). More guidelines on Solution Diagrams & Icons can be found in this article by bertram.ganz.

NOTE:

*) the original Blog has been posted on March 21st, 2023 - republishing due to the technical reasons.

SAP Ariba awesome feature "Supplier diversity information in catalog"

2023-08-03T01:31:10+02:00

Hello World thank you for taking the time to read my blog!! My name is Himanshu Aman, and I am a SAP Ariba consultant.

Today my blog is going to focus on a cool Ariba latest feature where now a customer can support a diverse supplier by purchasing items from the catalog. If a supplier supports diversity we can see the diversity labels like "Woman owned" or "Hispanic owned". Now customers have options to choose the diverse supplier over other suppliers.

Now I am going to talk about some pre-requisites which we must need to perform to enable this feature:

In Guided buying we need to set parameter 'ENABLE_SUPPLIER_DIVERSITY_CATALOG_FLOW' to True:
- If set to false (default), diversity labels do not appear on suppliers when viewing the catalog.
- If set to true, users see diversity labels on suppliers when viewing the catalog.

We must belong to customer admin group to manage the diversity program:
- To create diversity labels on supplier tiles we need to create different diversity types by importing diversity info file by following path : Manage-->SM Administration--> Import Diversity info file.
- Link suppliers to diversity type by importing Vendor diversity data file by following path: Manage-->SM Administration--> Import Vendor diversity file.

Now you can see the supplier diversity information below for one of my test supplier :

Supplier Diversity information

For more information please visit: https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/978b7e36451a4c2c85321a3ef6f3a7e5/37c6fe8442ab4cc4a45a34d46299f4ba.html?q=GB-16949

Thank you for giving your Time..!!

Unlock the Power: Newest Tips and Insights from SAP Ariba and SAP Business Network Partner Delivery Group

2023-11-29T16:03:58+01:00

Dear SAP Partners,

We are excited to share with you the latest developments within the SAP Ariba, SAP Business Network Partner Delivery Group.

The heartbeat of our dynamic delivery team continues to thrive and prosper! We invite you to further exploit this empowering platform to cultivate cooperative relationships with other partners and subject matter experts in SAP. This platform harbors a treasure trove of knowledge, benchmark practices, and critical resources tailored to your unique requirements—mirroring your Release preparedness needs, improving Certification, and guaranteeing your continuous awareness.

What’s New?

The SAP Ariba and SAP Business Network Team have been relentlessly striving to introduce several enhancements and upgrades, specifically designed to cater to your development and necessities. Seize the potential of uniquely curated ecosystems that will integrate flawlessly with your organizational objectives.

Blogs YouMust Read

Ready for some brain-fuel? Grab a cup of coffee and dive into our latest must-read blogs:

Blog 1: Maximizing Efficiency in The Managed Gateway (Cloud Integration Gateway) - Most talked about Topics

Blog 2: SAP Ariba and SAP Business Network Global Delivery Enablement Highlights - November 2023

Stay in the know about upcoming partner events, Certification & Stay Current and Release Readiness Information!

Blog 3: Process Flow Framework in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle & Performance(SLP)

Blog 4: Inventory reservation in ERP integrated sites – Learn about customers can expand their procurement coverage into the areas of MRO, safety equipment, and spare parts, providing a single user experience for all types of goods.

Blog 5:

Stay Restless. Stay Curious

Your feedback is instrumental in our continuous improvement. Do not hesitate to share your thoughts or ideas you might have.

Thank you for your continued support and for being an invaluable part of our delivery group.

SAP Ariba Integration scenarios with SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud system

2024-04-10T16:45:32.818000+02:00

Introduction

SAP Ariba solutions extend the core operational processes, providing full source-to-settle functionality with both S/4HANA Private cloud and S/4HANA Public cloud systems.

In this blog, we will see the Ariba technical scenarios which can integrate into S/4HANA Public cloud. Considering the restriction of leveraging the Ariba standard integration method, we will also see what integration method can be used to connect Ariba and S/4HANA Public cloud system.

S/4 HANA public cloud integration with SAP Ariba includes guided buying, collaborative sourcing, and networked-based, end-to-end supplier collaboration to deliver a new and simplified user experience and a seamlessly integrated working model with suppliers using SAP Business Network.

We can extend the core capabilities of SAP S/4HANA Cloud with SAP Ariba solutions in a single-instance deployment. This enables you to receive business documents from SAP Ariba solutions in SAP S/4HANA Cloud and to execute end-to-end processes. Ariba FPC can not be integrated with S/4HANA public cloud.

Available Integration scenarios between Ariba and S/4HANA Public cloud system:

Below mentioned technical scenarios can be integrated from Ariba to S/4 HANA using SOAP APIs using Managed Gateways Passthrough integration. Integration method for below scenarios is different than integrating on-prem S/4 system, So no managed gateway add-on required to connect these systems

Sl #	Technical scenario number	SAP Ariba Technical Scenarios name	S/4HANA Public cloud Integration
1		Supplier Management (SLP) – Bi-directional sync	yes
2	4BL	Sourcing with SAP Ariba Sourcing	yes
3	4AZ	Contract Management with SAP Ariba Contracts	yes
4	2NV	Guided Buying Capability with SAP Ariba Buying	yes
5	42K	Source-to-pay with SAP Business Network (Commerce Automation)	yes

SAP S/4HANA public Cloud in connection with SAP Ariba applications allows you to largely benefit in streamlining your procurement processes:

1. Integrating Supplier Data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud with SAP Ariba Solutions Using SAP Master Data Integration

We can use SAP Master Data Integration (MDI) to replicate supplier data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud to SAP Ariba solutions.

SAP MDI replicates supplier data to SAP Ariba applications through SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network. The following diagram illustrates this process:

Supplier data integration using SAP MDI supports the following Source to Pay business processes for the SAP S/4HANA Cloud integration solutions:

SAP Documentation link: About Supplier Data Integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Using SAP Master Data Integration | SAP Help Portal

3087667 - Connecting from SAP S/4HANA Cloud to SAP Master Data Integration service - SAP for Me

Reference link for Bi-directional update:

SM-31650: Support for Bidirectional Integration of Supplier Data with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Using SAP Master Data Integration (MDI) | SAP Help Portal

2. Sourcing with SAP Ariba Sourcing

Sourcing with SAP Ariba Sourcing (4BL) enables to identify sources of supply for purchase requisitions in SAP S/4HANA public Cloud, using the community of suppliers in SAP Business Network and the SAP Ariba Sourcing solution. Note that this scenario is the successor of Sourcing with SAP Ariba Sourcing (1A0).

You can find more information about feature overview in the below SAP help documentation link: Sourcing with SAP Ariba Sourcing (4BL) | SAP Help Portal

3. Contract Management with SAP Ariba Contracts

Contract Management with SAP Ariba Contracts" (scope item 4AZ) enables you to perform strategic sourcing activities and to integrate prices from SAP Ariba Contracts into operational systems, that is, SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

You can find more information about feature overview in the below SAP help documentation link: Contract Management with SAP Ariba Contracts (4AZ) | SAP Help Portal

4. Guided Buying Capability with SAP Ariba Buying

The guided buying capabilities of SAP Ariba are designed for employees who order goods using a self-service. Guided Buying Capability with SAP Ariba Buying allows procurement organizations to scale self-service procurement across spend categories while enforcing compliance.

Note: Procure to pay with SAP Ariba Buying & Invoicing with S/4 HANA integration scenario is deprecated

For more detail about 2NV can be referred in the below link: Guided Buying Capability with SAP Ariba Buying (2NV) | SAP Help Portal

5. Automation of Source-to-Pay with SAP Business Network (42K)

The scope item Automation of Source-to-Pay with SAP Business Network (42K) enables you to seamlessly connect from SAP S/4HANA Cloud to your suppliers in SAP Business Network. You can send them requests for quotations, asking for price and quantity information as well as for shipping costs. You can also send electronic purchase orders and goods receipts to your suppliers using SAP Business Network, and you can receive electronic order confirmations for materials, advanced shipping notifications, and invoices in SAP S/4HANA Cloud from your suppliers. You can also send payment advices in electronic form to your suppliers in SAP Business Network. All data is routed through SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network.

SAP Documentation link : Automation of Source-to-Pay with SAP Business Network (42K) | SAP Help Portal

Hope this blog help you to understand in the possible scenarios can be integrated between Ariba and SAP S/4HANA public cloud.