2.0 Business Process

Capture the business process that the application supports . This can be describe through a process diagram or a business capability model

3.0 Application Feature Overview

 BW - DP - Demand Review (Core query) report is replaced by BW - DP - Budget Review (Core query). BW - DP - Demand Review (Core query) is not maintained anymore and will be decommissioned by 02.2023. A procedure to migrate existing workbooks from Demand Review to Budget Review (Core query) is being writing.

4.0 Functional Specification

4.1 General Data/Calculations 

This section will approach the concepts/definitions that will be used in all the reports and required to understand the data from the reports.

Could be specific fields, closing activities, additional information to work and understand the reports.

Key Figures

For more details please follow this link.

Description

Calculation rule detail

Dynamic naming of the key figure

Currency Conversion

Exchange rates are a critical factor in demand planning and supply chain management for businesses with international operations or global supply chains. Effective management of exchange rate risks and considerations related to currency fluctuations are essential for maintaining profitability and competitiveness in global markets.

• Exchange Rate Type : 

The full description of each exchange rate type can be found in the Exchange rates page.

• Currency : 
• Time Reference : 

Currency Conversion How To

How to reload historical TCURR:

To reload the historical value in TCURR table, it's necessary to use program ZBW_LOAD_EXCHANGE_RATES_CAR with option "Hist exchange rate server File".  This option will get REEL rate from PREV_SIMUL_REEL_histo.txt to replace table TCURR on CAR1 - CAR6 basing on the period selection.

Be careful, the date in "first recurring period" in case of historical reload, it's the "until" date, not the "from" date.

Here, the exchange rate before 01.2020 will be reloaded, not after.

 Flag TCURR Delete, if mark it = X, it will deleted all the TCURR of CAR1 - CAR6 that time < "First Recurring Period".  We use this option only when we are sure that the history file from BFC can replace all CARs type.

The impact will be on the currency that is not in the file will be deleted in TCURR table. 

How to create a backup (TCURF and CAR* currencies only)

1. Go to transaction SE38

2. Execute program ZBW_CURRENCY_BACKUP

3. Select the requested option

Unit Conversion

Unit conversion is necessary to ensure that the information is consistent and that different units of measurement can be effectively used for forecasting, inventory management, and other supply chain activities. Accurate unit conversion is particularly important for international businesses that operate in regions with varying measurement systems and regulatory requirements. The full explanation on how the quantity conversion works is explained below:

Standard conversion (Based on material master data)

For the standard conversion, usually there will be a prompt with a variable selection that will allow you to select the Unit you want. BW will then try to convert the base quantity to this unit. In most cases the report will display a column with the base unit and another with the converted unit.

The conversion will be done material by material but if the conversion cannot be done BW will display a warning message "No quantity conversion possible" and the "converted quantity" column will show the quantity in base unit instead of target unit.
We can distingish 2 cases based on if the base and target unit are in the same dimension or different dimension.

A Dimension is a grouping of units of measure for which the conversion rate is fixed internationaly.

Length = centimeter (cm), inch (in), foot (ft), meter (m), kilometer (km)
Mass = gram (g), kilogram (kg), Ton (TO), Us Ton (TON)

Conversion between 2 units from the same dimension.

If the conversion it between 2 units from the same dimension BW will convert using the international rate without issue. Example :

1000 KG = 1 TO

Conversion between 2 units from different dimensions.

If the conversion is between 2 units from a different dimesion then there is no international rate, so BW will try to look for the conversion information in the material master data in RCS. Example :

KG to L
PC to KG

The conversion will work only if the target unit was set as an alternative unit of measure in the RCS material master data. Example :

Material Base Unit = KG
Alternative Unit h1.L with 1 L 1.2 KG
Conversion from KG to L will work.

Important Note : The conversion with an alternative unit of measurement will only work if converting directly between the base unit and alternative unit. It will not work if you try to convert to another unit from the same dimension.Example :

Material Base Unit = L
Alternative Unit h1.KG with 1 KG 0.8 L
Conversion from L to TO will NOT work.

Standard conversion summary

Access to the query

Go to BW Analysis > WBP > Role DP - DiP/PP - DynaSys > DP- Demand Planning 

Variables and selection screen

1. Calendar Year/Month is mandatory (MM.YYYY) as well as currency and UoM for Qty conversion 
2. Currency is by default "EUR" ; UoM is by default "VKG"
3. Other prompts are optional

4.2 Process Detail 

4.2.1.  Report/Process Definition 

This section represents the process with detail information for the application. Can include specific or special cases, complex logics , calculations, flows, among others.

5.0 Non-functional Descriptions 

5.1 Usability

Usability is about the ease with which a User can learn to start using the solution and the ease with which they can use the system.  In addition to ease of learning and ease of use, usability also includes areas such as ease of recall, error avoidance and handling, accessibility among others e.g., 99% of metadata entry Users who have use the Maintenance Dashboard should be able to change filters, extract etc., when required.  Maintenance data will be centrally stored in the Google Cloud platform, which will be available to other applications e.g., and Dashboards if needed.

5.2 Regulatory Compliance

Software systems must comply with legal and regulatory e.g., GDPR requirements, this can change depending on country, organisation industry and / or region.  The software systems must be secure from unauthorized access.  The Maintenance Dashboard will comply with Solvay’s regulations and compliance e.g., access only granted to authorized Users.

5.3 Security

Security refers to essential aspects that assure a solution and its components will be protected against unauthorized access or malware attacks.  Important considerations related to security aspects of a system are User authentication, User authorization or User access privileges, data theft, malware attacks, data encryption, and maintaining audit trails, e.g., only Users with administrator access shall be able to create new accounts and assign data access privileges to the new accounts e.g.,

• All data will be encrypted in the dashboard
• Only authorised Users / Administrative Users will be able to access data.
• Maintenance data will be split between either SCO or ECO, and Users will only have authority to one Entity data.

5.4 Performance

Performance defines how fast a software system or a particular section of it responds to certain User actions under a certain workload.  In most cases, this metric explains how long a User must wait before the target operation happens e.g., the page renders, a transaction is processed, etc., given the overall number of Users now.  Performance requirements may describe background processes invisible to Users, e.g., backup and speed of data transfers. 

5.5 Reliability

Reliability is the ability of a solution or its component to perform its required functions without failure under predefined conditions for a specified time / period.  Reliability can possibly be specified in terms of average time system runs before failure occurs, percentage of operations completed successfully within a time / period, maximum acceptable failure probability, or number of failures within a period.  Reliability aspects are in reference to (but not limited to) evaluation of the system to be considered as reliable, classification of reliability defining failures vs. regular failures, and the impact of failure on business operations.  The Maintenance Dashboard will display data from the previous refresh of data.   

5.6 Scalability

Scalability refers to the degree to which a solution can evolve to handle increased amounts of work.  The increased amount of work could be in terms of the user base, transactions, data, network traffic, or other factors e.g., the system should be able to handle an additional load of a maximum of 5,000 Users every month for the next 6 months without any noticeable performance impacts.  

5.7 Compatibility

Interoperability is the degree to which the solution is compatible with other components.  It is a measure of how effectively the system interoperates with other software systems and how easily it integrates with external hardware devices.

Interoperability aspects to be discussed during elicitation are in reference to (but not limited to) software systems to be interfaced with along with data / messages to be exchanged and any standard data formats, hardware components to be integrated with, and any standard communication protocols to be followed e.g., Order Management system will push the order file into a secured file transfer protocol server from where it will be loaded into the system through a daily job.  To guarantee between Google Cloud platform and SAP BW Queries e.g., BW_QRY_MVPMOR01_0002, Solvay has introduced a new tool called Xtract (Xtract).

5.8 Availability

Availability is the degree to which the solution is operable and accessible when required. It is a measure of time during which the system is fully operational e.g., available for use and sometimes included as a Service Level Agreement (SLA) considering its criticality to the business, e.g., the system shall be at least 99% available on weekdays between 09:00 to 18:30 Central European Time (CET).

5.9 Refresh of the Data

Frequency, data, and time of the data refresh in the data product.