SAP AFS - An Introduction

SAP AFS - An Introduction

SAP Apparel and Footwear (SAP AFS) is the SAP e-business solution for the apparel and footwear industry. SAP AFS was
developed in collaboration with renowned industry leaders to address the particular requirements of the apparel and
footwear industry. The development of the solution was mainly focused on illustrating industry-specific processes based on
the SAP e-business platform ,a family of solutions and services that empowers employees, customers, and business
partners to collaborate successfully - anywhere, anytime.

SAP AFS enables you to benefit from the latest SAP technology and infrastructure enhancements. It is the obvious choice
for companies operating in the apparel and footwear sector.

CHARACTERISTICS OF AFS
The apparel and footwear business is highly demanding, forcing companies to contend with constant challenges in a global
business environment: there is relentless pressure on price, cost, and lead times. Trends are created overnight, and the
industry has to rapidly adjust. Contract domestic and offshore production combined with global procurement processes
create complex value chains that can be inefficient and difficult to monitor. Fashions often change quickly and without
warning.In the apparel and footwear industry, companies must cope with seasonal fluctuation, proliferation of design
variations,scant information about volatile demand that results in forecast
uncertainty, stock shortages, and costly markdowns.

Apparel and footwear companies today are increasingly assuming the role of coordinator for both internal and intercompany
processes as their core competencies shift away from production and steadily move toward planning, controlling, and
monitoring textiles in the value chain.

Multilevel division of labor and outsourcing have long been common practice in this industry. In the past, companies
achieved their greatest cost-cutting potential by optimizing their production processes. However, the production of clothing
and shoes can only be automated to a certain degree, causing the savings potential by these means to quickly reach its
limit. The next step was to transfer production to low-wage countries, which in turn meant sacrificing high quality and
transparency in the production process. Having production sites spread out around the globe has made supervision and
monitoring of the production process more difficult, the transport routes longer and more expensive, and meeting confirmed
delivery dates a perpetual challenge.

Areas such as product development, raw material and finished goods requirements planning, production planning,
coordination and control, transport optimization and monitoring, and quality assurance are taking on more and more
importance and therefore tend to remain at headquarters. As a result, the information flow and collaboration among partners
in the textile supply chain (logistics service providers, textile manufacturers, contractors, agents, and so on) are increasingly
more critical to the success of apparel and footwear companies. Fundamental changes and restructuring are taking place in
the apparel and footwear market.

Seasonal Processing
The apparel and footwear industry is a highly seasonal business that calls for tight control over product sales and delivery
availability. SAP AFS features a season function to define and control seasonal delivery periods and handle specific order
periods honoring season-related deadlines. This means you have full control over customer orders, articles, and time frames
within order processing. Pricing can be carried-out depending on special events and seasons. For example, during an end-
of-season sale, you can decrease the price for an article depending on
how sales progress. Furthermore, you can define delivery programs for seasons, collections, and themes and assign the
delivery program a delivery date.
Multi-Company, Multilingual, Multicurrency Processing
Despite multi-company, multilingual, and multicurrency sales order processing, international business must still be able to
place orders in only one language. Business transactions with partners in other countries can be converted automatically
into other languages and currencies. Each partner is able to process transactions in the appropriate local language and local
currency, thus simplifying cross-border trading and supporting a global market. The same applies to country-specific size
scales.

Advantages of AFS
Some of the Advantages of AFS in Sales Order Processing are as Follows:

Fast Order Entry

Screens designed specifically for SAP AFS have helped speed up manual order entry. Status data such as Sales area and
Customer ship-to are displayed on each screen. You are not restricted to using the SAP AFS fast order entry screens; you
can create your own screens to suit your individual requirements. This can be particularly useful in a telesales environment.

Credit Card Processing

The system automates credit card processing by prompting for credit card details (such as number, expiration date, and so
on) and auto-dialing for authorization. On receipt of authorization, it captures the details needed for later settlement.

"Mark For" Feature

SAP AFS "mark for" information helps direct deliveries to particular points within a customer organization. This feature is
often used when a large retail chain requests an order to be shipped to a distribution center and "marked for" a store or
department for cross-docking. "Mark for" information such as department names and details can be automatically copied
into the sales orders as a new partner function. Customer-run loading points information may also be copied from the
customer master record.

Rush Orders

SAP AFS is equipped to handle rush orders if stock needs to be shipped immediately. Sales order entry, allocation, and
delivery creation are all carried out at the same time, so that the order can be given to picking without delay.

Value-Added Services

Many retailers require services, usually done in the distribution center, which change or improve the appearance of their
goods before accepting delivery. Such services (such as packing, ticketing, hanging, hemming, and so on) ensure that
goods can be put on display immediately upon arrival. A new value-added service (VAS) database has been developed for
SAP AFS, which records these requirements and incorporates them for the particular customer at the time of order entry or
delivery. Alternatively, such requirements can be entered manually. If desired, these services can influence the sales price
accordingly.