Manage Operations for SAP for Retail - Workforce Management 3.0

Best Practice

Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management 3.0

Dietmar-Hopp-Allee 16 D-69190 Walldorf CS

customer DATE

Dec-13 2008 SOLUTION MANAGEMENT PHASE

STATUS

published VERSION

3.0 SAP SOLUTION

Operations & Continuous Improvement Best Practices for Solution Operations TOPIC AREA

SOLUTION MANAGER AREA

Application & Integration Management Business Process Operation

BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc – 22.04.2009

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Table of Contents 1 Management Summary 1.1 Goal of Using This Best Practice 1.2 Alternative Practices 1.3 Staff and Skills Requirements 1.4 System Requirements 1.5 Duration and Timing 1.6 How to Use This Best Practice 1.7 Best Practice Procedure 1.7.1 Preliminary tasks 1.7.2 Monitoring concepts 1.7.3 Business Process Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager 1.7.4 Monitoring types for Business Process Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager 1.7.4.1 Application monitor 1.7.4.2 Background job 1.7.4.3 ABAP dump collector 1.7.4.4 Dialog performance 1.7.4.5 Application log 1.7.4.6 Analysis and monitoring tools 1.7.4.7 Monitoring activities 1.7.4.8 Notifications 1.7.5 Business Process Monitoring process 1.7.6 Legend 2 Business Process Monitoring for Workforce Management 2.1 Sample WFM Scenario 2.2 Business Process: Employee Maintenance 2.2.1 Business process step 1: Personnel actions/receiving employee master data 2.2.1.1 Description 2.2.1.2 Monitoring requirements 2.2.1.3 Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager 2.2.1.4 Further monitoring objects 2.2.2 Business process step 2: Maintain employee profiles 2.2.2.1 Description 2.2.2.2 Monitoring requirements 2.2.2.3 Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager 2.2.2.4 Further monitoring objects 2.2.3 Business process step 3: Maintain work areas and qualifications 2.2.3.1 Description 2.2.3.2 Monitoring requirements 2.2.3.3 Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager 2.2.3.4 Further monitoring objects 2.2.4 Business process step 4: Maintain schedule rules 2.2.4.1 Description 2.2.4.2 Monitoring requirements 2.2.4.3 Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

4 4 4 4 5 5 6 6 6 6 7 8 8 9 9 10 12 13 14 15 17 17 18 19 19 20 20 21 22 23 23 23 23 26 27 27 27 28 28 29 29 29 30 31

page 2/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.2.4.4 Further monitoring objects 2.2.5 Business process step 5: Maintain time-off requests 2.2.5.1 Description 2.2.5.2 Monitoring requirement 2.2.5.3 Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager 2.2.5.4 Further monitoring objects 2.3 Business Process: Business Forecast and Workload Modeling 2.3.1 Business process step 1: Adjust actual volume data 2.3.1.1 Description 2.3.1.2 Monitoring requirements 2.3.1.3 Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager 2.3.2 Business process step 2: Performing the initial forecast calculation 2.3.2.1 Description 2.3.2.2 Monitoring requirements 2.3.2.3 Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager 2.3.2.4 Further monitoring objects 2.3.3 Business process step 3: Update volume forecast 2.3.3.1 Description 2.3.3.2 Monitoring requirements 2.3.3.3 Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager 2.3.3.4 Further monitoring objects 2.3.4 Business process step 4: Apply budgetary constraints 2.3.4.1 Description 2.3.4.2 Monitoring requirements 2.3.4.3 Further monitoring objects 2.3.5 Business process step 5: Approve forecast 2.3.5.1 Description 2.3.5.2 Monitoring requirements 2.3.5.3 Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager 2.4 Business Process: Scheduling 2.4.1 Business process step 1: Scheduling creation 2.4.1.1 Description 2.4.1.2 Monitoring requirements 2.4.1.3 Further monitoring objects 2.4.2 Business process step 2 and 3: Scheduling maintenance and analysis 2.4.2.1 Description 2.4.2.2 Monitoring requirements 2.4.2.3 Further monitoring objects 2.4.3 Business process step 4: Schedule posting 2.4.3.1 Description 2.4.3.2 Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager 3 Further Information 3.1 Troubleshooting 3.2 Related Best Practice Documents Index of Figures Index of Tables

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

31 32 32 32 33 33 34 35 35 35 37 38 38 39 43 44 44 44 45 47 47 48 48 49 54 54 54 55 55 56 58 58 58 64 65 65 65 72 72 72 73 74 74 74 75 76

page 3/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

1

Management Summary

1.1

Goal of Using This Best Practice

This Best Practice helps you set up a Business Process Monitoring concept for your SAP for Retail Workforce Management solution. The concept aims at defining procedures for business process-oriented monitoring and error handling, and escalation procedures for your Employee Maintenance, Forecasting and Scheduling business processes. These procedures intend to ensure a smooth and reliable flow of this core process so that your business requirements are met. This Best Practice gives orientation for defining suitable application-oriented monitoring objects in order to detect any irregularities or deviations from an ideal business process flow or to detect error situations concerning a core business process at an early stage. This Best Practice follows the recommended approach of SAP to use SAP Solution Manager for monitoring functionalities whenever possible. But even if you do not use SAP Solution Manager we recommend to follow the procedures described in this document as much as possible in order to ensure a smooth and reliable flow of your business processes as well as an appropriate response in case of unforeseen errors.

1.2

Alternative Practices

You can have SAP experts deliver this Best Practice on-site by ordering an SAP solution management optimization (SMO) service for SAP business process management (BPM). This service is exclusively available within SAP’s support engagements SAP MaxAttention and Safeguarding. If your company currently does not have any support engagement with SAP, it is also possible to get assistance by SAP experts from SAP Consulting. In this case, please contact your local SAP Consulting representative.

1.3

Staff and Skills Requirements

To implement this Best Practice, you require the following teams: Application management team This team creates the ERP Business Process Monitoring concept and consists of experts from several areas of your company: Business department Solution support organization (for example basis support or application support) Implementation project team Business process operations team The business process operations team will be responsible for applying the resulting procedures derived from implementing this Best Practice. It includes the following groups: Persons designated to perform business process-oriented monitoring and to ensure that the process runs smoothly (e.g. the business process champion for each business process) All parties in your solution support organization and IT department involved in monitoring focused on the application aspects (application support, development support, job scheduling management)

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 4/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

SAP technology operations team This team comprises all those in your solution support organization and IT department involved in monitoring focused on the system administration side (program scheduling management, software monitoring team, system administration team including the system administrator) Business process champion The business process champion is a person in the business department that is responsible for the successful execution of a given business process. He or she coordinates all activities necessary for the business process and, therefore, is usually responsible for the escalation paths in case of problems. Often this role serves as a second level in the escalation procedure if the application monitoring team needs to escalate an issue. More information about roles and responsibilities of these teams can be found in the super-ordinate Best Practice for General Business Process Management, which you can obtain through SAP Solution Manager or the SAP Service Marketplace, quick link /BPM. Necessary or useful trainings SM300 – Business Process Management and Monitoring E2E300 – End-to-End Business Process Integration and Automation Management EP120 – SAP Enterprise Portal Development

1.4

System Requirements

In order to monitor business processes running in your SAP for Retail solution via SAP Solution Manager, the SAP Basis release of the systems to be monitored has to be at least 4.6C. To have all described monitoring objects available in SAP Solution Manager, the add-on ST-A/PI01L has to be installed on the SAP for Retail system.

1.5

Duration and Timing

Duration Creating a Business Process Monitoring concept can take approximately one week per business process. Implementing the Business Process Monitoring concept might take approximately another week. Timing The best time to apply this Best Practice is during the planning phase or during the implementation phase of your SAP solution.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 5/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

1.6

How to Use This Best Practice

Here you find a brief description of how you should proceed in using this document: Read through the Best Practice for General Business Process Management, available on the SAP Service Marketplace. The document explains the procedures to be used to create a general Business Process Management concept. This includes the definition and documentation of the core business processes, definition of monitoring objects, definition of monitoring activities including error handling procedures, monitoring tools and monitoring frequencies, the definition of communication and escalation procedures and the assignment of responsibilities. At the beginning of chapter 2 you will find a typical flow chart of the core business process explained in this Best Practice. It is intended to be used as a guideline for writing down your company-specific process documentation. In chapter 1.7.4 you will find further information relevant for more than one scenario. In case information from the generic part is relevant for a specific business process step in one of the scenarios, you will find a clear link to the corresponding chapter of the generic part.

1.7

Best Practice Procedure

1.7.1

Preliminary tasks

Before performing this Best Practice, ensure that you perform the following preliminary tasks or checks in the system: Complete all installation and post-installation actions and procedures, including customizing Ensure that the initial download has been successfully executed Apply all SAP recommendations from SAP service sessions and any SAP recommendations resulting from customer problem messages Implement all current SAP support packages upon availability 1.7.2

Monitoring concepts

The monitoring procedures proposed for each business process step are the core of this Best Practice. The monitoring procedures help you ensure that the technical processes meet the requirements for stability, performance and completeness. These procedures cover the monitoring for five areas: Error monitoring Performance monitoring Throughput monitoring Backlog monitoring Data consistency monitoring For each of the business process steps, you will find the following information: A detailed functional description of the process step Identified monitoring requirements for the process step Defined monitoring objects, alerts and selection criteria Description of error handling procedures and restartability

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 6/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

General monitoring activities that are valid for all or most scenarios are described in the generic part in chapter 1.7.4. Recommendations for performance monitoring can also be found in this chapter. The performance of the most important steps of your core business processes should be monitored on a regular basis. The monitoring procedure for performance monitoring of all steps that are executed in an SAP for Retail Workforce Management solution is generally the same. Therefore, you will only find specific performance monitoring recommendations on selected business process steps. 1.7.3

Business Process Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager

Business Process Monitoring (BPMon), as part of Solution Monitoring means the proactive and processoriented monitoring of the most important or critical business processes, including the observation of all technical and business application-specific functions that are required for a steady and stable flow of the business processes. The core business processes that are implemented in an SAP for Retail Workforce Management system or other software and operated by a company are of particular importance, and Business Process Monitoring is intended to ensure a smooth and reliable operation of the business processes and, thereby, that the core business processes meet a company’s business requirements in terms of stability, performance, and completeness. SAP Solution Manager provides a graphic to visualize a company’s (distributed) system- and solution landscape and all related business processes. By using Business Process Monitoring, it is possible to define and customize alert situations from the basic set of configurable alerts provided by SAP Solution Manager. These alerts are then visualized as green, yellow and red alert icons for each individual business process step in the graphical business process representation. Business Process Monitoring is intended to detect critical situations and respond to them as early as possible in order to solve problems as fast as possible. SAP Solution Manager also offers extended functionality for error handling and problem resolution. By the definition of contact persons and escalation paths, Business Process Monitoring can be integrated into the company’s overall strategy for business process management and solution management within their solution support organization. In general, Business Process Monitoring includes the solution-wide observation of: Business process performance (key performance indicators) Background jobs (Job Scheduling Management tasks) Business application logs (such as any error log, general application log, due list logs, etc.) Data transfer via interfaces between software components Data consistency Technical infrastructure and components required to run the business processes Required periodic monitoring tasks For further details on Business Process Monitoring, please refer to http://service.sap.com/bpm.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 7/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

1.7.4

Monitoring types for Business Process Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager

Monitoring types are part of the functional scope of Business Process Monitoring as it is available in SAP Solution Manager. The below mentioned monitoring types are available: Application monitor (throughput and backlog indicators, interface monitoring, data consistency checks, mass activity monitors, due list log, MRP key figures, user exit) Background jobs (jobs running on SAP systems with an SAP basis) Dialog performance (dialog transaction performance) Update error (V1 and V2 update errors from SM13 for specific transactions and programs) Due list log (messages for deliveries and billings) Application log (messages from the application Log SLG1) Document volume (based on table call statistics in ST10) Other CCMS monitor (all alerts that are configured in the CCMS alert monitor) Depending on what is executed during a specific business process step, the relevant monitoring types must be selected. In order to receive detailed information on how to set up the monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager, please refer to the documentation available at http://service.sap.com/bpm. In the following chapters, monitoring types that are relevant for this Best Practice document are introduced shortly. One prerequisite for setting up Business Process and Interface Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager is that all business processes and business process steps are maintained in the respective solution that contains all affected system components. If you want to learn more about how to set this up, please turn to http://help.sap.com 1.7.4.1

SAP Solution Manager

Basic Settings.

Application monitor

The application monitor is just one of many different monitoring types within the Business Process Monitoring. The latest monitoring objects are only provided if the latest ST-A/PI plug-in is installed on the satellite system. The service tool for ST-A/PI is available via the SAP Service Marketplace quick link /installations Entry by Application Group

Plug-Ins

SAP Solution Tools

ST-A/PI.

Please ensure that ST-A/PI is installed on the SAP Solution Manager system and on the respective satellite. In case of problems refer to SAP Note 915933. The throughput and backlog indicator functionality available as of ST-A/PI 01J* is only working properly with ST-SER 700_2007_1. This is due to changes in the underlying architecture. More detailed information about the different application monitor functionalities and a detailed description on how to define self-written monitoring collectors for the user exit are explained in the following documents respectively (http://www.service.sap.com/ Alias BPM Setup Guide – Application Monitoring Setup Guide – Interface Monitoring Setup Guide – User Exit

Media Library):

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 8/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

1.7.4.2

Background job

The background job monitoring should be part of a Job Scheduling Management concept. Go to http://service.sap.com/solutionmanagerbp, topic area Business Process Operations to find the Best Practice for Job Scheduling Management. Because of several restrictions regarding background job scheduling, e.g. time restrictions, restriction of hardware resources (CPU, main memory, …), or existing dependencies between different activities (e.g. invoices can only be created after the corresponding goods issue is posted, or backorder processing and material requirements planning should not run at the same time) it is very important to ensure the stable run of background jobs. A cancelled background job should be identified as soon as possible in order to react as fast as possible. Therefore it is also necessary to define restart procedures and escalation paths. Monitoring objects Before setting up monitoring, the monitoring objects must be clearly defined. A monitoring object is a single background job or a group of background jobs. There are four different possibilities to identify a special background job or a group of background jobs. This information needs to be maintained in the sub-node Background Job below a business process step. A detailed description of what kinds of alerts make sense or what kinds of alerts are possible is provided in the Best Practice for Background Job Monitoring with SAP Solution Manager document, which can be found on the SAP Marketplace http://service.sap.com/solutionmanagerbp, topic area Business Process Operation. 1.7.4.3

ABAP dump collector

The dump collector provides monitoring features for alerting on occurrences of ABAP dumps of specified runtime errors and collects statistical data of ABAP dumps for reporting reasons. Monitoring objects The monitoring object is an ABAP runtime error. This runtime error can be specified via the runtime error name, the user who is responsible for the runtime error, the client on which the runtime error occurs or the program that leads to the runtime error. Monitoring alerts Possible alert types are the Number of ABAP Dumps (Delta) – all dumps since the last collector run – and Number of ABAP Dumps (Reporting) – all runtime errors of specified type, client and program for this day or for the previous day.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 9/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 1: Alert type Number of ABAP Dumps (Delta)

1.7.4.4

Dialog performance

Dialog performance implies the monitoring of the dialog transaction performance of any transaction in the SAP system. This can be a standard transaction or a custom-developed transaction. Monitoring objects The monitoring object is the transaction itself. The customizing has to be done in the Dialog Performance node. The Transactions table lists all transactions that are already configured to that business process step. The relevant transactions need to be selected for monitoring. It is also possible to add or to remove transactions within the Add/Remove Transactions table. The monitoring can be performed per SAP instance. To this end, select the respective instances in the SAP Instances table, which lists all instances that are maintained for a system. The Alert Types table shows the dialog response time and all parts of the response time that can be monitored, like queue time, load and generation time, database request time and the front-end response time. Select those times that are relevant for monitoring. After saving this node, a subnode Performance Alerts will appear where you can enter the threshold values.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 10/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 2: Monitoring objects – Dialog performance

Monitoring alerts Each table in the Performance Alerts sub-node corresponds to an alert type chosen in the higher-level node, and lists the combinations of specified transaction code and SAP instance. For each combination of transaction code and instance that you want to include in the monitoring, specify the threshold values resulting in alert messages for GREEN to YELLOW, YELLOW to RED, RED to YELLOW, and YELLOW to GREEN. Since the monitoring object for performance monitoring is created on the satellite system, it might be possible that the object already exists there. Therefore you can load the current threshold values from the respective systems via the Load thresholds from button, with representing the SID. If successfully retrieved for an SAP instance, the values are filled in columns. If no active settings for the threshold values were found for a certain transaction code, default values are set (indicated in column Default). To transfer the threshold values for a single line from right to left, the Copy icon can be used. To transfer all at once (all thresholds for all columns and tables) there is an additional Copy all button.

Figure 3: Monitoring alerts - Dialog performance

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 11/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

1.7.4.5

Application log

The application log provides an infrastructure for collecting messages, saving them in the database and displaying them as a log. At runtime, situations can arise in application programs that must be brought to the attention of the user. These are usually errors. It can also be useful to report a successful completion. The information that arises is called a message. A set of messages is a log. A log usually also has header information (log type, creator, creation time, etc.). A transaction can generate several logs. The application log is not written consecutively but as a whole at one point in time. Monitoring objects and alerts The application log allows an application- or object-oriented recording of events. An object and any subobject that belongs to it classify each event. The analysis of the logs is similarly object- (or sub-object-) oriented. The name of an object (or sub-object) can be found in transaction /nSLG1 together with all other information specific to that log.

Figure 4: Monitoring objects and alerts – Application log

It is possible to monitor the total number of messages belonging to an object. For each object, the number of messages that raise a YELLOW alert and the number of messages changing from YELLOW to RED must be maintained. It is also possible to monitor specific messages that are considered as critical in the N° of Critical Messages table. To configure the monitoring of critical application log messages, select the relevant object-sub object combinations. For each of these combinations, you can specify the message type, the message ID and the message number as well as the threshold values for the number of critical messages that are supposed to result in changes from GREEN to YELLOW and from YELLOW to RED can be specified. It is also possible to use wild cards.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 12/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 5: Monitoring alerts – Application log/Critical messages

1.7.4.6

Analysis and monitoring tools

It is possible to specify analysis transactions or URL addresses (including file directories) per monitoring object. In case of analysis transactions these should be used to analyze errors or problems either locally in SAP Solution Manager system (Call Option “1”) or directly in the respective satellite systems (Call Option “2”). Per default some standard transactions are maintained. For instance, transaction SM37, that provides a job overview in an SAP system, is maintained for background jobs, and transaction SLG1, which is used to have a look into the application log. It is also possible to add new transactions. These can be standard transactions or transactions written by the customer.

Figure 6: Analysis and monitoring transactions

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 13/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

On the second tab strip, you can specify an URL that should be called in order to further analyze the given problem. This is especially interesting if you have knowledge documents that are linked to a portal. You can define a short text and the URL. For Web pages to be called, specify the full URL, e.g. http://help.sap.com. For content available on file servers specify the full file path, using the nomenclature: file://\\\\..., for instance, file://\\\server1\operations_documents\operations-handbook.txt

Figure 7: Analysis and monitoring URL

When using the monitoring during a Business Process Monitoring session, the specified transactions or URLs are available as buttons within a business process step. When you press these buttons, for instance , you jump directly into the corresponding transaction, either in SAP Solution Manager (here: SAT) or the connected satellite system (here: CT1), for further analysis. In case of URLs, the button (e.g.

) contains the short text (limited to 20 characters)

from the setup session and opens the defined URL in a new browser window. 1.7.4.7

Monitoring activities

Monitoring activities should be set up for every monitoring object within a business process step. All monitoring objects defined within a business process step are listed there. To ensure effective monitoring and efficient problem resolution, assign responsibilities and define problem resolution procedures as described in the following table. Some information has been taken from the previous Solution Support Organization node. Monitoring Team

Defines the team that is responsible for monitoring the relevant monitoring object. Use value help F4.

Person Resp.

Defines the person who is responsible for monitoring the monitoring object. Use value help F4.

Frequency

Describes how often the responsible person should process the required monitoring activity.

Start Time

Describes at which time the responsible person should process the required monitoring activity.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 14/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Problem Indicator

A description about what indicates a problem.

Error Handling

Describes how to react on problems or errors, i.e. how to solve the problem or correct the error.

Escalation Path

Describes the escalation path in case that the person responsible could not solve the problem. Persons who can be contacted should be maintained here.

You can enter additional information related to this business process step in the tables Monitoring Activities, Error Handling, Restart of Step and Escalation Path. That information is valid for the whole business process step and help users who have to carry out the monitoring and who are not familiar with that particular business process. 1.7.4.8

Notifications

You can set up notifications for the whole business process or for each business process step individually. There are two types of notifications: Workflow notifications and support notifications. Workflow notifications allow sending messages to a specified recipient in case of alerts, for instance, an e-mail or SAPOffice mail. Support notifications allow setting up a service desk message in case of an alert. The information entered for the service desk message serves as a template. The service desk message can be created manually or automatically. On business process level, you can define notifications for the whole business process, i.e. as soon as the business process gets an alert status, notifications will be triggered. Alternatively, notifications can be defined for every monitoring type individually, e.g. all alerts related to background jobs of the business process are forwarded to a defined e-mail address. Notifications defined on business process step level will overrule the configuration made on business process level for this particular step. Workflow notification

Sender

Must be a user within in the monitoring client of SAP Solution Manager. This user can even be a system user without any roles or profiles, but the user must have a valid e-mail address which the used mail server knows.

Recipient Address

Depending on the recipient type, the recipient name is required. This can be any email address, an SAP user name in the same system, a remote SAP name or a shared distribution list. In case of an SMS you need to enter “SMS:”.

Reci. Type

There are currently five different recipient types: U (e-mail), K (for SMS and pager), B (SAP user name), R (remote SAP name) and C (shared distribution list).

No. of Yellow Alerts

Number of YELLOW alerts that can occur before an automatic notification is triggered

No. of Red Alerts

Number of RED alerts that can occur before an automatic notification is triggered

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 15/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Max Wait Time [h]

Once the maximum wait time [hours] has elapsed, a notification is created even if the thresholds are not exceeded.

RED Only

To restrict this mechanism only to red alerts, the flag in column RED Only must be set.

Detailed

Triggers a long text for e-mails or SAPOffice mails, e.g. name of the solution, name of the business process step, …)

Support notifications

Priority

Defines the priority of the support notification.

Queue

Defines the support component on which the message is put. This component must exist within the service desk.

Processor

Defines a default processor who should process the message. The processor must be known within the service desk and must be SAP user name defined as a business partner with role employee.

Text Template

Text templates can be defined that will then be available for service desk messages manually created for alerts.

Automatic

Support notifications will be created automatically depending on the alert thresholds.

Reporter

Necessary if service desk messages are created automatically. Must be a SAP user name defined as a business partner with role general.

Num of YELLOW Alerts

Necessary when service desk messages are created automatically, e.g. after ten yellow alerts a service desk message should be created.

Num of RED Alerts

Necessary when service desk messages are created automatically, e.g. after five red alerts a service desk message should be created.

If in addition to Queue, Processor, Priority and Reporter either one of the columns Num of YELLOW Alerts or Num of RED Alerts is filled with a value, the automatic support notification creation is configured. In case that both columns are filled with a value, the automatic support notification creation works with a logical OR operation. Hence, with the figures in the table above the system would create a support notification if there are either more than nine yellow alerts or more than four red alerts for which no support notification has been created yet.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 16/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

1.7.5

Business Process Monitoring process

For a successful and efficient Business Process Monitoring, you have to define a process for implementing your monitoring concept. This includes the definition of the roles and responsibilities involved. You need to define who is supposed to carry out which activity within the process and how communication between the different roles within the support organization is supposed to take place. A Business Process Monitoring concept has to be tightly integrated with the support organization. This includes the integration with the Incident- and Problem Management processes and the Change Management process. These processes have to be adjusted to the Business Process Monitoring concept so that communication and escalation procedures defined within these processes support the Business Process Monitoring concept. This includes the final communication of open alerts to SAP. Wherever communication connected with Business Process Monitoring happens outside these support processes, separate communication and escalation paths and procedures have to be defined. Please see the separate Best Practice for General Business Process Management for further details. 1.7.6

Legend This symbol indicates a paragraph from where you can navigate to another chapter of this document for a more detailed information on a topic. This symbol indicates a paragraph from where you can navigate to another document within the SAP Service Marketplace for a more detailed information on a topic.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 17/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2

Business Process Monitoring for Workforce Management

Workforce Management (WFM) performs the complex process of creating optimum employee schedules by leveraging employee skill sets and balancing workload and weighted variables such as payroll requirements, budgetary objectives, employee availabilities, workplace rules, regulatory requirements and performance standards. WFM is a Web-based application that can stand alone on SAP NetWeaver, SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) or serve as an integrated application to SAP ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM). The application is delivered with nine standard Web template reports that you can use as they are or modify via SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence to meet your needs. Workforce Management is integrated with SAP Enterprise Portal with configurable role-based access (manager, employee, supervisor, corporate executive); with SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence for centralized reporting; and holds key integration to SAP ERP HCM where hiring and scheduling processes can be streamlined. Workforce Management is comprised of four major business processes which include employee maintenance, business forecasting, labor scheduling and managing time. This Best Practice document will focus on three of the four business process and describe in greater detail monitoring possibilities for employee maintenance, forecasting, and scheduling.

Figure 8: Business processes in WFM

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 18/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.1

Sample WFM Scenario

Cosmetics Inc. is a mid-size specialty retailer that sells cosmetics, fragrances, jewelry, vitamins, skin care and hair care products in the United States. Store teams range from 25 employees in smaller stores to 75 in larger locations. It is no easy task to ensure employee coverage levels to accurately match changing customer demand was no easy task. The company previously managed employees by a manual scheduling system that was time-consuming, inconsistent across all stores, and very biased leading to organizational inefficiencies and inadequate customer service levels. To address these issues, Cosmetics Inc. acquired WFM delivered on SAP NetWeaver to streamline the process of scheduling store staff and improve customer service levels. Employees are maintained in a third-party HR system and are imported into SAP through a standard employee master data interface. To forecast adequate workload for each store respectively, key volume drivers, such as items sold, and transactions are loaded from the point-of-sale system. Schedules are processed centrally and maintained at the store level by the store manager. The following core business processes were used. 1. Employee maintenance (managing employee master data) 2. Forecasting (forecasting schedule and workload) 3. Scheduling employee The following chapters take you through these three core business processes step by step, explaining where and how you can identify focus points for Business Process Monitoring. For each business process step, the most effective ways for Business Process Monitoring in the context of the example are highlighted. Currently, WFM-specific Business Process Monitoring objects are not contained in SAP Solution Manager.

2.2

Business Process: Employee Maintenance

In WFM, the employee maintenance business process defines how employees are to be maintained for scheduling once they have been hired or imported into the system. WFM either uses HR master data loaded from a third-party HR system, SAP ERP HCM, the Personnel Action Portal iView of WFM, or replicates manually created data in SAP Business Partner. Despite the method used to import employees, all employees must have a business partner created. SAP Business Partner (SAP BP) is the entry point to view or modify employees in WFM. The SAP BP application is a component of SAP NetWeaver and contains master data (name, address, date of birth, etc.). WFM utilizes the SAP BP component to represent employees (persons) within an organization. In WFM, the business partner must be assigned to a position within an organization’s hierarchal structure viewable as an employee of the store within the WFM portal. With this assignment the user is available for scheduling. After the employee has been imported into WFM, a combination of required employee HR master data and supporting data supplied directly from the employees is needed to complete the employee’s profile in WFM. Once created, WFM employee profiles are visible for review and modification through the portal user interface (UI). Required end-user entered employee data points include: Employee availability Assign work areas Assign schedule rules Time-off requests

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 19/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 9: Business process – Employee maintenance

2.2.1

Business process step 1: Personnel actions/receiving employee master data

2.2.1.1

Description

Employee master data can be initiated from varying sources: the Personnel Administration iView of WFM, SAP ERP HCM, or a third-party HR system. Client requirements define how employees are imported to WFM. The Personnel Action iView allows WFM end users to process SAP ERP HCM or HR employee personnel actions and update the employee master data via WFM. The functions that this iView enables: Hire, Update, Transfer, Terminate, and Re-Enter (Rehire). The use of SAP’s standard WFM employee transfer IDocs updates the employee master data record in SAP ERP HCM or the HR source system. The HR system then has to use another IDoc transfer to transmit any relevant changes to the HR data to the WFM system. Employee master data from a third-party HR system have to transmit similar data changes in the IDoc format used by SAP ERP HCM. In this way, you can rely upon the existing inbound processing to guarantee that the WFM business partner database is maintained correctly. Landscapes where SAP ERP HCM and WFM reside on the same box are considered a WFM best practice and do not require the Personnel Actions iView. WFM and SAP ERP HCM have many integration points that enable employees hired into SAP ERP HCM to be replicated to WFM. Upon activating the integration between the two systems and maintaining key configuration settings, standard personnel actions become seamless, allowing end users to proceed to business process step 2, the Profile iView, to maintain employee WFM-related settings.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 20/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Scenario-specific sample Due to hardware constraints, Cosmetics Inc. decides that HR and WFM must reside on different boxes. Personnel Action view is used to hire, update, transfer, terminate and rehire employees. 2.2.1.2

Monitoring requirements

Error monitoring Monitoring can be performed in the enterprise portal, by inspecting Personnel Actions views, and also in the HR system to ensure modifications made via the Personnel Actions iView have been updated in both systems. This includes monitoring the data transfer between the systems via IDoc processing. When you use WFM as an entry point for employee data, you need to monitor the subsequent Employee iViews Profile, Work Areas & Qualifications, Schedule Rules and Time-off Request (described in subsequent business process steps) to ensure population of required fields for employee scheduling. Scenario-specific sample An employee at Cosmetics Inc. has just accepted a promotion to another store location. The employees’ current manager wants to complete the transfer via the Personnel Action iView. Upon submitting the transfer, the manager will need to check the corresponding screens in HR or SAP ERP HCM to ensure that the changes in position, pay, and location were updated there too.

Figure 10: Changing employee master data

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 21/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Performance monitoring Utilizing the standard inbound and outbound IDocs to pass HR master data to and from HR or SAP ERP HCM residing on different logical systems allows for other data or processing capabilities to be performed as well between WFM and SAP ERP HCM. Users can monitor the IDocs by using the IDoc monitoring functionnality in SAP Solution Manager or manually on satellite system via transaction WE05. 2.2.1.3

Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency / Data Collection

Outbound IDoc:

Basic Type: HRMD_ABAWFM

WE05

HRMD_ABAWFM

Status:

Employee data is not transferred from WFM to HCM

Depending on business needs (every 15 minutes – once per day)

Employee data is not transferred from WFM to HCM

WE05

Depending on business needs (every 15 minutes – once per day)

Error and intermediate statuses for outbound processing, e.g.: 29 (error status) - Error in ALE service. Inbound IDoc:

Basic Type: HRMD_ABA01

HRMD_ABA01

Status: Error and intermediate statuses for inbound processing, e.g.: 51 (error status) - Application document not posted 52 (intermediate status) Application document not fully posted 56 (error status) - IDoc with errors added

Table 1: Personnel actions/receiving employee master data – Monitoring data in SAP Solution Manager

When monitoring IDocs, the status of the IDoc will dictate what actions need to be taken: IDoc in error status (red light): Click once on IDoc number to read text diagnosing the error. After error has been corrected, you may reprocess the IDoc. IDoc in processing (yellow light): No action is needed if further processing takes place as expected. If the intermediate status lasts longer than usual, an erroneous behavior is indicated. In this case, investigate the root cause and correct the error. IDoc successfully processed (green light): No action is needed.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 22/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.2.1.4

Further monitoring objects

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency / Data Collection

Personnel Actions iView

WFM Portal • Employee tab

Personnel Actions performed in WFM are not reflected in the third-party HR system

WFM enterprise portal (manual check):

Weekly/for each instance: Hire, update, transfer, terminate, re-hire

WFM Portal • Employees • Personnel Action

Table 2: Personnel actions/receiving employee master data – Further monitoring data

2.2.2

Business process step 2: Maintain employee profiles

2.2.2.1

Description

Users can maintain several employee master data fields within the WFM portal. The Employee Profile iView displays basic employee information such as the employee’s hire/start date, employee type, default settings group (FT/PT status), date of birth, employee number, cost class, and termination date. The Default Settings Group field can be maintained manually by the user or configured to correspond with updates made in the HR system. The Replacement Eligible feature, when activated, indicates that the employee is eligible to replace shifts of other employee or for added coverage during schedule modification. The Replace and Add Coverage functionality will list any employee who has this feature active and is available to cover the selected shift. Other fields that can be modified include Cost Class, Hire Date, Start Date, and Termination Date. When interfacing to an HR system that supplies this data, you can disable these fields by activating the Date Lock flag within the RFC destination to HR configuration. All other fields in this iView will be grayed out to prevent direct user modification. Updates or adjustments to the iView information must be performed in the HR system of record and imported to WFM via the WFM employee maintenance standard interface. Scenario-specific sample Cosmetics Inc. hires a new employee. The data is entered into the HR system. In the portal, some WFMspecific information needs to be maintained. 2.2.2.2

Monitoring requirements

Error monitoring The initial monitoring is done in the enterprise portal by inspecting the Profile iView to ensure that basic HR data was imported properly to WFM. For all correctly created employees, the Profile tab displays an employee profile. Scenario specific sample A new employee has been hired and the WFM administrator must check the employee profile for accuracy.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 23/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 11: Maintaining employee profiles

New hires and employee master data modifications should appear in the portal in minutes if the integration between HCM or third-party HR and WFM works properly. If you notice that an employee is missing from the employee list, you need to check the box beside New Employees Only to get the corresponding list.

Figure 12: Checking new employees’ profiles

The list displaying the new employees indicates that an error was made during the hiring process. In such cases, HR master data (such as hire date) is missing, which prevents the employee profile from creating properly. Manually entering Hire Date and Start Date and saving will remove the employee from the New Employees Only list and make the profile visible in the general list. If a majority of employees is displayed in the New Employees Only list, it is best to find the root cause for the problem rather than manually correcting the profiles. In addition, check if the RFC interface WFA_EMP_DATA_MODIFY works properly. It is used to maintain: WFM global attributes (hire date, start date, termination date) General WFM attributes (such as default settings group and cost class) Work area assignments for an employee Schedule rules (availability, preferences and set/fixed shifts) © 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 24/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Work rules Contract rule Employee time-off requests It is best practice to call the RFC interface WFA_EMP_DATA_GET, which retrieves all of the attributes maintained by WFA_EMP_DATA_MODIFY. Errors resulting from this interface are stored in table ET_RETURN, which resides in WFA_EMP_DATA_MODIFY and WFA_EMP_DATA_GET interface. Object ET_RETURN can be checked to determine if the interface failed. If integrated with SAP ERP HCM, verify that both, HCM-PA to WFM integration and SAP BP integration, are enabled. Another issue that can result in an incomplete employee profile is that the WFM agent profile update failed during the hiring process. In that case the employee will appear in the portal without a start and hire date and will only be visible in the New Employees Only list. You can correct this error by manually entering the start and hire date and saving the profile. You can also delete and recreate the agent relationship utilizing the agent update program created during the BP conversion process.

Figure 13: Error – WFM agent profile update failed

Performance monitoring It is necessary to monitor the time elapsed from hiring an employee in HR until the data is visible in WFM. Scenario-specific sample A new employee has been hired and the data entered in HR but the data is not immediately displayed in WFM.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 25/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.2.2.3

Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency/Data Collection

Outbound IDoc HRMD_ABAWFM

Basic Type:

Employee data is not transferred from WFM to SAP ERP HCM

WE05

Depending on business needs (every 15 minutes – once per day)

Employee data is not transferred from WFM to SAP ERP HCM

WE05

Depending on business needs (every 15 minutes – once per day)

Any of the following is not updating properly:

tRFC processing:

Depending on business needs (e.g. once per day or once per week)

HRMD_ABAWFM Status: Error and intermediate statuses for outbound processing, e.g.: 29 (Red light) - Error in ALE service.

Inbound IDoc HRMD_ABA01

Basic Type: HRMD_ABA01 Status: Error and intermediate statuses for inbound processing, e.g.: 51 (red light) Application document not posted 52 (yellow light) Application document not fully posted 56 (red light) - IDoc with errors added

Function modules WFA_EMP_DATA_ GET and WFA_EMP_DATA_ MODIFY (depending on the interface technology used, tRFC or qRFC monitoring can be used in SAP Solution Manager)

RFC destination

WFM global attributes (Hire Date, Start Date, Termination Date) General WFM attributes (such as, Default Settings Group and Cost Class) Work area assignments for an employee Schedule rules (Availability, Preferences and Set/Fixed Shifts) Work rules Contract rule Employee time-off requests

SM59

qRFC processing: SMQ1, SMQ2

Table 3: Maintain employee profiles – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 26/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

When monitoring IDocs, the status of the IDoc will dictate what actions need to be taken: IDoc in error status (red light): Click once on IDoc number to read text diagnosing the error. After error has been corrected, you may reprocess the IDoc. IDoc in processing (yellow light): No action is needed if further processing takes place as expected. If the intermediate status lasts longer than usual, an erroneous behavior is indicated. In this case, investigate the root cause and correct the error. IDoc successfully processed (green light): No action is needed. 2.2.2.4

Further monitoring objects

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency / Data Collection

Business partner created

N/A

Employee does not appear in the WFM portal.

Transaction BP

Verify BP number created for each employee

Profile iView

WFM portal • Employee tab • Profile

N/A

WFM enterprise portal

For each:

Select Trace: RFC Trace

N/A

ST05

When errors are detected from the employee profile, an RFC trace may point to the error.

RFC

Select Trace Function: Activate Trace

New hire Employee basic information modification Transfer Termination

Table 4: Maintain employee profiles – Further monitoring objects

2.2.3

Business process step 3: Maintain work areas and qualifications

2.2.3.1

Description

The Work Areas & Qualifications iView allows you to assign one or several work area(s) to an employee so they can be scheduled. Default Settings Group, Cost Class, and Employee Group are also visible in the Work Areas & Qualifications iView. The Pay Rate field can be visible to or hidden from the store level user via Roles & Authorizations. A work area defines the job that the employee will be scheduled to work. A work area can be given a numerical rank if the employee has been assigned to multiple work areas. The rank defines the order in which the work areas should be considered for scheduling for that employee during schedule calculation.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 27/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

In Work Areas & Qualifications iView the employee can be assigned a proficiency rating which defines what skill level the employee holds within a particular work area. The Shared Employee feature in WFM allows specific employees to work in multiple store locations. The Work Area Reluctance Profile will define, for scheduling purposes, what priority the rank of the work areas should be scheduled. Scenario-specific sample Cosmetics Inc. stores #1 and #2 would like to use the Shared Employee feature within WFM. They noticed that employees that meet the requirements for sharing do not show up on both store schedules. 2.2.3.2

Monitoring requirements

Error monitoring Each employee must have at least one work area assigned although multiple work areas can be assigned based on the configuration and business requirements. The WFM administrator must ensure that the requirements for the Shared Employee feature are active: The employee’s home store must have the Shared Employee feature active. The employee’s home store must have the Replacement Eligible feature active The schedule for the home store must be posted before the employee will appear for scheduling in the shared location(s). If multiple shifts can be worked in multiple locations, then the May work in multiple locations in same day flagged must be active. Scenario-specific sample After schedule calculation, the WFM administrator noticed that an employee did not display any scheduled hours on the schedule, nor did they display under a specific work area in the portal. 2.2.3.3

Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency/Data Collection

Function Modules WFA_EMP_DATA _GET and WFA_EMP_DATA _MODIFY

RFC destination

Any of the following does not update properly:

tRFC processing:SM 59

Depending on business needs (e.g. once per day or once per week)

(depending on the interface technology used, tRFC or qRFC monitoring can be used in SAP Solution Manager)

- WFM global attributes (Hire Date, Start Date, Termination Date) - General WFM attributes (such as, Default Settings Group and Cost Class) - Work area assignments for an employee - Schedule rules (Availability, Preferences and Set/Fixed Shifts) - Work rules - Contract rule - Employee time-off requests

qRFC processing: SMQ1, SMQ2

Table 5: Maintain work areas and qualifications – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 28/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.2.3.4

Further monitoring objects

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency/Data Collection

Work Area & Qualification iView

WFM portal • Employee tab

N/A

WFM Portal • Employee • Work Area & Qualifications

Weekly, when new hires/re-hires are entered

ST05

When errors are detected from the work area and qualifications view an RFC trace may point to the error.

RFC

Select Trace: RFC Trace

N/A

Select Trace Function: Activate Trace

Whenever work area additions or modifications are needed

Table 6: Maintain work areas and qualifications – Further monitoring objects

2.2.4

Business process step 4: Maintain schedule rules

2.2.4.1

Description

Employee scheduling rules can be maintained in the Schedule Rules iView in the WFM portal. Schedule Rules allows you to enter employee availabilities, preferences, fixed and set shifts. Availability start and stop times are entered manually by day in either standard or military time. Rotations can also be defined in this iView if employees have rotating availabilities and/or schedules. WFM will automatically assign the rotation settings to a specific schedule week, based on the number of rotations in the list and the settings position in the list. WFM will reference the information in this view during the schedule calculation to schedule the employees within their availability and shift settings. Work rules are used by WFM during schedule creation to ensure the resulting shifts meet the schedule goals for the employee while complying with company policy and legal requirements. Examples include: Minimum or maximum number of hours per day or week, maximum days per week, allow overtime, maximum hours per period (contract), etc. Work rule templates are preconfigured and assigned to each employee to provide default settings that meet the company policy and legal requirements. Contract work rules are used more commonly in union environments and enable scheduling constraints for minimum and maximum scheduled hours over a period of time. If the schedule calculation or modifications made to a schedule break any of these rules, schedule exceptions will be generated. The manager can then modify the schedule to remove the exception or decide to ignore the exception. When assigning the work rules for a given employee, you also need to consider the employee type (FT, PT) or age qualification (Minor).

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 29/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Scenario-specific sample Cosmetics, Inc is preparing to open a new location and needs to maintain availabilities and work rules for all employees prior to grand opening. 2.2.4.2

Monitoring requirements

The initial monitoring is done in the enterprise portal by inspecting the Schedule Rules iView to ensure availability and work rules are maintained. Error monitoring Employee availability must be maintained for each employee. If employee availability is left blank, the WFM scheduler will not create a schedule for that employee. Work rules must be maintained for each employee to constrain the min/max hours of work per day or per week according to company guidelines. For example, a part-time employee should receive fewer hours than a full-time employee. If you notice that this is not the case, you should check the work rules assigned to the employee in question (Employees • Schedule Rules • Work Rules):

Figure 14: Checking work rules

Positions that require a fixed shift must be maintained to prevent erratic schedules. It is best practice to maintain fixed shifts for managers and any other positions that require coverage that is not dependent upon customer demand. Scenario-specific sample A company may have the philosophy that a manager should be present at all times to assist customers and store associates. To ensure consistent coverage, use a fixed shift. Otherwise, WFM will schedule the manager to coincide with store demand, producing a very erratic schedule.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 30/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 15: Maintaining shifts

2.2.4.3

Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency / Data Collection

Function modules WFA_EMP_DATA_GET and WFA_EMP_DATA_ MODIFY

RFC destination

Any of the following is not updating properly:

tRFC processing: SM59

Depending on business needs (e.g. once per day or once per week)

(depending on the interface technology used, tRFC or qRFC monitoring can be used in SAP Solution Manager)

WFM global attributes (Hire Date, Start Date, Termination Date) General WFM attributes (such as, Default Settings Group and Cost Class) Work area assignments for an employee Schedule rules (Availability, Preferences and Set/Fixed Shifts) Work rules Contract rule Employee time-off requests

qRFC processing: SMQ1, SMQ2

Table 7: Maintain schedule rules – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

2.2.4.4

Further monitoring objects

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency / Data Collection

RFC

Select trace: RFC trace

N/A

ST05

When errors are detected from the Schedule Rules view an RFC trace may point to the error.

Select trace unction: Activate trace

Table 8: Maintain schedule rules – Further monitoring objects

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 31/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.2.5

Business process step 5: Maintain time-off requests

2.2.5.1

Description

Time-off requests allow the user to manage planned absences for scheduling and projected payroll planning purposes. Requests can be made for a specific time period of a day, a full day, a number of days or a number of hours. Comments associated with an employee time-off request can also be entered. A time-off request will modify employees’ availability by making them unavailable for scheduling without modifying their permanently entered availabilities. The time-off request can be processed for paid and un-paid time off. Paid benefit time-off requests are only used in WFM for pre-payroll calculations and schedule costing purposes.

Figure 16: Maintaining time-off requests

Scenario-specific sample Employee submits a time-off request to their manager to attend jury duty. 2.2.5.2

Monitoring requirement

The initial monitoring is done in the enterprise portal by inspecting the Time-off Requests iView. Error monitoring Errors displayed in this view are usually user errors. Time-off requests may have been entered incorrectly and need to be modified.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 32/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Scenario-specific sample The store manager has just entered a time-off request for an hourly employee and realized that they assigned the wrong absence type. Submitted time-off requests are listed for each individual in the Time-off Requests table. The absence type is listed as a hyperlink displayed in blue. To modify data associated with the absence type, click on the hyperlink to view the time-off request details. To remove a time-off request, place a check in the box beside the absence type and press the Remove button. 2.2.5.3

Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency/Data Collection

Function modules WFA_EMP_DATA_ GET and WFA_EMP_DATA_ MODIFY

RFC destination

Any of the following is not updating properly:

tRFC processing: SM59

Depending on business needs (e.g. once per day or once per week)

(depending on the interface technology used, tRFC or qRFC Monitoring can be used in SAP Solution Manager)

WFM global attributes (Hire Date, Start Date, Termination Date) General WFM attributes (such as, Default Settings Group and Cost Class) Work area assignments for an employee Schedule rules (Availability, Preferences and Set/Fixed Shifts) Work rules Contract rule Employee time-off requests

qRFC rocessing: SMQ1, SMQ2

Table 9: Maintain time-off requests – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

2.2.5.4

Further monitoring objects

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency / Data Collection

RFC

Select trace: RFC trace

N/A

ST05

When errors are detected from the Schedule Rules view, an RFC trace may point to the error.

N/A

ST05

When errors are detected from the Schedule Rules view, an RFC trace may point to the error.

Select trace function: Activate trace RFC

Select trace: RFC trace Select trace function: Activate trace

Table 10: Maintain time-off requests – Further monitoring objects

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 33/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.3

Business Process: Business Forecast and Workload Modeling

WFM includes a forecasting engine that builds staffing demands based upon recent history, variable and fixed activities, corporate labor targets, and other requirements. Forecasts are created to calculate the expected overall business volume and workload. The process uses a store’s activity together with parameters and other historical information to establish trends. The user, store or corporate user, then has the opportunity to tune this data to ensure that it accurately reflects the current business situation. Once the volume forecast is generated, WFM projects the workload, the number of employees needed per work area for each quarter hour. Forecast creation is generally the first step when creating a new schedule week. The steps and processes that comprise forecast and workload creation are: System maintains historical indicator data – Historical indicator data is stored in a database for access during forecasting the workload Select week to schedule – User selects schedule week Select forecast parameters – The forecast parameters determine the indicators that will be used to create the workload Submit forecasting calculation request – The request will be put in a queue at corporate for calculation Monitor status of forecast request – A status of the forecast request will be listed in the portal for review by the location Review forecast – Once the forecast has been successfully calculated, the location manager can review the forecast for adjustments Review workload – The location manager can also review the workload for adjustment Modify forecast to reflect location variables – After the location manager makes adjustments, the forecast must be resubmitted for forecasting and approval Monitor of status of forecast calculation request Review and approve workload

Figure 17: Business process – Business forecast and workload modeling

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 34/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.3.1

Business process step 1: Adjust actual volume data

2.3.1.1

Description

The volume data to be used for forecasting and workload modeling is defined in WFM and linked to variable activities or tasks. Each variable activity will have a labor standard defined to indicate the time it takes to complete the task. This setting is used in the forecasting of the demand. Fixed activities are also defined and will be accounted for in the forecast of the demand. Volume data is based upon recent history derived from POS systems, traffic counters, merchandising systems (markdowns, price changes), and financial plans. This data is typically stored and maintained in a data warehouse system such as SAP NetWeaver BI at the corporate level. The data is imported into WFM via various means: RFC, IDoc or manual entry. Import of data via RFC or IDoc is controlled by the corporate office. Manual entry of data is typically performed at store level. Manually entered data can include the number of markdowns expected for the week, cartons expected from a shipment, etc. This data is entered prior to forecast calculation to ensure the appropriate workload and employees will be scheduled to handle these tasks. Once the data is imported, you can further tune the data to reflect changes in the store’s business or expected new business for the scheduled week. For instance, the mall where the store is located is promoting a sidewalk sale. The data that is imported may not meet the expected requirements of the sale. You can adjust the data prior to forecast to reflect the expectations of the sale in order to ensure that the store will be scheduled appropriately for it. Scenario-specific sample Data is imported via corporate defined process and systems (i.e. POS system, traffic counter, etc.). 2.3.1.2

Monitoring requirements

The initial monitoring is done in the enterprise portal by inspecting the iViews in the Forecasts tab. Error monitoring Successfully imported data is displayed in the WFM portal in the Forecasts • Review/Modify Forecast iView. You can review the graph or the numeric values to verify whether or not the data that was imported is accurate. WFM will utilize the volume data imported into the system when calculating the demand. If incorrect data was loaded to the system, then the issue can be directly reflected in the forecasted demand. Errors in the data will be reflected in the graph or statistics of the Review/Modify Forecast iView in the Forecasts link.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 35/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 18: Reviewing forecast data

Scenario-specific sample When the user accesses the Review/Modify Forecast iView, no actual data displays. Discrepancies in the data should be traced back to the original source(s) – the POS data for the store, traffic counter data, manually entered values, etc. You will have to contact a resource at corporate to determine why no data has been imported for the selected indicator. Scenario-specific sample The data displayed in the Review/Modify Forecast iView does not reflect the volume expectations for an upcoming sidewalk sale. You can adjust the indicator values by entering specific values or a percentage change so that the data will reflect the expected change in workload for the sale. Once the changes are saved, the adjustments will immediately be reflected in the statistics as well as in the graph. You can further review and tune the adjustments until the results meet the expected needs of the sale.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 36/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 19: Modifying volume data

2.3.1.3

Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency/Data Collection

Function module WFA_FORECAST_SAMP LE_SET (depending on the interface technology used, tRFC or qRFC monitoring can be used in SAP Solution Manager)

RFC destination

Forecasting data did not import to WFM

tRFC processing: SM59

Depending on business needs (e.g. once per day or once per week)

WFM forecast data import inbound IDoc: IDOC_INPUT_WFAFCHV

Basic Type: WFAFC_A01

N/A

WE05

Depending on business needs (every 15 minutes – once per day)

N/A

WE05

Depending on business needs (every 15 minutes – once per day)

qRFC processing: SMQ1, SMQ2

Status: Error and intermediate statuses for inbound processing, e.g.: 51 (red light) - Application document not posted 56 (red light) - IDoc with errors added 62 (yellow light) - IDoc passed to application 68 (green light) - Errorno further processing

WFM forecast data import outbound IDoc: IDOC_INPUT_WFAFCPV

Basic Type: WFAFC_A01 Status: 29 (Red light) – Error in ALE service.

Table 11: Adjust actual volume data – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

When monitoring IDocs, the status of the IDoc will dictate what actions need to be taken: IDoc in error status (red light): Click once on IDoc number to read text diagnosing the error. After error has been corrected, you may reprocess the IDoc. © 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 37/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

IDoc in processing (yellow light): No action is needed if further processing takes place as expected. If the intermediate status lasts longer than usual, an erroneous behavior is indicated. In this case investigate the root cause and correct the error. IDoc successfully processed (green light): No action is needed. 2.3.2

Business process step 2: Performing the initial forecast calculation

2.3.2.1

Description

The initial forecast provides the first impression of how data is calculated based on the imported data and the configured parameter settings. There are two critical steps when generating a forecast calculation: 1. Determine forecast parameters 2. Submit the forecast for calculation Once data has been imported and adjusted, and manual entries have been made, the next step is to determine the forecast parameters for the selected schedule week. Those parameters allow a great deal of flexibility in the variables that can be selected to influence the forecast outcome. They also provide a means to create a more accurate demand for the specific locations.

Figure 20: Determining forecast parameters

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 38/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Forecast templates can be used when a given week has similar forecast attributes as another week. When you create a forecast based on a forecast template, the system uses the same forecast parameters as those within the template week. You can then fine tune the forecast as needed for the new week. Forecast templates are often used for recurring billing cycles or weeks with regular promotions. When WFM is initially configured, you also configure the method of forecasting, either weighted average or trended forecast. These methods influence what data will be used for forecast calculation and the importance of the data that is being used. Special History can be used for forecasting weeks that are not reflected by recent history. This might be the case for days or weeks with sales events or holiday sales, i.e. the week of Christmas. Use the Tagged History tab of the Forecast Parameters iView. Similar day/week volume information is selected and used for forecasting. Use Copy History to influence the forecast calculation. Copy History copies the actual data from the selected day or week and assigns it to the adjusted form of the indicator for the forecasted week. When Copy History is used, you want the adjusted value for the day or week to be the actual value from some other day or week. This might be the case when a specific sale event occurs every three months. You can then choose the transaction history from the previous sale to generate a volume forecast for the next sale. The creation of the forecast is also defined by company-specific processes in order to meet corporate labor targets. WFM can accommodate multiple scenarios, including: Generating a forecast to meet pre-determined payroll targets (forecast and workload generation with a budgetary constraint) Generate a forecast using engineered labor standards to identify the workload/payroll target (forecast and workload generation without a budgetary constraint) Once the forecast parameters have been established, you can calculate the forecast. You can configure the calculation of the forecast to run as a batch process in the background, without store manager’s execution, or to be manually kicked off by individual stores. The batch calculation is configured via the Calculation Batch parameter and identifies the locations to be included in the process. The forecasts are submitted through standard SAP job processing. The manual process is submitted by the user via Forecasts • Calculate Forecast. The end result is a labor demand representing forecasted service requirements for scheduling the right person, at the right place, at the right time. Scenario-specific sample The user generates a forecasted demand for a new schedule week. Volume data for the location is present for the specific location. Tasks (activities) have been configured. Budgets have been defined. 2.3.2.2

Monitoring requirements

The initial monitoring is done in the enterprise portal by inspecting the iViews contained in Forecasts • Calculation Status. This view will report the progress of the forecast and return a final status. Users with higher level access to the WFM system can also monitor the status of a forecast in the WFM Calculation Services iViews.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 39/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Error monitoring The status of a forecast calculation can be monitored for errors in the Forecast link in WFM or via the WFM Calculation Services link. Scenario-specific sample Forecast calculation is initiated manually by the location manager or a corporate user. Error and status monitoring is performed in the Calculation Status iView in the WFM portal. This view will report the progress of the forecast and return a final status.

Figure 21: Checking the calculation status for forecast progress

Clicking on the status will reveal the cause of an error or warning message for the forecasting calculation. The information provided determines the steps you need to perform to produce a successful calculation.

Figure 22: Messages for calculation status for forecast progress

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 40/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Scenario-specific sample Forecast calculation is initiated by batch processing at corporate. Error and status monitoring is performed in the WFM Calculation Services iView in the WFM portal. It offers a number of tabs that report the progress of the forecast and return a final status. In the Calculations Services tab, you can access log files which can be used for troubleshooting by SAP Development.

Figure 23: Accessing forecast calculation log files

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 41/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

The Requests tab displays the requests that have been generated. The information provides the status of the requests.

Figure 24: Requests tab in WFM Calculation Services

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 42/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

The Batch Requests tab displays any batch processes that have been configured and initiated.

Figure 25: Batch Requests tab in WFM Calculation Services

Backlog monitoring SLG1 can be used to determine errors and warnings, however, the information that is provided is limited. The information that is found in SLG1 should be provided when entering an OSS message. 2.3.2.3

Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency / Data Collection

Application log

Object: WFA

When errors and/or warnings are generated.

SLG1

Weekly

When the following occurs:

ST22

Daily

Subobject: * External ID: * ABAP runtime errors

N/A

“Error: could not call RFC ……..” This error indicates an RFC short dump occurred.

Table 12: Performing the initial forecast calculation – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 43/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.3.2.4

Further monitoring objects

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency/ Data Collection

Forecasts link

Calculation Status link

Provides success, warning or error status

Enterprise portal

Weekly, as forecast are submitted for calculation.

Calculation Services tab

Calculation times out.

Enterprise portal

WFM Calculation Services link

Calculation run time is too long. Calculation status is error.

Link provides additional data for resolving warnings and errors.

Log files available for review if a problem is uncovered

Weekly, as forecasts are submitted for calculation.

WFM Calculation Services link

Requests tab

Status column: Error

Enterprise portal

Weekly, as forecasts are submitted for calculation.

RFC

Select Trace: RFC Trace

N/A

ST05

When errors are detected, RFC trace may point to the error.

Select Trace Function: Activate Trace

Table 13: Performing the initial forecast calculation – Further monitoring objects

2.3.3

Business process step 3: Update volume forecast

2.3.3.1

Description

Once the initial forecast is generated, you can adjust the forecast to ensure volume forecasts are accurate and to account for any last-minute campaigns or events that might impact the location’s business but were not included in the historical data upon which the forecast was generated. For example, the user can increase sales to accommodate for a one-day sale, thereby creating a proportional increase in workload. Scenario-specific sample In order to increase sales at the beginning of the week, corporate has decided to have a special brand promotion on Monday and Tuesday of the forecasted week. They expect a 10% increase in sales for those two days. The location manager accesses the Review/Modify Forecast iView and enters a 10% increase for Monday and Tuesday of the schedule week. The manager saves the changes, and then resubmits the forecast for calculation by selecting the Update Forecast button.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 44/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.3.3.2

Monitoring requirements

Error monitoring Once the percentage change has been entered in the appropriate fields, the adjusted data should reflect the change. The manager can monitor the re-calculation by viewing the Calculation Status iView. Scenario-specific sample The location manager has entered and saved a change to the forecasted data in the Review/Modify Forecast iView. There are no errors when making adjustments to the indicator data. The user needs to verify that the changes are reflected in the Adjust Data field for the selected day(s).

Figure 26: Updating volume forecasts

Scenario-specific sample The location manager has resubmitted the forecast to be recalculated with the new changes. Error and status monitoring is performed in the Calculation Status iView in the WFM portal. This view will report the progress of the forecast and return a final status.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 45/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 27: Checking the progress of the volume forecast

Clicking on the status will reveal the cause of an error or warning message for the forecasting calculation. The information provided will determine the steps you need to perform in order to produce a successful calculation.

Figure 28: Messages for calculation status of the volume forecast

Once the forecast has been calculated, the manager can review the changes to the workload in the Workload iView to verify the changes have been applied.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 46/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Backlog monitoring SLG1 can be used to determine errors and warnings, however, the information that is provided is limited. The information that is found in SLG1 should be provided when entering an OSS message. 2.3.3.3

Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency/ Data Collection

Application log

Object: WFA

When errors and/or warnings are generated.

SLG1

Weekly

Subobject: * External ID: *

Table 14: Update volume forecast – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

2.3.3.4

Further monitoring objects

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency/Data Collection

Forecasts link

Calculation Status link

Provides success, warning or error status

Enterprise portal

Weekly, as forecasts are submitted for calculation

Workload link

Forecasted data is missing at the organization, department or work area level.

Enterprise portal

N/A

ST05

Forecasts link

RFC

Select trace: RFC trace

Link provides additional data for resolving warnings and errors.

Provides verification that adjustments have been successfully applied.

Select trace function: Activate trace

Weekly, as forecasts are submitted for calculation

When errors are detected, RFC trace may point to the error.

Table 15: Update volume forecast – Further monitoring objects

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 47/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.3.4

Business process step 4: Apply budgetary constraints

2.3.4.1

Description

Once the initial forecast is complete or the forecast has been updated and the workload has been reviewed, the store user may directly adjust the workload to meet payroll budgetary constraints. The Budgetary Constraints iView allows direct workload adjustments to meet payroll budgetary targets. Only weekly adjustments to the payroll targets are allowed in the Budgetary Constraint iView, and the workload is adjusted proportionally while retaining the forecasted activity pattern. Adjustments can be made to hours, projected payroll dollars, project payroll percent to forecasted sales, and projected sales per labor hour.

Figure 29: Applying budgetary constraints

Managers can apply budgetary constraints to the workload for a specific forecasting week by location, department or work area in order to ensure the system generates schedules that meet the location’s business requirements. Budget constraints allow the user to adjust the workload in order to keep the cost of a schedule generated by the system within the location’s budget. Once there is a schedule created, however, managers can no longer adjust the budgetary constraint values. The adjustment type for budgeting – Hours, Payroll, Payroll Percent, Sales Per Hour – is defined and configured during the initial configuration of Workforce Management.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 48/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Users can also adjust the overall forecast and workload at the highest levels of their area of responsibility, such as region-wide adjustments, and the changes roll up or trickle down through all stores or locations within the organizational structure. The indicators for these roll-up adjustments are defined and configured during the initial configuration of WFM. Scenario-specific sample The store manager is required to change the labor hours to meet the budgeted hours for the location. The manager enters the new hours in the Adjusted Hours field of the Budgetary Constraints iView. 2.3.4.2

Monitoring requirements

2.3.4.2.1

Changes to forecast indicators

When the district manager makes a change to the forecast indicators and saves it, the change is reflected in the Forecast Adjustment iView and will also appear in each of the store-related Forecasting iViews. Changes can be made at the organization unit level or department level. Error monitoring As soon as the district manager saves a change, the screen changes to the Status iView. WFM applies the change to the stores assigned to this district. Error and status monitoring is performed in the Status view. It will report the progress of the forecast change and return a final status. Scenario-specific sample The district manager increases the forecast gross indicator for Saturday.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 49/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 30: Changing forecast indicators

Clicking on the status will reveal locations that were adjusted as well as the cause of an error or warning message for the forecasting calculation if the status Error is displayed. For the location that has the error, expanding the line will provide information that will determine the steps that the user or corporate will need to perform in order to produce a successful calculation.

Figure 31: Message for calculation status of volume adjustment

The district manager can also view the change made for each of the locations by selecting the organization from the tree view. The display will verify that the changes have been applied to the selected location.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 50/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 32: Reviewing the volume adjustments per location

2.3.4.2.2

Changes to the workload

When the district manager makes a change to the workload and saves it, the change is reflected in the Workload Adjustment iView and will also appear in each of the store-related Workload iViews. The manager can adjust hours, estimated payroll, estimated payroll percentage or sales per hour.

Figure 33: Selecting the adjustment type

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 51/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Error monitoring When the district manager makes the change and saves, the screen will change to the Status iView. WFM applies the change to the stores assigned to this district. Error and status monitoring is performed in the Status view. It will report the progress of the forecast change and return a final status. Scenario-specific sample District manager increases the workload hours for Saturday.

Figure 34: Changing the workload

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 52/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Clicking on the status will reveal locations that were adjusted as well as the cause of an error or warning message for the forecasting calculation if the status displays Error. For the location that has the error, expanding the line will provide the information that determines the steps that the user or corporate need to perform in order to produce a successful calculation.

Figure 35: Message for calculation status of workload adjustment

The district manager can also view the change made for each of the locations by selecting an organization from the tree view. The display will verify that the changes have been applied to the selected location.

Figure 36: Reviewing the workload adjustments per location

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 53/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.3.4.3

Further monitoring objects

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency / Data Collection

Forecasts link

Budgetary Constraints link

Data is missing at the organization, department or work area level.

Enterprise portal

Weekly, as forecasts are submitted for calculation

Forecasts link

Workload link

Forecasted data is missing at the organization, department or work area level.

Enterprise portal

Weekly, as forecasts are submitted for calculation

Enterprise portal

Weekly, when forecasting has been completed for the locations in the district/ region and prior to performing schedule calculation

Enterprise portal

Weekly, when forecasting has been completed for the locations in the district/ region and prior to performing schedule calculation

Forecasted workload is too low or too high.Roll-up adjustments

Forecast adjustments

Forecasted data is missing. Adjustments are not rolling up to the departments correctly.

Roll-up adjustments

Workload adjustment

Forecasted data is missing. Adjustments are not rolling up to the departments correctly.

Table 16: Apply budgetary constraints – Further monitoring objects

2.3.5

Business process step 5: Approve forecast

2.3.5.1

Description

Approving the forecast allows to proceed to the next step in the WFM process. There are two methods of approving a forecast. The first one is to make sure that the forecast and any budgets have been applied to the forecast. Typically, a location is designated a date at which this information and the process need to be completed. The second method is to use Schedule Track, which provides a step-by-step guide to creating a final schedule. The forecasting section provides an Approve Forecast link that you can select to approve the forecast and proceed through the remaining steps of the process.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 54/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 37: Approving a forecast

Scenario-specific sample The manager approves the forecast so that the workforce management process can proceed. 2.3.5.2

Monitoring requirements

Forecast must be approved in order for the process to continue. Check for errors in the approval process. 2.3.5.3

Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency / Data Collection

Schedule Track

Forecast • Approve Forecast

Schedule track fails to update

Enterprise portal

Weekly, after forecasts have been analyzed and adjusted

Check box appears next to Approve Forecast and the process moves to the following item in the process

Table 17: Approve forecast – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 55/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.4

Business Process: Scheduling

Workforce Management uses optimization technology to produce the most effective and efficient schedule that meet customer demand and aligns with corporate operational objectives, employee work rules and absences. The calculation architecture is scalable to accommodate small, medium and large stores within the company hierarchy. Flexible maintenance capabilities allow you to update the schedule as needed to support changes in business volume. Scheduling optimization considers the following: Fixed and flexible staffing Work rules and priorities (min/max hours per shift or week, max OT allowed, consecutive days worked, etc.) Scheduled events such as training, store meetings, etc. Meal and break allocations as defined by corporate Employee proficiencies and qualifications WFM generates schedules using a complex set of calculations that takes absolute, hard and soft constraints into account. Absolute constraints are business requirements that must not be violated. WFM will not violate an absolute constraint during the schedule calculation process. However, the system cannot prevent a user from manually violating an absolute constraint. Absolute constraints are: Work area eligibility Capacity Availability Hard constraints are work rules that must be adhered to. WFM rarely violates a hard constraint unless adhering to a hard constraint causes a violation of a higher ranking hard constraint or an absolute constraint. Hard constraint rules include: Fixed shifts by employee Maximum number of shifts Consecutive days off Disallowed shift length Minimum/maximum hours per shift Maximum OT per shift Maximum hours per segment Minimum hours per segment Schedule events Once absolute and hard constraints are accommodated, the system uses a cost/penalty value that the customer assigned in configuration to determine which soft constraints will be adhered to and which are ok to violate. WFM will only violate a soft constraint if honoring it would result in the violation of an absolute or hard constraint. To grant a specific soft constraint a higher status than other soft constraints you will need to assign cost values according to company priorities. The higher the cost/penalty value the higher the priority. Soft constraints include: Allocate filler Minimum average proficiency Qualified workload Shift characteristic

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 56/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Seniority preference Minimize pay Workload importance Quarter hour importance Work area importance Work area reluctance There are five iViews maintained within the Schedules tab. Daily and Weekly iViews allow you to view schedules at a daily and weekly granularity. On the Individual iView, you can make temporary changes to the following employee settings: Availability, work rules, work area assignments, and fixed shifts. Changes made on the Individual iView are valid only for the effective period set by the user. Scheduled events such as store meetings, training time, etc are maintained on the Events iView. Employees will not be scheduled to work in a work area during the time they have a scheduled event. Activities that are not directly linked to a work area are maintained as events and can be defined for current or future weeks. You can specify the effective week, day of week, frequency, end date, start and end times. You can also select specific employees to attend the event. Schedule calculation via the Calculation iView kicks off the scheduling optimization engine. Employee profiles are matched to forecasted workload to find the best employee to meet work area and work rule requirements.

Figure 38: Steps of the scheduling business process

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 57/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.4.1

Business process step 1: Scheduling creation

2.4.1.1

Description

Schedule creation is the third step in the WFM business process workflow. WFM uses data from volume and demand forecast, and employee-specific information to create schedules. The schedule should only be calculated after demand and volume forecasting have been adjusted to comply with store service levels, productivity and fiscal goals. Scheduling optimization considers work rules, work area priorities, scheduled events, meal and break allocations, employee skills, pay rates, preferences, and availabilities to produce the most effective schedule that meets store demands and corporate objectives. Scenario-specific sample Employee has been hired; HR data and WFM-specific data is maintained. After forecasting, the employee is then scheduled to meet workload demands. 2.4.1.2

Monitoring requirements

The initial monitoring is done in the enterprise portal by inspecting the iViews contained within the Schedules tab. Error monitoring for schedule creation is done from the Calculations iView and the WFM Calculation Services tab. Prior to schedule creation, the following scenarios must be examined. Scenario-specific sample The store manager makes an adjustment to an employee’s work area assignment and does no longer find the work area assigned listed for future weeks.

Figure 39: Individual iView

In the Individual iView, the user can make temporary changes to the following employee settings: Availability, work rules, work area assignments, and fixed shifts. Changes are valid only for the effective period set by the user. The most common issue is that this view is confused with the permanent schedule view maintained in the Employee iView. The difference is that Effective Date: 01/20/2008, Valid For

1

Week is listed at the

top of the page. This indicates that changes made here are only temporary. At the end of the Valid for period, the employee schedule settings will revert back to the permanent data stored in the Employee iView.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 58/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Scenario-specific sample A training event needs to be communicated to specific store employees. To accommodate this request, the store manager will create an event via the Events iView, that is then displayed on the employee schedule.

Figure 40: Creating events

All events must be created utilizing the Events iView and entered prior to schedule calculation. Events represent activities that are not associated with a work area. Events are staff training, store meetings, and so on. You can enter a user-defined event name, select the day of the week the event shall occur, select the frequency, end date and start/end time. When you click the Show Employees button, a listing of all employees in the store will be displayed where you can select those employees you want to invite to the event. Previously created events will be listed as hyperlinks in the Event List on the Events iView. To modify a previously created event, click on the hyperlink to view the details and modify. After an event has been created in the Events iView it can also be modified from the Individual iView, on the Events tab. Event modifications completed from the Individual iView will not be retained if the schedule is recalculated. The original event entered via the Events iView will remain and the modified version will be erased during the schedule calculation. If recalculation of schedules is normal it is best to enter and maintain events exclusively from the Events iView.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 59/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 41: Events in the Individual view

Scenario-specific sample The WFM administrator calculates a schedule manually and also via a batch. The user can calculate a schedule at various levels: organization (location), department and work area. Choosing the location level will calculate a schedule for every employee within that location. If you select the department level, only the schedules for employees assigned to that department will be calculated. Likewise, if the Work Area is chosen, only employees assigned to that work area will have a schedule calculated. It is best practice to calculate schedules in batches to avoid manual errors. When manual execution is needed, please take note that you are calculating schedules at the selected level only. The Calculation iView also provides you the option to lock an employee. If it is necessary to recalculate a schedule and you do not want to recalculate the schedule of all employees, you may choose to lock specific employees. The Lock feature does not lock events. It is necessary to review scheduled events after each schedule calculation.

Figure 42: Calculating schedules manually

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 60/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Prior to submitting a calculation you can press the Pre-analysis button to display potential exceptions. Messages from the pre-analysis can be expanded to view detailed diagnosis and procedures to correct the exception. Pre-analysis can be utilized to minimize exceptions prior to schedule calculation.

Figure 43: Pre-analysis results

Once you press the Submit to Calculate button or a batch job is executed to start the scheduled optimization process, the calculation batches will be accepted and then queued.

Figure 44: Calculation

The calculation status is displayed in a list with a column that displays one of the statuses Accepted, In progress, Completed, Canceled, Canceling, Error, Completed with warning or Canceled by warning. Canceled processes or error statuses are displayed as hyperlinks that provide information regarding the failure. Once they are corrected you will need to re-calculate. Alert profiles may be assigned to manager roles through the path SAP IMG Operational Settings

Retail Workforce Management

Define Calculation Alert Profile to notify them that the calculation request has been

submitted, an error occurred or the calculation was a success. The following alert profiles are available:

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 61/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

WFA_SUBMIT_ALERT

When active, the users with the corresponding role receive an alert informing them that the system has received a calculation request.

WFA_ERROR_ALERT

When active, it indicates that the system has encountered one or more errors during processing. The user can then fix the errors in order to resubmit the request.

WFA_SUCCESS_ALERT

When active, the users with the corresponding role receive an alert informing them that the system has successfully completed the calculation processing.

Figure 45: Calculation status

If the schedule used in the previous week was effective and showed minimum exceptions, you can copy it to future weeks. Press the Copy Schedule link and select the week to schedule. The week copied is per default the preceding week.

Figure 46: Copying schedules

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 62/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Performance Monitoring It is imperative that the WFM administrator checks the status of batch calculated schedules for failures. Scenario-specific sample Schedules for hundreds of stores are batched and calculated overnight. Calculation batches may fail if there are too many locations within a batch. Calculations may also fail if the time allotted for calculation is exceeded before the calculation process has been completed. Once a location fails within a batch, the locations preceding the failed location will also fail. It is best to create multiple calculation batches containing no more than 100 locations in each batch.

Figure 47: Batch requests

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 63/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

To determine which locations failed within the batch and to see the individual processing times, you can view the Requests tab of WFM Calculation Services. Note the hyperlink RWR_SCHED_PLUS1 in the lower section; it is the name of the batch processing that location.

Figure 48: Analyzing batch requests

2.4.1.3

Further monitoring objects

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency/ Data Collection

Schedules link

Calculations • Status Link

Provides success, warning or error status

Enterprise portal

Weekly, as schedules are submitted for calculation

WFM Calculation Services Link

Requests tab

Status column: Error

Enterprise portal

Weekly, as schedules are submitted for calculation.

WFM Calculation Services Link

Batch Requests tab

Status column: Error

Enterprise portal

Weekly, as batch schedules are submitted for calculation

Link provides additional data for resolving warnings and errors.

Table 18: Scheduling creation – Further monitoring objects

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 64/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.4.2

Business process step 2 and 3: Scheduling maintenance and analysis

2.4.2.1

Description

The schedule has been calculated, and now the maintenance and analysis phase can start. The maintenance phase entails reviewing the schedule, correcting scheduling exceptions, and making edits to the schedule. Scenario-specific sample The Store 600 schedule calculation process was completed with warnings. The store manager knows that schedule exceptions are monitored by corporate and therefore must take steps to minimize the number of schedule exceptions prior to schedule posting. 2.4.2.2

Monitoring requirements

The initial monitoring is done in the enterprise portal by inspecting the Daily, Weekly, or Individual iView contained within the Schedules tab. Error monitoring for schedules is done at the daily, weekly, or individual employee level. Scenario-specific sample Schedule calculation completed with warnings that indicate work rule constraints were broken and need to be corrected. Not all exceptions must be corrected. It is the manager’s responsibility to decide which exceptions are allowable. While viewing the schedule for individual employees, a yellow triangle listed beside the name is an indication of an exception in the corresponding schedule calculation.

Figure 49: Identifying exception in Schedules view

Click on

beside the employee name to view a list of issues and resolutions.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 65/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 50: Analyzing the exceptions summary

Employees assigned to multiple work areas will be displayed in all work areas assigned. Shifts within the selected work area are represented by the dark blue segments. The lighter blue segment indicates that an employee is scheduled in a different work area than the one you are viewing. By placing your cursor over a shift segment you may perform edits by extending or shortening the bar. In the exception sample, Donna Milone is scheduled more than the maximum hours allowed in a shift. This exception can be reconciled by shortening her shift segment.

Figure 51: Shortening a shift segment

Below is a table of possible schedule exceptions and solutions: Employee Exceptions

Solution

Scheduled more than the maximum hours allowed in a shift

Check if the maximum hours per shift work rule is correctly defined.

Scheduled more than the maximum hours allowed in a week

Check if the maximum hours per week work rule is correctly defined.

Scheduled more than the maximum hours per shift on a weekend

Check if maximum hours per shift on a weekend work rule is correctly defined.

Edit schedule to decrease the number of hours scheduled.

Edit schedule to decrease the number of hours scheduled.

Edit schedule to decrease the number of hours scheduled on a weekend.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 66/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Employee Exceptions

Solution

Scheduled more than the maximum days allowed in a week

Check if maximum days per week work rule is correctly defined.

Scheduled more than the maximum consecutive days

Check if maximum consecutive days work rule is set appropriately.

Scheduled less than the minimum hours required in a week

Check if the minimum hours per week work rule is defined correctly.

Edit schedule to decrease the number of days scheduled.

Edit schedule to decrease number of consecutive days scheduled.

Check that the employee is available to work the minimum hours per week. Check if business need is sufficient to schedule the employee. Check if employee is available to work when there is business need. Edit schedule to increase the number of hours scheduled.

Scheduled outside availability

Check if availability and work rules are not in conflict. Verify if availability maps to fixed/set schedules or rotations. Check availability constraints to ensure schedules are within availability. Edit schedule to be within availability constraints.

Scheduled outside work area hours

Verify if work area configuration is accurate. Check if demand falls within work area hours. Check availability and work rule minimums.

Scheduled for overtime hours

Verify employee is eligible for overtime. Check availability for scheduled period. Edit schedule to eliminate overtime.

Exceeds the maximum overtime hours allowed in a day

Check if maximum overtime hours per day work rule is defined correctly. Edit schedule to decrease the number of hours scheduled.

Exceeds the maximum overtime hours allowed in a week

Check if maximum overtime hours per week work rule is defined correctly. Edit schedule to decrease the number of overtime hours scheduled for the week.

Table 19: Possible schedule exceptions and solutions

The WFM user can decide to allow any schedule exception created. When encountering an exception, check that the exception is correct. Work rules entered into configuration need to be verified for accuracy. Exceptions are specific and need specific actions to be alleviated. For example, the scheduled more than the maximum hours allowed in a shift exception instructs you to check the maximum hours per shift work rule is defined appropriately.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 67/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

In the portal, go to Workforce Management • Schedules • Individual • Work Rules. Donna Milone is assigned work rule TA_FT_NONEDIT, which allows 8 hours per shift defined as a maximum. The WFM user needs to verify that Donna Milone is assigned the correct work rule. If the employee is assigned the correct work rule, verify that the values assigned to the work rule are correct. If the values are accurate, the schedule exception is appropriate and needs to be corrected to comply with corporate approved work rules.

Figure 52: Checking work rules

If the employee is assigned an incorrect work rule, go to Workforce Management • Employees • Schedule Rules • Work Rules to assign another work rule. Permanent changes to an employee are done from the Employee view. Changes made on the Schedule view are only effective for a temporary period. It is possible that a work rule was entered incorrectly into configuration. Work rules are not editable from the portal. Configuration for work rules is found via the path SAP IMG • Retail Workforce Management • Schedule Settings •Work Rules. Enter the correct value(s) into configuration, press Save. Changes will be displayed in the portal as soon as configuration updates are scheduled. In the Daily view, you have the following modification options: Add Segment Swap Replace Add Coverage Clear Add Breaks

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 68/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 53: Daily view

Add Segment allows you to add a shift segment to cover understaffing. Check the box beside the name and press the Go button to add a segment to an employee. In the sample below, a segment was added to Abel Garreau.

Figure 54: Adding a segment to an employee

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 69/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

To accommodate an employee’s sudden change in availability you can swap an employee shift with another employee shift within the same work area. Select the two employees you want to swap shifts for. Press the Swap button.

Figure 55: Swapping shifts

The replace functionality is used to find employees to replace an unplanned absence. Select the employee you want to replace, and press Replace. A listing of employees eligible for replacement will appear. Select an employee from the list to replace the absent employee. You may also select the Absence Type of the person being replaced. Press Determine Potential Exceptions to see if the new employee will cause a schedule exception. If not, press Apply Segment(s) to add the employee to the schedule.

Figure 56: Replacing employees in case of absence

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 70/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Add Coverage allows you to find employees to cover a specific time frame. Press the Add Coverage button. Drag and extend the shift segment to the time frame that you need to cover. Press the Replace button to find employees available to cover that time frame.

Figure 57: Finding employees to cover a specific time frame

Select an employee from the list to cover the time frame selected. Press Determine Potential Exceptions to see if the new employee will cause a schedule exception. If not, press the Apply Segment(s) button to add the employee to the schedule.

Figure 58: Adding new shift elements to a selected employee

Clear is used to remove a shift segment. Select the employee(s) that need to have their shift removed. Press the Clear button to remove their shift segment.

Figure 59: Removing a shift segment

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 71/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

When a segment is added manually, you must also add a break manually. Select the employee and press the Add Breaks button. Breaks are not optimized when added manually. The user must allocate the break placement to ensure it aligns to corporate guidelines.

Figure 60: Adding breaks manually

2.4.2.3

Further monitoring objects

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency / Data Collection

Schedules link

Daily or Weekly iView

Schedule Exceptions icon

Enterprise portal

Daily or weekly, after schedule has been calculated

Icon provides information regarding schedule exceptions and how to reconcile them

Table 20: Scheduling maintenance and analysis – Further monitoring objects

2.4.3

Business process step 4: Schedule posting

2.4.3.1

Description

Schedule maintenance and analysis is complete. Posting a schedule signals to corporate that all modifications are complete and the schedule is ready to be processed. Scenario-specific sample The store manager agrees to the schedule and wants to post it inside the store. To post a schedule, simply check the box beside the word Post and press Save.

Figure 61: Schedule posting

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 72/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

2.4.3.2

Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

Monitoring Object

Selection Criteria

Alert

Analysis Tool on Satellite System

Monitoring Frequency / Data Collection

Schedules link

Weekly iView • Post check box

Schedule posting fails to save

Enterprise portal

Weekly when schedule analysis/changes have been made.

Table 21: Schedule posting – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 73/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

3

Further Information

3.1

Troubleshooting

If executing this Best Practice did not produce the desired results: Use the comprehensive problem solving and server testing information in the WFM 3.0 Installation Guide. Alternatively, see SAP Note 1032669. This note contains all notes produced for WFM 3.0 SP02 feature pack. See also SAP Note 1068936, which contains all notes produced for WFM 3.0 SP03 service pack. Search customer messages and SAP Notes with the component CA-GTF-WFA. If you experience slow reaction times within the portal, it may be due to a lack of space allotted to run the software. The official WFM sizing documentation may be accessed by going to: Service.sap.com Support Portal

Quick Links

Cycle Management

3.2

Sizing

Hardware Sizing

SAP NetWeaver Sizing Guidelines

SAP NetWeaver in Detail Solutions & Platform

SAP

Solution Life-

Sizing WFM

Related Best Practice Documents

There are several other Best Practice documents that relate to this Best Practice document. They are available on SAP Service Marketplace at https://service.sap.com/solutionmanagerbp. These documents are: Best Practice General Business Process Management: This document explains the procedures you should use to create a general Business Process Management concept. This includes the definition and documentation of the core business processes, definition of monitoring objects, definition of monitoring activities including error handling procedures, monitoring tools, monitoring frequencies, the definition of communication and escalation procedures and the assignment of responsibilities. Best Practice ALE Monitoring: This Best Practice helps you set up an Interface Monitoring concept with the focus on ALE monitoring for your SAP solution. This document will outline possibilities on how to optimally monitor ALE-based interfaces manually as well as automated by using SAP Solution Manager. Both monitoring approaches aim to detect any irregularities or deviations or to detect error situations at an early stage. Best Practice Job Scheduling Management: This Best Practice provides a detailed description of what SAP recommends as a standardized formal process to support a job request process, including an end user job request form and an approval process. This integrated process will avoid error-prone and timeintensive manual processes of copying redundant data from one data source to another (for example, MS Excel to job scheduling tool). Best Practice SAP Business Process Management for ERP Logistics: This Best Practice helps you set up a Business Process Monitoring concept for your SAP ERP solution. The concept aims at defining procedures for business process-oriented monitoring and error handling and escalation procedures for your company’s ERP core business processes. These procedures intend to ensure a smooth and reliable flow of the core business processes so that your business requirements are met. Best Practice Background Job Monitoring with SAP Solution Manager: This Best Practice will help you to set up background job monitoring properly in the Business Process Monitoring framework of SAP Solution Manager. Please note that these documents are also available in the SAP Service Marketplace using alias RunSAP Run SAP Best Practices.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 74/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Index of Figures Figure 1: Alert type Number of ABAP Dumps (Delta) Figure 2: Monitoring objects – Dialog performance Figure 3: Monitoring alerts - Dialog performance Figure 4: Monitoring objects and alerts – Application log Figure 5: Monitoring alerts – Application log/Critical messages Figure 6: Analysis and monitoring transactions Figure 7: Analysis and monitoring URL Figure 8: Business processes in WFM Figure 9: Business process – Employee maintenance Figure 10: Changing employee master data Figure 11: Maintaining employee profiles Figure 12: Checking new employees’ profiles Figure 13: Error – WFM agent profile update failed Figure 14: Checking work rules Figure 15: Maintaining shifts Figure 16: Maintaining time-off requests Figure 17: Business process – Business forecast and workload modeling Figure 18: Reviewing forecast data Figure 19: Modifying volume data Figure 20: Determining forecast parameters Figure 21: Checking the calculation status for forecast progress Figure 22: Messages for calculation status for forecast progress Figure 23: Accessing forecast calculation log files Figure 24: Requests tab in WFM Calculation Services Figure 25: Batch Requests tab in WFM Calculation Services Figure 26: Updating volume forecasts Figure 27: Checking the progress of the volume forecast Figure 28: Messages for calculation status of the volume forecast Figure 29: Applying budgetary constraints Figure 30: Changing forecast indicators Figure 31: Message for calculation status of volume adjustment Figure 32: Reviewing the volume adjustments per location Figure 33: Selecting the adjustment type Figure 34: Changing the workload Figure 35: Message for calculation status of workload adjustment Figure 36: Reviewing the workload adjustments per location Figure 37: Approving a forecast Figure 38: Steps of the scheduling business process Figure 39: Individual iView Figure 40: Creating events Figure 41: Events in the Individual view Figure 42: Calculating schedules manually Figure 43: Pre-analysis results Figure 44: Calculation Figure 45: Calculation status © 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

10 11 11 12 13 13 14 18 20 21 24 24 25 30 31 32 34 36 37 38 40 40 41 42 43 45 46 46 48 50 50 51 51 52 53 53 55 57 58 59 60 60 61 61 62 page 75/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

Figure 46: Copying schedules Figure 47: Batch requests Figure 48: Analyzing batch requests Figure 49: Identifying exception in Schedules view Figure 50: Analyzing the exceptions summary Figure 51: Shortening a shift segment Figure 52: Checking work rules Figure 53: Daily view Figure 54: Adding a segment to an employee Figure 55: Swapping shifts Figure 56: Replacing employees in case of absence Figure 57: Finding employees to cover a specific time frame Figure 58: Adding new shift elements to a selected employee Figure 59: Removing a shift segment Figure 60: Adding breaks manually Figure 61: Schedule posting

62 63 64 65 66 66 68 69 69 70 70 71 71 71 72 72

Index of Tables Table 1: Personnel actions/receiving employee master data – Monitoring data in SAP Solution Manager Table 2: Personnel actions/receiving employee master data – Further monitoring data Table 3: Maintain employee profiles – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager Table 4: Maintain employee profiles – Further monitoring objects Table 5: Maintain work areas and qualifications – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager Table 6: Maintain work areas and qualifications – Further monitoring objects Table 7: Maintain schedule rules – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager Table 8: Maintain schedule rules – Further monitoring objects Table 9: Maintain time-off requests – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager Table 10: Maintain time-off requests – Further monitoring objects Table 11: Adjust actual volume data – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager Table 12: Performing the initial forecast calculation – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager Table 13: Performing the initial forecast calculation – Further monitoring objects Table 14: Update volume forecast – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager Table 15: Update volume forecast – Further monitoring objects Table 16: Apply budgetary constraints – Further monitoring objects Table 17: Approve forecast – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager Table 18: Scheduling creation – Further monitoring objects Table 19: Possible schedule exceptions and solutions Table 20: Scheduling maintenance and analysis – Further monitoring objects Table 21: Schedule posting – Monitoring objects in SAP Solution Manager

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

22 23 26 27 28 29 31 31 33 33 37 43 44 47 47 54 55 64 67 72 73

page 76/77

Best Practice Manage Operations for SAP for Retail Workforce Management

© Copyright 2009 SAP AG. All Rights Reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP AG. The information contained herein may be changed without prior notice. Some software products marketed by SAP AG and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors. Microsoft, Windows, Outlook, and PowerPoint are registered tradem arks of Microsoft Corporation. IBM, DB2, DB2 Universal Database, OS/2, Parallel Sysplex, MVS/ESA, AIX, S/390, AS/400, OS/390, OS/400, iSeries, pSeries, xSeries, zSeries, z/OS, AFP, Intelligent Miner, WebSphere, Netfinity, Tivoli, and Informix are trademarks or registered trademarks of IBM Corporation. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. UNIX, X/Open, OSF/1, and Motif are registered trademarks of the Open Group. Citrix, ICA, Program Neighborhood, MetaFrame, WinFrame, VideoFrame, and MultiWin are trademarks or registered trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. HTML, XML, XHTML and W3C are tradem arks or registered trademarks of W3C®, World Wide Web Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Java is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. JavaScript is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc., used under license for technology invented and implemented by Netscape. MaxDB is a trademark of MySQL AB, Sweden. SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary. The information in this document is proprietary to SAP. No part of this document may be reproduced, copied, or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express prior written permission of SAP AG. This document is a preliminary version and not subject to your license agreement or any other agreem ent with SAP. This document contains only intended strategies, developments, and functionalities of the SAP® product and is not intended to be binding upon SAP to any particular course of business, product strategy, and/or development. Please note that this document is subject to change and may be changed by SAP at any time without notice. SAP assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document. SAP does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the information, text, graphics, links, or other items contained within this material. This document is provided without a warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringem ent. SAP shall have no liability for damages of any kind including without limitation direct, special, indirect, or consequential damages that may result from the use of these materials. This limitation shall not apply in cases of intent or gross negligence. The statutory liability for personal injury and defective products is not affected. SAP has no control over the information that you may access through the use of hot links contained in these materials and does not endorse your use of third-party Web pages nor provide any warranty whatsoever relating to third-party Web pages.

© 2009 SAP AG - BP_MO_for_SAP_for_Retail_Workforce_Management_V30.doc

page 77/77