RICEFWs in SAP projects and role of functional consultant | SAP Blogs https://blogs.sap.com/2014/05/20/ricefws-in-sap-projects-and-role-of-fun...

RICEFWs in SAP projects and role of

functional consultant
May 20, 2014 | 12,651 Views |

K Kumar
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Hi,

Most of the functional consultants during their SAP projects execution,

work on RICEFWs. This document explains what are RICEFWs in SAP
projects and the role of Functional Consultants in executing them with
some real time examples.

What are RICEFWs :

RICEFW means Reports (R), Interface (I), Conversion (C),

Enhancements (E), Forms (F) and Workflow (W).

we will see what are they and what role Functional Consultants perform
in them with real time examples

Reports: A SAP report is an executable program that reads data from

the database and generates output based on the filter criteria selected
by the end user. It is like display of data based on some selection.
Execution of a SAP report almost never leads to an update of the
database.
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database.

The various categories of reports are

1. Standard SAP reports ex. COOIS,MD04 etc.

2. Custom reports developed by your organization
3. Ad hoc queries

When the standard SAP reports does not meet the client or business
requirement we have to develop custom reports with the help of ABAP
team. For this we need to understand what is the selection screen, what
output they want like what data they want to display on the screen once
the report is executed

Selection screen: It is the provision to enter the selection criteria.. here

is the selection screen for a report for MRP results validation to check
whether sufficient procurement elements generated or not after the
MRP run to meet the current requirements.

Once after the report is executed output will be like below

For this we need to give the functional specification to the ABAP team
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For this we need to give the functional specification to the ABAP team
with the details like what is the selection screen, what is the output
format and what are the tables and fields from which data needs to
fetched..based on this they develop the custom report

Some times we can generate own reports with out taking the help of
ABAP by generating the queries by combining various tables and
generating reports

Interfaces : In some organizations some of the business processes like

Planning , Quality Management functions are executed or maintained in

external systems (Non SAP systems). For example for Planning they use

third party systems like M2, ADS and for Quality they use LIMS..We need

to send the data from SAP to those Non SAP systems and receive the data

from them back to SAP system..normally IDocs are used for this data

transfers..

Ex: In the planning function entire planning is done in non SAP systems like
M2 or ADS then the planning results are transferred to SAP R/3 system in
the form of Planned Independent requirements (PIRs) through IDocs. In
the Quality functions Inspection lot details from R/3 are transferred to LIMS
where user enters the results now these results come and updated in SAP
R/3 system in results recording for the corresponding inspection lot

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R/3 system in results recording for the corresponding inspection lot

Functional consultant need to give the details what data needs to be

transferred or what data to be received, what are fields etc to the ABAP
team

Conversion: A Conversion means data that is converted from one

format to another format and from one system to another.

So when you first implement SAP, you are actually replacing some of
your legacy systems, but you are not completely trashing the data. You
still need some of that data from the systems that are being replaced.
So you pull the data out of your legacy systems and put them on some
files. You then want to load that data into your new SAP system.That is
when you write some programs which will read that data and load it into
SAP.

So during go live, you want to transfer the Production orders from from
your legacy system to SAP. Now a Production order in your legacy
system may not have the same fields as a Production Order in SAP. So
you convert the data.

Ex: BDC, LSMW

Functional consultant needs to co-ordinate between business team and

ABAP team for this..he has to prepare upload file format for this, based on
the tool or program developed by the ABAP team then they have to collect
the data from business team which is filled in to the files then later on
upload the data in to SAP systema typical BOM upload files looks as
below.

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a typical master recipe upload file looks as below.

javascript:;

Enhancements:

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Workflow: Workflow, as the name suggests, means of flow of work, may

be from one person to another person..It is in fact a sequence of connected
activities resulting in exchange of information

examples like when the production order is released mail to be triggered to

production manager or when UD is reject for particular inspection lot then
mail has to be triggered to quality manager.For this functional consultant
coordinate with ABAP team and will provide the details like what data has
to be sent, under which condition this workflow to be triggered.

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Thanks

Kumar

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