R/3 Product Hierarchy in BW data model.

Question

Hi all,
We have been told by our implementation partner that the scenario described below is not feasible to design in our BW 3.5 system and if we were to implement this scenario there would be a significant amount of user maintenance to maintain the hierarchy structure in BW.
I was a query user in previous BW versions and my datawarehouse modeling experience is mostly in Cognos and Business Objects. The scenario described below is very easily implemented in these other datawarehouse software packages and I would be suprised if SAP does not have a standard solution to address the problem.
I would like to understand if:
(1) Yes this solution can be easily implemented in BW 3.5
(2) A brief explanation on the design approach, implementation, and considerations
I am already familiar with the link on http://sap.help.com that explains BW hierarchy design and considerations, but I would like to get a "real world" understanding of an approach and design and if you experienced this requirement.
Thank You in advance for your input.
Regards,
-Anthony
<b><u>Scenario:</u></b>
In R/3 we have modified the standard delivered product hierarchy structure for material master from 5,5,8 to be 5,5,4,4.
The 4 levels represent: BRAND --> PRODUCT LINE --> PRODUCT CATEGORY --> PRODUCT SUBCATEGORY
Our intent is to use this structure to satisfy current BW reporting requirements for COPA and R/3 Billing infocubes.
In BEx Explorer we would like to perform product analysis using the following dimension paths:
BRAND --> PRODUCT LINE --> PRODUCT CATEGORY --> PRODUCT SUBCATEGORY
PRODUCT LINE --> PRODUCT CATEGORY --> PRODUCT SUBCATEGORY
PRODUCT CATEGORY --> PRODUCT SUBCATEGORY
We are told that since we have multiple values at the BRAND node we will not be able to perform grouped reporting the starts at PRODUCT LINE node(which would be independent of the BRAND node). For example:
BRAND,          PRODUCT LINE,          PRODUCT CATEGORY
HONDA,          AUTOMOBILE,          CIVIC
HONDA,          AUTOMOBILE,          ACCURA          
HONDA,          BLOWER,                  CIVIC
HONDA,          MOTORCYCLE,          ODESSY
FORD,          AUTOMOBILE,          EXPLORER          
FORD,          BLOWER,                  EXPLORER          
FORD,          MOTORCYCLE,          CHAMPION
So for example we would like to start our dimensional anaylsis to show all AUTOMOBILE or BLOWER sales independent of the fact they were for HONDA or FORD.
In other datawarehouse systems I have either: (1) created 3 dimensions called: BRAND, PRODUCT LINE, and PRODUCT CATEGORY or (2) created one dimension called BRAND with alternate dimension paths for PRODUCT LINE and PRODUCT CATEGORY. I am not sure if this is feasible in BW.
We were also told in order to achieve this design a structure would have to be maintained in BW every time we introduce a new material master and the material master would need to be manually entered into the structure so that reporting can be achieved for both the standard structure and the alternate structure(s).<b></b>

Answer 1

Antony ,
there will be maintenance involved every time you add a material to the material master. However you could maintain the hierarchy through a GUI also depending on the number of values.
Ideally if this can be maintained in a table in the source system , it can be imported into BW. Otherwise if you were to maintain it in BW , you will have a lot of problems when :
1. Change in the hierarchy - A new Product Line coming in and many product category onwards change over to the new product line.
2. Viewing the changed hierarchy over time - If you have GM and a separate category called Daewoo , earlier they were separate and now they are one - what are my product sales due to the merged entity vis-a-vis separate entities earlier...
Things that you will need to consider from a design stand popint are :
1. Should the hierarchy be time dependent ?
2. Should it be maintained in the source system or in BW?
3. Change process for the same - Flat file / Manual
4. Estimate of how frequent the hierarchy would change?
5. Will you have display hierarchies - Ad-Hoc hierarchies to view certain combinations?
Depending on the above your hierarchy creation can go from easy to complex and hard to maintain.
One way to amintain it is to have a SAP ABAP program to populate a hierarchy table to have the relations in R/3 and transfer them into BW. You could automate it in such a way that the hierarchy is changed every time there is a new material
Otherwise , there can be a flat file to create the relationships
Or someone could log a request and if the change is minimal it couldbe done thru a GUI Interface provided by BW.
Arun
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