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Create Personalized Sourcing Strategies Depending on Location and Priorities

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Create Personalized Sourcing Strategies Depending on Location and Priorities
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Create Personalized Sourcing Strategies Depending on Location and Priorities

Michèle Fleck
Michèle Fleck
February 18, 2021
Created by
Michèle Fleck
May 3, 2020
Beginner
30 min.
Cloud, SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry environment, Tutorial, SAP API Business Hub, Beginner
Use SAP Customer Order Sourcing to build personalized sourcing strategies for different locations with different and changing needs.

You will learn

  • How to check availability raw data already included in your service
  • How to create source lists
  • How to create custom rules from custom attributes
  • How to create and change sourcing strategies
  • How different rules affect the sourcing algorithm
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Prerequisites

Step 1: Get to know the business scenario

You are the owner of an e-commerce business or an online shop in the fashion industry with the following characteristics:

Sources

You own several stores and distribution centers in Germany (Distribution centers in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich and a store in Hamburg), the US (Distribution centers in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Orlando, San Jose and stores New York and Los Angeles) and Canada (Distribution center in Toronto).

Products

You have several products available:

Grey Sports Shoe White Sports Shoe Black Sports Trouser
Product Id grey_sports_shoe white_sports_shoe black_sports_trouser
Product Image Grey Shoe White Shoe Black Trouser

Business Goal:

As a business owner, you want to create different sourcing strategies for different customers:

  • Customers in the US want their products as fast as possible, which means in a country as big as the United States that products should be sourced from the source with the shortest distance to the destination.

  • For Canada, there is only one distribution center available, no store or third party organization. Customers should get their products not only from Canada, but also from the US or Germany. Products should be sourced from the source with the highest product availability.

  • In Germany the sourcing strategy changes:

    • At first the goal was to serve the Customers from the source with the shortest distance to the destination.
    • As the distribution center in Berlin got renovated and now is the biggest one in Germany it is the number one priority source. To achieve this, the rule sources according to priority will be added on top of the already existing rule for Germany.
  • Customer who are not located in Germany, Canada or the US should be served by the DC or store with the highest capacity.
Done
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Step 2: Check which sources are already included in your trial

You check the master data from the SAP API Business Hub.

  1. Select the environment you have created in the previous tutorial: Create a Personalized Sourcing Strategy with SAP Customer Order Sourcing

  2. On the left side choose Sources.

  3. Open GET/sources and choose Try Out.

  4. You don’t have to enter anything, just choose Execute.

You have only followed the first tutorial for Customer Order Sourcing? Then you should only have 5 sources included in your trial. Select the right ones:
×
Step 3: Check which availability raw data is already included in your trial

You check the master data from the SAP API Business Hub.

  1. Select the environment you have created in the previous tutorial: Create a Personalized Sourcing Strategy with SAP Customer Order Sourcing

  2. On the left side choose Availability Raw Data.

  3. Open GET/availabilityRawData and choose Try Out.

  4. For the product id, enter black_sports_shoe.

  5. Choose Execute.

Done
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Step 4: Upload sources

You upload any master data from the SAP API Business Hub. Since there are only sources in Germany included in the trial, you need to add sources in the US and in Canada:

  1. Open SAP Customer Order Sourcing on SAP API Business Hub, and log in with your email address.

  2. Select the environment you created in the previous tutorial, named trial_test.

  3. On the left side, choose Sources.

  4. Open POST/sources and choose Try Out.

  5. Copy the following source master data and paste it into the body:

    Sources.json

  6. Click Execute.

Enter the Response-Code (3 digit number) you get, after posting the new sources to your trial:
×
Step 5: Upload availability raw data

You upload any master data from the SAP API Business Hub. Since you have now all the needed sources included in your SAP Customer Order Sourcing trial, you need to upload availability raw data.

  1. Open SAP Customer Order Sourcing on SAP API Business Hub.

  2. Select the environment you have created in the previous tutorial, named trial_test.

  3. On the left side, choose Availability Raw Data.

  4. Open POST/availabilityRawData and choose Try Out.

  5. Copy the following availability raw data and paste it into the body:

    Availability.json

  6. Click Execute.

As you might have noticed with the sources you just uploaded, there was a attribute called Capacity included.

This is a custom numeric attribute, you can extend your service with. To make it easier for you, there is an custom attribute, named capacity, already included in the trial and capacities are provided for the sources you got when signing up for the trial.

If you want to create your own custom attribute you can do that with the POST/attributes endpoint on the SAP API Business Hub.

For more information on how to create Custom Attributes, see Help Portal documentation on Custom Attributes.

Done
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Step 6: Create sourcing strategy for the US

If you want to learn how to create a sourcing strategy in a short and effective way, here’s a short video for you to watch:

  1. In the Strategy Builder app, create a new strategy. For the strategy ID, enter UnitedStates. This is important for the sourcing to work properly.

  2. Open your newly created strategy.

  3. To make things easier create a source list for the US, which includes the following sources: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Orlando, San Jose, Store New York, Store Los Angeles.

  4. On the Building Block, Source Lists, click Manage.

  5. In the Manage Source Lists view, create a new source list by clicking +.

  6. For the ID, enter US_Sources and as the name enter Sources in the US.

  7. In the sources section, click + to add sources to your source list.

  8. Search for and add the sources listed above to your list.

  9. Save your source list.

    Sources USA

  10. Go back to your strategy creation screen.

  11. Under Objectives, drag and drop the objective Products from Several Sources onto the canvas for modeling your strategy, under the shopping cart.

  12. Drag and drop the source list Sources in the US into the first box.

  13. Drag and drop the rule Shortest Distance to Destination into the second box.

  14. Save your strategy.

    Strategy USA
Done
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Step 7: Create sourcing strategy for Canada

  1. In the Strategy Builder app, create a new strategy. For the strategy ID, enter Canada. This is important for the sourcing to work properly.

  2. Open your newly created strategy.

  3. To make things easier create a source list for Canada, which includes the following sources: Toronto, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Orlando, San Jose, Store New York, Store Los Angeles, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg Store.

  4. On the Building Block, Source Lists, click Manage.

  5. In the Manage Source Lists view, create a new source list by clicking +.

  6. For the ID, enter All_Sources and as name enter Sources for Canada or worldwide.

  7. In the sources section, click + to add sources to your source list.

  8. Search for and add the sources listed above to your list.

  9. Save your source list.

    Sources USA

  10. Go back to your strategy creation screen.

  11. Under Objectives, drag and drop the objective Products from Several Sources onto the canvas for modeling your strategy, under the shopping cart.

  12. Drag and drop the source list Sources for Canada or worldwide into the first box.

  13. Drag and drop the rule Highest Availability into the second box.

  14. Save your strategy.

    Strategy Canada
Done
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Step 8: Create first sourcing strategy for Germany

In Germany, the sourcing strategy will change. This change will take place after you have ordered for the first time, which means you looked at the sourcing result for this strategy.

  1. In the Strategy Builder app create a new strategy. For the strategy ID, enter Germany. This is important for the Sourcing to work properly.

  2. Open your newly created strategy.

  3. Under Objectives, drag and drop the objective Products from Several Sources onto the canvas for modeling your strategy, under the shopping cart.

  4. Drag and drop the source list DCs in Germany into the first box. Additionally to that add the source Berlin as well. Make sure, that Berlin is at the first position in the box.

  5. Drag and drop the rule Shortest Distance to Destination into the second box.

  6. Save your strategy.

    First Strategy Germany
Done
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Step 9: Create sourcing strategy for customers outside Germany, Canada and the US

  1. In the Strategy Builder app, create a new strategy. For the strategy ID, enter Worldwide. This is important for the sourcing to work properly.

  2. Open your newly created strategy.

  3. Create a custom rule, which will be used in this strategy:

  4. Go to Rules > Manage to open the Manage Rules screen.

  5. Create a new rule by clicking + in the top-right corner.

  6. For Name, enter Highest Capacity.

  7. For Numeric Attribute, choose Capacity.

  8. For Comparator, choose Highest Value.

  9. Save your rule.

    Capacity

  10. Go back to your strategy creation screen.

  11. Under Objectives, drag and drop the objective Products from Several Sources onto the canvas for modeling your strategy, under the shopping cart.

  12. Drag and drop source list Sources for Canada or worldwide into the first box.

  13. Drag and drop the rule Highest Capacity into the second box.

  14. Save your strategy.

    Strategy Worldwide
Done
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Step 10: Test your US strategy
View Full Instructions

Scenario: A customer located in the city of New York orders a grey_sports_shoe.

Let’s check where the products are sourced from:

  1. Open SAP Customer Order Sourcing on the SAP API Business Hub in a new window.

  2. Select the environment you have created in the previous tutorial, probably named trial_test.

  3. On the left side, choose Sourcing.

  4. In POST/sourcing choose Try out.

  5. Post the following sourcing request:

{
  "strategyId": "UnitedStates",
  "items": [
      {
          "productId": "grey_sports_shoe",
          "quantity": 1
      }
  ],
  "destinationCoordinates": {
      "latitude": 40.8240,
      "longitude": -73.9448
  }
}
Where is the grey sports shoe sourced from
×
Step 11: Test your Strategy for Canada
View Full Instructions

Scenario: A small retailer in Vancouver wants to sell your products in his shop and therefore orders 50 grey_sports_shoe, 50 white_sports_shoe and 60 black_sports_trouser.

Let’s check where the products are sourced from:

  1. Open SAP Customer Order Sourcing on the SAP API Business Hub in a new window.

  2. Select the environment you have created in the previous tutorial, probably named trial_test.

  3. On the left-hand side, choose Sourcing.

  4. In POST/sourcing choose Try out.

  5. Post the following sourcing request:

{
    "strategyId": "Canada",
    "items": [
        {
            "productId": "grey_sports_shoe",
            "quantity": 50
        },
        {
            "productId": "white_sports_shoe",
            "quantity": 50
        },
        {
            "productId": "black_sports_trouser",
            "quantity": 60
        }
    ],
    "destinationCoordinates": {
        "latitude": 49.2827,
        "longitude": -123.1207
    }
}
Where are the items sourced from?
×
Step 12: Test your Strategy for Germany
View Full Instructions

Scenario: A customer located in Berlin orders a grey_sports_shoe and a black_sports_trouser. One month later he orders the same again. The sourcing strategy for Germany changed before his second order.

Let’s check where the products are sourced from:

  1. Open SAP Customer Order Sourcing on the SAP API Business Hub in a new window.

  2. Select the environment you have created in the previous tutorial, probably named trial_test.

  3. On the left-hand side, choose Sourcing.

  4. In POST/sourcing choose Try out.

  5. Post the following sourcing request:

{
    "strategyId": "Germany",
    "items": [
        {
            "productId": "grey_sports_shoe",
            "quantity": 1
        },
        {
            "productId": "black_sports_trouser",
            "quantity": 1
        }
    ],
    "destinationCoordinates": {
        "latitude": 52.5200,
        "longitude": 13.4050
    }
}
Where are the items sourced from?
×
Step 13: Change your Strategy for Germany and test again
View Full Instructions

  1. In the Strategy Builder open the strategy with the Strategy ID Germany.

  2. Drag and drop the rule Sources according to Priority above the rule Shortest Distance to Destination into the second box.

  3. Save your strategy.

    Second Strategy Germany

Let’s check where the products are sourced from for the second order:

  1. Open SAP Customer Order Sourcing on the SAP API Business Hub in a new window.

  2. Select the environment you have created in the previous tutorial, probably named trial_test.

  3. On the left-hand side, choose Sourcing.

  4. In POST/sourcing choose Try out.

  5. Post the following sourcing request:

{
    "strategyId": "Germany",
    "items": [
        {
            "productId": "grey_sports_shoe",
            "quantity": 1
        },
        {
            "productId": "black_sports_trouser",
            "quantity": 1
        }
    ],
    "destinationCoordinates": {
        "latitude": 52.5200,
        "longitude": 13.4050
    }
}
Where are the items sourced from?
×
Step 14: Test your Strategy for Customers not located in Germany, Canada or the US
View Full Instructions

Scenario: A customer located in Rome orders a grey_sports_shoe and two black_sports_trousers.

Let’s check where the products are sourced from:

  1. Open SAP Customer Order Sourcing on SAP API Business Hub in a new window.

  2. Select the environment you have created in the previous tutorial, probably named trial_test.

  3. On the left-hand side, choose Sourcing.

  4. In POST/sourcing choose Try out.

  5. Post the following sourcing request:

{
    "strategyId": "Worldwide",
    "items": [
        {
            "productId": "grey_sports_shoe",
            "quantity": 1
        },
        {
            "productId": "black_sports_trouser",
            "quantity": 2
        }
    ],
    "destinationCoordinates": {
        "latitude": 41.9028,
        "longitude": 12.4964
    }
}
Where are the items sourced from?
×

Congratulations! You have successfully completed this tutorial.

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