Open Catalog InterfaceThe Open Catalog Interface feature of SAP allows Maintenance Technicians and Maintenance Planners to link directly to external vendor web sites to source parts while in the SAP Work Order screens (IW31, IW32, etc). Using a web punch-out approach, it allows these key maintenance people to select the parts that they need and bring the information directly into SAP without having to circumvent corporate controls and purchasing policies. The maintenance user is given access to the supplier's web page and all of its features. This is an interface that is now familiar to most people. Its just like shopping on Amazon. The big difference here is that when the checkout button is selected the parts and materials information for the items to be bought are returned to the user's SAP system for processing by the purchasing department instead of buying directly from the supplier's site. |
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When OCI is enabled, configuration settings are used to link external catalogs to plant/WO Types. When a work order is being edited of the configured type in the correct plant a 'catalog' button is made available on the bottom of the component selection screen of the work order. Selecting the catalog button opens up a list of external catalogs that are available. After the user is through shopping, the check-out button on the web page brings the items in the shopping cart back to the component screen of the work order. |
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Once on the supplier's web site, parts are searched for and selected as they would be on any other web site. Selected parts are added to a shopping cart (the shopping cart shows as a list at the bottom of this example site). |
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The checkout process returns the items from the shopping cart to the work order component screen. Here, the normal entries required for processing a stocked or non-stocked item are still performed by the Maintenance Technician. No corporate policies are bypassed or broken. The correct information for the correct part is passed properly to the purchasing department. |