K V Kumar

Posted on May 20, 2014 5 minute read

RICEFW’s in SAP projects and role of

functional consultant
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Hi,

Most of the functional consultants during their SAP projects execution, work on RICEFW’s. This
document explains what are RICEFW’s in SAP projects and the role of Functional Consultants in
executing them with some real time examples.

What are RICEFW’s :

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.

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 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
(PIR’s) 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…

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 system…a typical BOM upload files looks as below….

a typical master recipe upload file looks as below.

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Enhancements: Enhancements are the means by which we add our own/ modify

existing functionality to SAP’s standard business applications. Some
requirements from the client cannot be met with Standard SAP. That time we
need to go for enhancements. Normally enhancements are done through user
exits, customer exits, BADI’s and enhancement frameworks….

one example we can take here is during production order execution if do not
complete goods issue for a production order still system allow to do goods receipt
for that particular production order..now business asks to restrict this or they
want control for this. Now we need to give the logic to the ABAP team to put
control for this so that goods receipt of the order is only allowed after the
completion of goods issue of that production order..ABAP team finally implement
these enhancements based on the logic provided by the functional consultant…

Forms: Forms are nothing but printouts taken from SAP. like Process order print,
Inspection lot Certificate of analysis (COA). Standard SAP comes with pre
configured layout and design of the forms. but these standard forms will not meet
customer requirements. during this time we need to develop custom forms in
coordination with ABAP team…

Typical custom form of process order is like below…

One more form of material issue slip printed during goods issue

For this we need to give the functional specification to the ABAP team with the
details like what is the form layout, what data needs to be printed, from which
tables and fields data needs to be fetched for printing the data…based on this
ABAP team develop the custom forms…

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….

Thanks

Kumar
 Former Member

ABOUT RICEFW
Posted onDec 29, 2007 at 01:15 AM | 6.6k Views

Hi everybody,
Can anyone tell me the meaning of RICEFW? What is its use in SAP FI CO?
Thanking You
Kundan
FIN (Finance)

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RICEFW Best Practices - Custom Reports

By Former Member, Jun 03, 2009

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By Former Member, Dec 28, 2007

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Former Member
Posted onDec 29, 2007 at 03:01 AM
3
RICEFW means Reports, Interface, Conversion, Enhancements, Forms and Workflow.
It is applicable to all modules. Development of these items will be dealt separately in
large projects. A separate team will work on the development of programs, scripts etc.
Reports - Development of customized reports in ABAP, Report Painter or BW
Interface - Some business processes may be maintained in external systems. For
example Payroll, Fixed Assets, Dispute management etc. These external activities may
need postings in SAP. Interface programs are developed to automate the postings in
SAP.
Conversion - Conversion of Legacy data to loadable format into SAP. The process
consists Extraction of legacy data from legacy systems, Transformation of data into
loadable LSMW format and Loading the data into SAP. This activity is important and
need accuracy. Hence, a separate team may be assigned for conversion alone.
Enhancements - Generally in the case of large implementations a Global template Blue-
print will be prepared and followed. If a plant or company code need additional
configuration to meet their country specific or plant specific requirements, the template
will be enhanced with new configurations.
Forms - Development of layouts for Invoices, Account statements, Delivery notes etc
Workflow - Development of approval flow logic in SAP. For example GL master data
changes should follow specific approval process.
Thanks
Palani