Overview of SAP Modules

Here is a brief overview of most of the modules and there processes in SAP. This should give you a brief outline of what each module is about and also makes you understand as to what each module does.

Materials Management (MM)

• The grouping of management functions supporting the complete cycle of material flow, from the purchase and internal control of production materials to the planning and control of work in process to the warehousing, shipping, and distribution of the finished product.

Sales and Distribution (SD)

• This module includes the business processes used to sell and deliver products and services to customers and business partners. Information about the product and customers (both of which are stored in the master data) is used in SD.

Production Planning (PP)

• This module supports functions for the overall level of manufacturing output and other activities to best satisfy the current planned levels of sales (sales plan or forecasts), while meeting general business objectives of profitability, competitive customer lead times as expressed in the overall business plan. One of its primary purposes is to establish production rates that will achieve management’s objective of satisfying customer demand, by maintaining, raising or lowering inventories or backlogs, while usually attempting to keep the workforce relatively stable.

Plant Maintenance (PM)

• Supports the planning, processing, and completion of plant maintenance tasks
• Allows for planners to schedule routine maintenance in a way that is least disruptive for manufacturing and sales requirements

Quality Management (QM)

• Supports the quality inspection aspects of the business, including purchasing, research, and sales
• Allows for buyers and manufacturing personnel to track inspection lots and test results

Financial Accounting (FI)

• Designed for automated management and external reporting of General Ledger (GL), Accounts Receivable (AR), Accounts Payable (AP), and Asset Management (AM) with a user-defined chart of accounts.
• External reporting, such as income statement and balance sheet Represents cost and revenue flows throughout the organization
• Aids in organizational decision making
• Supports internal reporting such as cost center reports

Asset Accounting (AA)

• AA provides tools to acquire, depreciate, evaluate, and retire assets. The kinds of assets covered are fixed, low value, leased, and real estate.
• Low value assets depreciate in the year they are bought and are often aggregated as a single asset master record.
• Depreciation often needs to be tracked (for more than one reason), so SAP R/3 allows you to depreciate the same piece of equipment in several parallel ways.

Human Resources (HR)

• Takes care of payroll, time recording, applicant administration, and organization data. It supports the planning and control of personnel activities.

Industry Solutions (IS)

• IS is scaleable and flexible, and can be tailored to the specific needs of each business. Examples are:
• SAP Aerospace and Defense
• SAP Automotive
• SAP Banking
• SAP Chemicals
• SAP Consumer Products
• SAP Engineering and Construction
• SAP Telecommunication
• SAP Utilities
• SAP Service Provider

Work Flow (WF)

• Links the integrated SAP R/3 application modules with cross-application technologies, tools, and services, including e-mail.
• Work flow allows you to set up the followings:
• Maintain your company’s organization structure according to responsibility.
• Link the predefined standard tasks with the authorized agents in your company.
• Activate existing event receiver links between triggering events and consuming workflow tasks.
• Name a technical person responsible for each standard workflow template.

Project System (PS)

• Helps you to plan, manage, control, and figure the cost of R&D projects, and so on. The common tasks revolve around allocation of people, resources, and money within the framework of schedule and task relationships.