The material master record is the main source of material-specific data in an enterprise. It is used by all components in the R/3 Logistics System.

The integration of all material data in a single database object prevents the problem of data redundancy. Every area, such as Purchasing, Inventory Management, Materials Planning, and Invoice Verification can use the data stored.

The data contained in the material master record is required for many functions within the R/3 Logistics System, for example:

Purchasing data for ordering

Inventory management data for posting goods movements and managing physical inventory

Accounting data for material valuation upon goods movements or in Invoice Verification

Materials planning data for Material Requirements Planning

Some material data is valid for all organizational levels, whereas other material data is only valid for specific levels. The material master has a hierarchical structure that reflects the structure of a company. This allows you to manage material data centrally without having to store data redundantly.

Data on client levelOn client level, you store general data that is valid for the entire company, such as material group, base unit of measure, material descriptions, general technical data, and conversion factors for alternative units of measure.

Data on plant levelOn plant level, you store all the data that is valid in a plant and all the storage locations in it, such as MRP data and forecast data.

Data on storage location levelOn storage location level, you store all the data that is valid for one storage location, such as storage location stock.

The material master is subdivided into information grouped by user departments (functions). Each user department has a different view of the material master record and is responsible for maintaining the data to support their function.

The data maintained within a view may be valid for more than one organizational level.

When processing material master data, you go through the screens in a particular order. From the initial screen, you go to two successive dialog boxes. In the first one, you specify the views you want to process. In the second one, you specify the relevant organizational levels. You then go to the data screens.

You can change the standard screen sequence by changing the default values.

Some screens are not integrated in the standard screen sequence. You can only access these screens by specifically choosing them from the menu bar.

The data screens used in processing material master records can be subdivided into the following types of screens:

Main work level:These are the screens for each user-department, such as basic data, materials planning, and so on.

Additional data level:These are screens you use to maintain additional information, such as units of measure, material descriptions, consumption values, forecasting data, and administrative data.

Most data in the material master record can be maintained directly by the user. But some information is automatically updated by the system. When you enter goods movements, for example, the system updates stock and consumption data.

Some data in the material master is only used for information purposes, for example, description, size, and dimensions.Other types of material data have a controlling function in an application. For example, the MRP type controls the MRP procedure and the price control indicator determines which material valuation procedure is used.

In order to manage many materials as similarly as possible according to your business requirements, materials with the same characteristics are split into groups and assigned a material type, for example, raw materials, semi-finished and finished products.

The material type defines particular characteristics of a material and is an important controlling factor in the maintenance of the material master record. When you create a material in the material master, the material type determines:

whether the material number can be assigned internally or externally

the number range interval from which the material number is derived

which screens are displayed and in which order

which user-department-specific data is suggested for entry

which procurement type is permitted for a material, i.e. whether the material is produced in-house, procured externally, or whether both options are allowed.

which G/L accounts are updated.

Various material types are provided in the standard SAP R/3 System. If your enterprise needs additional material types, you can tailor these to your requirements in Customizing.

You specify a material type for every material. It belongs to the general data of a material.

The views specified for a material type determine the user departments that can be maintained for a material with this material type.

You can control the type of inventory management (quantity or value) for a material type depending on the plant.

Pricing can be defined as a default standard value or as a fixed standard value.

The assignment of inventory and consumption accounts takes place using valuation classes.

You can determine inconsistencies in valuation areas using Customizing for the material type.

The material type has an influencing factor on field selection and the user-specific material master.

You can control access protection more exactly using the authorization group.

Besides grouping together materials as different material types, you must also allocate a material to a specific branch of industry. You can do this by specifying the industry sector when you create a material master record.

If necessary, you can hide this field from display.

As well as the base unit of measure that the system uses for stockkeeping and to execute all its calculations, other departments can use their own units of measure.

All units of measure in the SAP R/3 System additional to the base unit of measure are grouped together under the title "Alternative units of measure". There are the following alternative units of measure:

Base unit of measure:Stockkeeping unit. All other units that you use are converted to the base unit of measure. If there is no standard formula for converting an alternative unit to the base unit of measure, you must enter a conversion factor in the material master record.

Purchasing unit:Unit of measure used for ordering the material. This is the default unit that is displayed in purchasing functions.

Sales unit:Unit of measure used for selling the material. This is the default unit that is displayed in the sales order. You can change this unit in the sales order.

Unit of issue:Unit of measure for issuing the material from stock. You use this unit for goods issue and stock movement functions.

The engineering/design department usually uses the base unit of measure.

You use the MRP type in the Materials Planning view to define the procedure you want to use to plan requirements of a material.

You can define different materials planning procedures in different plants for the same material.

The main procedures are:

reorder point planning

material requirements planning

forecast-based planning

master production scheduling

time-phased materials planning

replenishment (IS Retail)

You set the material valuation procedure you want to use in the accounting view of the material master record. In the R/3 System, you can carry out material valuation using the standard price procedure or moving average price procedure.

In the standard price procedure (price control S), the system carries out all stock postings at a price defined in the material master. Variances are posted to price difference accounts.

In the moving average price procedure (price control V), the system valuates goods receipts with the purchase order price and goods issues with the current moving average price. The system automatically calculates the latter upon every goods movement by dividing the total value by the total stock quantity. Differences between the purchase order price and the invoice are posted directly to the relevant stock account if there is sufficient stock coverage.

You can use the valuation class to combine materials for assigning G/L accounts so that you do not have to manage a separate stock account for each material.

You maintain the valuation class in the Accounting view of the material master record. The valuation class allowed for a material depends on the material type, and can be configured in Customizing.

In automatic account determination, the R/3 System works with valuation classes. The valuation class is used to determine which stock account is to be updated upon goods movements.

Once a department has created data for a material, the material master record exists in the database. If someone from another department then wants to enter data, he or she does have not have to create the material master record from scratch, but only has to extend (add) the information from his or her department. A material master is also extended when data for a material is saved for other organizational levels.

You can add the misssing views or organizational levels to the material master by choosing the transaction Create material master record..

You can only change data from views and organizational levels that have already been maintained, using the transaction Change material master.

Any changes (creation or change) you make to data in the material master record are saved in a change document. This means that you can check the change history at any time.

You can also activate engineering change management for materials.

Allows you to extend the material master record by further views.

The following questions can be answered:

Which departments have to extend a material master record?

Which material master records does a single department have to extend?

Important maintenance statuses:

Department:Maintenance status:Work schedulingAAccounting

BMRP

DPurchasing

EProduction resources/toolsFBasic data

KCosting

GClassificationC

The following entry aids facilitate material master maintenence:

Settings: Quicker data entry by presetting the organizational levels and views most often used. These default values are user-specific, and you can overwrite them.

Reference material: Quicker data entry by adopting the relevant data from existing material master records.

Profiles: Quicker data entry by adopting data from the materials planning or forecast profile to the relevant view.

Collective entry of storage location data: You can create material data for several storage locations in one step, thus reducing the effort required considerably.

This function allows you to create materials lists according to specific, combinable selection criteria:

Material numbers list

List of all materials that have been created in a certain plant

List of all materials of a certain material type

List of all materials of a certain material group

List of all materials that have been created by a specific user in a material master record.

You can delete materials by setting a deletion flag either in the material master record, or by using a proposal list.

The deletion flag can be planned for the future and must then be activated at the correct time.

All flagged records are deleted by a reorganizational program run, as long as these are no longer to be used, for example, as a BOM header.

You can archive material master records.

The data is stored in a sequential file (archive file).

Archived data can be deleted from the database during each deletion program/reorganization.

Archived material master rceords can be displayed, but they cannot be retrieved.

Archiving and reorganization are handled in detail in the administration courses.

Setting up user master records and authorizations is dealt with in a separate course on this subject.

If you have the appropriate authorization, you can display and check authorization objects in Customizing.

The material status allows you to control the usability of a material for business purposes.

You define the material status in the material master record in accordance with the material, client and plant.

You can limit the usability of a material in different ways:

The material can be flagged for deletion.

The material can be locked against certain business processes by the material status from the Materials Management/Production Planning and Control view.

You can display whether a material is subject to restrictions, and what these restrictions are, with the status information function. You can call this function when you create, display, or change a material master record. Proceed as follows:

Choose Extras - Status information from any screen.

You can define the material status for all plants (basic data view), or separately for each plant (plant view).

The cross-plant status is dominant.

You create a record in the material master for each material that your company uses. Each material master record has its own unique material number.

Depending on your company's requirements, an identifying or a non-identifying key can be assigned as material number. For this reason, there are two types of material number assignment in the R/3 System:

External number assignment

Internal number assignment

If you use an identifying key mostly an alphanumeric key you enter your chosen character string as material number when you create the material master record. This is called external number assignment.

If you use a non-identifying key, you do not enter a material number when you create the material master record. The system automatically assigns the material number internally and enters it in the appropriate field of the basic data screen. This is called internal number assignment.

You define which type of number assignment is allowed for each material type when you configure your system in Customizing.

The specifications regarding material number conversion apply only to online activities and printouts.

A separate control string exists for each of these influencing factors.

Each position in a control string of this kind applies to a specific field selection group. The field option is valid for the whole group of material master fields.

When you configure your system, you can customize the dialog functions for material master records to suit your company's requirements. You can use either standard subscreens or subscreens that you create yourself to set up your own screens.

SAP AGTAMM10 4.0B9-15