SAP Material Master A Practical

Guide

Matthew Johnson

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Table of Contents

Preface 7

1 Introduction 11

2 Material Master Basics 17 2.1 Material master structure 17 2.2 Creating and accessing the SAP

Material Master 20 2.3 Accessing technical help and

information 29 2.4 Personal experience 32

3 Manufacturing Environment 35 3.1 Planning strategy in theory 36 3.2 SAP planning strategy 39 3.3 Personal experience 50

4 Basic Information 53 4.1 Basic material information 53 4.2 Basic Data 1 screen 54 4.3 Basic Data 2 screen 66 4.4 Classification screen 71 4.5 Personal experience 72

5 Sales 75 5.1 Sales structure in the material master 76 5.2 Sales organization 1 screen 77

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5.3 Sales organization 2 screen 86 5.4 Sales General / Plant screen 90 5.5 Foreign Trade Export screen 99 5.6 Sales Text screen 100 5.7 Personal experience 102

6 Purchasing 105 6.1 Purchasing structure in the material

master 106 6.2 Purchasing screen 106 6.3 Foreign Trade Import screen 126 6.4 Purchase Order Text 128 6.5 Personal experience 129

7 Planning 133 7.1 Planning structure in the material

master 134 7.2 MRP 1 screen 135 7.3 MRP 2 screen 146 7.4 MRP 3 screen 156 7.5 MRP 4 Screen 163 7.6 Forecasting screen 171 7.7 Work scheduling screen 175 7.8 Personal experience 181

8 Inventory Management 185 8.1 Inventory management in the material

master 186 8.2 Plant data / storage 1 187 8.3 Plant data / storage 2 195 8.4 Warehouse management 1 197

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8.5 Warehouse management 2 202 8.6 Personal experience 204

9 Quality Management 207 9.1 Quality management structure in the

material master 208 9.2 Quality management screen 208 9.3 Personal experience 215

10 Accounting 217 10.1 Accounting in the material master 218 10.2 Accounting 1 220 10.3 Accounting 2 226 10.4 Costing 1 228 10.5 Costing 2 235 10.6 Plant stock 239 10.7 Storage location stock 240 10.8 Personal experience 241

11 Conclusion 243

A The Author 247

B Index 249

C Disclaimer 255

More Espresso Tutorials eBooks 256

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2 Material Master Basics In this chapter I will describe the general format of the SAP Material Master as it is seen by the end user. I will also set up a framework for my description of the material master by defining some terms that will be used throughout the text. This framework will help to you begin navigating the material master.

By maintaining a material master you will not only be describing an item, you will also be further classifying that item to suit your organizations needs.

You will set up the material master to perform various sales, planning, procurement, production, and shipping activities, as well as selecting the parameters to control those actions. As we go through this text, I will define the material master settings and their implications in detail. In order to do this, we need to discuss the basic theory and abilities of the material master, as well as define some common terms that will be used throughout the text.

2.1 Material master structure

Like most information stored within SAPs transactions, the material master is nothing more than a database that has been programmed with an aesthetic visual represen-tation. This visually pleasing display consists of several screens, each containing information and parameter settings relevant to the screens title. Furthermore, the information on each screen is sub-classified into more specific groupings, which Ill refer to as an Information

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Set. The example below (see Figure 2.1) is a picture of the MRP 1 screen, an essential component to material planning, procurement, and production functionality. This screen consists of some general header data; the mate-rial, the material description, technical information, the plant and the revision. It also consists of four information sets; GENERAL DATA, MRP PROCEDURE, LOT SIZE DATA and MRP AREAS.

Figure 2.1: MRP 1 Screen

Each element of any given information set is called a field. In the previous example (see Figure 2.1) the infor-mation set GENERAL DATA contains the fields BASE UNIT OF MEASURE, MRP GROUP, PURCHASING GROUP, ABC

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INDICATOR, PLANT SPECIFIC MATERIAL STATUS, and VALID FROM (regarding plant specific material status).

Each field is also stored behind the scenes in a table within the SAP database. The table contains other fields with similar functions. SAP has also designed relation-ship structures into the program which allow certain ta-bles to communicate with one another and drive func-tionality. As you progress in your understanding of the material master, you will want to understand those rela-tionships in great detail. Not only will an understanding of those relationships help you to understand material mas-ter functionality, it will also help you to capitalize on cus-tomized reporting possibilities.

Each table and field is represented by a technical name in the database. In the example below (see Figure 2.2) a technical description of the field MRP TYPE is displayed. Here you can see the technical name of the field (DISMM) and the table (MARC) in which it is stored. We will discuss more about technical information and how to access it later in the chapter.

Use table relationships for customized reporting

Not all of the information you may want is available to you in a standard SAP report. Once youve gained an under-standing of tables, fields and their rela-tionship with one another in the material

master, explore transaction SQVI. It is a report build-er where you can create customized reports on most interrelated fields of the material master (and other transactions for that matter) by joining their respec-tive tables for the purposes of reporting.

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Figure 2.2: Technical Information table and field name

2.2 Creating and accessing the SAP Material Master

There are three main SAP transaction codes that pertain to the SAP Material Master:

MM01 (CREATE MATERIAL MASTER) This is the transaction code used to create a new material master. You will have two choices when you cre-ate a material master. You can either create a new material without reference, or you can choose to copy an existing material master, and then

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change the relevant settings to account for the new material.

MM02 (CHANGE MATERIAL MASTER) This transac-tion code allows you to make changes to existing material masters. However, not all elements of a material master can be amended in this transac-tion. For instance, the industry sector and material type are fixed once a material master is created. The material type can be changed, but through a separate transaction and certain restrictions apply.

MM03 (DISPLAY MATERIAL MASTER) This transac-tion code simply allows you to display a given ma-terial master. By design, no changes may take place in this transaction.

2.2.1 Creating the material master

To create a material master, you will enter transaction code MM01. Once youve done that, you will be pre-sented with the following screen containing five fields (see Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3: Create material opening screen

249

B Index 2-step picking ................ 200 ABC indicator ........ 137, 188 Account assignment

Category ..................... 47 Account assignment group

.................................... 88 Action control................. 169 Allocation......................... 47 Allowance for additional

stock ......................... 200 Alpha factor ................... 174 Alternative BOM ............ 231 Approved batch record

required............... 93, 190 Assemble-to-order.... 41, 44,

50, 69 Assemble-to-stock........... 37 Assembly scrap %......... 143 Assembly type ................. 48 Authorization group ......... 61 Automatic purchase order

...................................117 Availability check 48, 58, 93,

162 Backflush....................... 150 Backwards consumption

period........................ 158 Base quantity........... 97, 180 Base unit of measure ...... 55 Basic data text ................. 65 Basic material.................. 67 Batch entry .................... 148 Batch management .94, 119,

190 Beta factor ..................... 174 BOM usage ................... 231 Bulk material.................. 151

Bulk storage...................199 CAD .................................67 Capacity check ................49 Capacity usage ..............198 Cash discount ..................83 Catalog profile................210 Certificate type............... 211 Change number ...............23 Commission group...........89 Competitive materials ......59 Component availability.....49 Component scrap (%)....165 Conditions........................84 Configurable material41, 50,

69, 94, 159, 162 Configuration ...................50 Configuration consumption

....................................50 Configure planning variant

..................................162 Configure variant .............70 Consumption........44, 45, 47 Consumption mode........158 Container requirements .187 Co-product .....................151 Copy from ........................24 Costing lot size ..............232 Coverage profile ............155 Critical part.....................121 Cross-plant configurable

material .......................69 Cross-plant material status

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