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SAP Materials ManagementSAP Materials ManagementSAP Materials ManagementSAP Materials Management

MASTER DATAMASTER DATAMASTER DATAMASTER DATA

ANKIT SIGTIA 10619573

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TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. - 2 -

SAP MATERIALS MANAGEMENT MASTER DATA...................................... - 3 -

Material Master: ....................................................................................................................................... - 4 - � Basic data 1 & 2 ........................................................................................................................... - 4 - � General plant data storage 1 & 2: ................................................................................................. - 5 - � Warehouse Management 1 & 2: ................................................................................................... - 5 - � MRP (Material requirement planning) 1,2,3,4 ............................................................................. - 5 - � Work Scheduling:......................................................................................................................... - 5 - � Accounting 1 & 2 : ....................................................................................................................... - 6 - � Costing 1 & 2: .............................................................................................................................. - 6 - � Quality Management .................................................................................................................... - 6 - � Plant Stock ................................................................................................................................... - 6 - � Storage Location Stock : .............................................................................................................. - 7 - � Classification : .............................................................................................................................. - 7 - � Forecasting: .................................................................................................................................. - 7 - � Purchase Order Text: .................................................................................................................... - 7 - � Foreign Trade: .............................................................................................................................. - 7 - Material Type: ....................................................................................................................................... - 8 -

Vendor Master: ......................................................................................................................................... - 9 - � General Data: ............................................................................................................................... - 9 - � Company Code Data: ................................................................................................................... - 9 - � Purchasing Data ........................................................................................................................... - 9 -

Purchasing Information Record: .......................................................................................................... - 10 -

Source List: ............................................................................................................................................. - 11 -

Quota Arrangement: .............................................................................................................................. - 12 -

References ............................................................................................................................................... - 13 -

About the Author .................................................................................................................................... - 13 -

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SAP Materials Management SAP Materials Management SAP Materials Management SAP Materials Management Master DataMaster DataMaster DataMaster Data

This document will cover all the master data related to SAP Materials

Management and give you a brief overview of various components and fields

within different master data and the level at which these are maintained

within SAP.

Introduction

Any data that has to be reused does not change very regularly and

remains consistent throughout the life of the system can be classified as

Master data. This data needs to be updated so as to maintain the latest

information which is done either by the system or manually by user.

To better understand lets take example of a Vendor – a vendor may be used

multiple times by the buyers who are involved in procuring material for this

vendor, the data for the vendor like its address, contact details remain

consistent and don’t change throughout the life of system, were as some

information within the vendor like its payment terms bank details etc might

change and therefore have to be updated.

Thus the biggest benefit of maintain master data is to reduce the manual

work of entering the same data again, increase reusability and bring in more

consistency and accuracy in the system.

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A more technical definition of master data from wikipidea is provided below.

“Master data, which may include reference data, is information that is key to the operation of

business and is the primary focus of the Information Technology (IT) discipline of Master Data

Management (MDM). This key business information may include data about customers, products,

employees, materials, suppliers, etc. which often turns out to be non-transactional in nature. In

this regard, master data can support transactional processes and operations, but its use is

certainly not limited to such (analytics/reporting is another area greatly dependent on an

organization's master data). Master data is often used by several functional groups and stored in

different data systems across an organization and may or may not be referenced centrally;

therefore, the possibility exists for duplicate and/or inaccurate master data.

Thus Master Data is that persistent, non-transactional data that defines a business entity for

which there is, or should be, an agreed upon view across the organization”

Master data serves as the building block of any ERP system and the

correctness of this data determines how efficiently the process would get

executed on the live system. To ensure this mostly we have Centralized

Master data teams who’s prime responsibility is to ensure correctness of the

master data and reduce duplicity.

In SAP system Master data becomes further more important as they help in

seamless integration between various different modules within SAP, this

would be explained in detail in further sections.

SAP Materials Management Master Data

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SAP MM has six different types of data that can be classified as master

data, these are

1. Material Master

2. Vendor Master

3. Purchasing Info Records

4. Source List

5. Quota Arrangement

Material Master: It is considered as one of the most important master

data. Though it is classified as master data for Materials management, but

the same is used extensively by Sales and Distribution and Production

Planning.

Material Master is further bifurcated between various groups which are as

follows

� Basic data 1 & 2 : Basic data view contains more general data about

the material and is maintained at the global level remains same for all

the plants fields that are commonly maintained in Basic data view are

Material Description, Basic Unit of Measure, Material Group, Old

Material Number, X- Plant Material Status- Blocking option, General

item category, Gross Weight, Net Weight Volume.

� Purchasing: This view is relevant for purchasing and all the fields

specific to purchasing can be found here. This view is maintained at

the plant level therefore we have the flexibility to maintain different

purchasing data for different plants. Fields that are found in this view

are Purchasing Group, Material Group, Plant – Specific – Material

Status - Blocking option, Source list, Batch Management Automatic

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PO, Purchasing value key, GR Processing time, Critical Part,

Manufacturer Part number.

These fields when maintain act as default in Contract/ Purchase order

as well as govern some of the process of purchasing like Automatic

purchase order creation, source determination to name a few.

� General plant data storage 1 & 2: This view contains field’s specific

to the plant and to maintain specific plant data. Basic Unit of measure,

Temperature conditions, Storage Conditions, Container Requirements,

Hazards material number, Batch Management, SLED, Gross weight,

Net Weight, Negative stock in plant, Profit Center.

� Warehouse Management 1 & 2: WM view is used only when the

warehouse management module is implemented. Fields in this view

are specific to each warehouse and help govern the WM processes.

Fields that are found in this view are stock removal, stock

placement, storage section, palletization data.

� MRP (Material requirement planning) 1,2,3,4 MRP view is

important if we are opting for material requirement planning, this

helps us to plan the production and purchase of material in advance.

Based on the parameters set like MRP type, lot size, fixed lot size,

maximum /minimum lot size, safety stock, availability check etc.

� Work Scheduling: To produce an assembly or subassembly,

you need to maintain a work scheduling view for the material. This has

fields like production scheduler, production unit, production scheduler

profile, serial profile number, overall profile, under del tol, over del tol,

setup time etc.

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� Accounting 1 & 2 : Accounting view helps us determine the way

material is valuated in the system i.e. whether it is at the standard

price or moving average. The G/L account that needs to be updated on

the movement of this material and the total stock. This view is also

maintained individually for the plants. Few fields from this view are

Valuation Class, Price control, Price unit, Valuation Category, Currency,

Moving & Standard Price, Total Stock, Total value, Division, Tax Price

1,2,3, Commercial Price 1,2,3, LIFO Pool.

� Costing 1 & 2: This view is more important from product costing

point of view and the fields in this view help us determine the cost of

the finished goods. This view is also maintained at the plant level and

some important fields that are maintained in this view are Base unit of

Measure, Variance Key, Profit Center, Planned price, Costing Lot Size

Valuation class, Standard/Moving Average price.

� Quality Management It comes in picture only when quality

management view is implemented. Its has fields like Post to inspection

stock, Inspection Interval, QM Material auth, QM control key,

Certificate type, Target QM system.

� Plant Stock This view is not maintained from the front end, but gets

created automatically when the goods movement on the material

happens. This gives you the total stock for that material in that plant

along with its bifurcation between Unrestricted, restricted, In quality

inspection, blocked etc.

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� Storage Location Stock : This view is same as the Plant stock view

with only difference that it gives the stock details at the storage

location level.

� Classification : This view enable us to maintain the class and

therefore various characteristics for that particular material. This is

maintained at the global level.

� Forecasting: AS the name suggest this view helps in product

forecasting, planning the demand and supply for the material based on

the historical data. This view is also maintained at the plant level. Few

important fields in this view are, base unit of measure, Hist periods,

forecast periods, Fixed periods, Initialization, Tracking limit.

� Purchase Order Text: In this view we can maintain a free text. This

text gets copied to the PO line item text. Generally if there is any

special instruction for the material like packing instruction etc. they

are maintained here.

� Foreign Trade: Import Data/Export Data: Data relevant for import

and export for the material is stored in this view. Since export

becomes a sales activity the Foreign Trade Export data values are

maintained with combination of plant/Sales org and distribution

channel, were as since import is only purchase activity the value is

maintained individually for plants. Some key fields in these views are

Commodity code/import code, Export/import group country of origin,

region of origin, exemption number, and exemption certificate

number.

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This bifurcation helps us maintain the data for the same material at multiple

levels for example same material can be valuated differently for different

plants or you can have different MRP parameters for same materials for

different plants.

Material Type: It is one of a very important feature of material master as

this helps us bifurcate between different types of material that is Raw

material, Semi finished, finished, trading goods etc.

Material type not only helps us segregating different material based on

different number ranges but also define procurement type (internal or

external), the views that can be maintained for the material and the

valuation class that can be opted for that material.

The standard Material types are

� ROH - Raw Material

� FERT - Finished Product

� HALB- Semi finished Product

� HAWA- Trading goods

� DIEN – Services

� ERSA - Spare Parts

� PIPE - Pipeline material

� LEIH - Returnable Packaging

� HERS- Manufacturer Parts

� FGTR – Drinks

� FOOD- Foods

� FRIP - Perishable Goods

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Vendor Master: Vendor Master stores important information about your

vendors like there name, address, contact information, payment terms. SAP

Vendor Master Record has three areas to it which further has sub views in it

� General Data: This section contains general information of vendor like

there name, address, contact details, bank account etc. This remains

common to the vendor for all the company codes and purchasing

organization. The sub view that are there in General data are

� Address

� Control

� Payment Transaction

� Contact person

� Company Code Data: It contains data specific to that particular

company code. So if the same vendor is to be used for multiple

company code then this view has to be extended to each company

code. Company code data contains information like reconciliation

account, payment terms, payment methods, tolerance group etc. The

sub views that are there in Company code data are

� Accounting Info

� Payment Transaction

� Correspondence

� Withholding Tax

� Purchasing Data: Data relevant to purchasing is maintained in this

view, for all the purchasing organization using a particular vendor the

view has to be first extended to that particular Purchasing

organization. Fields that are available in this view are purchasing

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group, payment terms, Inco terms, Schema group, partner functions

etc. The sub views that are there in purchasing view are

� Purchasing Data

� Partner Data

Purchasing Information Record: Popularly know as Info records these

are maintained to store the information relevant to purchasing. Info record

are maintained for the combination of material and vendor at different

organization levels either at plant level, purchasing organization level or the

combination of both. It can also be maintained just for the combination of

material and vendor. System always search for info record from more specific

to general, that is it will always search for a info record that exist for the

combination of plant and purchasing organization to a info record that is just

maintained for the Material and vendor combination.

Info Records contain some very important information like

� Units of measure in which materials are ordered from the vendor

� The applicable reminder levels

� Prices and Conditions with validity period (Present and Future)

� Applicable Tax Code

� Planned Delivery Time

� Standard & Maximum Quantity

� Tolerance limits for over-deliveries and under-deliveries

� Number of Last Purchase Order or Quotation

� Text

� Vendor evaluation data

� An indicator for showing vendor as regular vendor for the material

� The vendor sub-range to which the material belongs

� The availability period during which the vendor can supply the material

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We have two types of info records with material master and another

without material master, these are the ones which are used for direct

consumption and can be created for material group.

Info records have four different categories based on the procurement type,

these are

� Standard

� Sub Contracting

� Consignment

� Pipeline

Further Info records can be created either manually or can be created

automatically while creation of purchase order, Quotation or outline

agreement. At the same time the info records that already exist in the

system can be updated when either of the above mentioned are created or

changed. This is done with the help of Info Update in the purchasing

document. By checking this field in purchase order or by selecting the

appropriate value in case of outline agreement or quotation system will

update existing update record in background if there is no info record exists

then system will create a new info record in background. The order price

history is updated automatically even if you do not set Info Update.

Source List: Source list acts as the administrator to the source of supply.

If a material has a source list requirement then the source list for that

material must be maintained before the material could be ordered, the

source list field in purchasing data of material master indicates whether the

material has a source list requirement. The source list contains all the

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sources of supply defined for a material and the periods during which

procurement from these sources is possible. It serves the following purpose

� To define a source of supply as "fixed". Such sources count as

preferred sources over a certain period of time.

� To define a source of supply as "blocked".

� Select preferred source during the source determination process.

� Block the external procurement of a material.

Quota Arrangement: Quota arrangement helps us allocating the quantity

amongst different source of supplies, it specifies exactly how the receipts are

to be distributed amongst each source of supply. Let say I have a material

for which I require 1000 units, this material is supplied to me by two

vendors, one vendor is preferred over other but at the same time other can

not be ignored, so I maintain the quota arrangement for this material where

I allocate 60% to my preferred vendor and 40 % to the other vendor. Now

while ordering if a PO is created for 500 Units system will allocate the first

vendor to it, now when a second PO is created for 300 Units system will

allocate it to the second vendor.

We can set the quota arrangement for in-house production as well as for

external procurement. Setting quotas permits the automatic apportionment

of a total material requirement over a period to different sources.

The quota arrangement facilitates the determination of the applicable sources

of supply for the following at a certain time.

� Purchase orders

� Scheduling agreement delivery schedules

� Planned orders

� Purchase requisitions

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� Materials planning and control

References

1. http://sapmmhelp.blogspot.com/2008/09/master-data-master-data-

contains.html

2. http://help.sap.com/saphelp_45b/helpdata/en/c6/f83b2a4afa11d182b90000

e829fbfe/content.htm

3. http://help.sap.com/saphelp_46c/helpdata/en/75/ee0b1c55c811d18990000

0e8322d00/content.htm

4. http://help.sap.com/saphelp_46c/helpdata/EN/75/ee110455c811d1899000

00e8322d00/content.htm

5. http://it.toolbox.com/wiki/index.php/Quota_Arrangements_in_SAP_R/3

6. http://it.toolbox.com/wiki/index.php/Purchasing_Information_Record

About the Author

Ankit is SAP Materials Management consultant working in IDC, he has more

than four years of experience in Materials Management and Warehouse

Management, Ankit has worked on 4 end to end implementation during this

tenure and has worked with major international clients like IATA, Braskem,

Sigma and South West One to name a few.

Before starting his career in SAP, Ankit has studied Masters of Business

Administration from I.I.T, Kanpur and specialized in operations, prior to that

he did engineering in Electronics and Instrumentation.