The mandatory data required to create a supplier material are:
- Supplier material name
- Vendor
- Material group
- Ordering unit
- Description
To create a supplier material, start transaction /ESAP/SMAT. Choose Create.
The supplier material header data screen is displayed, where you need to type in the supplier material name and supplier. If the material already exists for that supplier, an error is shown.
You also need to type in the material group, ordering unit, and description in your desired language.
Those are the only basic data. To have a working material that can be used for purchasing, however, you also have to specify organizational data such as:
- Purchasing organization
- Plant (optional)
To maintain organizational data, choose the Org. Data tab and create a new line in the lower window. It's mandatory to specify a purchase organization within this newly created line. Leaving the plant empty transfers the organizational data, and later the price data, across all plants in this purchasing organization.
There are other options that you can fill in, such as purchasing group, standard purchase order quantity, minimum order quantity, delivery unit, and more.
For a fully functioning supplier material, you also need to include pricing information, including:
- Price
- Currency
With the purchasing organization and plant (optional) filled, go to the Prices tab and create a new entry by choosing Create New Price.
Note
If the plant is not filled, the price will be created across plants. Cross-plant prices don't rule out the possibility to maintain another price for just one specific plant within this purchase organization, since the Lean Catalog searches from most specific data to most general. In such a situation, you just have to maintain the plant's specific price for the specific plant.
Select the price type, validity of the price, price, currency, quantity per price.
Note
Be aware that the system won’t allow you to create prices if you did not specify organizational data. You will see an error and the system will block price entry.
You can also define a scaling price in this step by choosing New in the Scale field. This will allow for bulk discounts and bulk prices. For example, 1 piece of your material costs 10 EUR. The supplier offers an discount of 5% if you order more than 50 pieces, and 10% if you order more than 100. So the scale would have 3 lines, as shown here.
This will then be dynamically calculated during the purchasing process.
These scales are specific for the price’s purchasing organization (and plant, if applicable).
Lastly, save the supplier material.
You can easily copy a supplier material by selecting one supplier material within transaction /ESAP/SMAT and choosing Duplicate inside the supplier materials screen. A popup window opens, in which you can select the information you want to copy.