Maintaining Material Master Data

The material master is the central source of material-specific data within a company and plays a critical role in supply chain processes. It's difficult to overstate the importance of maintaining high-quality master data. The material master contains both default values and control fields that influence downstream processes, and it is used across all areas of logistics.

By consolidating all material-related data into a single database object, redundancy is avoided. This allows departments such as Purchasing, Sales, Inventory Management, Material Requirements Planning, and Shipping to access and share consistent data.

Since different departments work with material data, each one can record specific information relevant to its needs.

In a company, different departments work with material data, and each department maintains specific information relevant to its responsibilities. To support this, the material master record in SAP is organized into separate views, each tailored to the needs of a particular department.

Take a look at the image below to see examples of the user departments represented in the material master record, also referred to as views.

The views you can select and maintain when creating a material depend on the material type. In the standard version of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, for example, the Sales and Work Scheduling views are not supported for raw materials, while the Purchasing view is not available for finished products.

The material master data is not only structured into views, but also organized according to the company’s organizational structure.

• Client

  The client level contains data that is valid across all individual group companies, plants, warehouses, or branches within a corporate group. This level represents the highest tier in the organizational structure and ensures consistency across the entire enterprise.

  Examples of material data maintained at the client level include:

  • Material number
  • Material group
  • Material description
  • Base unit of measure
  • Order unit of measure

• Plant

  The plant level contains data that is specific to an individual plant. This level is essential for managing operations that vary from one location to another.

  Most purchasing data, as well as all plant-specific information related to quality management, inventory management, material valuation, and material requirements planning (MRP), is maintained at this level.

  Examples of plant-level material data include:

  • Planned delivery time
  • Order unit
  • Shelf life information
  • Price control
  • Lot-sizing procedure

• Distribution Chain

  This level contains data that is specific to a combination of sales organization and distribution channel. It is particularly relevant for sales and distribution processes.

  Examples of data maintained at this level include:

  • Sales order unit of measure
  • Delivering plant
  • Tax data

• Storage Location

  All relevant data for a given storage location, such as the storage bin, is stored at this level.

  Note: the storage bin field is informational only.

The structure of the material master data - organized by user departments and organizational levels - is also reflected in the way material master records are maintained. When working with the Create Material, Change Material, or Display Material apps, you navigate through several dialog screens before you can add, modify, or view the relevant data.

When using the Create Material app to create a new material, you begin on the initial screen, where you specify the material type, the industry sector, and optionally a reference material number if you want to create the new material based on an existing one.

Based on the selected material type, you can either:

• Enter a material number manually, or
• Allow the system to assign a material number automatically.

After this, two successive dialog boxes appear:

1. View Selection: Choose the views (such as MRP, Purchasing, Accounting) that you want to maintain.
2. Organizational Levels: Specify the relevant organizational levels (e.g., plant, storage location).

Once these steps are completed, the system displays the data entry screens for the selected views.