Source list maintenance refers to the process of managing a list of potential vendors (sources of supply) for a specific material within a plant, defining which vendors are allowed to supply that material and for what period of time, essentially controlling which vendors can be selected during the procurement process for that material; this is done through a dedicated function within the Materials Management (MM) module.
You have the option to have a source list containing an outline agreement that relates to a material group rather than a specific material. This would be an outline agreement with the item category M (Material Unknown) or W (Material Group). You can create material-specific source list records for these contract items. When doing so, you can decide whether to exclude or include certain materials of the relevant material group by means of the source list.
Your decision could include:
- Exclude materials:
Generally, you can order all materials belonging to the specific material group with reference to this contract item except those materials that are excluded for the material group item in the source list. A source list entry with a Blk indicator selected is generated for these materials.
- Include materials:
Only materials belonging to the specific material group for which the contract item is listed in the source list can be ordered with reference to this contract item. For all other materials, the following error message appears: The source of supply is blocked by the source list.
Materials without a material master record, in contrast, can always be ordered with reference to the contract item.