SAP Master Data in Purchasing

Use

In addition to vendor and material master data, Purchasing is supported in its everyday work by the following additional types of master data:

• Purchasing info record
• Source list
• Quota arrangement
• Conditions
• Vendor evaluation

Features

Purchasing Info Record

Info record is short for information record. The info record contains concise information about a vendor and a material that Purchasing already procures from that vendor. An info record thus represents a material-vendor relationship.

For example, the info record indicates the units of measure in which materials are ordered from the vendor, and the applicable reminder levels. It also shows price changes affecting the material in question. This information can be useful in the process of evaluating quotations to determine the successful bidder.

Info records are created automatically when you order a material. You can also create, change, and delete info records.

See also:

Purchasing Info Records

Source List

A source list specifies the possible sources of supply for a material over a given period of time. It shows the time period in which a material may be ordered from a given vendor or under a certain long-term purchase agreement.

The source list supports the user in answering the question: "Which vendors or internal suppliers can supply a material at a given point in time?" It is also used in the automatic selection of vendors for a material.

See also:

Optimized Purchasing

Quota Arrangement

A quota arrangement is a mechanism for determining the source of supply to which a material requirement is assigned. It enables you to determine which is the valid source for the procurement of the material covered by a purchase requisition at any given time. Setting quotas allows you to automatically apportion the total requirement of a material over a period among a number of different sources of supply.

See also:

Optimized Purchasing

Time-Dependent Conditions

These are conditions that are defined centrally, are valid for a certain period of time, and which determine the value of purchase orders. Time-dependent conditions are used as the basis for calculating the effective price.

See also:

Conditions and Price Determination

Vendor Evaluation

Vendor evaluation is the process of analyzing and assessing the performance of your external suppliers. It also constitutes a basis for vendor selection. Vendors are awarded scores for a number of different criteria. Vendors’ overall scores can be used to determine whether they are retained in or eliminated from your vendor base.
For further information on this topic, please refer to the documentation MM Vendor Evaluation.

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• Master Records from the SAP MM Purchasing View
• Working with SAP MM Purchasing Documents

SAP Maintaining Purchasing Data in Material Master Record

Use

Material master records are created when the MM module is first installed. Thereafter, the departments using the material master database are responsible for keeping the information it contains up to date.

Material master records may be created and changed either centrally or by individual departments. In the latter case, for example, the Purchasing Department will be responsible for continually updating purchasing data and, in the same way, Sales will be responsible for maintaining sales and distribution data.

This section shows how the purchasing data in a material master record is entered and changed.

What is a Material Type?

The material type identifies the characteristics of a material that are important with regard to Accounting and Inventory Management. A material is assigned a type when you create the material master record.

"Raw materials" and "finished products" are examples of material types. In the standard MM module, the material type for the former (ROH) denotes an externally procured (bought-in) material, whereas the material type for the latter (FERT) indicates that the relevant material is produced in-house.

The material type determines the accounts to be debited or credited when a material enters or leaves the stores/warehouse, or is used or consumed by a user department. It also determines whether numbers for materials are assigned by the system (internally) or by the user (externally).

Activities

Displaying a Material Master Record

1. To view a material master record, proceed as follows: First choose Logistics
® Materials management ® Material master from the system menu. Then choose Material ® Display.
2. Enter the material number in the Material field. If you do not know the material number, use the Possible entries facility to search for the desired material via matchcode.
3. Enter the selection criteria for the matchcode. When you press
ENTER, the master records corresponding to your selection criteria are displayed.

You can also display a material master record from the item overview of any purchasing document. To do so, choose Environment ® Material from the menu bar.

Displaying Stock Levels

There are two ways to display the stock level of a given material:

• Starting from the material master record

To view the stock level, choose Environment ® Stock overview while displaying the material master record.

• Starting from purchasing documents

While displaying purchase orders, outline agreements, RFQs, or quotations, choose Environment ® Material stocks to display the stock overview screen for a selected item.

Creating or Maintaining a Material Master Record (Purchasing)

This section explains how to enter purchasing data in a material master record.

When Do You Create or Maintain a Material Master Record?

You have to create or maintain a material master record if the material to be procured

• Is not defined in the material master database (that is, the material does not have a master record)
• Has already been defined for a different plant, but not for the plant for which the PO is to be issued
• Has been defined for the correct plant, but the purchasing data for the material has not been entered. This may be the case if a user from another department (Accounting for instance) created a material master record but was not authorized to add the data relevant to Purchasing.

To determine whether or not a material has a master record, try to display the material using the Possible entries facility. In doing so, proceed as described under Displaying a Material Master Record.

Prerequisites

Before creating a material master record, you need the following information:

• Material type and industry sector
• Units of measure, such as the base unit (stockkeeping unit), and the order unit
• Purchasing group (buyer group) responsible for the material
• Accounting data, such as the valuation class, price control, and standard or moving average price

Procedure

To create or maintain a material master record, proceed as follows:

1. From the system menu, first choose Logistics
® Materials management ® Material master, then Material ® Create (general).
2. If the material master record does not exist:
Enter the industry sector in which the material is used (for example m for mechanical engineering) and the material type (e.g. roh for raw materials) in the relevant fields.

Enter the material number only if your enterprise uses external number assignment. Otherwise, the system assigns a number to the material automatically.

If the material master record already exists: Enter the material number and press ENTER .

The Select view box appears. It contains a list of possible user departments.

If a similar material master record already exists, you can use it as a reference when creating a new one. To do this, enter the number of the reference material. A copy of the reference material master record will be displayed. Here, you can make any desired changes.

3. Select Purchasing and Accounting, and PO text (if you wish to enter one) in the dialog box. Press
ENTER.
4. In the Organizational levels dialog box, enter the plant key and press
ENTER. The Purchasing screen of the material master record appears.
5. If no master record for the material yet exists, enter the short text (short description), the base unit of measure, the material group, and the purchasing group responsible for procuring the material.




The short text (short description) is used to identify the material on all purchasing documents as well as documents from other departments. Therefore, you should enter a description that is also meaningful to other departments.

6. Enter the purchasing-specific information for the material, such as:

Order unit
Make an entry here only if the order unit differs from the base unit of measure. If you specify a value in this field, you must also supply the factor for conversions from the order unit into the base unit.

Purchasing group
In this field, specify the buyer or group of buyers responsible for procuring the material.

Purchasing value key
Key defining various values for Purchasing functions, such as reminder intervals and tolerances. The reminder intervals are specified in days and indicate after which periods the first, second, and third reminders/urging letters are to be sent to a vendor with regard to outstanding quotations, outstanding order acknowledgments, or overdue deliveries. The system generates the reminders or urging letters (expediters) automatically.

The underage and overage tolerance limits give the percentage of under- and overdelivery allowed for the material by your firm.

Make relevant specifications under Basic data and Foreign trade: Import.

As part of the purchasing value key, you can also set the parameters Minimum delivery quantity and Standardizing value for delivery date variance on a material-specific basis. These values are used by the MM Vendor Evaluation functionality.

7. Press
ENTER to display the purchase order text screen. The text you enter here is adopted in all purchasing documents relating to the relevant material.
8. Press
ENTER to display the accounting data. Enter the valuation class, price control (key indicating valuation on the basis of moving average or standard price), and the moving average or standard price. The relevant material will then be valuated according to the specified price.
9. Save the material master record.

Alternative Units of Measure

In addition to the base unit of measure, used by the system in managing stocks and carrying out all its computations, other departments can use their own units of measure.

All units of measure other than the base unit are known as alternative units. The following are examples of alternative units of measure:

Order unit
Unit of measure in which a material is ordered. It is the default unit in Purchasing functions.

Order price unit
Unit in which the vendor invoices you. The order price unit is defined in the purchase order or in the purchasing info record. If you have defined an order price unit in the PO, the goods receipt will be recorded in both the order unit and the order price unit.

Sales unit
Unit of measure in which a material is sold. It automatically appears as the default in a sales order and can be changed there.

Unit of issue
Unit of measure in which a material is issued from the warehouse/stores. You can use this unit of measure in conjunction with goods issues and physical inventory activities.

Any quantities that you specify in a unit of measure other than the base unit are automatically converted into the base unit by the system. To make this possible, you must enter the ratio for conversions between alternative units and the base unit (the conversion factor) in the material master record. You can enter this information when specifying the alternative unit of measure.

Variable Units of Measure

In the material master record, you can specify that the material can be procured in a unit of measure that differs from the order unit. If you do not specifically allow this option, you will have to use the order unit of measure defined in the material master record.

If the material can be ordered in more than one unit of measure, enter 1 in the Variable order unit field.

Changing a Material Master Record

When you change a material master record, the system records the change, the name of the user, and the time of the change. This provides an audit trail of changes to material master records.

1. Choose Logistics
® Materials management ® Material master from the system menu. Then choose Material ® Change.
2. Enter the material number and press
ENTER.
A dialog box with a list of specialized areas (corresponding to user departments) appears.
3. Select Purchasing and press
ENTER.
4. Enter the plant key and press
ENTER. The Purchasing view of the material master record appears.
5. Make your changes.
6. Save the material master record.

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SAP MM Material Master Data

Use

The material master database (often referred to simply as the "material master", comprising all the individual material master records stored in the system) contains descriptions of all materials that an enterprise procures, produces, and keeps in stock. It is the central repository of information on materials (such as inventory levels) for the enterprise.

The integration of all material data in a single materials database eliminates the problem of data redundancy and permits the data to be used not only by Purchasing, but by other applications (such as Inventory Management, Materials Planning and Control, Invoice Verification, and so on).

Descriptions of the individual materials used in an enterprise are stored in material master records.

The following list shows some types of information a material master record contains and provides examples of each:

• Accounting

Valuation and costing/price calculation information. Examples: standard price, past and future price, and current valuation.

• Materials planning and control

Information for material requirements planning (MRP) and consumption-based planning/inventory control. Examples: safety stock level, planned delivery time, and reorder level for a material.

• Purchasing

Data provided by Purchasing for a material. Examples: purchasing group (group of buyers) responsible for a material, over- and underdelivery tolerances, and the order unit.

• Engineering

Engineering and design data on a material. Examples: CAD drawings, basic dimensions, and design specifications.

• Storage

Information relating to the storage/warehousing of a material. Examples: unit of issue, storage conditions, and packaging dimensions.

• Forecasting

Information for predicting material requirements. Examples: how the material is procured, forecasting period, and past consumption/usage.

• Sales and distribution

Information for sales orders and pricing. Examples: sales price, minimum order quantity, and the name of the sales department responsible for a certain material.

How is the Information Organized?

Material data is always organized in the same hierarchical fashion. From the Purchasing viewpoint, a material master record contains the following organizational levels: client, purchasing organization, plant, and storage location.

1. Client - general data - This level contains the data applicable to all individual group companies, all plants, and all warehouses/stores belonging to an enterprise (corporate group). Examples of general data are details on a material's design (CAD drawings, for instance) and storage conditions (temperature range, whether the material is explosive or perishable, and so on).
2. Plant - This level contains the data for each branch or plant location within a certain company. The data important to Purchasing is stored at this level. Examples of this data are the maximum and minimum order quantities of a material and the reorder level. You access the plant data by entering the plant key.
3. Storage location - This level contains the data specific to a storage location. Stock levels are an example of the data maintained for each storage location. You access the storage location data by entering the plant and storage location keys.

This data structure facilitates the organization of material-related information within the entire enterprise. It prevents redundant storage of material data when the same material is used in more than one plant or stored at more than one storage location.

Suppose the same metal casting is stored at two different locations. The design and purchasing data for this material would be identical. However, the data on the stock levels at each location would differ.

How are Materials Numbered?

A unique number is assigned to each material master record. This number identifies a specific material.

Material numbers can be assigned internally or externally. Internal number assignment means that the system assigns material numbers, whereas external number assignment means that the person creating the material master record does so.

If numbers are assigned externally within your enterprise, there may be restrictions on the numbers you may assign to a material. Number assignment is defined within the framework of Customizing.

Who Has Access to the Material Master?

Company policy may restrict access to material master data. Access restrictions are intended to prevent unauthorized users from changing a material master record. Generally, buyers can view all data for a material, but are usually only allowed to change purchasing data. In the same way, material planners or inventory controllers are generally only allowed to change the data directly related to materials planning and control.

Certain users may have authorization to change data centrally. This means that they have authorization to enter and change all data in a material master record, including purchasing data.

If you want to know what access restrictions are in effect at your company, contact your system administrator.