Material Master Record

The material master record is the company' central source of material-specific data. It is used in all areas of logistics. The integration of all material data in a single database object eliminates data redundancy problem.Various departments in a company need one material, that is why, a material master record is subdivided according to specific user departments. Therefore, each department has its own view of a material master record and is responsible for maintaining this data.

The data screens used to used to process material master record can be subdivided into the following types:

1. Main Data : Contains screens used for individual user departments, such as basic data, materials planning and so on..
2. Additional Data: On these screens, you find additional information, such as alternative units of meaure, material short description, and consumption values.

Material master data is maintained at various organizational levels:

1. Data at client level
2. Data at Plant level
3. Data at storage location level

When creating material master record, you must choose a material type and industry sector to which material belongs.

Materials with same properties are assigned to same  material type. Among other things material type controls:

• Type of number assignment (internal or external)
• The possible number range intervals
• Which user department is proposed  for entry 
• Allowed procurement types
• Which accounts are to be charged

Additional material types can be defined in the system, as per your company requirements.

Like material type, the industrial sector also has a control function:

•  Which screens are displayed and in which order
• Which industry-specific fields are displayed on each screen

Once you assigned a material to an industry sector, can not be changed later

Extend material master record:

If different departments want to use same material, the material can be extended, with the help of previously entered data. You do not need to create material from scratch. 

Ex:

Material 2211 has only purchasing view. If you want to use its accounting view, the material needs to be extended for accounting department.

You use create material master (MM01) transaction to extend material master record by adding missing views or organizational levels.

With the change material (MM02) transaction, you can only change the data of views and organizational levels that are already maintained.