Locking activity (exclusive/late/shared) for goods...

former_member183424 · ‎02-14-2015

Sometimes we get these error message numbers: M3 022 - The group data for the material & is locked by &, M3 023 - Plant data is locked by the user &, M3 024 - Valuation data for material & is locked by the user &, M3 897 - The plant data of the material & is locked by the user &. That does mean some other user is currently working on the same material. you can't make these messages as warning or you can't switch off these messages from customization. Lets explain how system works internally as the result of these messages externally and how to control these messages.

Exclusive Lock:

Exclusive block is quite like immediate block. When you use a material master during a goods movement transaction, then system will block the particular material master for any other goods movement transaction until you post or leave the current transaction. That means you only can able to post other movement or change master data if the material is not used in any other goods movement transaction. In that case, only one user can post a goods movement, another user can't use the material master for any goods movement transaction. It is used to post the all goods movement correctly, so that the valuation data are updated correctly in the material master and there are no inconsistent during update the quantity and value. But here is a disadvantage : Only one user can post a goods movement transaction at a time, hence this can be a big issue for these types of organizations where a huge of goods movements are posted per day.

In that case, system will issue these above messages as error.

Late Lock:

Late block does mean system will not block immediately or exclusively the material master when another user is using a goods movement transaction for the same material. It will try to block exclusively only when you will go to save the data, so that this material will be blocked for a certain point of time (short time). You need to enter a waiting time to use the late block (by default system will take 10) and it will be as second. Waiting time is a certain number of locking attempts which will created by system before the goods movement posted. It tries to lock the material master data before the posting goods movement, so that all posting would be consistent (correct). If any other user use a goods movement for the material master, then system will wait for a certain time and then again tries to set the block.

Shared Lock :

Shared lock does mean to share the locking activity between goods movement and material master. Suppose, an user is processing a goods movement transaction, then you can able to change the material master data without valuation related and inventory management related data (such as material price, valuation category, unit of measure, indicator for batch determination etc). If you go for change a material master and you have done some changes and before pressing save another user has posted a goods movement in the meantime, then system will refuse your entry and system will through a message "MM 628 - The field cannot be changed at the moment due to a goods movement", and you need to leave the transaction and do it again. If another user is posting a goods movement transaction and during the time you are trying to change some data related to the valuation or inventory management, then system will issue the message "M3 024 - Valuation data for material & is locked by the user &". But you can still able to save the changes of other data (like as material description, material group, division, tick option of automatic PO, source list. Anything not related to valuation or inventory management). The only disadvantage of the share lock, you can't change these fields whose are related to valuation and inventory management level.

Shared lock will work when you are using the late lock. System will refuse the share lock if you set the the locking activity as "Lock Exclusively" in customization.

Customization :

There are two customizations to use these above facilities. In one customization, you have to set the locking activity as either "Lock Exclusively" or "Late Lock", and in other customization you need to set the "Shared Lock".

In the IMG path SPRO - IMG - Materials Management - General Settings for Materials Management - Set material block for goods movements , you can set the locking activity for goods movement transaction or you can use the t-code OMJI. Here you can choose your desire option:

(Note: You may can see different screen for IMG path and transaction OMJI, but these both are same)

To use the shared lock function, you need to go to the IMG path SPRO- IMG - Logistics-General - Material Master - Basic Settings - Make Global Settings or you can use t-code OMT0. Here you can set the indicator as per your desire requirement :

Material block during Invoice posting :

You can also block material master record during invoice verification, you can use 3 methods for this blocking activity:

1. All materials will be blocked during invoice posting (Material is blocked at first read) :

In this activity, if you will choose a purchasing document for invoice posting with regards to some materials, then these materials will be blocked for any changes related to valuation data level.

Suppose, you are processing an invoice which contains a material, then this material will be blocked for valuation data level. You will receive an error message "M3 024 - Valuation data for material & is locked by the user &".

2. Particular material blocked during invoice posting (Material is blocked when invoice is simulated/posted) :

In this activity, only these materials will be blocked whose stocks to be updated (for the reason of any variance of GR value and invoice value).

Suppose, you are processing an invoice which contains a material, and during simulation, there are some value goes to the material account (inventory account), then system will block the material at valuation data level. System will issue the message "M3 024 - Valuation data for material & is locked by the user &".

3. Material block during direct posting :

In this case, when you will use the tab material in MIRO during posting the invoice, then system will block the material at valuation level immediately.

If you are using the invoice and goods movement transaction parallel, then you should choose the option "Material is blocked when invoice is simulated/posted".

Configuration can be controlled by the path SPRO - IMG - Materials Management - General Settings for Materials Management - Set Up Material Block for Invoice Verification :