Material number assignment as per Material Group.

[Former Member]

I am having requirement that - They are having Raw Material, in that also lot of sub-variety like :-

Raw Material	Polymer	Num. Range reqd: 13 -- Sheet Film.
Raw Material	Metal	Num. Range reqd:20 -- Miscellaneous

Raw Material

Electrical

Num. Range reqd:30 -- Miscellaneous

Raw Material

Electronics

Num Range reqd: 40 -- Miscellaneous

These are just some variety in Raw Material Category out of 147 Raw material.

Above all,  requirement is that the particular no. ranges to assigned for each sub-variety in Raw material....like 13 no range for Sheet Film, 20 for Metal.

External no range is not acceptable to client as its not user friendly & Fool proof.

So to have the system generated no range for sub-variety of each raw material, i have to create 147 material type.

This looks very odd for me to create these many material type.

Is there anything i can do better to have particular no range will get assigned (on creation) to sub-variety of material type "Raw Material".

[former_member197616]

Hi,

As i explained earlier , that is the easiest of way of achieving the solution with out any enhancements . Say like Under Ray materials ----Metals starts with MET -01- iron / MET-02-IRON etc and for Raw material ----Electronics ------- ELEC -01 - SENSOR kind of flexibility will be there while creation when you go with external number ranges . ( Do not forget provide the material group in the MG filed of MMR ).We have used this concept in our system and working well .

Regards,

[BijayKumarBarik]

Hi,

You should know the basic difference between Material Type and Material Group where Material Group used as key to group together several materials or services with the same attributes. Each Material master or Service master is assigned to a specific material group. Material group is used for reporting purpose, restrict the scope of analyses and search material master details with a search helps. It does not have any other controlling features unlike material type which has a number of controlling features with other major controlling features too  with regards to material management and financial accounting.

As material type play vital role on material numbering – either you can go for creating more number of material types for your material numbering for different categories or minimize creation of material types  with material having same basic attributes and grouped together by assigning to a material type.

Regards,

Biju K

[former_member183468]

Hi Atul,

See customer want the material numbering more logical like if somebody talks about particular material (number) then for a purchase guy it should be more easy to judge what material group/properties  it belong  from the code number.

If customer want the material number more logically, i think external number range is better than this.

in my current client we have give material codes as below.

Material length == 10

Material codification =  XX||XXXX||XXXX||

Here first two letter indicate Material Type and Next four letters indicates Material Group and rest of letters indicates material number.

Example: RM39010001

Here RM    is Raw material,

        3901  is material group,

        0001  is Material code.

Try this if it is helpful.

Regards,

BV

[Former Member]

Dear Yadavji,

Customer want internal number range only (for fool proofing), now our question is that how system can fetch number as per material group,if user exit or enhancement then which one? whatever enhancement i mentioned above doesn't help.

This is typical requirement we need to shot this!!!!!!!

[Former Member]

Hello Atul,

Some ideas thrown in the wild  :

-> Start by creating a new t-code for the material creation where in the first screen, the user has to enter the material group. Let's call this transaction : YMMG1 Create material for material group. (SAP offers already in standard MMR1 / MMB1 ....)

-> This new transaction should be the only user access point to create material (easy to manage via authorizations).

-> Create a new object with its number ranges, link this object with the material groups (custom table). So you have an internal number assignment (fool proofing) depending on the material group.

-> The material type gets an external number range in the IMG, since the value is passed from the custom number range.

In this context , the classic exits might be useful again :

After, the material group is entered and the number know -> branch to the standard material creation transaction. There ensure that the field material group is not changeable (this can be configured with  the screen layout of the material master).

So overall you keep one material type to rule them all !

Cheers,

Alex

[Former Member]

Dear Alex,

Your thought process is really working to wards the objective & the user exit provided by you also good.

I will appreciate if you throw some light on user exit or idea that will 1st check for z-table for material group . currently , movement I enter MM01, system goes to SNRO & check for the next available number for the material type & allot it to the material which seen in basic data view.

I want to find the way/exit which will divert system to number range maintained in Z_table based on Material Group.

AKPT/Dev Please your suggestions are welcome.!!!!!

[former_member183424]

I am not able to suggest a particular user exit. The way to find an user exit or badi has discussed in this document

Instead this, I am not able to help you.

Regards

Dev

[Former Member]

Hello Atul,

Short answer since at the moment, I am a little busy with problems kindly created by my business colleagues .

In short MM01, should be called only after you have your number from the z-table AND do not forget that the material type should be assigned an external number range (since the number comes from the z-table range)...

You may start by looking at the package SZN/Enhancements :

From here I suppose, it should be possible to re-use some standard stuff and/or to use the BadI, also do not forget that you have the option to use implicit enhancements that you can put anywhere (for example, we managed with this technique to bypass in the source list the control that calls an inforecord).

Once you have the number range assignment from the material group z-table, it should be "easy" to pass that to an external number when the program will branch to MM01 (that can be accessed via call transaction)...

Cheers,

[Former Member]

Better to use Product hierarchy option rather than creating different material type with number ranges.It will increase the maintainance cost and also manual config each time a new system is built.

[Former Member]

Hello Atul and Raghavendra/Dibyendu,

The requirement is a bit uncommon. The ideas proposed are interesting, from my side I would say :

- make sure that whatever solution you consider to implement check how robust it is versus the standard logic e.g. buffer, mass creation/change of materials, etc...

You might also want to suggest an alternative to your client, since the idea to use different numbers is to get a kind of "functional classification of the materials" :

- your client may be willing to use the UNSPCS codification system to organize the materials.

See UNSPSC > Home

Read http://www.unspsc.org/Portals/3/Documents/UNSPSC_White_Paper.doc

There are no standard fields to get the UNSPSC codes in SAP, however this is relatively easy to either create a new field in the basic view of the material + append MARA + extend whatever further functions are required. Or, simply to use one of the standard fields (but the enhancement solution is more flexible.

In general the material groups are defined in the "Family" level and materials at the commodity level.

In conclusion, I would prefer to find first a functional solution (with some enhancements) with the customer rather than introducing too many "unnatural" concepts in the SAP system like generating the number range automatically based on the material groups (this will work but it looks "shaky" in the long term).

Just my 2 cents,

Cheers,

Alex

[former_member197616]

Hi,

Thank you for providing more information over the requirement . But the solutions suggested rather with in the framework of the standard solution only as an alternative . The document attached by you is proving a good way which will let us know how the product codes can be classified rather with a product number and this number needs to get created in sap . and that has been suggested .

Regards,

[Former Member]

Hello Raghavendra,

I understand your point, however, as you are aware of and as mentioned by Dibyendu, the material type drives the number range. So, apart from using the standard way and creating as many material types as subcategories, there are not so many options.

Assigning material numbers from a custom development (e.g. based on reading the material group) is also an open door to problems :

- how to buffer/reserve numbers ?

- how to handle simultaneous creation of materials within the same material groups ?

- etc ...

In your position, I would challenge the customer on this requirement : what does the customer wants to achieve with different number ranges per material ? Is there an alternative way to achieve the functionality that costs less in terms of maintenance and/or development ...

The bottom line is : what are material types used for in the SAP system ? Keep in mind all the aspect of logistics and Finance (and production) integration... Is the multiplication of material types going to be an issue in subsequent processes ?

Cheers,

Alex

[Former Member]

very thnks for all ur answer, but now how can be this implemented/synchronized with SAP as number range is picked by Material type, so how this theory can applied with my requirement?

follwoing exit do not helpful MGA00001, MGA00002 & MGA00003.

Please give the excact SAP way to solve this.

[Former Member]

See customer want the material numbering more logical like if somebody talks about particular material (number) then for a purchase guy it should be more easy to judge what material group/properties  it belong  from the code number.

they want to apply smart logic in numbering which is rally valid. Now thing is that we have to cater this requirement.

[former_member197616]

Hi,

One another easy solution could be allow external number ranges to the material type and create the material with that number you have planned per material group as one material can have only one number range .

Or you can plan for different copied Raw material types assigned with different number ranges per material group .

At SPRO--logistics general ---  Material master---basic settings .

Regards,

[former_member183424]

In standard, there are only one option to assign different number range for material master record, that is material type.

Else, you need to do it via your own enhancement.

Use a Z table for the number range as per your material group, then call the Z table for the number range with regards to the material group by using a badi or user exit.

[Former Member]

I have gone thru the all posts.....One thing I understand is this can done only thru enhancement. Now I also understand to create Z-table for matrl group-Number range combination.

Can anyone tell me now which enhancement/user exit to be used for this. I have already gone thru the user exit :MGA00001,MGA00002 & MGA00003.

These enhancement can't determine material group.

Precisely what is to be used so the once I enter the MM01 , then which enhancement can be triggered accordingly the particular number range is picked up on saving the material master.

Will provide some more details.