Turning on "Lexicographical" setting for Product masters

[Madhavan_R1]

We are trying to turn on "Lexicographical" indicator for Product masters. This allows creating product numbers with leading zeroes. However, it does not allow you to set this indicator if you have numeric materials already created in the tenant. In our case, we have a handful of numeric materials in both our Cust and Test tenant that is preventing us from carrying out this configuration. We tried archiving these materials but there are stocks for these materials from previous year that we are unable to remove due to the financial posting periods that cannot go back more than one period. Based on the SAP notes, it appears that we must wait for another year to pass before we can start archiving these materials. Given this situation, we would like to check if we can set this flag directly in the production tenant as we haven't started any activities in the Production Tenant. We are in the middle of our Public Cloud implementation and hence a tenant refresh is not a viable option.

The setting we try to make directly in Production Tenant is under SSCUI 102320 - Define Output Format of Material Numbers.

Can SAP allow us to make this configuration change directly in Production tenant or can they do this for us as an expert configuration?

Thank you,

Madhavan

[WirkKarl]

This restriction is by design in S/4HANA Cloud. Once numeric material numbers exist in a tenant, SAP does not allow the lexicographical indicator to be switched on, even if those materials are archived or inactive. Unfortunately, SAP will not enable this setting manually in Production either, as SSCUI 102320 is treated as a system-critical configuration and must be consistent across tenants. Since you haven’t started activities in PROD yet, the safest path is to enable lexicographical numbering before any material creation, or consider a tenant refresh once the legacy constraints are cleared. I’d strongly recommend raising an incident with SAP to confirm options, but based on current behavior, waiting or refreshing is usually the only supported route.

[dawid90 · Accepted solution]

Dear @Madhavan_R1,

In Public Cloud the Lexicographical indicator in 102320 Define Output Format of Material Numbers is treated as a system-critical, client-wide switch. SAP blocks changing it as soon as any purely numeric Product/Material IDs have ever existed in that tenant (message BMG265). SAP own guidance is that the indicator can only be set/reset when no numeric material numbers have been used, otherwise existing numeric IDs could become non-interpretable so the supported way to proceed is to archive/remove the numeric materials first, but you probably already know that

SAP Note below:

https://userapps.support.sap.com/sap/support/knowledge/en/3516603

Can you or SAP just flip it directly in Production:

Practically this is not a supported workaround in Public Cloud:

• In CBC-driven Public Cloud, product-specific configuration is meant to be performed through the CBC project flow and then deployed/transported. Production is primarily for production-system-specific current settings depending on 2SL/3SL, not for bypassing blocked product master fundamentals

More details below:

https://learning.sap.com/courses/configuring-sap-s-4hana-cloud-public-edition-manufacturing-executio...

• Even if your Production tenant is empty and would technically allow you to set the indicator there, you would end up with a landscape mismatch DEV/TEST cannot replicate the behavior, meaning you can’t properly test creation/migration/integration with leading-zero product IDs before go-live

Because the block exists explicitly to prevent interpretation issues, SAP Support generally won’t override/bypass it via expert configuration when the system condition is violated numeric materials exist

What I’d do next in your situation:

1. Open an SAP incident under referencing SAP Note 3516603 and explicitly state:

• DEV/TEST already contain numeric products and are blocked
• PROD is unused
• you need a supported path to enable lexicographical handling across the landscape not a one-off PROD-only toggle
• Waiting for SAP feedback/proposal

Best Regards,

Dawid

[saddala_jahnavi · Accepted solution]

Hello We helped you to accept the answer.You can unaccept it anytime if you have further questions. Best Regards, Jahnavi