Material Master importance for Bill of material

[Vanshika_27]

Bill of material is the most important document in manufacturing organization. It is one of the master data that contains comprehensive information of all the components that are used to manufacture the finished product. Before BOM creation, material master must exist in the system.

Material Master:
An Introduction: For organization, especially for production planning and logistics, the material master is one of the most important master data objects, as it contains information concerning what an organization purchases, manufactures, stores and sells. The material master is the central data source and all the relevant departments in the organization will take the responsibility to maintain it in different views that are relevant to individual user department. For the production planning and MRP Perspective, important material types are finished products (FERT), semifinished products (HALB), and raw materials (ROH). Materials with similar characteristics are combined with the material type.

Definition: Attribute that subdivides materials with the same properties into groups.

Material Master: Material masters are the first object to be created, as they must exist before the BOMs are created. Maintenance of the material master is a collective responsibility among various departments in any organization. The material master has a hierarchical structure. For production planning, some of the material master views are managed at the client level, at the plant level, and at the storage location level. The data maintained in these material master views is valid for all the organization levels. Material number, description, base unit of measure (UOM), weight and so on are maintained in the Basic Data views. These details and information are common for all organization levels. The same material may be used in various plant, but the basic facts about the material will remain same.
To enable different materials to be managed consistently in accordance with company requirements, materials with the same properties are divided into groups and assigned to a material type. Examples of such groups:
▪ Raw materials (ROH)
▪ Semifinished products (HALB)
▪ Finished products (FERT)

Transaction: MM01 is used for material master creation in SAP. Material number is an alphanumeric key uniquely identifying the material. Material are the goods that are subject to business activity. The material can be traded, manufacture and consumed. Material description contains text upto 40 characters that describe the material in more detail. Base Units of measurement is the unit of measure in which the stocks of the material are managed. The system converts all the quantities you enter in alternate units of measure to the base units of measure. The conversion factors are also defined in the material master record. The base UOM satisfies the highest necessary requirement for precision. Material group groups together materials with same attribute and assign them to particular material group. Thus material master is the first step before BOM creation. Material master provides data about the material at client and plant level like material description, material group, division, base UOM etc. Material master is the central master record and very crucial for BOM. The material are entered in BOM with item category, component, quantity and change number. Thus both material master and BOM are interlinked and interdependent on each other for successful operations.