Material Types 

Using a material type is a way of grouping materials that have the same basic properties, such as raw materials, semi-finished products, and finished products. When you create a material master record, assign the material to a material type. The material type belongs to the general data on the material and controls important processes in individual applications. In Customizing for Production Planning (PP), specify the material types for which you want to allow or preclude the creation of bills of material and routings, as per your company’s requirement.

The material type controls the following options:
● Whether the material is intended for a certain purpose
● Whether the material number assignment is internal or external
● Which number range interval is assigned to the material number
● Which screens appear during material master maintenance, and in what order
● Which user department data can be entered
● Which procurement type(s) the material can have
The user departments (maintenance status) defined for a certain material type determine which views can be maintained for a material of this type. The user departments also determine which applications can use the material.
Using the entries for external and internal orders, specify how materials of a certain type can be procured. In addition, use special procurement keys in the material master record to restrict the procurement type for each material and plant.
Define the type of inventory management (quantity-based and value-based, or only quantity based) for a material type on a valuation area-dependent basis. Define the indicator for price control (standard price or moving average price) as a default value or as a mandatory preset value.

The system assigns the stock and consumption accounts using the valuation classes. The account category reference establishes the link between valuation classes and the material type.
Specify which material types you can maintain with the special creation transactions that you can access on the SAP Easy Access screen by choosing Logistics → Materials Management → Material Master → Material → Create (Special).

Only SAP Retail uses the individual indicators that you can set for material types (such as Material Type ID and Time Till Deleted).

The maintenance status of material types is a key showing which user departments have maintained the material master record.
You can use a material in the Logistics functions only if the material has certain maintenance statuses. A valuated material that you want to purchase for receipt into stock, for example, must have at least the maintenance status E (purchasing) and B (accounting).
Each user department has its own views of a material master record.

Number Assignment for Material Master Records

In the SAP system, materials are uniquely identified by material numbers. As a rule, for each material a company uses, a material master record must exist. The system stores each existing material master record under material number.
Create material master records with internal or external number assignment. In case of internal number assignment, the SAP system assigns the material number when you first create a material master record. Material master records differ in this respect from documents and other master data in an SAP system. If you want to extend an existing
material master record, quote the number of the material in the creation transactions.

Material Types :

Administer the number ranges for groups of material master records in the following steps:
1. Maintain the groups and group intervals.
2. Assign material types to the groups.
Assign an interval to only one group. However, you can assign an interval to each group for both internal number assignment and external number assignment. You can manually change the current number level of an interval. Select the External no. assignment w/o check checkbox for the material type to specify whether the system has to
check if the material number belongs to a specific number range in the case of external number assignment. If you do not want the system to check the material number, ensure that every externally assigned material number (for this material type) is alphanumeric. You need not assign an external number range interval for a group of this material type. The standard system uses a buffering system for number assignment in the case of material
master records. There are 10 numbers for buffering. As a result of buffering and the assignment of the material number before the system saves a new material master record, gaps in number assignment might occur. If you reset the current number level of an interval to the starting value of zero, the gaps are closed when new materials are created.

Output Format of Material Number:

The specifications for the input or output length, output of the leading zeroes, and template settings apply to online and print activities only. A material number in an SAP system can have a maximum of 18 characters.
You can use a template to change the format of the material number to create a clearer presentation for larger material numbers. You can use special characters in the template; however, they may not be part of a material number. The system does not store the special characters in the template with the material number.
An example of a template is as follows:
Template _ _ . _ _ _ . _ _ _ . _ _ _ . _ _ _
Material number and its format
123456

To interpret numeric material numbers as labels instead of numbers, select the lexicographical format. You must specify the format before you create the first material master record.

Material Status

The material status determines how the system treats the material in different applications, and in business transactions, such as purchasing, material requirements planning (MRP), and bills of material (BOM). This material status enables you to restrict the usability of a material for various business applications. You can set a status in the relevant master record for each material. If the material status has been set for a material the system uses, an SAP system issues a warning or an error message (according to the properties of the status). In the basic data view, you can enter a cross-plant material status. The applied material status then applies to all plants. For example, you can
specify the material status on a plant-specific basis in the purchasing or MRP views.

Material Status Definition

The figure, from Customizing, shows the definition of a materials status for which no provision has been made for either forecasting or requirements planning and the system does not allow purchase activities. The system allows movements of goods, because the Inventory management status is blank.
The entry B for the application Purchasing will cause the system to issue an error message in the event of a purchase transaction for a material with the status 01. If the system issues a warning message (instead of an error message) in the case of purchase transactions, you must enter a material status A for the application Purchasing in the material master record.