Preface – This post is part of the ABAP Beginner series.
SAP MM (Material Management)
SAP MM: Material management is a module of SAP which as the name suggests deals with material management and inventory management. It ensures that there is never a shortage of materials in the supply chain process of the organization. It also helps the organization to complete the purchasing of goods in a timely manner and in a cost effective way. It incorporates other modules like Sales and Distribution, Production Planning, Plant Maintenance, Project Systems, Warehouse Management which are based on Materials Management module.
The process of material management is as follows:
- Determination of requirement: Determines what materials and services are required for the organization.
- Source Determination: Determines who can fulfil the requirement.
- Vendor Selection: After gathering the requirements, direct contact is made with the suppliers and a suppliers is chosen who can satisfy the requirements.
- Purchasing Order (PO): The purchasing department is informed about the products needed. When that request is approved, the purchase order is created and assigned to the supplier.
- Order Monitoring: Order monitoring is tracking of dates and the goods from the time of ordering to the time the goods are delivered. It is done to ensure that there are no discrepancies and if any, they can be handled beforehand.
- Goods Receipt: The goods are received and are checked for quality and condition.
- Invoice Verification: Reconciliation of the invoice and purchase order is done. It means the invoice received is checked for cost, quantity and quality.
- Payment: The vendor is paid.

Some of the important Transaction Codes for Material Management are as follows:
MM01 -> For creation of material
MM02 -> For change of material
MM03 -> For display purposes
ME51N -> Creation of purchase requisition
ME41 -> creation of RFQ
A few of the basic tables in SAP MM modules are:
MARA -> general data, material type
MLAN -> Sales data, Tax Indicator, Tax
MAKT -> Short texts, descriptions
EBAN -> Purchase Requisition
EKES -> Vendor Confirmations


