Category: SAP Modules

Preface – This post is part of the SAP MM series.

Introduction

Procurement starts with requirement gathering and ends with procuring goods/services from vendors. This involves an internal document that contains a list of requirements, be it goods or services, which need to be procured from the vendors, known as Purchase requisition. It is a request made to the purchasing department to procure a certain list of materials. It contains information about the materials such as the date of delivery, and quantity.

A purchase requisition is defined for the following procurement types:

• Standard: Requisition created for getting finished material from the vendor.
• Subcontracting: Requisition created for providing raw material to the vendor and getting finished material.
• Consignment: Requisition created for procuring material that is kept in the company’s premises and paying to the vendor for that.
• Stock transfer: Requisition created for transferring stocks from one plant to another.
• External service: Requisition created for procuring services like maintenance from third-party vendor.

Creation of Purchase requisition

A purchase requisition can be created manually (with or without master data) or automatically. Let’s explore them one by one.

Manual creation of Purchase requisition

A purchase requisition can be created manually means when the purchasing document is created by the requesting department manually.

A purchase requisition can be created manually in multiple ways:

Purchase requisition with master data:

Step 1: Enter T-code ME51N in common field. A “Create purchase Requisition” screen will appear.

Step 2: It will ask to enter the following information:

• The material number of item or service (e.g. B-R123)
• Quantity to be procured (e.g. 20)
• Delivery date of the material (e.g. today’s date + 3)
• Plant location (e.g. 1203)

Step 3: On hitting enter, the data of the material is fetched from the material master data and the requisition process will fill up the default information in some of the blank fields.

After clicking on “Save”, a new purchase requisition will be created.

Purchase requisition without master data:

Step 1: In order to do that, enter T-code ME51N in common field. A “Create purchase Requisition” screen will appear.

Step 2: As there is no material master record for the material the following information will have to be entered:

• Account assignment category (e.g. U)
• Short text for description (e.g. Laptop Dell with an i5 processor)
• Quantity to be Supplied (e.g., 4)
• Unit of measure (e.g. PC)
• Delivery date of the material (e.g. today’s date + 4)
• Material group (e.g. Testing)
• Plant location (e.g. SAP SE)
• Purchasing group (e.g. 011)

In this scenario, the account assignment category is required to direct the cost to a specific account. Use ‘U’ to direct the purchase requisition to an unknown account. Other options available are:

• A for Asset and sub number
• F for production order number
• K for cost center and general ledger account number
• C for sales order and general ledger account number
• P for project number and general ledger account number

 

 

After clicking on “Save”, a new purchase requisition will be created.

Automatic creation of Purchase requisition:

A purchase requisition can be created automatically means when the purchasing document is created by other SAP processes that include:

• Production Order: A production order defines what materials need to be produced, the quantity of goods to be required, where it needs to be produced and at what time.

On creation of Purchase order in PP, BoM (Bill of Materials) is determined and a purchase requisition is created for materials required through MM.

• Plan Maintenance Order: A maintenance order consists of a list of operations that specifies what needs to be done and the material needed for each step. There may be a need for non-stock material. So, a purchase requisition is created automatically.
• Project System: In the Project system of Sap, a network is an object that creates a purchase requisition for non-stock materials.
• Material Planning: The consumption-based planning module can create a purchase requisition for materials based on calculation.

Preface – This post is part of the SAP MM series.

Introduction

Under Inventory Management in SAP MM, Procurement starts with requirement gathering and ends with procuring goods/services from vendors.

Once the goods/services are procured from the vendor, it is required to place them at the company’s premises. Inventory management deals with the management of the stock and goods movement, either on value or quantity basis. It includes planning and keeping records of all the goods movement.

There are several transactions and functions in inventory management. The most important of them are:

1. Movement Types
2. Goods Receipt
3. Reservation
4. Goods Issue

Let’s explore them one by one.

Movement Types

When goods movement is entered into the system, a movement type is defined to differentiate between the various goods movement. It is a 3-digit identification number for goods movement.

When a goods movement is entered into the system, following chain of events starts in the system:

• A material document is generated, that updates all the stock quantity and value in the inventory.
• Accounting documents are generated if the movement is relevant to Financial accounting.
• The stock quantities are updated.
• The stock values in the master record are updated.

All the updates are based on the information contained in the material document and the financial account document.

The important movement types are:

• 101: Goods receipt(GR) for purchase order(PO) into warehouse/stores
• 102: Goods receipt(GR) for purchase order(PO) into warehouse – reversal
• 201: Consumption for cost center from warehouse

To know more movement types, enter T-code MIGO in common field. A new screen will appear.

Select “Goods receipt” from the drop-down. On pressing F4 on the goods receipt input box, a list of movement types will appear. Depending upon the requirement, select the appropriate movement types for different goods movement.

Goods Receipt

After receiving the material from the vendor, the purchasing department prepares a goods receipt that can be used later for any discrepancy. A goods receipt is a goods movement that is used to post goods received from the external vendors or from in-plant production which results in an increase in stock in the warehouse.

Goods receipt has 2 scenarios:

• Creation Goods receipt
• Cancellation of Goods receipt

To create a Goods receipt

Step 1: Enter T-code MIGO in common field. A new screen will appear.

A Goods receipt can be posted against various documents. Select the required document from the drop-down list. Select the movement type as per the requirement.

Step 2: Enter reference document. Based on the reference document, it will fetch all the details such as material, quantity, storage location, plant, etc.

Step 3: Select the check tab and click on Save.

After click on “Save”, goods receipt is posted against the selected document and a material document number is generated.

To cancel a Goods receipt

Step 1: Enter T-code MIGO in common field. A new screen will appear.

Select “Cancellation” against the material document from the drop-down list. Enter the material document number.

Step 2: The system will fetch all the details from the material document number.

Step 3: Select the check tab and click on “Save”.

After clicking on “Save”, the goods receipt is cancelled, and a material document number is generated.

Reservation

Reservations are made to block the materials in advance so that that they can be available at some particular time. It ensures the availability of the stock at a particular point of time.

T-code to view the reserved quantity is MMBE.

To make a reservation

Step 1: Enter T-code MB21 in common field. A “Create Reservation” screen will appear.

Enter the date, the movement type and the plant for which the reservation has to be made.  Click on the “New Items” button.

Step 2: Enter the order number against the reservation has to be made. Provide details of the materials and the quantity that has to be reserved.

After clicking on “Save”, a reservation has been made for the order.

Goods Issue

To post Goods Issue

 Step 1: Enter T-code MIGO in common field. A new screen will appear.

Select Goods Issue from the drop-down list. A Goods Issue can be posted against various documents. Select the required document from the drop-down list. Select the movement type as per the requirement.

Step 2: Enter reference document. Based on the reference document, it will fetch all the details such as     material, quantity, storage location, plant, etc.

Step 3: Select the check tab and click on Save.

After click on “Save”, Goods Issue is posted against the selected document and a material document number is generated.

Preface – This post is part of the SAP MM series.

Introduction

Before we discuss about Master Data in SAP MM, let us discuss about type of Data in SAP.

SAP R/3 works on real-time data i.e. it makes sure that there is no time lag between data availability and data storage.

Data stored in SAP R/3 is categorized as:

• Master data: Data that is created centrally and is the core used as base data for any transaction is called Master Data in SAP. For example, Material and Vendor are types of master data.
• Transactional data: Data that is related to business transactional processes.

Types of Master Data

1. Material Master data
2. Vendor Master data

Material Master Data

Materials in SAP are a logistic representation of certain goods/services that is an object of production, sales, inventory management, etc. Material master data is the central source of information of the material that an enterprise can procure, produce or sell.

Characteristics of material master data are:

• Material types: Materials having some basic common attributes are grouped together and are assigned a material type. Most common material types are:

 

M Type	Material type description
FERT	Finished Product
HALB	Semi-finished Product
ROH	Raw material

 

• Material group: A material group is a wider term for a material type. Materials with some common attributes are grouped together and are assigned a material group. Let’s take an example of a finished product (material type), TV. Then the material group can be used to categorize them as Plasma TV, color TV etc.
• Number Range: When a material master record is created, a unique number is assigned to the material, known as material number.
  The following are the two ways to assign material number.
• External number assignment: When material number is assigned manually while creating a material.
• Internal number assignment: The system automatically assigns the material number while creating a material.

Internal number assignment is known as Number range.

Steps to create Material Master Data

Step 1: Enter T-code MM01 in common field. A “Create Material” screen will appear.

Enter all the information such as Material number, Material type, Industry sector, etc.

Step 2: Select the views to maintain the material.

Step 3: Enter plant name and storage location for the material.

Step 4: Provide the necessary details such as moving price, standard price, unit of measure, etc.

Click on “Save” and new material is created.

To change or display material master data, use T-code MM02 and MM03 respectively.

Vendor Master Data

A vendor is the one who provides goods/ services to a company. Vendor master data is the central source of information of the vendors from an enterprise can procure. It contains information such as name, address, the currency for the transaction, payment terms, Tax details, etc.

Data in a vendor master record is categorized into:

• General Data − It is maintained at the client level and is valid at all organizational levels.
• Accounting Data − It is maintained at the company level and is valid for all plants belonging to that company.
• Purchasing Data − It is maintained at the purchasing organization level.

Characteristics of vendor master data are:

• Account group: Vendors having some common attributes are grouped together and are assigned an account group.
• Number range: When a vendor master record is created, a unique number is assigned to the vendor, known as vendor number. A vendor number is assigned to a vendor as in the case of the material number i.e. external number assignment and internal number assignment.

Steps to create Vendor Master Data

Step 1: Enter T-code XK01 in common field. A “Create Vendor” screen will appear.

Enter all the information such as Vendor number, Company Code, Purchase Organization, Account Group, etc.

Step 2: Provide address details of the vendor.

Step 3: provide bank details, accounting information, terms of payment between the company and the vendor. Click on “Save” and a new vendor is created.

To change or display vendor master data, use T-code XK02 and XK03 respectively.

Preface – This post is part of the SAP MM series.

Introduction :

SAP MM is one of the modules of the SAP ERP system which deals with the logistics (Material management and inventory management) of the materials. It includes modules such as Sales and Distribution, Production Planning, Plant Maintenance, Project Systems and Warehouse Management. This module contains master data, system configuration and transactions to complete the procure to pay process.

This process ensures that there is never a shortage of materials in the supply chain process of an organization It deals with the management of materials (products and/or services) and resources of an organization to make the business run smoothly on time and in a cost-effective manner.

Material Management process :

Requirement Determination:

Planning of what materials are required, when they are required, budget of the enterprise for the material.

Source Determination :

Determining potential suppliers of the requested material.

Vendor Selection :

On identification of potential vendor, request for quotation(RFQ) is sent by the requester. The contract is awarded to the vendor based on selection criteria.

Order Processing :

A formal purchase order is created and sent to the vendor.

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 :

On receiving the material from the supplier, the purchase department prepares the good receipt which can be used later for reconciling if there is any discrepancy .

 

Invoice Verification :

The good receipt is compared to purchase order to avoid any mismatch. Materials are checked whether they meet the ordered specification, and then priced according to the terms of the purchase order. For any damaged goods, the buyer contacts the supplier either for replacement or for a refund.

Payment Processing :

Once the verification is done, the payment invoice is created and vendor is paid.

SAP MM integration with other modules

Integration of MM and FI :

• On posting of goods receipt, a debit is posted to inventory account and a credit is posted to GR/IR clearing account.
• On posting of invoice receipt, a debit is posted to GR/IR clearing account and a credit is posted to vendor account.
• On payment of vendor, a debit is posted to vendor account and a credit is posted to bank clearing account.

Integration of MM and SD:

• When sales order is created in SD, the details of the materials are copied from Material Master of MM.
• Data like availability and MRP is also copied from MM.
• On creation of inbound or outbound delivery with reference to a sales order, determination of shipping point with the help of plant, loading group etc. which refers to Material Master.

Integration of MM and PP :

• On creation of Production order in PP, BOM (Bill of materials) is determined and PR is raised for materials through MM.
• Stock determination helps to implement various strategies to withdraw materials for goods issue and stock transfer based on material requirement.

Advantages of MM :

• Integration with other modules helps to reduce data entry and human error.
• Ensures there is never a shortage of material.
• Avoids stocking of unnecessary or obsolete materials.
• Least inventory loss.
• Controlled manufacturing cycle time.
• Reduces expenditure on unnecessary material storage.
• Different release strategies for different purchasing document based on various criteria like vendors, payment terms etc.
• Automatically creates Purchase order for specific vendors based on stock.

Challenges in implementation :

• Information such as material requirement, planning activities and order input should be managed and reflected carefully.
• Material planning and demand forecast should be in line with the manufacturing requirement.
• Standard product quality should be maintained.
• Vendor must be selected carefully to meet quality management principles to safeguard quality of end-product.

SAP MM sub-modules:

• Master Data
• Purchasing
• Inventory management
• Pricing Procedure