Supply Chain Management
Supply Chain Management
MODULE-5
Introduction to SAP, SAP Material Management, Procurement process, Organization structure,
Enterprise structure, Master data management, purchase Info record, source list, procurement cycle,
purchase requisition, request for quotation, purchase order, inventory management, invoice
verification, service management, transaction code
SAP not only continues to innovate and bring new offerings often, its vision is to make SAP software simple to
run and use. SAP S/4HANA is the latest offering that not only simplifies logistics operations by combining
several interconnected logistics and supply chain functionalities, but also makes the entire experience of working
with SAP software user friendly. The latest annual release of core SAP S/4HANA on-premise was in September
2017 (SAP S/4HANA on-premise 1709). Therefore, the examples and screenshots in this edition of the book are
all from the SAP S/4HANA 1709 (on-premise), unless otherwise stated. SAP has also extensively worked on the
user experience side of the software, and SAP Fiori is SAP’s next-generation user interface. The images and
screenshots in this book are a mix of web-based SAP Fiori interfaces and SAP GUI (graphical user interface).
As SAP develops more extensive solutions and tools for its customers, MM continues to be an important
foundation on which subsequent functionality can be built. Now that we’ve reviewed the history of MM as part
of SAP S/4HANA, in the next section, we’ll examine how MM works as part of the logistics function.
The procurement process in SAP Material Management (MM) module encompasses the activities involved in
acquiring goods or services required by an organization. It includes steps from creating purchase requisitions to
payment processing. Here's a step-by-step explanation of the procurement process in SAP MM:
Purchase Requisition (PR) Creation (T-code: ME51N): The procurement process usually begins with a need
identified by a department or user within the organization. This need is documented through a purchase
requisition (PR). In SAP MM, users create PRs using transaction code ME51N. They specify details such
as material or service required, quantity, delivery date, and any other relevant information.
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Source Determination (T-code: ME57): Once a PR is created, the system can automatically determine the
source of supply based on predefined rules and conditions. In cases where source determination is not automatic,
users can manually specify the source of supply
If multiple vendors can fulfill the requirements specified in the PR, the organization may choose to solicit
competitive bids through an RFQ. RFQs can be created in SAP MM using transaction code ME41. Vendors
receive RFQs and submit their quotations.
Quotation Comparison (T-code: ME47): After receiving quotations from vendors, the organization evaluates
them to determine the most suitable vendor based on factors such as price, quality, delivery terms, etc.
Quotations are compared using transaction code ME47. The system facilitates side-by-side comparison of
different vendor offers.
Once a vendor is selected, a purchase order (PO) is created to formalize the procurement agreement. In SAP
MM, users generate POs using transaction code ME21N. POs contain detailed information about the
materials or services ordered, quantities, prices, delivery dates, terms, and conditions.
When the ordered materials or services are received, the receiving department records the receipt in the system.
The goods receipt (GR) is recorded using transaction code MIGO. It updates inventory levels and triggers the
next steps in the procurement process.
After goods receipt, the vendor submits an invoice for payment. The invoice is verified against the PO and
goods receipt to ensure accuracy and compliance with the terms of the purchase agreement. Invoice
verification is performed using transaction code MIRO.
Payment Processing (T-code: FB60): Once the invoice is verified, it is approved for payment.
Payment processing involves generating payments to vendors based on the approved invoices.
Payment transactions are recorded in the system using transaction code FB60.
5. 3 Organizational Structure
Organizational structure is the key for a successful SAP implementation. To achieve the flawless execution of
business processes, an extremely important step is to accurately map your company’s organizational structure into the SAP
system. Configuring an accurate organizational structure is key to a successful SAP implementation. From a materials
management (MM) perspective, purchasing organizations, plants, storage locations, and purchasing groups are important
elements of an organizational structure. Separate organizational structure elements exist for financial accounting (FI), such
as company codes. For sales and distribution (SD), the organizational structures are sales organizations, divisions, and
distribution channels, among others. All SAP S/4HANA organizational structures are agreed upon between the customer
and the project’s implementation team at the beginning of the SAP project to lay the right foundations so the SAP system
can meet the reporting and transactional requirements of the customer. In this chapter, we’ll review the MM organizational
structure and how it’s used in SAP systems. We’ll also describe the configuration steps for various organizational structures
possible in the SAP system. You’ll learn about many different elements of the organizational structures available in various
industries and how to map these elements into the organizational structure in SAP.
As shown in Figure 5.1 the different functional departments of an organization are mapped into an SAP system
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using organizational units. Organizational units are responsible for a set of business functions. An enterprise or corporate
group is mapped into the SAP system as a client, and different companies or subsidiaries of an enterprise are referred to as
the company codes. Clients and company codes are two types of organizational units often found at the highest level in the
SAP organizational structure. When discussing the levels of an organizational structure in SAP, the client is the highest
element, but many other levels may exist. A client may have one or more company codes assigned to it; each company
code may have one or more plants assigned to it; and each plant may have one or more storage locations assigned to it.
Furthermore, each company may have a set of purchasing groups. A purchasing group is a buyer or a group of buyers
defined independently of the organizational structure. Therefore, a purchasing group isn’t necessarily assigned to a
purchasing organization or company code.
While each section in this chapter will cover organizational units in SAP in detail, let’s start with a basic and high-level
understanding of these units and how the different departments and business functions of a company fit into an SAP system.
For any successful implementation project, you must understand your customer’s organizational structure and map this
organizational structure in a way that meets all of the business process requirements. For this task, you must also understand
the essential terminology used in an industry and in the SAP organizational structure, as shown in Figure 5.1 and Figure
5.2 as follows
Every organization has some framework or structure according to which the whole business runs. An enterprise
structure is the structure that represents an enterprise in the SAP ERP system. It is subdivided into various
organizational units which, for legal reasons or business-related reasons, are grouped together. An enterprise
structure defines various levels in an organization. These levels are placed according to some hierarchy. Each
level has some specific functionality associated with it, which in a combined way describes the working of an
organization. In addition, an enterprise structure defines various organizational units that are present in an
enterprise. The organizational structure in MM consists of the following organizational levels and shown in
Figure 5.3
• Client
• Company Code
• Plant
• Storage Location
• Purchasing Organization
• Purchasing Group
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The following diagram depicts one such organizational structure that describes the levels incorporated in an
organization. It puts the client at the topmost, followed by multiple company code, followed by multiple plants,
plants having multiple storage location with their own or centralized purchasing organizations.
The material master is the repository of the data used for a material. The material master serves as a single
source of information for each material; it’s where all information about a material is entered and accessed from.
The material master is used throughout the SAP system and by different business users. When implementing
SAP, the information contained in the material master can be overwhelming. When examining an existing
system, such as a BPCS, JD Edwards, Oracle, or Lawson system, you may find that product or material files
contain only a fraction of the material master data required for an SAP system to function.
1. Number assignment
2. Number range
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3. Procurement type
4. Screen setup (i.e., allowed views, field selection, and screen sequence)
5. Price control
6. Account determination
• SAP provides preconfigured material types, but you can also create your own by copying the standard
material types and making the required changes. Some of the SAP-provided material types are: ROH:
Raw material, HALB: Semi finished material, FERT: Finished material HAWA: Trading material.
• Defining a Number Range for a Material Type: In this step, you’ll define the type of number
assignments and the number of range intervals for material master records. When creating a material
master record, each material must have a unique number. Two ways of defining a number range exist:
(a) Internal number assignment: A number within the defined number range is assigned by the SAP
system.
(b) External number assignment: You’ll assign a number within the defined number range interval. You
can define the intervals for external number assignments numerically as well as alphanumerically.
Material Type: A material type is a group of materials with similar attributes. Material types allow you to
manage different materials in a uniform manner. For example, a material type can group together materials
that are purchased or produced internally or that have no value. SAP delivers a set of standards, predefined
material types, but you may need to create your own material types, FERT: Finished goods, HALB:
Semifinished goods, ROH: Raw materials, PIPE: Pipeline material: The pipeline material type is
assigned to materials that are brought into the production facility via pipelines. These materials aren’t
usually planned because they are always on hand. This type of material type is used, for example, for oil,
water, electricity, or natural gas
LEIH: Returnable packaging Reusable packaging material is used to pack finished goods to send to the
customer. When the finished good is unpacked, the customer is obliged to return the returnable packaging
material to the vendor
• Current and future prices and conditions (gross price, freight, and discounts)
• Text
Information records can be maintained at different organizational levels Examples include the client level, the
purchasing organization level, and the plant level. Purchasing information records have general data, purchasing
organization data, and plant data. When you create a PO, the system searches for a valid information record for
the purchasing organization/plant combination. If no such information record exists, the system searches for the
purchasing organization only.
1 General data: vendor’s material number, reminder data, order unit, etc.
2 Purchasing organization data: delivery time, minimum quantity, gross price, freight, discounts, price history,
and text
3 Purchasing organization/plant data: delivery time, minimum quantity, gross price, freight, discounts, price
history, and text.
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For a purchasing decision to be made, a buyer will look at the source list, which contains contracted or certified
vendors for a particular material. In the following sections, we’ll discuss the use of a single source and of
multisourcing for materials as well as how to generate a source list and use source determination.
• Single Sourcing: Many companies are trying to implement single sourcing for their materials. A single source
for a material means that, for each material that is purchased, only one vendor is used. Many companies spend
a great deal of effort to negotiate single-source contracts to reduce the cost of items they purchase.
For example, your purchasing department may have purchased photocopiers from three different companies:
Canon, HP, and Panasonic. But with single sourcing, the purchasing department can negotiate a lower price
with one supplier of photocopiers, Canon, and will only use that vendor for a specified period. Single sourcing
can cut costs substantially if a company also gives vendors the chance to single-source a range of products, but
it can also leave the buyer in a problematic situation if that source experiences a disruption.
• Multisourcing Purchasing departments commonly use more than one vendor as the supplier of a
material. Although best practices lean toward single sourcing with a trusted vendor, many companies
want to reduce the risk of failure in the supply of a material and thus will have more than one vendor
qualified to supply the material.
A purchase requisition is the procedural method by which users or departments can request the purchase of goods
and services. A purchase requisition can be entered manually by a user or can be generated automatically as a
result of a demand from materials requirements planning (MRP). A purchase requisition is the first step in the
demand for material either entered by the requisitioner or generated out of a requirements system such as MRP.
A requisition contains the material or services to be procured, a required date of delivery, and a quantity. The
purchase requisition doesn’t contain a vendor and is generally not printed out because it’s an internal company
document.
After the purchasing department has received and processed a purchase requisition, a line item may
require the purchasing department to send out a request for quotation (RFQ) to certified vendors for that material
needed at a particular plant. In some cases, the purchasing department can’t process purchase requisition items
by simply selecting a vendor or issuing a purchase order (PO) to a single-source vendor. In cases where the
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company has never used the material before or when a new vendor is required due to vendor bankruptcy or
decertification, the purchasing department issues a request for quotation (RFQ).
An RFQ can be created using Transaction ME41, or by following the navigation path Logistics>Materials
Management>Purchasing>RFQ/Quotation>Request for Quotation >Create.
A purchasing user can enter information pertinent to items that should be included in the RFQ. The fields that
can be defaulted include Item Category, Delivery Date, Plant, Storage Location, Material Group, and Req.
Tracking Number: Item category
– L: Subcontracting
– S: Third party
– D: Service
• Delivery date
This date is the Delivery Date for the item to be delivered or the service to be performed by the supplier.
• Plant/storage location
These are the company’s locations where the item should be delivered or the service should be
performed. These locations are the default plant and storage locations for deliveries.
• Material group
The Material Group can be used in lieu of a material number or service (if these
aren’t known). The material group is assigned to each material when it’s created.
example, if material group 017789 represents HD DVD players, then this material
group can be entered in the RFQ if the actual material isn’t known at the time, but 11
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the RFQ is for an HD DVD player.
The requirement tracking number (RTN) can be traced back to the original requisition if the RTN
was entered at that level. The person entering the RFQ can use the Req. Tracking Number field to uniquely
identify specific POs.
For example, if purchasing agents are entering a number of POs for a project, they may want to enter a unique
RTN so that the POs can be located together instead of having to know each individual PO numb
A purchase order (PO) is an external document issued by a purchasing department to send to a supplier. The PO
contains the required products, the quantities of the products needed, and the price agreed to by the client and the
supplier. In addition to the products, quantity, and price, the PO usually contains the PO number, order date,
delivery address, and terms. POs are used to communicate requests to suppliers and to give suppliers a written
confirmation of requests. Depending on the legal jurisdiction involved, a PO can be considered a legally binding
document. In some cases, a PO doesn’t specify the specific item number but rather gives a detailed description
of the item. This scenario occurs if a material number doesn’t exist or isn’t known
In a sales situation, management is always under constant pressure to reduce the time between a
customer’s order and delivery. Your customers will use order-to delivery time as a factor in deciding on a vendor.
Therefore, you must use effective inventory management (IM processes to reduce this time to a minimum. To
reengineer the order-to-delivery process, improvements can be made in the following ways: Improving the
electronic data interchange (EDI) process with customers and vendors Increasing the single sourcing of materials
Increasing the level of just-in-time (JIT) inventory Reducing dependence on long-term forecasts for stocking
levels Using real-time reports and inventory key performance indicators (KPIs) IM within SAP offers an effective
set of processes for all types of goods movement within the plant. Streamlining plant processes can help your
company compress order-to-delivery time, decrease costs, reduce inventory, and improve customer service. In
this chapter, we’ll discuss the major IM processes, including goods movements, goods issues/goods receipts,
physical inventory, returns, reservations, and stock transfers. We’ll also cover how to configure new movement
types to meet the specific business and reporting needs of your company.
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5.12.1 Goods Movement
The IM processes within SAP are, in essence, movements of materials inside a plant that can create a
change in stock levels within the storage locations designated to that plant. The movement of stock can be
inbound from a vendor, outbound to a customer, a transfer between plants, or an internal transfer within a plant,
such as between two storage locations or transferring stock from one stock type to another. In other words,
whenever a material moves—whether a goods issuance, consumption, a goods receipt, or a transfer of material
from one location to another—the movement is represented by a unique identification known as a movement
type. For every goods movement, the SAP system can create two types of documents: a material document and
an accounting document. An accounting document may have an associated financial document, such as a
controlling document (CO) or a Material Ledger documents.
• Goods Issue: Goods issues for material movements include issues for production orders, sampling,
scrapping, and internal goods issues against cost centers. For each of these goods issues, the system will
create both financial and material documents. Goods issues that most consultants find themselves
reviewing are goods issues for production orders, for scrap, and for sampling processes.
• Goods Receipt: Goods receipts are mainly used for receiving stock from an external vendor via a
purchase order (PO) or for receiving material from in-house production via a production or a process
order. Goods receipts are also used for movements that initially create inventory in the system or for
entering materials received without a PO. Goods receipts are important because they move the material
into stock, updating the stock levels and allowing production to occur.
Physical inventory is a process by which a company stops all goods movement transactions and physically
counts the current inventory. A physical inventory may be required by financials (FI) rules or local tax
regulations to determine an accurate value of the inventory. Other reasons for a physical inventory may
include the need to establish inventory levels so materials can be restocked. Performing a physical inventory
also ensures that differences between the actual inventory of materials and the inventory in the SAP system
are reconciled to account for any unaccounted for theft or wastage.
5.12.3 Returns
The returns process often varies among companies. Each plant can have a different policy and procedure for
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creating and processing returns. The process of returning material is sometimes referred to as reverse
logistics. Returns cover activities related to returning materials, pallets, and containers. Companies may also
return material to vendors for disposal or recycling. Returns to a vendor may also be related to a product
recall notice. Returns could also involve returnable packaging. For example, an automotive parts distributor
received inbound deliveries on wooden pallets. The pallets are either sent back to the supplier when the next
delivery arrives or used in the warehouse.
5.12.4 Reservations
A reservation is a request to hold material in the plant or storage location before the process of material
movement begins. For example, if a material is needed for a production order, then a reservation can
automatically be created by the system for that material so that enough material allocated for production. You
can also manually create a reservation. Automatic reservations are created by a process, such as a project or
a production order, and a reservation for the material is created without manual intervention.
After a reservation has been created, the reserved amount can be viewed using Transaction MMBE (Stock
Overview), which shows the reserved quantity for the material. However, the unrestricted stock total won’t
be reduced by the reserved stock amount. The reserved stock is still part of the unrestricted stock. The
reservation is treated differently within MRP. The reservation of material lowers the MRP available stock in
the stock/requirements list (Transaction MD04). Therefore, realizing the effect a reservation has on different
parts of the system is important.
A stock transfer can occur physically, for example, by moving material from one storage location to another
or may occur logically, for example, by moving stock from a quality inspection status to unrestricted. The
term stock transfer normally refers to a physical move, whereas transfer posting usually describes a logical
move. A stock transfer occurs in three distinct ways: Storage location to storage location Plant to plant
Company code to company code A stock transfer can be performed by either a one-step or a two-step
procedure. Transfer postings can also occur among various stock types, such as the following: From
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unrestricted-use stock to blocked stock From one sales order stock to another sales order stock From blocked
stock to quality stock From quality stock to unrestricted-use stock Transferring stock, either from storage
location to storage location, or plant to plant, can be performed either using Transaction MIGO_TR or
Transaction MIGO. In this section, we’ll detail various stock transfer options. These options include plant-to
plant stock transfers, storage location-to-storage location stock transfers, and transfers between two company
codes.
Invoice verification is part of the accounts payable (AP) process where vendors are paid for materials or services
they’ve provided to the customer. Invoice verification is important to both vendors and customers because this
process ensures that the quantities and the pricing are all correct and that neither party has made an error. The
standard method of invoice verification is the three-way match. In this chapter, we’ll describe this process as
well as evaluated receipt settlement (ERS), which is a two-way match between the purchase order (PO and the
delivery note, whereby a vendor is paid without an invoice being sent to the customer.
• PO-based invoice verification: In PO-based invoice verification, the system allows invoices to post
with reference to a PO, even though goods haven’t yet been delivered. The line items of the PO are
copied into the invoice posting screen at the time of invoice verification. The invoice can be posted both
before and after the delivery of goods. This scenario is usually used in the import’s procurement process
where the vendor often needs to be paid in advance against an invoice before the goods are actually
delivered.
• Goods receipt: In this scenario, the SAP system allows you to post invoices only after the goods receipt
has been posted in the system. Invoices are matched with the received quantity of a PO. For multiple
deliveries, the system provides each delivery on a separate line.
• Standard Three-Way Match This method uses the PO supplied to the vendor, the goods receipt or
delivery note supplied by the vendor, and the invoice sent to the company from the vendor. In a successful
three-way match, the quantity and price of all three documents will match, and the payment to the vendor
will be sent via check or bank transfer at a date agreed to by both parties. In this section, we’ll describe
the process of entering an invoice, simulating the posting, and preforming the actual posting.
5.14 In SAP MM some short-cut codes are provided to save time and effort. These are known
as transaction codes. Transaction codes are the short-cut codes that will directly take us to the
screen desired. This will help in eliminating long path that we go through implementation
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guide to reach a desired screen. These codes are provided in command field. Some of
important transaction codes are as follows.
•
T-Code Description
• OX15Description
T-Code Create Company
OX02 Create Company
T-Code Description
Code OX10 Create Plant
• OX09Description
T-Code Create Storage Location
• OX08 Create Purchasing Organization
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MRRL Evaluated Receipt Settlement
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•
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