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The Material Master: SAP's Central Product Record
The material master is one of the most important master data objects in SAP. Every product your company buys, sells, produces, or stores has a material master record. If the material master is wrong, almost everything downstream goes wrong too.
What is a material master?
A material master stores all the data SAP needs to manage a material across the business:
- What it is (description, unit of measure, weight, dimensions)
- How it's bought (vendor info, purchasing unit, lead time)
- How it's sold (sales unit, pricing reference, tax classification)
- How it's stored (storage conditions, shelf life, batch management)
- How it's valued (price control, standard price or moving average)
- How it's produced (MRP settings, lot sizes, production scheduler)
Material master views
The data is split into views — each view is relevant to a specific department and is maintained by that team:
| View | Owner | Key fields |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Data 1 & 2 | Master data team | Material number, description, base UoM, weight, dimensions |
| Sales: Sales Org. 1 & 2 | Sales | Delivering plant, tax classification, item category group |
| Sales: General/Plant | Sales/Warehouse | Availability check, loading group |
| Purchasing | Purchasing | Purchasing group, GR processing time, order unit |
| MRP 1–4 | Production planning | MRP type, lot size, reorder point, safety stock |
| Accounting 1 & 2 | Finance | Valuation class, price control (V/S), standard price |
| Costing 1 & 2 | Controlling | Origin group, with/without qty structure |
| Warehouse Management | Warehouse | Storage section, bin type |
| Quality Management | QM | Inspection setup, certificate type |
Creating a material master (MM01)
T-code MM01 — Create Material.
- Enter the material number (or let SAP assign it if internal numbering is configured)
- Select the industry sector (controls field selection — e.g. Mechanical Engineering, Retail)
- Select the material type (FERT = finished product, HALB = semi-finished, ROH = raw material, HAWA = trading goods, DIEN = service)
- Select which views to maintain
- Enter organisational levels (plant, sales org, etc.)
- Fill in the required fields per view
Key MM T-codes:
| T-code | Function |
|---|---|
| MM01 | Create material |
| MM02 | Change material |
| MM03 | Display material |
| MM06 | Flag for deletion |
| MM60 | Material where-used list |
| MMBE | Stock overview |