The material master has a hierarchical structure resembling the organizational structure of a company. Some material data is valid at all organizational levels, while other data is valid only at certain levels. The organizational units are as follows:

The client is the top level. Several company codes can be assigned to it. In turn, several plants can be assigned to a company code, and several storage locations assigned to a plant.

Plants must always be consecutively numbered for all company codes. Consequently, plants assigned to different company codes cannot have the same number. However, the numbers of storage locations can be repeated, as long as they are assigned to different plants.

The following graphic representation contains a possible corporate structure: