The material status tells you whether a material is subject to restrictions, and what they are. For example, a material may be a part under development or one to be discontinued. The use of a material can be restricted in a number of ways:
The material can be blocked for use in certain business activities by assigning one or both of the following material statuses to it:
Plant-specific material status
In the standard material master, this field appears on the Costing screen, MRP screen, Production Resources/Tools screen, Purchasing screen, Quality Management screen, and Work Scheduling screen.
Cross-plant material status
In the standard material master, this field appears on the Basic Data screen. It is valid for the whole client.
The material can be blocked for use in certain sales activities by assigning one or both of the following statuses to it:
Distribution-chain-specific material status
Cross-distribution-chain material status
In the standard material master, both of these fields appear on the Sales: Sales Organization Data screen. The cross-distribution-chain material status is valid for the whole client.
The material can be flagged for deletion. For more information, see Flagging Material Master Records for Deletion .
The plant-specific and cross-plant material status, or distribution-chain-specific and cross-distribution-chain material status, are considered jointly by the system.
Example
You have the following material statuses:
01
The material is blocked for Purchasing.
02
The material is blocked for Inventory Management.
You assign material status 01 to the material at plant level, and material status 02 at cross-plant level (that is, at client level). As a result, you block the plant material both for Inventory Management and for Purchasing.