If you want to manage a piece of equipment not only as an independent and individual object, but also as a piece of material within the framework of inventory management, you must provide it with serialization data. This comprises:

• A unique combination of material and serial number
• Stock information
• Warehouse information

By using this data, you describe the piece of equipment as an individual item of a particular material.

It is conceivable that several serialized equipment master records were created for a material, to which an actual object is only assigned at a later date (for example, on delivery). On goods receipt, you also specify the batch for the required serial number of the material.

The system records the batch number as well as the stock batch and the master batch:

• The stock batch specifies in which batch stock the item of material is located. Once you post the goods issue for the material, the stock batch is canceled.
• The master batch still remains after the goods issue of the material. You document to which batch the material belongs.