You can assign substances – that is, specifications of the specification category Substance – and materials to each other both in specification management and in the material master. In this case, the assignments you make in specification management are also visible in the material master and vice versa.

Depending on the application from which you call the function, the perspective changes and so, therefore, does the function description:

• When you call it from specification management, it is referred to as material assignment
• When you call it from the material master, it is referred to as specification assignment

For assignment in the material master, the required settings must have been made in Customizing for the material master. For more information, see Set Up Specification Assignment in Material Master in Customizing for Product Safety.

Materials that have assignments to a substance cannot be archived and deleted (physical deletion). A material can only be physically deleted if:

• All specification assignments are deleted
• The assigned specifications are deleted
• No assignments exist

For each substance-material assignment, you can navigate to the relevant data record by double-clicking the assigned substance or the assigned material. This means you can:

• Navigate from the material assignment to the material master for the assigned material

• Navigate from the specification assignment to the property tree for the assigned substance