Use

The system uses the material block to prevent more than one goods movement being posted at a time for the same material and thereby prevent inconsistencies between the stock quantities and the stock values.

There are two types of material block.

Exclusive Material Block

In this procedure, when the material master data is read for the first time for a goods movement, the plant data and the accounting data are locked exclusively up to the end of the goods movement posting. Another user cannot work with the material during this time. This ensures that the goods movement is valuated correctly and that the stock quantities and values are updated correctly. The disadvantage of this procedure is the long locking time (from the time when the material master data is read for the first time during the entry of the goods movement up to the closing of the update posting).

Late Material Block

This procedure provides for optimization of the material block, as:

The advantage of this procedure is that several users can enter goods movements at the same time.

The disadvantage of this procedure is that the material master record is read several times and, in the case of an outward movement, lock entries of other users in the ATP server must be taken into consideration. These additional accesses have a negative effect on performance.

Activities

In Customizing for Materials Management, you can set the material block by choosing General Settings. The configuration applies to all plants in a client.