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 Changing a Material Type Locate this document in the navigation structure

Use

In certain circumstances, it may be necessary to change the material type. For example, a material that was always procured externally in the past and whose material type allows only external procurement is also to be produced in-house in the future. Therefore, you must assign the material to a material type that also allows in-house production.

Integration

Since the material type influences the way transactions are processed in the system, the system checks any change to the material type to see whether it is allowed.

Prerequisites

  • If you use the material ledger, the material must be settled in it.

  • If the old material type did not require you to specify a price control (for example, standard price or moving average price) for the material, the new material type must not be configured such that it allows only standard price as the price control.

  • If the material has been maintained from the Production Resources/Tools view, this view must also be allowed for the new material type.

  • If the material is not a configurable material, the new material type must not be allowed only for configurable materials.

  • In Customizing for the Material Master by choosing   BasicSettings   MaterialTypes   DefineAttributesofMaterialTypes   the following indicators must have the same setting for the old material type and for the new material type:

    • Material for process indicator

    • Manufacturer part indicator

  • If inspection plans are required for quality management inspection of the material, they must be allowed for the new material type.

  • The Material type ID indicator (presently used only in Retail) must be the same for the old material type and for the new material type.

If the material is already in stock, or if reservations or purchasing documents exist for it, the following conditions must also be met:

  • The stock values of the material of the new material type must be updated in the same G/L account as the stock values of the material of the old material type.

  • Quantities and values of the material of the new material type must be updated in exactly the same way in all plants as quantities and values of the material of the old material type.

  • If there is a transfer requirement for the material and if quants of the material exist, the new material type must also allow the material data to be maintained from the Warehouse Management view.

    Note Note

    If the material, whose material type you want to change, was handled in batches and if, due to the maintenance statuses of the new material type, the material can no longer be handled in batches, although batches still exist, you cannot change the material type.

    End of the note.

Activities

If you change from a material type that allows only in-house production to a material type that allows only external procurement, or vice versa, the system converts the procurement type accordingly.

If you change to a material type that allows different user department data than the old material type, the system does the following:

  • Resets to their initial value all fields for a user department that no longer exists

  • Lists user department fields that become required fields as a result of changing the material type

    You can maintain these fields by choosing   Material   Change   .