SAP MM - Professional Inventory Management

SAP MM - Material Management

The mother of materials management with the basic basic processes for ERP. SAP MM takes over the control of material quantities and facilitates the scheduling of the flow of goods. The use of SAP MM results in professional inventory management. All other SAP logistics applications are based on this, areas such as procurement and warehouse management could not be represented meaningfully without SAP MM.

In the manufacturing or processing industry, the manufacture of products is the core of the company. Accordingly, material management is of great importance. This central position results in strong networking with other SAP modules, for example with finance. The flow of goods data is automatically made available to Financial Accounting. The legality of an A/P invoice can be checked in the system; an A/R invoice can be triggered by shipping. Reorder levels can be stored as required, so that the purchasing department can order the necessary goods for the warehouse in a convenient time window. Financial Accounting can use SAP MM - PUR to create vendor master records.

Data records for a purchase order that have been created by one department can be transferred to another subsequent department. Due to the high linking and further use of already created data, the time saving adds up to an interesting order of magnitude.

Competent SAP MM consulting

Together with management and your experts, our consultants discuss which SAP MM components are the most efficient solution for your company's ERP landscape.

Individual adaptation

In many years of active consulting we have experienced that every company is unique. If desired and necessary, we harmonize the mapping of the data of your old system to SAP MM.

Training at the right experience level

We are happy to train your personnel to enable an intensive use of SAP MM. In doing so, we take into account the respective level of knowledge of your employees in order to facilitate meaningful further development from there.

SAP MM - Functions

The SAP MM module maps the essential functions required for material management.

Existing and new suppliers are stored in SAP MM. Already negotiated conditions for certain products or services can be viewed, key data from materials management can be transferred from the data records with a single click. A particularly high time saving results from the cooperation with strategic suppliers. With a glance into SAP MM, you can see whether framework agreements have already been stored. If the order is standardized, previous prices can be viewed and compared as a reference.

Controlling can check whether ordering processes are being handled correctly. For the consideration of articles of comparable quality and equipment, SAP MM may give Controlling clues as to whether savings can be made by switching to a more favorable supplier. Purchase orders can be assigned to a G/L account and a cost center.

Warehouse Management with SAP MM - Checking Material Stocks

The management of the warehouse and its stocks can also be handled via SAP MM. Goods receipts are posted, planned articles can be marked. In this way, the overview is maintained for all the goods and for selected articles. Combining invoice verification with material management is an obvious idea, because this is where the essential prerequisite for payment happens: the delivery of the goods. The price on the invoice is compared with the price on the order and the invoice can be paid if there is a match.

The stored goods can represent a significant value for the company, depending on its business orientation. Quantity and value flow into the balance sheet with current values via SAP MM and thus create transparency for an external audit. The same approach applies to inventory-like transactions. SAP MM with the currently stored goods represents a great time saving compared to a physical inspection of the individual product groups.

SAP MM - Submodules

The two submodules of Materials Management SAP MM - PUR and SAP MM - IM can be used independently of each other. SAP MM - PUR deals with suppliers and orders. The approach of SAP MM - IM, on the other hand, is somewhat more internal and focuses on the warehouse and the movement of goods.

SAP MM - PUR - Procurement

The module SAP MM - PUR offers the possibility to make a selection among the deposited suppliers in order to procure materials and services. The advantage lies in the labour saving when researching and creating a new supplier; usually there are already good experiences with the strategic suppliers.

In most cases, the inclusion in the pool of suppliers will be a predicate that distinguishes the stored sources of supply. This enables new employees in the specialist departments to fall back on reliable suppliers.

SAP MM - PUR simplifies the procurement process. Purchase orders that are triggered from Sales or from the Repairs area can be assigned directly to a customer account.

As soon as companies reach a certain size, purchasing will split into the support of strategic and operative suppliers. The more demanding tasks with longer-term significance fall to the strategic area. This can be the negotiation of hourly rates or annual kick-back payments when targets are reached or the drafting of framework agreements. The operational area takes on pragmatic and no less important tasks. This is where the requirements of specialist departments come in. This often requires thinking into the tasks of external departments in order to be able to place a concrete order with a supplier. The other processes following the triggering of a purchase order can also be performed in SAP MM - PUR:

Receiving inspection of the goods, inspection and payment of the invoice and for defaulting recipients of the goods the dunning process.

SAP MM - IM - Inventory Management

Goods movements can be planned, recorded and documented in SAP MM - IM. The SAM MM - IM component also provides an overview of the stock and value of goods. It is therefore the optimal tool for warehouse management in the company. Quantity and value can be automatically transferred to financial accounting. This offers a great advantage when an up-to-date overview of the goods is needed quickly. A counting in the warehouse by the personnel would tie up massive resources and take much longer.

If a manual inventory is actually due, the status recorded in SAP MM - IM can be used as a comparative value for the manual inventory. Conversely, a possible difference can serve as an empirical value for a plus/minus deviation of the dataset in SAP MM - IM if a quick query via the system in real time is required. Existing differences can also be documented in SAP MM - IM and cleared cleanly.

The system-based query offers a great advantage when storage locations are geographically dispersed. Not only the available quantities in the warehouse are recorded in real time, but also ordered items that have not yet been delivered can be displayed for planning purposes - very conveniently, for example, for the reorder level. Goods that are still physically in the warehouse but have already been planned for further processing or have been ordered by a customer can also be queried and subtracted from the stock quantity normally required.

Special situations such as the removal of goods from the warehouse for quality assurance purposes can be recorded with the help of this SAP module. Also special agreements with a vendor for consignment stock, where the putaway quantity and the quantity withdrawn from consignment stock are relevant and, in the latter case, lead to a notification and payment to the vendor.

The value of the material stocks is managed in a valuation area. You can define a plant or a company code for the valuation area. Stocks are managed at plant and storage location level. To enter a goods movement, you only need to enter the plant and the storage location.

Both internal and external goods movements and logistics processes are recorded and documented. Deliveries by another company and the dispatch of goods to our own customers are considered external. Internal goods movements affect materials that are required by the company itself, such as semi-finished products for further processing or everyday materials such as photocopying paper.

For all goods movements, documents up to and including a goods receipt/issue slip can be created.