How to Setup Batch Management Level (Material vs Client)

Question

Hi Experts,
I had a question about the level at which I should be setting up Batch Management. The requirements that we have are:
- We want uniqueness in the batch being created.
- We have split valuation active at the Batch Level.
Hence, we have nailed down to the following 2 options: 1. Client level or 2. Material level. (I know that I will not be using Plant level because we do a lot of STO's and we do not want to lose the characteristics in the Batch at the plant level. So the plant level is out of scope.)
Client Level: Although the client level gives us the uniqueness and supports most of our requirements, my fear with going at the client level is that it is too rigid and MAY cause problems in the future. Is that true? What would be issues/ concerns that you have faced when you have had Batch Management activated at the client level.
Material Level: If I setup the system at this level, I would like to be able to create a Batch number for a material across the entire client only once. E.g. MAT1 can have BATCH 123 only once across the whole client. MAT 2 can have BATCH 123 but the Material# and the Batch # uniqueness should be maintained thoroughly.
I would like to try out this level but my problem is I am unable to understand and setup this level completely. I have gone through some pretty good discussion on this topic but still am unable to understand it thoroughly. The link to this discussion is (http://www.sapfans.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=80407). If you refer to this link, it says u2013 Client/ Material Level. What does client/material level mean? Can you please help me understand it. Also, if I setup Batch management at this level, I would like the system to auto-generate numbers for me exactly as I have mentioned above. Is there a way to do so? I was trying to setup the BATCH_MAT number range object with the batch level at Material level but the system seems to always default to the BATCH_CLT level and give us numbers. Is there a way to fix the system to check the BATCH_MAT number range object and give the batch numbering per my requirements. What happens if I use the Material Level Batch management with BATCH_CLT number range object?
Your help is highly appreciated.
Edited by: TV_SINR on Jul 16, 2010 8:52 PM

Answer 1

Check following customizing:
Logistics General --> Batch Management --> Specify Batch Level and Activate Status Management
If you want to change the batch level, you have to start conversion to activate the change.
Note that you cannot reset conversion from plant level to a higher level, read the documentation for customizing of
"Specify Batch Level and Activate Status Management".
If you want to work with same batches for different materials, you should use "Batch unique at material level".
Logistics General --> Batch Management --> Batch Number Assignment
Here you can define how the system should create batch numbers.
Best Regards, Dirk