Material Classification (Level Wise)

Question

Dear Experts,
We want to Classify our Material like below:
Level-1:      Direct / Indirect
Level-2:     Raw material / packaging / consumables / Proffesional Services / Transport etc.
Level-3:     Iron          /             Eletrical           /    Chemical                 /      Mechanical      /        Utilities                        / etc.
Level-4:     Cast/Pig   /   capacitor/battery/Cable/      Acids/Lubricants    /      Gear/Pump     /   Gas/water/Electricity  / etc.
Level-5:     Material Code
This will be a hierarchy Level (Tree Like) Classification means ->
level-1
level-2
level-3
level-4
level-5
Please suggest how i Incorporate this >>>
Thanks in Advance,
Satya

Answer 1

Dear Sathya,
First you have to create all the names you have mentioned against each level as individual classes. The following are the steps
1. Create Classes for Direct/Indirect, Raw material, Chemical and so on for the required names in all levels
2. Assign the level 2 classes(raw material, chemical etc) to level 1 class(Direct/indirect)
3. Assign level 3 classes(Iron/Pig,HCL, Gear pump etc.) to level 2 class
4. Assign Level 4 classes to level 3 and
5. Assign Level 5 class to Level 4 class
For the assignment of classes to superior classes use transaction CL24N. Here you can define the common chararcteristics for all levels in the relevant superior classes and object specific characteristics in the lower level classes. For example, Manufacturer can be a character which can be common for all the sub-classes. Hence you can assign this characterisic to Level 1 or 2 depending on the need. Whereas Concentration of acid can be a character which can be defined at the level 4, since it is very specific to an acid. Since the classes are linked through a hierarchy, you will also get the characteristics of superior classes along with the object specific characters during assignment in the material master as an inheritance.
By doing this, you have now formed the class heirarchy, you can see the hierarchy in CL6C transaction(graphical). Now assign the relevant class to the materials while creating the material master for each catergory of material. Once this is done, you can use transaction CL30N to find the materials based on characteristic values.
Hope it helps.
Regards,
Sridharan.M
Edited by: Sridharan Muthappan on Dec 31, 2009 12:30 AM