Material Classification Value Propagation for 4.5B

Question

Hello all,
Have an interesting quandary.  My current organization maintains a quite complex classification structure for materials; however its original design lacked the forethought of what it would become (before my time).  The root of the issue (and thus my question) focuses on the propagation of characteristic values or lack thereof. 
We have a characteristic that is assigned to nearly all of our 30 material classes.  The list of values associated with the characteristic are the same for all classes.  Therefore, whenever we create a new characteristic value or change an existing one, we have the timely task of going into each and every material class to make the update.
I have spent some time researching and understand a user exit exists for the mass update of characteristic values (CLMMD001); however it does not appear this exit is in our system, and we do not have the development resources to spend in the creation of a program.
Any thoughts or suggestions on how we can address our issue either through the user exit (guidance on how we can do this would be appreciated) or through some minimal development work to allow auto-propagation of characteristic values based on a single update?
Thank you very much.
Jack

Answer 1

Hello Jack,
The only way you can stop using the 'overwrite value' functionality is to 'clean' your characteristics in your classes.
Here is something you can try: Try it for one characteristic first to check that it does work. I've just checked what I am describing below in a MySAP ERP 2005 system and it works.
(PS: I am assuming that you have checked and made sure that you were using the 'overwrite value' functionality).
Step 1: Pick any object that has been classified using an 'overwritten value'. Note the object number (material number) and the value of the characteristic.
Step 2: Put your characteristics in sync.
Go to change mode in on one of your characteristic (in v4.5 I think the transaction was still CT02). Go to the characteristic value assignment screen and add all the possible values to that characteristic. The list of values you are going to add should at least cover all the values currently used in your system.
Step 3: Stop using the overwrite functionality
Now that your characteristic has all the possible values, we want to make the system use those values and not the values of the characteristic in the class (...still with me?).
Ok so go to Class change mode (again in V4.5 I think the transaction was CL02). Pick one class that uses the characteristic changed above.
- Go to the Characteristics list tab.
- Select the characteristic changed above and then click on the 'overwrite value' button (or use the menu Edit / Characteristic / Overwrite values)
- You will then see the list of values for that characteristic in that class (top of the screen, it should recap the class number and the characteristic number)
- Select the menu Extras / Overwrite / Delete all
- Click 'Yes' on message box delete values
- You will be brought back to the characteristic list
- Save your changes.
Step 4: Go back into change mode in the characteristic, go to the characteristic list, select the characteristic and click on the display value button - Is the list of values correct?
Step 5: Go to the object noted from step (in change mode) and check that in the classification view, no error or incoherence message appear.
From now on, whenever you need to use a new value, you only need to add it once --> To the characteristic.
Hope it helps.