SAP Batch Management Overview

Batch Management can be defined as tagging an alphanumeric or a numeric code to

the material produced or material procured. Every batch number has an inventory
quantity associated with it. This 10 digit code in SAP helps in uniquely identifying a
material and the quantity associated with it.
A partial quantity of production or procurement can be tagged with a batch number that
clearly makes that material inventory unique.
The Batch number generated for the material quantity not only helps in uniquely
assorting the material inventory, but it also stores the characteristics values or the
chemical composition or the product specifications at the time of its production or
procurement.

Which Materials can be Batch Managed?

Typically you can say that material which can be stored separately without mixing and
piling one over the other, is a good candidate for batch management.
Product produced or procured has to be stored separately for it to be tagged with a
batch number. If you mix all the pieces or mass together then the identification is lost.
Case 1: Products which are powder in state like Iron ore, which is procured from
vendors (in ships) and are dumped in a location loosing any sort of traceability of when
they were procured and from whom they were procured are not a good candidate for
batch management.
Case 2: At the same time, if Iron ore is procured from vendors (in ships) and piled up
separately (every shipment is piled up separately) then you can think of making the
product (iron ore) as a batch management candidate.
Case 3: You can also take a case where products are Solid in state but are mixed
together after production; where the producing company does not wish to keep any
traceability of when it was produced and what were the product features or conditions at
that point of time. In this case you can avoid Batch management or any recording batch
specifications.

Perquisites in SAP for Batch Management

Activation of Batch Management at Material Level, Plant level or Client Level

 Creation of Number Range for Batch Management: Specify use of Standard Internal
Number Range or External Number Range or Both

Material should be activated for batch management

Life after Batch Management

Batch Management once activated in configuration and the material masters activated
for batch management, then the material is stored in inventory at plant-storage locationbatch level. In this case there is no question on mixing of material or loosing any sort of
traceability.
The plant inventory which would be normally stored in storage locations at the plantstorage location level would now be stored at the plant-storage location-batch level;
which means that every time you issue this material for further production or every time
you deliver this to the customer, you have to mention the storage location as well as the
batch number you are issuing.
This may end your liberty of consumption of this material at plant-storage location level
and you may get frustrated in knowing the batch number you are issuing every time.

Storage Location Stock before Batch Management:

Material

Plant

Storage
Location

Unrestricted
Qty

M1

0001 -Trident Group Barnala

FG

3502 Pieces

Stock

Storage Location Stock after Batch Management:

Material

Plant

M1

0001 -Trident FG
Group
Punjab
0001 -Trident FG
Group Punjab

M1

Storage
Location

Batch
Number

Unrestricted
Qty

0000002369

1002 Pieces

0000005480

2500 Pieces

Stock

Activating or Deactivating Batch Management for a Material during

the life of the Material
Activating or Deactivating Batch Management for a product means that you would have
to go through a lot of work:
a) All the existing in-progress documents like the Purchase orders, Sales orders
deliveries, Production orders, Batch Classifications or Batches, which are using
the Material batches should be reversed, archived or deleted.
b) All the Material Stock should be made = 0
The best way to do it is, moving the stock of the material to a temporary material or
writing off all the stock for the material. Once you have done this you can activate or
deactivate the material for batch management.
c) You can then bring back all the stock from the temporary material to this original
material.
When is a Batch created in SAP

When is a Batch Created in SAP:

A 10 digit batch is created in SAP for a batch managed material at the following instants
of goods receipt for the material:
a) A Batch is created at Goods Reciept from Production (Movement type 101):
When you carry out Goods receipt for a Batch Managed Material from a production
order or a process order or a run shcedule header, the system creates a batch for the
received quantity and material.
The batch received would have an internal batch number assigned (or an external batch
number assigned as per configuration).If the configuration is set at External batch
numbering, then you would have to assign a batch number before saving the goods
receipt.
The received stock would be associated with the batch number and any further
inventory movement for the material quantity would be made using the batch number.
The goods receipt movement types are MB31, MIGO, MIGO_GR through movement
type 101 - GR from Production order.
b) A Batch is created at Goods Reciept from Purchase order or STO (Movement
type 101):

When you carry out a goods receipt for a batch managed material from a Purchase
order (or a STO - Stock Transport order), the system creates a Batch number (if the
configuration is set at internal batch numbering). If the configuration is set at External
batch numbering, then you would have to assign a batch number before saving the
goods receipt.
The purchase order goods receipt is from an external vendor, whereas STO receipt is
from a supplying plant in the same or different company code.
If the Batch Management is set at plant level then in the case of STO transfers the
batch number in all possibilities would change at the goods receipt in the receiving
plant. If Batch Management is set at Material Level then the supplied material batch
would be adopted at goods receipt in the receiving plant.
The goods receipt movement types are MB31, MIGO, MIGO_GR through movement
type 101 - GR from Purchase order. In the case of STO you could also create a goods
receipt from an outbound delivery created at the sending plant.
c) A Batch is created at Goods Receipt from Production - By Product receipt:
When you carry out by-product goods receipt for a batch managed material from a
production order or purchase order using MB1c-531 movement type, the system
creates a Batch number.
d) A Batch is created at Goods receipt from Initial Inventory Creation:
When you carry out goods receipt as a part of initial inventory creation through 561 or
501 movement types, the system creates a Batch number for a batch managed
material.
Summary - A Batch in SAP is created at a Goods Receipt of a Batch Management
Material
When you receive a Goods Receipt of a Batch Management Material through any GR
Movement type, SAP Triggers creation of a Batch number for the received quantity.
Above were listed only a few major GR Transaction code and Movement type.
SAP Batch Specifications

Batch Specifications

Define Batch Specifications

A Batch is created in SAP as a master data prior to production or at receipt of stock
from a vendor through a purchase order or at the receipt from a production order.
A Batch contains a place holder for maintaining various production or product
specifications in the form of Batch characteristics.
Mantaining Batch Characteristics Values or Batch Specifications is not
mandatory atall:
It is not mandatory that you maintain batch specifiation in a batch.
You can create batches for material inventory without any batch specifications.
Maintaining Batch characteristics values for batches is an Optional Feature.
Batch Specifications Example:
If you producing steel billets of a certain quality, you can maintain specifications for a
certain production batch as
Material = Steel Billet
Plant = 0001
Batch Number = 0000056239
Carbon
Si
Magnesium
Sulfur
Potassium
Al

= 0.16
= 0.2
= 0.15
= 0.022
= 0.025
= 0.02

How to Make a Batch Unique with Batch Specifications:

To make a batch specifications unique by adding characteristics such as Production
Date, Production Line, Shelf life of Product or even the supervisors name. If you add
these sort of characteristics with values you would be successful in making a batch
unique with unique set of batch specifications.
Making a batch as unique as possible helps differentiating between multiple batches
which makes it easier for back traceability.

In the above example of Steel Billte production, you can add some more characteristics
in the batch classification, as below:
Material = Steel Billet
Plant = 0001
Batch Number = 0000056239
Carbon
Si
Magnesium
Sulfur
Potassium
Al
Production Date
Production Time
Production Line
Shelf life

= 0.16
= 0.2
= 0.15
= 0.022
= 0.025
= 0.02
= 25th Dec 2009
= 13:12:08
= L3
= 25th Dec 2019

Batch Specifications Target Values:

Batch characteristics can a predefined value maintained. You can maintain the
following:

An absolute value or absolute values

Absolute values predefined will force you enter no other value other than these
predefined ones in the
batches.
A Character format Characteristics STEEL_PRODUCT_GROUPS can have
predefined values such as Billets, Coils, Rounds, and Bars.

While a Numeric characteristics can have predefined values for

characteristics BILLET_LENGTH as 10m, 50m, 100m, 150m, 200m, 250m,

A Tolerance Range Value

A Tolerance value range predefined in the batch characteristics will force you enter
no other value other than
these predefined ones in the batches.
A Character format characteristic cannot have tolerance ranges.

 A Numeric format characteristic CARBON_CONTENT can have predefined

tolerance ranges such as 0.1 0.3.
Leave it blank for entry in the Batches during GR or Tolerance Entry in the
Material Master
There can be situations where you may want to enter any value in the Batch
and not restrict to predefined values in the characteristics
Tolerances ranges at Batch Characteristics Level - There can be situation
where the tolerance ranges change with respect to the materials characteristics
combination.
Tolerances range Material Wise There can be situations where the tolerances for
the characteristics changes with respect to materials, i.e. characteristics
CARBON_CONTENT may not be 0.1 to 0.3 for all the materials and it may vary for
each material, to do this you would have to assign a value for the batch class
characteristics in the material master and not in the batch characteristics level. You
have to enter a value for the characteristics in the material master classification view,
say MATERIAL = M1 for Batch Class STEEL_CHEMISTRY would have a value 0.15
0.3 for the characteristics CARBON_CONTENT.

Master
Date
Specifications:

Maintenance

for

SAP

Batch

If you want to maintain batch specifications for a produced or purchased batch you need
to maintain a set of master data in the order mentioned:

Creation of SAP Characteristics

Create Characteristics through the use of transaction code CT04. Characteristics are
the actual Specification master data with predefined values or number range or open
for entry of any value.
For example to have something called carbon % you have to maintain a
characteristics called CARBON_CONTENT. Similarly you have to create all the
characteristics that you want to use for recording values.

While Creation or during change of characteristics, you can define target predefined
values for the characteristics or define a tolerance number range within which the
recorded value should exists or leave it blank for input of any value during result
recording for the characteristics. Though there can be situations where the allowed
tolerances changes material wise; in which case you can leave the values section in
Characteristics as blank and maintain the required tolerances in the characteristics
at the material master classification view for the batch class or material class.
For example, you can have for the characteristics CARBON_CONTENT you can
define a tolerance number range of 0.17 - 0.24 which means that any resultant value
that you would record should be mandatorily within this range. Or as a second
example for characteristics PRODUCTION_LINE_NUMBER you can have
predefined set of values such as L1, L2, L3, L4, L5 to choose from during result
recording in the Production Batch.
Please see below for details on how to create the characteristics.
Example:
Carbon_Content (Characteristics)
Si_Content (Characteristics)
Mg_Content (Characteristics)
S_Content (Characteristics)
P_Content (Characteristics)
Al_Content (Characteristics)
Production Date (Characteristics)
Production time (Characteristics)
Production Line (Characteristics)
Shelf Life (Characteristics)

= Predefined Range 0.1 0.3

= Predefined Range 0.1 0.3
= Predefined Range 0.2 0.5
= Predefined Range 0.01 0.03
= Predefined Range 0.01 0.004
= Predefined Range 0.01 0.004
= No Predefined Value
= No Predefined Value
= Predefined Values L1, L2, L3, L4, L5
= No Predefined Value

Note when you leave the predefined values as blank in the characteristics, it
means that any value can be entered or it can also mean that the values change
with respect to material master and you have to maintain the values or a value
tolerance range in the material master.

Creation of SAP Batch class

Once you have created all the characteristics, you have to create a class using
transaction code CL01.
A class is a place holder for characteristics. Eventually you would assign the class to
a material master. By assigning a class to a material master you would be indirectly
assigning all the characteristics to the material.
See the illustration below:

STEEL_CHEMISTRY (Batch Class type 023)

Carbon_Content (Characteristics)
Si_Content (Characteristics)
Mg_Content (Characteristics)
S_Content (Characteristics)
P_Content (Characteristics)
Al_Content (Characteristics)
Production Date (Characteristics)
Production time (Characteristics)
Production Line (Characteristics)
Shelf Life (Characteristics)
When you create a Class, you have to specify the class type, whether it is a batch
class or a material class or any other class type for use in any other modules.
Batch class type 022: If you are using Plant Level Batch Maintenance.
Batch class type 023: If you are using Material Level Batch Maintenance or Client
Level Batch Maintenance.
You should include a description of the class and the characteristics or specifications
that should be included in the class.

Create Material Master Classification View and assign a Batch Class

Extend or create Material Master Classification view and add a batch class type to
the classification view (Transaction code MM02 or MM01 Material Master Change
or creation)
You can add batch class type 022: If you are using Plant Level Batch Maintenance.
You can add batch class type 023: If you are using Material Level Batch
Maintenance or Client Level Batch Maintenance.
Assigning a batch class to the material classification view would indirectly assign all
the characteristics to the material master. Thus whenever you create a batch for this
material through MSC1n or you receive materials in stock from production order or
process order or purchase order goods receipt you can record values for these
assigned characteristics only.
See the illustration below:
STEEL_BILLET_123 (Material Master)
STEEL_CHEMISTRY (Class type 023)
Carbon_Content (Characteristics)
Si_Content (Characteristics)
Mg_Content (Characteristics)

 S_Content (Characteristics)
P_Content (Characteristics)
Al_Content (Characteristics)
Production Date (Characteristics)
Production time (Characteristics)
Production Line (Characteristics)
Shelf Life (Characteristics)
Characteristics have a predefined format (character alphanumeric or date or numeric
format) and a predefined set of values in the form of direct values or in the form of
allowed tolerance range or no values (without any values suggesting allowed for
random value entry in batch).
Note: There can be situations where the allowed tolerances changes material wise; in
which case you can leave the values section in Characteristics as blank and maintain
the required tolerances in the characteristics at the material master classification view
for the batch class.