Control the field selection for materials
After copying standard material types, you gain the opportunity to control which master data fields are going to be mandatory, optional or hidden when creating or changing material master data. This is controlled by means of field selection groups and field reference groups.
The individual material master data fields are grouped into field selection groups when they share common characteristics. It is advised NOT to change the field selection groups as you could interfere with the configuration of other model companies for those users sharing your IDES environment.
The Sandbox Tycoon® prototype uses the field reference groups to control the field selection for materials. You can make as many field reference groups whilst knowing that you can only assign one field reference group to a material type (which is done in a separate configuration step). Custom made field reference groups provides sufficient flexibility to control which material master data fields are mandatory, optional or not available for data entry.
The Sandbox Tycoon ‘SCM Light’ prototype system does not require the determination of a ‘profit centre’ for materials because the associated controlling functionality is out of scope. Therefore hiding that field during material master data maintenance is advised.
It has to be stated that you would need some knowledge regarding the database tables and fields for the material master data. So you need to know up front that the MARC table and PRCTR field stores the profit centre. Acquiring that type of knowledge is out of scope of this wiki, so it is recommended to consult a technical SAP consultant within your network when you need assistance.
So the objective is to hide the profit centre when creating finished goods. Therefore the first step is to create a custom field reference group for finished products. It is assumed that the field reference group FERT is assigned to the material type Y001.
Use the following path in the implementation guide: IMG >> Logistics – General >> Material Master >> Field Selection >> Maintain Field Selection for Data Screens
When accessing the configuration transaction, you see the fields associated to the first field selection group and associated control per field reference group.
First it is necessary to create a new field reference group based on the existing FERT field reference group that is currently assigned to the finished goods material type Y001. Select the row for the field selection group FERT and select the menu path Edit >> Copy As. The screen now shows the details for the source field reference group. Define a code for the new field reference group. The Sandbox Tycoon prototype system uses the field reference group Y001 for the finished products. Press the ENTER key to allow the system to verify your new field reference group.
Now that the new field reference group has been created, the control for the profit centre needs to be set. The first task is to identify the field selection group that contains the profit centre. Please the cursor in the field selection group field and press the F4 key. The ‘field selection group’ pop-up appears with a list of field selection groups. Select the FIND button and enter the search criteria MARC-PRCTR that is the material master technical object for the profit centre on the ‘find’ pop-up screen. The Sandbox Tycoon system has the profit centre in the field selection group 48.
Press the ENTER key to confirm the found field selection group and to close the ‘find’ pop-up screen. Press ENTER again to confirm the field selection group and to close the ‘field selection group’ pop-up screen. Finally, press the ENTER key to show the content of the field selection group that contains the profit centre.
Now focus on the field reference groups. Scroll to the row that refers to the Y001 field reference group. Decide whether to hide the profit centre, only display the profit centre, make the profit centre a mandatory field or make the profit centre an optional field.
Press the SAVE button to save the data in a transport request.
You can now exit the configuration transaction.
