Table of Contents
The general misconception is that master data management is primarily about the domain’s core master data. Take, for example, Material Master data (aka Part/Item/Product). In the real world, and based on our experience, material master data, as viewed from the perspective of core data, is less than 25% of the overall scope of the end-to-end process.
End-to-End Business Process for Material Master (New Product) Creation
The overall scope or material master creation process is significant and cross-functional, and includes many of the activities and master data elements listed below.
- Get Material Number (can be based on internal sequences or intelligent part numbering schemes)
- Create preliminary information (in SAP it would be Basic View)
- Block material (so that material cannot be used until it is ready)
- Get UPC/GTIN codes
- Collect information on planning/finance/logistics/purchasing/MRP/production planning/costing/sales and distribution.
- Packaging related information (Units of Measure information)
- Manufacturing planning (Internal manufacturing/Co-manufacturing/copacking)
- Logistics planning (distribution centers, transportation lanes)
- Extending material to different plants/storage locations/warehouses/ sales areas
- Designing and creating Bills of Material (BOM)
- Designing and creating Recipes
- Creating Routing information
- Production version setup for different plants
- Specifications
- EHS and Compliance information
- Characteristics (for batches and other purposes)
- Hierarchy Information
- Pricing conditions
- Unblocking the material for use (this last step is when the material is available for use)
Business Process-centric MDM vs ERP-centric MDM vs Data-centric MDM
The picture below compares a Business Process-centric MDM approach to ERP-centric MDM (SAP MDG, for example) and Data-centric MDM (Informatica). With ERP-centric and data-centric master data approaches, most of the business process is not supported.
