Table of Contents
Material Master, also called item/part/product in other domains and solutions, data sits at the core of mission-critical processes across sales, manufacturing, purchasing, planning, logistics, customer service, and maintenance.
Core Material Master Data and Extended Material Master Data
Core Material Master Data represents the material within an ERP system, such as SAP. This includes basic information, organizational data segmented by function (sales, purchasing, MRP, warehouse, accounting, quality, storage), and cross-functional attributes like tax classification and cost information. Core data is typically maintained within the material master record itself and is essential for the material to function in day-to-day business processes.
Extended Material Master Data encompasses process-oriented data that connects a material to the broader enterprise and supply chain. This includes manufacturing (bills of material, recipes, routings, production versions), quality management (inspection plans), supply chain relationships (approved suppliers, approved manufacturers, purchasing contracts, pricing conditions), regulatory compliance (EHS info), and product variations.
The key distinction is scope and ownership: core data is largely self-contained within the material record, while extended data spans multiple objects and often involves cross-functional stakeholders. A single material might have one core record but connect to dozens of BOMs, multiple routings, numerous supplier relationships, and complex pricing structures. Extended data governance becomes exponentially more challenging, and business-led MDM approaches that engage business stakeholders (not just IT) become critical for reducing cycle times and maintaining data quality across this broader data landscape.
End-to-end Material Master Data Processes
Material Master Data processes are among the most comprehensive and complex, both in scope and in orchestration requirements. Below is an example of an end-to-end process for creating a new Finished Product.
Most Master Data Management initiatives and tools focus almost entirely on the data itself, while treating the underlying business processes as an afterthought or ignoring them altogether. It is equivalent to putting a solid D- effort.
You can see a grand canyon-sized gap between what the business expects from Master data and where traditional master data solutions end.
Reduce cycle time and improve the quality of Material Master data using process orchestration
End-to-end Material Master data processes, as shown below, are among the most cross-functional and time-consuming in the organization. Even in well-run organizations, Material Master data processes tend to be the weak link, leading to long cycle times, low master data quality, and high cost. The root causes are
- Coordination issues leading to missed handoffs
- Poor-quality master data entering the workflow and propagating through the end-to-end process, increasing cost, rework, and operational risk
- Excessive non-value-added work
The ideal and practical approach for supporting Material Master data business processes is Process Orchestration.
Process orchestration is the end-to-end coordination of multiple activities, including people-oriented data collection, review and approval, systems integration, data transformation and validation, to ensure a complete business process runs reliably, consistently, and efficiently across cross-functional teams and different applications.
Process orchestration addresses the root causes of poor master data processes by supporting
- Smooth handoffs of master data between cross-functional teams and systems
- Error-proofing and validation to ensure perfect master data in the end-to-end process
- Automation and AI-based agents to eliminate non-value-added work
How New Product Introduction (NPI), Engineering Change, and Component Engineering business processes create and change Material Master data
For many manufacturing organizations across industries (CPG, High-tech, Industrial Manufacturing, Automotive), Material Master data is embedded into New Product Introduction (NPI), Component Engineering, and Engineering Change Management processes.
In fact, there is really no reason to have separate Master Data Management/Governance processes.
The following picture shows the business processes and types of Material Master Core and Extended data that are created or changed.
