One of the things I’ve run into a lot of issues is serialization. For some reason, serial numbers seems to hold a special place of confusion for many customer. Today I want to talk about the serial number number scheme. I’ve picked this as my starting point for serialization because many of my recent projects have had a lot of trouble coming to decisions on this topic.
Serial numbers have a great starting point when it comes to numbering. As of ERP 5.0 or 6.0 (not sure exactly when), SAP added a field called SerializLevel. ![]()
A serial number including an equipment master record is created in inventory management for a goods movement Features Serial numbers can be assigned for goods receipts, goods issues, stock transfers and stock transport orders.
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This field allows you to make the serial number number scheme unique at a global level or unique at a material level. This subtle difference has huge implications on the number scheme. If SerializLevel is blank, then serial number is only unique at a material master level. To put things simply, the combination of serial number and material number is unique, but the same serial number can show up for any material number. If SerializLevel is set to 1, then the serial number is unique across the SAP instance. This means that no serial number will ever show up for any other material. SAP accomplishes this by linking the serial number to the equipment record number. I’ll have a future post that goes into the details of serial numbers vs. equipment records. Since every business is different, and you can often become locked into a particular numbering scheme. The number one decision to make is if the serial number is unique across the organization, or if it can be reused for materials.
There are some things to beware of when using this functionality. The SerializLevel field is plant dependent. This means that you do have the ability to set this value differently across different plants. I discourage setting this differently for the same material. If you were to set the value to be unique across the origanization in one plant, but unique by material in another, you’ll see some very inconsistent results in the history. I’ll go into the serial number history in a future post, but when it comes to serialization, consistency is key.
The final issue to cover when it comes to serial numbers is what I’ve heard called “intelligent” serial numbers. When I say intelligent serial numbers, I use the term loosely. This can be anything from adding a prefix by product to each number, adding in a manufacture date, or it could be a combination of alphanumeric characteristic that have a decoder ring to explain them. In my humble opinion, this is a very slippery slope and should be avoided at all costs. When you move down the path of “intelligent” number schemes, you must introduce ABAP code to accomplish this. I believe the user exit is IEQM0003 (don’t remember for sure if this is the correct exit). Regardless, if you start creating an “intelligent” number scheme, you must have multiple number ranges available, you need code to possibly shift from one range to the next. For anyone that’s been doing SAP for a while, you know that every time you introduce code, you introduce risk, and you introduce additional time to implement.
The most important question to ask is “Why do you need an “intelligent” serial number?” A serial number should be nothing more than a tracking mechanism for a product. Requiring the serial number to mean something is a not something that add value to a product, but it does increase the cost. Anyway, I’ll get off my soap box now. You get the idea that I think intelligent number schemes are costly, risky and unnecessary.
I hope you found this useful. I hope to hear your comments, thoughts, or let me know things I missed.
Thanks for reading,
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,![]()
HiIf we have a material that has EA has basis unit of measure and KG fororder unit, when doing goods receipt against purchase order:Situation 1:Qty in Unit of Entry 1.000 KGQty in SKU 100 EAQty in Delivery Note 100 EANo error message.Situation2:Qty in Unit of Entry 999 KGQty in SKU 99,900 EAQty in Delivery Note 100 EAand we get error message serial number management only allows wholenumbers. Quantity delivered is the same in basis unit so why is thesystem producing the error message? Is there a way of avoiding this?BR.
Hi,Serial numbers are maintained for quantity in base unit of measure.In your example quantity is not a whole number (99,9 EA). 1 serial number is assigned to each unit; however system is unable to create serial number for 0,9 units here.You cannot use serial number if you have units which have decimals.Check serial number profile assigned to material in material master.If stock check is not very important, try to change stock check setting to warning for serial number profile in IMG txn OIS2.Best regards,Ramki.
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