automatic conversion old material number

[Former Member]

hello all

as far as I can remember, there is a possibility to insert an old material number in a material field like in PO and the system will automatically find the SAP material number and substitut the old number.

The correspondent in SD would be the material determination, transaction VB11.

can someone help me with this process please? I looked for it in forums and documentation but could not find any useful information

[JL23]

not sure if I understand your request.

I am not aware of a material substitution in MM, this is pure SD functionality in a core ERP system. Maybe there is an industry solution that can do more.

I also never saw any automatic substitution of old material numbers, as this is pure information and can only be used in F4 search help A material by old material number.

If you have setup your F4 search help to directly return the value in case of a single hit

and you have used the material by old material search help the last time then the same search help is proposed when you press F4.

If those 2 prerequisites are in place then you can enter =your old material (example: =1000) in the material number field of ME21N and it directly changes to the new material number.

[Former Member]

hello Juergen

thank you for your reply.

I am not sure I understand what you are writing:

"f you have setup your F4 search help to directly return the value in case of a single hit

and you have used the material by old material search help the last time then the same search help is proposed when you press F4."

can you give me a practical example?

[JL23]

in your menu under HELP > settings you define if a value is returned directly or if you get a pop-up to select the record

You should already know that the F4 search help always comes up with the last used search method. Switch it to old material number and do a search and select a number, this will make this default for next time when you hit F4.

Finally go ME21N, put the cursor into the material number field and enter =10001 (where 10001 is just an example for an old material number, you need to enter one of your old material numbers)

[nishan_dev]

Hi Alisa,

You can use old material number - MARA-BISMT in material master basic data 1 view. You can use the old material number to systematically search for material, master records via match codes.

Thanks,
Nishan Dev

[Former Member]

hello Nishan and thank you for your answer.

I am aware of this search but we were trying to avoid the extra search if possible.

in other old replies it is stated that this possibility does not exist for purchasing and I was wondering if in the meantime, that has changed since those replies are from 2012