Serial Numbers

Hi Guru's

I know the standard Serial Number assignment is for a unique number per material/Batch.

My problem is that we often repair material that we have either manufactured or repaired in the past and SAP already holds a Serial Number/Batch combination. When we try to Create a Production Order and assign the serial Number of the product, we get a message stating the current batch doesn't match that of the previous batch, which it won't do as it a different Production Order.

Is there any way of allowing a serial Number to be reused with a different batch Number fro the same Material