Item data

Companies can contain multiple business units in different locations and countries. For each location, the logistic and administrative handling of an item can be different. Here are some examples:

The item is purchased from different suppliers at a different price
The item is manufactured using different semi-finished products
The item is produced using different machines
The item is handled differently on purchase orders, sales orders, or service orders

If a company uses the multisite functionality, the locations are modeled using sites and departments (offices). The items used at these locations must also be set up by site and by office. Consequently, if you use multisite, you must specify the item data both at global (company) level and at local (site, office) level. If you do not use multisite, you specify the item data only at the global level.

Global and local item data

Global item data includes the centrally controlled item data at the company level, such as item code and description, item type, item group, unit of measure, and settings about configuration, customization, unit effectivity, order system, traceability, pegging, and engineering change control. If you use multisite, you specify which sites and offices can store, buy, make, and sell the item.

Local item data can be specified only if you use multisite. It includes the locally controlled item data at the site and office level, such as product group, supply source and all country-specific data. You specify how the item is stored, bought, made, and sold.

Both at global and local level, subentities of the item data can be specified. The item's subentities include the item data that is specific for the various LN packages, such as item sales data, item production data, and item purchase data by site.

Note

All items that are used in a company are displayed in the Items (tcibd0501m000) overview session.

If you want to maintain the item data only at the global level instead of at the local level, in various item data by site and item data by office sessions, you can indicate that you want to use the global item data for the site or office. Consequently, changes to the item data at company level are synchronized automatically to the site or office level.

Setting up the item data - multisite active

If your company uses multisite, you specify the item data at the global (company) level and at the local (site, office) level.

This table shows references to topics that outline the item setup for multisite:

Item process flow	See New items in a multisite environment - process flow
Item defaults	See: Setting up item defaults for multisite Item defaults by site Item defaults by office
Item data	See: Setting up item data for multisite Item data by site Item data by office

Setting up the item data - multisite inactive

If your company does not use multisite, you specify the item data only at the global level. See Setting up the item data.

Copying the item data

Instead of creating new items based on the item defaults, you can also create new items by copying existing items. See Copying the item data.

Optional item data

Use of some item data is optional, depending on specific situations. See Optional item data.