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SAP Material Master Automation

Material master, created right the first time.

From a department's request to a complete, validated material in SAP. Artificio checks for duplicates, recommends the settings, and runs the whole cross-department workflow across every view. No duplicate parts, no missing fields, no downstream mess.

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  • Built for manufacturing
  • SOC 2 Type II
  • ISO 27001
  • ECC & S/4HANA
MATERIAL REQUEST · MR-2043IN REVIEW
Requested by
Engineering
Description
Bearing, 6205-2RS
Type / group
HALB · Rotating
Attachments
drawing.pdf · spec.pdf · quote.pdf

âš  Possible duplicate found

Bearing 6205 2RS (existing)
MAT-10044
Similarity
91%
  • Basic ✓
  • Purchasing ✓
  • MRP …
  • Accounting …
  • QM
  • WM
  • Extracts data from attached drawings, specs & quotes
  • Catches duplicate & near-identical materials before they're created
  • Routes each SAP view to the right department to complete
  • Creates in SAP with the source documents attached
0Duplicate materials
All viewsComplete & validated
Days→hrsCreation cycle time
100%Field-level change log
FewerDownstream errors

Why material master is so painful

One bad material master pollutes everything downstream.

Creating a material in SAP means populating dozens of fields across many views (Basic Data, Sales, MRP, Purchasing, Quality, Warehouse, Accounting and Costing), and each view is owned by a different department. Requests bounce around in emails and spreadsheets, duplicates slip in, views get left half-finished, and the errors don't show up until later: an MRP run orders the wrong quantity, a product is mis-costed, a sales order can't be delivered. Artificio turns that scramble into one governed workflow that gets the material right (and complete), before it ever hits SAP.

What changes

Clean data in, fewer fires downstream.

  • Data quality

    No duplicates, no gaps

    • Data extracted from source documents
    • Duplicate & similarity check up front
    • Every required view completed
    • Rules enforced before creation
  • Speed

    Days to hours

    • Parallel department input, not serial email
    • Smart-recommended starting values
    • Live status: no chasing
    • Auto-create once complete
  • Governance

    Full audit & lifecycle

    • Field-level change log on create & edit
    • Who changed what, when, old → new
    • Approval trail across departments
    • Traceable through the product lifecycle

End to end

From request to a governed material in SAP.

Eight steps, fully orchestrated: no one chasing anyone by email.

  1. 1Request

    A department raises a request: often with documents

    Engineering, sales, procurement, or planning submits a new-material request through a simple form, frequently with a customer drawing, quote, or specification attached. No SAP access needed to start it.

  2. 2Extract

    It reads the attached documents

    Artificio extracts data straight from the drawing, spec, and quote (dimensions, material, tolerances, part attributes, pricing and source), so the material draft is built from the real documents, not typed from scratch.

  3. 3Duplicate check

    Artificio checks for duplicates & near-matches

    Before anything is created, it searches existing materials for exact and similar items (description, specs, and attributes), so you don't end up with five part numbers for the same thing.

  4. 4Recommend

    It recommends the settings

    Combining the extracted document data with your rules and how similar materials were set up before, Artificio proposes material type, groups, MRP type, valuation, and view-by-view defaults, so departments start from a smart, sourced draft, not a blank screen.

  5. 5Collaborate

    Each view routed to the right team

    An email workflow with an embedded online form goes to each responsible department to review, correct, and complete their view: MRP to planning, valuation to finance, and so on. Everyone fills only what they own, with the source documents attached for reference.

  6. 6Validate

    Every view checked & signed off

    Artificio validates completeness and rules across all views and confirms each department has submitted, so nothing is created half-populated.

  7. 7Create

    Material created in SAP, documents attached

    Once everything is verified, Artificio creates the material master in SAP through standard OData or BAPI (all views in one governed step), and attaches the source drawing, spec, and quote to the material.

  8. 8Handoff

    Downstream process notified

    It signals the next teams (BOM, routing, and more), that the material is ready, so downstream setup starts immediately with accurate data and the source documents on hand.

Every view, the right owner

All material master views, coordinated.

Artificio routes each SAP view to the department that owns it and assembles them into one complete material.

  • Engineering / MDM

    Basic Data

    Description, UoM, dimensions, material group.
  • Sales

    Sales Org 1 & 2

    Sales org/distribution, tax, item group.
  • Planning

    MRP 1–4

    MRP type, lot size, procurement, scheduling.
  • Procurement

    Purchasing

    Purchasing group, order unit, source.
  • Quality

    QM

    Inspection setup, QM procurement, certs.
  • Warehouse

    Warehouse / WM

    Storage type, bins, unit of measure.
  • Finance

    Accounting

    Valuation class, price control, valuation.
  • Controlling

    Costing

    Costing view, overhead, cost estimate data.

Views and ownership are configured to your organization; not every material needs every view.

The collaboration engine

One request, every department, no email chaos.

Artificio fans the request out to each owner with an embedded form, tracks who's done, and pulls it all back together.

Artificio · Material Request MR-2043recommends · routes · validates · tracks
  • PlanningMRP viewsform → submitted ✓
  • ProcurementPurchasingform → submitted ✓
  • FinanceAccountingform → in review
  • QualityQM viewform → pending

Each department gets an email with an online form embedded. They review the recommended values, correct what's needed, and submit. Artificio only creates the material once every required view is complete.

Mass creation

Creating hundreds of materials? Upload a spreadsheet.

Single requests run through the workflow above. For bulk loads (a new plant, a product line, a data migration), Artificio takes an Excel file and creates them all, with the same duplicate check and validation applied to every row.

  • Option A · your file

    Upload any spreadsheet: no fixed template

    Put your columns wherever they are, name them however you like. Artificio's AI auto-matches your columns to the right SAP material fields. No rigid layout to conform to, no load that breaks because a column moved.

    "Part Desc"
    Basic Data · Description
    "UoM"
    Base Unit of Measure
    "Buyer Grp"
    Purchasing Group
    "Plan type"
    MRP Type
  • Option B · our template

    Or download a template & fill it in

    Prefer structure? Download a ready-made Excel template with the fields for the views you need, fill in your data, and upload it back. Ideal for handing to a team or a supplier to populate.

    • Template scoped to the views you select
    • Built-in value help & validation
    • Fill offline, upload when ready
  1. Upload
  2. AI column match
  3. Duplicate check per row
  4. Validate
  5. Create in SAP

Every row gets the same treatment as a single request: duplicates flagged, rules enforced, errors returned for correction before anything is created. No half-loaded materials, no bulk mess to clean up after.

Every field, every change

A complete change log: for creation and the whole lifecycle.

Artificio records every field value at creation and every edit afterward, so master-data governance and audit have a full history for the life of the material.

MATERIAL 6205-2RS · CHANGE LOG8 entries
  • MRP TypePDVBPlanning · A.Chen · 10:24
  • Valuation Class3000setFinance · R.Okoye · 10:31
  • Purchasing GroupP01P07Procurement · S.Vega · 10:40
  • Safety Stock120setPlanning · A.Chen · 10:44

The handoff

Accurate material → faster everything after it.

A complete, correct material master is the foundation for everything downstream. Artificio hands off the moment it's ready.

  1. Material mastercreated & verified
  2. BOMnotified to build
  3. Routingoperations setup
  4. MRP · Costing · Salesrun on clean data

Because the material is right and complete from the start, MRP plans correctly, costing is accurate, and sales orders and deliveries don't stall on missing or wrong master data.

Why Artificio

Not an email chain. Not a form nobody governs.

Most material creation runs on email, spreadsheets, and manual MM01 keying, or a rigid workflow tool that still doesn't check duplicates or recommend values. Artificio governs the whole thing and posts to SAP itself.

CapabilityEmail + MM01Basic workflow toolArtificio
Duplicate / similarity check✗✗✓
Recommends settings from history/rules✗rules only✓
Routes each view to its ownermanual✓✓
Embedded form in email workflow✗varies✓
Validates all views before create✗partial✓
Creates in SAP automatically✗ manual MM01✗✓ OData/BAPI
Field-level change log & lifecycleSAP onlypartial✓
Downstream handoff (BOM, routing)✗✗✓

For SAP teams

Created through standard SAP interfaces: no ABAP, no MDG project.

Artificio creates and updates the material master through standard interfaces (OData (API_PRODUCT / API_MATERIAL) and BAPI (BAPI_MATERIAL_SAVEDATA)), across all views, with no custom ABAP and no changes to your SAP core. It reads existing materials for duplicate detection, enforces your rules, and writes a full change history. A lighter path to governed material creation than a full MDG implementation, and it runs on ECC or S/4HANA.

What this looks like in practice

Duplicate-free materials, complete on the first pass.

A manufacturer replaced an email-and-spreadsheet material request process with Artificio: requests are checked for duplicates, each department completes its view through an embedded form, and the material is created in SAP only when everything's verified, cutting the cycle from days to hours and stopping duplicate parts and downstream MRP and costing errors at the source.

Days → hours
material creation cycle
~0
duplicate materials created
All views
complete before SAP
Read the case study

Questions MDM & SAP teams ask

Answers before the demo.

Can we create materials in bulk, not one at a time?
Yes. Upload an Excel file and Artificio creates them all. You can use your own spreadsheet with columns in any order and any names (the AI auto-matches your columns to the right SAP fields, so there's no rigid template to conform to), or download a ready-made template, fill it, and upload it back. Either way, every row runs through the same duplicate check and validation before anything is created, so a bulk load doesn't mean bulk errors.
What if the request comes with drawings, specs, or quotes?
That's ideal. Artificio extracts data directly from attached customer drawings, specifications, and quotes (dimensions, material, tolerances, part attributes, pricing, and source), and uses it to pre-fill the recommended values across the views. The documents are then attached to the material in SAP, so the drawing or spec stays with the material for its whole lifecycle and anyone can open the original from the material record.
How does the duplicate check work?
Before a material is created, Artificio searches your existing material master for exact and near-identical items: comparing descriptions, specifications, and attributes, not just exact text. Possible matches are surfaced with a similarity score so the requester can reuse an existing material instead of creating a duplicate.
Which views does it handle?
All of them, configured to your setup: Basic Data, Sales Org 1 & 2, MRP 1–4, Purchasing, Quality (QM), Warehouse/WM, Accounting, and Costing. Each view is routed to the department that owns it, and Artificio assembles them into one complete material.
How does the department workflow actually work?
Each responsible department receives an email with an online form embedded. They see the recommended values for their view, correct or complete what's needed, and submit. No SAP login required. Artificio tracks who's done, chases what's outstanding, and only proceeds when every required view is complete.
Where do the recommended settings come from?
From two sources: the rules you configure (material type, groups, valuation logic) and patterns in how similar existing materials were set up. So departments start from an intelligent draft rather than a blank screen, which speeds them up and improves consistency.
Is this the same as SAP MDG?
It solves a similar problem (governed material creation), but it's a lighter, faster path that connects to your existing SAP through standard interfaces, with no MDG implementation or ABAP. If you already run MDG, Artificio can complement it with duplicate detection, recommendations, and the embedded-form department workflow.
Does it keep a change history?
Yes. Artificio logs every field at creation and every edit afterward (who changed what, when, and the old and new values), so you have a full audit trail across the material's lifecycle, not just at creation.
Does it work on SAP ECC?
Yes: on ECC and S/4HANA, through standard OData and BAPI, with no ABAP and no core changes.

Security & compliance

Enterprise security across every solution

ISO 27001:2013 certified, SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, GDPR and HIPAA ready. Every agent action is logged, auditable, and runs in isolated environments.

  • ISO 27001:2013
  • SOC 2 Type II
  • GDPR ready
  • HIPAA ready

Live demo

See a material go from request to SAP: governed.

We'll walk your MDM and SAP teams through a real material request: duplicate check, recommended settings, the department workflow, and creation into a SAP sandbox with a full change log.

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