SAP Note 28705 - ME21 ME31 ME41 ME51 Material short text

Symptom:

As of Release 3.0, the short text (short description) for items with material can be changed in the following purchasing documents:
RFQ, purchase order, contract and scheduling agreement.
The changed short texts are also adopted in follow-on documents (e.g. contract text is adopted in the release order).

Restrictions:

1. The short text is not changeable in the purchase requisition. Since the requisition is maintained in the system language but the short text is sought in the vendor language in other purchasing documents, the changed short text from the requisition can never be adopted in other purchasing documents. So as not to awaken any false expectations: the short text in the requisition remains unchangeable.

2. On the item overview screen the short text is always overwritten by the short text from the material master record if you change it after receiving a warning message (e.g. "Delivery date lies in the past"). The system cannot distinguish at this point whether the old short text is a short text suggested by the system or an already changed text. In particular, the material number may have been corrected again subsequent to the warning.

Furthermore, as of Release 3.0, an item with material can also be entered if the short text is not maintained in the document language.
The message ME095 can be deactivated or changed to a warning message in Customizing for this purpose. The system then reads the material short text in the system language.

As of Release 3.0F, it is possible to decide by field selection whether the short text of the material as described above can be changed or not.

Cause and prerequisites
Solution
Release 3.0.
If you do not want to use this new functionality, you may decide as of Release 3.0F by field selection that the short text of the material cannot be changed. In the field selection control, a new entry 'Material short text' is included in the 'Basic data of the item' group.

You can make the following advance corrections:

In the screens SAPMM06E 0121, 0221, 0321 change modification group 4 for the EKPO-TXZ01 field from '102' to '104'.
In the screens SAPMM06E 0111, 0211, 0311 change modification group 3 for
the EKPO-TXZ01 field from ' ' to '002'.

Save and generate all screens.


Add the entry 'D' '1' '102' 'Short text of the material' '01' 'X' 'X'
'X' 'X' ' ' to table T162X using transaction SM31. You may add the same
entry in other languages than 'D'.

Implement the advance corrections of programs MM06EO0M and MM06EF0M.

Maintain the field selection as desired.

Additional key words

Material short text.