Material types

Each material bought or sold by plants within AVEVA Unified Supply Chain must have an underlying material type. Material types are used to categorize and group different materials for display and reporting purposes. For example, in the Sales grid, products are grouped by their material type for display purposes.

Material types form part of a hierarchy, and are always descended from a common ancestor called All Material Types. The actual parent of the material type does not matter, since it is usually only the final material type for a purchase or sale that is used to group different materials for reporting purposes. However, material types further up the hierarchy can also be used to aggregate different materials.

Example: You may define the material type LPG, and this may have children Propane and Butane. When selling grades from a plant, you might choose to sell propane and butane. Within the Sales grid, both of these materials are listed separately because they have different material types. However, you may wish to know the amount of LPG sold, which is the sum of the amount of butane and propane. As both of these grades descend from the material type LPG, within a Watch Window you can request the amount of LPG sold, which will automatically return the sum of the two different grades.

To add a new material type:

1. Select the parent material type for the new material type.

2. Do either of the following:

   • Click Add in the Material Types group of the Home ribbon tab.

   • Right click on the parent material type and choose Add New Material Type from the context menu.

3. The Add New Material Type dialog box opens. Enter a name and choose a share where to publish the new material type. Ensure the correct parent is set.

4. Click OK. The new material type is added to the tree.

You can also add an existing material type, that is, add a copy of a material type at a different place in the hierarchy:

5. Select the parent material type for the copy of the existing material type.

6. Do either of the following:

   • Click the arrow next to the Add button in the Material Types group of the Home ribbon tab. Choose Existing Material Type from the menu that appears.

   • Right click on the parent material type and choose Add Existing Material Type from the context menu.

7. The Add Existing Material Type dialog box opens. Choose a material type from the Material Type drop-down list. Ensure the correct parent is set.

8. Click OK. A copy of the chosen material type is added to the tree.

To edit a material type:

9. Select the material type you want to edit.

10. Do either of the following:

    • Click Edit in the Material Types group of the Home ribbon tab.

    • Right click on the selected material type and choose Edit Material Type from the context menu.

11. Make your edits in the Edit Material Type dialog. Note that you cannot change the Parent of the material type (see Reordering Material Types in the Hierarchy below for how to do so).

12. Click OK.

To delete one or more material types:

13. Select the material types you want to delete.

14. Do either of the following:

    • Click Delete in the Material Types group of the Home ribbon tab.

    • Right click on the selected material types and choose Delete Material Type from the context menu.

15. Click Yes in the confirmation dialog.

Reordering material types in the hierarchy

The material type list appears as a tree structure, with nodes that can be expanded and collapsed by clicking on the triangle icons next to the node names. Material types at the same level of the hierarchy can be ordered: this order does not matter and may be chosen based on organizational preference. The level of a material type in the hierarchy does matter, and should be configured to group materials as required.

To move a material type among its siblings, follow these steps:

16. Select the material type you wish to move.

17. Do either of the following:

    • Click the Move Up or Move Down button in the Material Types group of the Home ribbon tab.

    • Right click the material and choose Move Up or Move Down from the context menu.

To change the level of a material type in the hierarchy, follow these steps:

18. Select the material type you wish to move.

19. If necessary, change the position of the material type among its siblings as described above.

20. Do either of the following:

    • Click Make Sibling in the Material Types group of the Home ribbon tab. The selected material type becomes a sibling of its parent, that is, goes up one level in the hierarchy. You can also right click on the material type and choose Make Sibling from the context menu.

    • Click Make Child in the Material Types group of the Home ribbon tab. The selected material type becomes a child of the sibling above it, that is, goes down one level in the hierarchy. You can also right click on the material type and choose Make Child from the context menu.