What is SAP MM ? Features and Benefits of SAP MM

MM Stands for Material Management.It is one of the largest functional module in SAP. This module mainly deals with the Procurement Process, Master Data (Material & Vendor Master), Inventory Management, Valuation of Material & Account Determination, Material Requirement Planning, Invoice Verification etc.

Logistics is the most extensive area of the SAP Application and contains the largest number of components as follows..
MM : Material Management
PP : Production Planning
PM : Plant Maintenance
PS : Project Systems
QM : Quality Management
SD : Sales and Distribution

Above of this, SAP MM is the key area within Logistics in SAP. It is very important component of Logistics because it is tightly integrated with all of other components of SAP Logistics. MM contains of the following components..

MM-PUR : Purchasing
MM-IM : Inventory Management
MM-CBP : Consumption based Planning
MM-IV : Invoice Verification
MM-EDI : Electronic Data Inter-exchange
MM-IS : Information System

Material Management is the module that supports the procurement activities in an organization right 

from the planning and purchasing to inventory management and quality control. This module has several features and functionality that are fully integrated with the other important modules like Finance and Control, Sales and Distribution, Production Plannin 

The procurement process consists of a chain of events that take place in order. Starting from the creation of a Purchase Requisition (PR), it moves to the authorization of PR and creation of a Purchase Order (PO). Subsequently, the Goods Receipt (GR) is generated on receipt of the goods ordered, Invoice Verification takes place and the Quality Control activities are set in motion. Thereafter, the payment is sent to the vendors for their goods /services.

Benefits of SAP MM

Customer demands are changing rapidly, an organization’s efficiency is measured primarily by its ability to cater to the market demands in the shortest time possible. For this to happen, the business has to have stock of the required raw materials at the right time and must be able to use it efficiently A proper Material Management process ensures that there is never a shortage of materials or any gaps in the supply chain process of the organization. The SAP MM automates the procurement and material management activities to make the processes smoother and effective. Some prominent benefits of SAP MM are:

• Reduces material costs by avoiding stocking of unnecessary or obsolete materials
• Inventory losses are minimized
• Direct labour costs are reduced and labour can be used efficiently
• Manufacturing cycle times are reduced and can be controlled effectively
• Effective inventory management and reduces expenditure on unwanted material storage
• Improves delivery time and increases transparency across the organization