SAP Materials Management is a module in the SAP ERP software package that gives companies the ability to manage materials, inventory, and warehouses from one centralized application. Its primary use is to ensure that a business' materials get kept in sufficient quantities. SAP MM handles all tasks involved in the supply chain, including material requirements planning, vendor evaluation, invoice verification, and inventory management. SAP MM is part of SAP Logistics included in the SAP ERP, and it tracks materials from the manufacturer to the business and finally to the customer. The business' materials department will order goods from suppliers, and MM will handle the P.O. and shipping of those materials. SAP MM will also determine how much of this material is used in manufacturing and trigger reorder actions when stock reduces.

Knowledge of SAP Material Management will enable you to work in the procurement and inventory management fields, and there are many specific career opportunities in this industry. Material managers are responsible for planning, procurement, storage, and distribution of materials in a business and use SAP MM to aid their job. SAP MM plant maintenance analysts integrate SAP MM into the equipment and systems used in a manufacturing company. Purchase executives are responsible for buying materials, goods, and services for a business and will use SAP MM to streamline the purchasing process. Anyone involved in handling the materials for a manufacturing process will benefit from knowing SAP MM. SAP MM consultants specialize in helping their clients with configuring and using SAP MM for their business and developing strategies to optimize business operations.

With no prerequisites to learning SAP Materials Management, you can learn everything you need to know to use MM in a SAP MM course. But to use SAP Materials Management effectively, you need to know basic business processes and terminology. The skills you need to bring with you to the course have more to do with your job than they do with MM. So if you have little knowledge of your company operations, brush up on them before learning SAP MM. Understand how processes work in your business because they may be complex and pass through many different departments in your company. Even if in a technical role, you should get to know how your business operates so you can apply all the functionality that SAP Materials Management provides to your specific business use cases.