Item Master

You must set certain controls and reference options before defining items. These enable you to maintain, group, reference, query, and delete your items. Once you have defined items, you can set up other parameters, such as item cross references, to control the use of items.

You define items in one organization. To distinguish it from others, we call it the Item Master organization. Other organizations (child organizations) refer to the Item Master for item definition. After you define an item in the Item Master, you can assign it to any number of other organizations.

There is no functional or technical difference between the Item Master organization and other organizations. However, for simplicity, Oracle recommends that you limit the Item Master to just an item definition organization.

Oracle also recommends that you do not define multiple item masters. This can make item definition and maintenance confusing. In addition, multiple item masters are distinct entities, with no relationship to each other. You cannot associate items in one item master organization with another item master organization. You cannot copy items across item master organizations.

To create the item master:
1. Use the Organization window to create the organization you want to use as the Item Master.
2. Use the Organization Parameters window to specify that organization as the Item Master.

Item Master Business Example
Suppose you have a distribution warehouse and a manufacturing factory. In the warehouse, the item has independent demand and is min–max planned. In the factory, the item is MRP planned and built.

Using an Item Master with a warehouse and a factory as the other organizations, you define the item just once—in the Item Master. Next, you assign the item to both the warehouse and the factory. Finally, you change the planning and build attributes in each organization to
describe the different behavior of the items in those organizations. You do not have to change any other information about the item; in fact, because information such as unit of measure, description, and so on is maintained at the Master level, you know it is consistent in each organization