Serial Number more than 18 char length

[former_member636501]

Hi Experts,

Is there any configuration which will make serial number bigger than 18 char( upto 30) unique to the material and alternatively is there any config which can make serial number non unique to material in ECC 5.0 system because it seems serial number uniqueness is hardcoded in system.

Thanks and Regards,

Tushar

[Former Member]

Dear Tushar,

This is not possible to have more than 18 char for serial number.

Thanks & Regards

Kundan Kumar

[paul_meehan]

Hi,

No, there is no option to increase the size. Current limit is determined by data dictionary definition.

-Paul

[former_member636501]

Thanks for replying, Its not clear to me why 30 char serial no field (SERGE) is given when system is considering only first 18 char as unique. How to handle serial number bigger than 18 char then?

[paul_meehan]

Tushar,

With reference to field SERGE you may be refering to the 'Manufacturer Serial No' field in equipment master (transaction IE02). This is only a reference field and is nothing to do with the actual material/serial number feature in the system.

If you check transaction IQ01 it is seen that the domain for serial number field is GERNR. This has a maximum length of 18.

-Paul

[former_member636501]

Thanks Paul, but the questions still remains, how to handle serial numbers > 18 char, is there any exit or BADI which can be used to do that?

Thanks,

Tushar

[paul_meehan]

Tushar,

I cannot really see any way of handling > 18 chrs. The serial number has to fit into the existing tables and structures which will only hold a maximum of 18.

(I'm assuming you are using the serialised materials).

Are the serial numbers really bigger than 18 chrs ? Maybe there are leading digits such as 10000000000123456789. If given to you in that format can you just record these as 100123456789 or 123456789. If other chars in the serial number just remove them, 123-45-67 would become 1234567.

Another option might be to convert the customer/suppliers serial numbers into an internal format for use on your system then convert back to original value on documentation to the customer/supplier. You would need a custom table to link original and internal version.

The extream option would be to adjust the data dictionary to make the field bigger. This would be a huge modification as various internal structures, screens, reports, etc would need to be adjusted.

-Paul