Industrial Materials

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated July 1, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Industrial Materials

    The Industrial Materials feature in ServiceNow’s Industrial Connected Workforce (ICW) enables you to manage and navigate the materials used across your industrial operations. It provides a hierarchical, tree-based view of all material classes and their associated products within your system. Accessible via the Material model icon in the Digital Factory Workspace, this feature displays parent-child relationships between material classes and allows detailed viewing and editing of material class information—provided you have the necessary permissions.

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    New classes and materials created through the forms appear within the configured hierarchy, supporting inheritance behavior that lets you configure materials and classes at different levels. The feature also includes a list of all classes under a selected material class and allows opening multiple classes in new tabs for easier management. A search function highlights relevant material classes within the tree, and URL sharing enables seamless collaboration by directing team members to specific material classes.

    Key Features

    • Hierarchical Material Classification: Organizes material classes and products in a tree structure for intuitive navigation and management.
    • Detailed Material Class Forms: View and edit material class details, with changes reflected in the tree hierarchy.
    • Inheritance Support: Configure materials and classes at various levels within the hierarchy, maintaining flexible classification.
    • Search and Navigation: Quickly locate specific material classes within the tree using search and related lists.
    • Collaboration via URL Sharing: Share direct links to material classes to enhance team collaboration and communication.
    • Material Compatibility Scoping: When creating tasks, the system filters available materials based on compatibility with equipment, assets, or ISA-95 functional locations, using interoperability mappings configured by administrators.

    Key Outcomes

    • Maintain accurate, up-to-date material information to support industrial workflows.
    • Simplify navigation and management of complex material classifications across your organization.
    • Ensure task material selections are relevant and compatible with operational equipment and locations, improving operational efficiency.
    • Improve collaboration among team members by sharing precise material class references.

    Use Industrial Materials to manage the materials used for the Industrial Connected Workforce (ICW).

    Industrial Materials overview

    The Industrial Materials feature provides a hierarchical view of all material classes defined in your system. It helps you manage and navigate through material classifications. Classes represent types, and materials are the actual products within each level of the tree.

    You can access the Industrial Materials feature by selecting the Material model icon () in the Digital Factory Workspace. The tree displays all material classes defined in your system, enabling you to navigate through the parent and child relationships. Select any material class to view its details, such as material instances with the Materials tab.

    When you select a material class, a form loads displaying detailed information about the selected class. If you have sufficient permissions, you can edit the details. When you create classes and materials using the forms, the new entries appear at the configured level within the tree. The system supports inheritance behavior, which enables materials and classes to be configured at different levels.

    The feature includes a list showing all classes defined under the selected material class. You can open any class from this list in a new tab, providing an easy way to explore and manage different material classes. Also, you can search within the tree, and the system highlights the relevant node, which helps you find specific material classes.

    You can help improve collaboration among team members by sharing the URL for a material class. When your colleagues access it, the system loads and highlights the item you selected.

    Industrial Materials benefits

    The Industrial Materials feature has the following benefits.
    • Provides accurate and up-to-date information with the ability to view and edit material details.
    • Simplifies navigation through complex material classifications.
    • Helps explore and manage different material classes with related lists and search functionality.
    • Enables collaboration among team members through URL sharing.

    Material compatibility with equipment

    When you create a task in the Digital Factory Workspace, the materials available for selection are scoped to what's compatible with the task's operational equipment, asset, or ISA-95 functional location. This scoping is based on interoperability mappings that relate materials to specific product models. According to the interoperability mappings configured by an admin, the material list for a task reflects only the materials relevant to that piece of equipment or location, instead of every material defined in your instance.

    An admin configures these interoperability mappings outside of the Digital Factory Workspace. For more information, see Create interoperability mappings between assets and models.