removing the leading zeros from the material number in workitem t ext

[Ronen Fox]

Dear workflow experts,
 
When creating a workflow for processing a newly created material (business
object BUS1001006), the material number is added to the workitem text as a
variable. problem is that while the material number is only 6 characters
long, it appears with leading zeros in the workitem text. For example
instead of 60612 we get 00000060612.
Any idea how to avoid this would be most welcome.
Thank you very much for your help !
Ronen Fox
Ness Technologies