Hi Marco,
I figured it out ... memory issues with the Database at Go Live. I initially thought it was special characters in the Item Number Descriptions (mtl_system_items_b.description column). As when I commented out the Item Description column in my query, the SQL ran OK. But after a lengthy backup over this weekend, my SQL queries work just fine, with no changes ... even without using TRANSLATE or REGEXP_REPLACE on the item master description columns. The DBAs must have allocated more SGA memory or similar resource adjustments.
Thanks,
Doug Volz