Inspection Execution and Auto UD

 Inspection lot - It is a formal request in SAP QM to start the inspection process for the given lot. Inspection lot can be created manually or automatically

Inspection lot contains details like quantities, material, inspection method and the data for inspection lot origin.

Inspection lot origin determines how the inspection lot was created.

Steps involved in inspection execution: 

• Creation of inspection lot: This is the first step in inspection execution. Inspection lot can be created automatically or manually. To create inspection lot manually the tcode used is QA01. It can be created automatically by GR process with reference to purchase order (01), GR process without reference to purchase order (05), GR with reference to process order (04), stock transfer to Quality Inspection (08), Recurring inspection (09) etc. If the inspection setup is activated in the material master then the inspection lot will be created.
• Assignment of inspection plan : Inspection plan can be assigned to the lot manually or automatically. First make sure that the material is assigned to a valid inspection plan. Then in the inspection setup there is an option automatic assignment that helps in assigning inspection plan automatically, else the user has to assign it manually. First the task list/ spec will be assigned , then the sample will be calculated based on the sampling procedure assigned to the inspection plan.
• Results recording : The next step is performing result recording to the lot and entering the outcome of the inspection in the system. It can be done using tcode QE01. The valuation can be closed manually or automatically depending on the settings maintained in SIMG -> Quality Inspection ->Basic settings ->Plant dependent QM settings -> double click on the plant and under results recording there is Recording Configuration

• If the valuation has to be done manually, then go to QDV2 and in the valuation mode (How the system decides if the sample passes or fails) select manual valuation.
• Usage Decision : Based on the results, the inspector can decide whether the lot is fit to use or not and based on that UD is performed. In the UD code configuration we can determine where the stock should move after UD process based on the UD code given (Posting in UD)
  
  
  

Auto UD

Prerequisites for Auto UD process:

1. Auto UD checked in the material master for the inspection type
   
   
   
2. Configuration : SIMG -> Quality Management ->Basic settings ->Maintain Settings at Plant Level -> Double click on the plant and there is InspLot Completion under that maintain the required settings for Automatic Usage decision

   

   
   
3. Next after inspection lot creation if there is a background job for auto UD for this plant and inspection type then the UD will be completed by the background job. If not we can perform Auto UD by tcode QA10. Enter the details as shown below and execute.

   

   

   
   

Inspection plan, Material specification, Long term characteristics, Conditional and Calculated characteristics

 Inspection plan - Describes the steps to carry out inspection of a material. It tells in which order the inspection has to be carried out and which characteristics are to be inspected. 

Inspection plan can be assigned to one or more materials.

One or more operations can be assigned to an inspection plan and similarly one or more MIC/ sampling procedure can be assigned to an operation

Tcode to create an inspection plan is QP01.

Business scenario : Create an inspection plan for a plastic bottle manufacturing plant

The quality team wants to implement a structured in-process inspection during bottle manufacturing. The inspection must include:

1. Operation 10 : Visual and Basic checks ( MIC - Surface defects and Color consistency (Attributive))

2. Operation 20 : Dimensional Measurement ( MIC - Height, wall thickness, neck diameter(conditional), Weight per bottle(calculated)(Quantitative))

3. Operation 30: Drop test ( MIC - Drop test result, Crack Observation (Qualitative))

Steps:

• Create MIC's for all 3 operations. Here the MIC'S that is to be created are Surface defects, Color consistency, Height, wall thickness, neck diameter, Weight per bottle, Drop test result, Crack Observation
• Go to tcode QS21 and create MIC
• Next go to QP01 and MIC to inspection plans as per the business scenario given
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Inspection plan will have 2 sections Header and Operations. Header will contain information that is applicable for the whole plan and the inspection plan is uniquely identified by task list or operations
• Operations describes individual inspection setup in an inspection plan. One or more MIC's are assigned to an operation
• Calculated characteristics - This can be activated in the control indicators. The formula to calculate characteristics can be maintained in the task list of the inspection plan and based on this the result will be calculated. To make this work, all the MIC'S that are maintained in the formula must be assigned to a single operation
• Conditional characteristics - The inspection of conditional characteristics depends on the result of the previous characteristics i.e. after acceptance and after rejection
• Long term inspection - If the characteristics requires inspection even after performing UD, then this can be activated in control indicators
• PRT - Production Resource Tools- A PRT is any tool, instrument, or resource that is used temporarily during a manufacturing or quality inspection process. In Quality Management, PRTs typically refer to Measuring instruments (e.g., calipers, micrometers) Testing equipment (e.g., tensile testers, weighing scales) Calibration devices used during inspections

• Material specifications - A Material Specification is a master data record in QM that stores inspection characteristics and specification limits for a specific material, especially for incoming inspections (QM in procurement). Tcode QS61. 

Feature	Material Specification	Inspection Plan (Task List)
Tied To	Material + Inspection Type.	Material + Plant
Contains Ops?	❌ No operations	✅ Yes, has steps/operations
Use Case	Incoming inspections (raw materials)	In-process or final inspections
Setup	QS61 / QS62 / QS63	QP01 / QP02 / QP03
Control Level	Simple & centralized	Detailed & process-specific
Master Data Type	Specification-based	Operation-based

Inspection Method

 Inspection method describes how to carry out the inspection process

Tcode to create - QS31

Here I want to measure the dimensions of a bottle. The steps to create inspection method are

• Go to QS31 enter the details as shown below
  
  
  
• Press enter after entering the details as shown above. Next the system will direct you to the screen shown below. The status should be release and enter Short Text and Search Field. Next to the short text, there is an option to create a long text. The steps to carry out bottle measurement can be entered here

  

  
  
• Enter the steps to carry out inspection

  

  
  
• There is a provision to even attach document containing steps

  

  
  
• Once all the details are entered save it
• The inspection method is assigned to MIC. To assign it to an existing MIC go to QS23 and to assign it to a new MIC go to QS21
• Assign inspection method as shown below

  

• Once it is saved, go to QP02 and enter the inspection method created as shown below
  
  
  
• Next when the inspection lot is created and when this MIC is used, then you can view inspection method while recording results

Codes, Code groups, Catalogs, Selected sets and UD codes

 Codes - They define how the defects are to be evaluated

Code groups - Summary of codes

Catalogs - Summary of code groups

Selected sets - Codes from different code groups under same catalog type can be grouped under selected sets

• Go to tcode QS41, select the catalog type (characteristic attributes) and press enter
  
  
  
• Click on new entries and enter the code group name, make sure to set the status as released
  
  
  
• Enter the codes that you want to configure and save
  
  
  
• Next go to QS51 to create Selected sets. Enter the catalog, plant
  
  
  
• Next click on new entry and enter the selected set name and make sure to set the status as released

  

  
  
• Now select the entry and click on Selected set codes. Here you can enter the code groups, codes, code valuation and defect class

  

  
  
• Similarly UD codes can be configured in the system. Menu path : SIMG- >Quality Management ->Quality Inspection ->Inspection Lot Completion -> Edit Code Groups and Codes for Usage Decisions. Here you can enter code group and under that you can enter codes like Accepted, Rejected, Rework etc
• And in the same path SIMG- >Quality Management ->Quality Inspection ->Inspection Lot Completion ->Edit Selected Sets for Usage Decisions, you can enter plant and to that you can create a selected set and under that selected set, you can enter code groups, code, quality score, code valuation, posting in UD i.e. to which stock type the stock should move from QI after UD and follow up action

Sampling Procedure creation - Part 2

 There are different sampling types:

1. 100% inspection - If 100 quantities are received then the inspection has to be carried out for 100 quantities

2. Fixed sample - Irrespective of the quantity received, system will only take the number of samples configured in the sampling procedure 

3. Percentage sample - The percentage of the inspection lot quantity that should be taken as a sample, regardless of how much is received

4. Sampling scheme - To create a sampling scheme go to QDP1, enter description, inspection severity and click on choose

Next you can create different schemes based on lot size. In the image below, I have created 3 schemes for different lot size

For lot size 10, the sample size will be 2 and c1 - means the highest defective quantity that can be accepted and d1  - means the minimum no of defective quantity that the system allows to reject. If the defective quantity exceeds this then the lot will be rejected

Suppose the plant received 100 quantities out of which 20 will be inspected as the sample size is 20. In this if the defective pieces are 7 quantities then the lot will be rejected or if the defective pieces are 4 then the lot will be accepted 

The sampling scheme will be assigned to sampling procedure in QDV1 transaction

Suppose the received lot is in between 1 - 10 then the sample size will be 2

If it is in between 11 - 20 then the sample size will be the received quantity

If it is in between 20 - 100 then the sample size will be 20 

If it is in between 101 - 199 then the sample size will be the received quantity

If it is in between 200 - 1000 then the sample size will be 200

If it is more than 1000 then the scheme will not work and the message THE SAMPLING SCHEME IS INCOMPLETE will pop up

Sampling Procedure creation

 Sampling type - Defines how the samples are calculated

Valuation mode - Defines rules for accepting or rejecting characteristics or samples 

Both sampling type and valuation mode forms a sampling procedure

Hence Sampling procedure determines the rules to calculate samples and accept or rejects samples during result recording

Sampling procedure can be used at task list level or at material  level

In the material master QM view, the sampling procedure can be assigned but the cons of doing this is the sampling procedure that is assigned will be applicable to only that material

To create a sampling procedure, tcode used is QDV1

Steps to create:

• Enter the sampling procedure name
  
  
  
• Enter description, select sampling type and valuation mode. In this scenario I have chosen sampling type as 100% inspection, this means that if I receive goods of quantity 100 EA, then the inspection has to be carried for the whole quantity

  

  
  
• Create an inspection plan using tcode QP01 enter material, plant in the initial screen and press enter. System will determine the group

  

  
  
• Enter the usage of the inspection plan and the status should be released in order to use the inspection plan, if the plan is no longer in use then the deletion flag can be set. Enter from lot size and to lot size, this can be used when you want the system to assign inspection plan for different lot size. Next click on operations to assign MIC and sampling procedure

  

  
  
• In operations enter work center (A work center is a place where all the inspection activities such as testing, visual inspection, documentation, sampling activities takes place tcode to create CRQ1), Control key(QM01 - Internal QM operation - Used for lab testing, allows result recording) and select the operation and click on inspection characteristics
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• MAINTAIN QM SETTINGS FOR PLANT UK11 - I received this error while trying to assign MIC and sampling procedure. To resolve this, go to SIMG -> Quality management -> Basic Settings->Maintain Settings at Plant Level
• Then next enter MIC and sampling procedure to the plan and save

  

  
  
• System will ask to maintain target value, upper limit and lower limit here as I have selected incomplete copy model while creating MIC. Enter the details and save.

  

  
  
• Create an inspection lot and assign task list and samples to the lot in order to proceed with results recording and UD
• As we have set the sampling type as 100% inspection, the system will inspect the entire lot

  

Master Inspection Characteristics

 What is Master Inspection Characteristics?

It specifies how and what kind of inspection has to be carried out and what needs to be inspected. Is it quantitative(measurable) or qualitative(descriptive) and how the results are carried out is it summarized results or  single result and is the characteristics optional or required etc.

It plays a crucial role while performing result recording

Tcode : QS21/QS23/QS24

Some of the important fields in MIC

1. Preset Indicator - Can be configured from the path SIMG-> Quality Management -> Quality Planning -> Basic Data -> Inspection Characteristic, Inspection Method -> Define Default Values for Control Indicators. This helps in presetting the control indicators beforehand
2. Quantitative characteristics - If the characteristics can be measurable then this is used. Ex: length
3. Qualitative characteristics - If the the characteristics are not measurable and if it is descriptive then this is used. Ex: Color
4. Status - If the MIC has to be in use then the status has to be released
5. Complete copy model - Upper limit, lower limit and target value are specified in MIC(If it is quantitative)
6. Incomplete copy model - Upper limit, lower limit and target value are not specified in MIC unlike Complete copy model, they are entered while performing result recording
7. Reference char -  If upper limit, lower limit and target value are altered for one task list, then there is no need to change them in all the task lists wherever this MIC is used.
8. Catalogs - Used specifically in qualitative char. They are predefined set of values used for inspection to record results
   
   
   

Control Indicators : 

Lower Specification Limit : Specifies the lowest tolerance limit that can be accepted

Upper Specification Limit : Specifies the highest tolerance limit that can be accepted

Target value : Specifies the value that can be accepted

Sampling procedure : Formula to calculate how much samples are to be taken for inspection

Summarized recording : Takes an average of all the recording and provides the summary of the outcome

Single results : It is required to enter individual results in the system

Required char : While performing result recording it is not allowed to skip any characteristics and results of all characteristics has to be entered. If this is configured then Auto UD will not work

Optional char : It allows users to skip all or some of the characteristics while performing RR

After acceptance : The next characteristic must be inspected only if the previous one is accepted (result = 'A')

After Rejection : The next characteristic must be inspected only if the previous one is rejected (result = 'R')

Scope not fixed : If this is selected, then the number of inspected units are not precalculated but the user can defines it while performing result recording

Fixed Scope : If this is selected, then the number of inspected units should correspond to the precalculated value

Smaller scope : If this is selected, then the number of inspected units can be smaller than the precalculated value

Larger scope : If this is selected, then the number of inspected units can be larger than the precalculated value

Long term Inspection : Result recording can be performed even after UD is performed for the lot