Quality Inspection after Production

 When a product is manufactured in-house, the finished goods must be moved from the shop floor to the warehouse. To achieve this, a Goods Receipt (GR) must be performed for the production order. Once the GR is posted, the stock will be linked to an inspection lot that is automatically created. For this process, the 04 inspection type (GR inspection for production order) must be activated in the Quality Management (QM) view of the material master.

Process flow:

Setup required : Activation of 04 inspection type in the material master QM view

1. Create a production order using tcode CO01

2. Once the production order is created, perform GR for the order.

3. Once the GR is performed, material document will be posted and inspection lot will be created and the stock will move to QI

4. Inspect the lot and based on the UD, the stock will move from QI

Quality Inspection at regular intervals

Quantity-Based Inspection: When the system triggers an inspection after a certain quantity of material has been produced, received, or moved, instead of at fixed time intervals.

Pre-requisites : 

Changes in Routing header: Assign Insp. Points to the routing header. In this case select 150.

Sampling Procedure : Inspection Points has to be selected. Here the is no free Insp points so I have selected Others

Routing Operations : For the routing operation where MIC and sampling procedure is assigned, in this case operation 0030, double click on that and under Quality Management : Inspection Points, select QTY-RELATED and enter QUANTITY INTERVAL and UOM.

Once the necessary settings are done, create a production order and release, an inspection lot will be created. To process the inspection lot go to QA32/QE51N to enter the results.

Since the quantity interval is maintained as 20 and the inspection lot quantity is 100, result recording has to be done 5 times, but the UD will be done only once.

While performing UD, there will not be any stock posting, instead the inspection points will be displayed.

After all the results are recorded, then the UD will be made for the inspection lot.

Time-Based Inspection: If there is a requirement to inspect a quantity at regular intervals, the system allows this to be scheduled automatically.

Pre-requisites required : For the routing operation where MIC and sampling procedure is assigned, in this case operation 0030, double click on that and under Quality Management : Inspection Points, select Time related and enter time and UoM and select QUANTITY CONFIRMATION FOR EACH PARTIAL LOT.

When this is selected, delete all the other entries as shown below

If there is a need for random inspection and not based on any parameters like time or quantity then select NO REFERENCE and delete all other entries

Quality Inspection during Production

 There are two types of inspection process in production:

• In-process inspection : When the product is being manufactured but the manufacturing process is not completed, then in process inspection is performed. For that 03 inspection type has to be activated in the material master.
• Inspection at the end of production : Before releasing the product to the market, inspection takes place in order to check if the quality standards are met.

Business scenario : Create an inspection lot of type 03 and process the lot. 

 

QM setup required

Material master with inspection type 03 activated

MIC to measure the characteristics of bottle size

Sampling procedure to calculate sample and decide whether the sample passes or fails the inspection

PP setup required

Material master with required MRP setup

BOM

Work center

Routing

Production Version

Process order creation and release to create an inspection lot

Material master setup:

Inspection type 03 is activated which is in-process inspection for production order. Here post to inspection stock field is missing as the inspection takes place when the production is in process and hence no stock will be associated.

MIC:

Sampling procedure : 

Material master MRP setup:

Production version:

BOM:

Work center:

 

Routing : 

Here the requirement is to inspect the bottle after cooling process. Hence the MIC and sampling procedure will be assigned to this operation i.e. 0030. 

Production order creation and release : 

Inspection lot processing:

While performing UD, the below message appears as the production of this product is yet to complete

 

In the UD screen, there is no provision to perform stock posting as there is no stock associated

Control keys and Source Inspection

 Control key config : SIMG -> Quality Management -> QM in Logistics -> QM in Procurement ->Define Control Keys for QM in Procurement

A new control key can be created based on the user's requirement

Some of the important fields in control keys are:

Document control

• Tech Delivery terms and Quality agreement record - If the DMS module is activated then it is mandatory to attach these documents.

QM control in Procurement

• Release required - If this is enabled then it is mandatory to release the vendor in the QM info record before GR, else the GR process will be blocked. This done to avoid accidental approval of goods from unapproved vendors so that vendors meet the required quality standards.
• Certificate required - While performing the GR we have to ensure that the certificate is attached
• Block Inactive - Defines whether this control key should be blocked automatically when it becomes inactive 
• Block invoice - When the goods provided by the vendor does not meet the quality standards or if the inspection of the goods is not completed then the invoice will be blocked.

Message control for Lock

• Message mode - We can set whether the system has to display an information message or a warning message or an error message

Source Inspection : Inspection of goods can be done at vendor's premises and the inspection at the destination can be avoided if it is a requirement. This can be achieved by the following steps:

• Activate 0101 inspection type in the material master
  

  
  
  
  
• In the QM info record maintain the source inspection as 0101 the same inspection type that we have activated in the material master. If there is any necessity for inspection lot generation beforehand, then it can be maintained in the lead time field(in days). When the GR is performed, if the business does not want to create any inspection lots then Source Insp - no GR has to be enabled.
  
  
  
• Create a purchase order for this material and plant
• Next create an inspection lot manually using QI07 tcode by giving the purchase order reference.

  

  
  
• Select the purchase order created and click on create new inspection lot icon and save it

  

  
  

  
  
• To check whether the inspection lot is created go to QA32/QA33. Here the inspection lot is created and proceed with further steps like assigning inspection plan, result recording and UD. Since the inspection is being done at the vendor's premises, these lots are not associated with any stock.

  

  
  
• After the inspection lot is processed, go to tcode MIGO and perform GR
• Once the GR is performed, the stock will move to unrestricted use.

  

  
  GR/Source Inspection Control

• GR for Rejection – When the lot is rejected after source inspection, what steps need to be taken? Should a new inspection lot be created, or should the GR be blocked? Or does the acceptance or rejection of the source inspection lot have no bearing on the Goods Receipt (GR)?

  

  
  
• GR Control/Batch - If the batch number from the vendor does not match the batch number created by the business, the business can decide whether a new inspection lot needs to be created.

QM in Procurement - Part2

1.  Target QM system - It is the quality standards that the business expects from the vendor. In simple words if the business wants to have a deal with only those vendors who are ISO 9001 certified then that can be configured here.

If the vendor is certified with the same or a higher standard than the one specified, only then will the system accept goods from that vendor. In the vendor master, there is a field called 'Actual QM System' where the vendor’s certification is maintained. The system checks both the 'Target QM System' in the material master and the 'Actual QM System' in the vendor master. If they match, only then can the subsequent processes be carried out. Else the system throws an error as shown below

2. Skip inspection : If the vendor has consistently provided good quality goods, the business may choose to relax or remove certain quality checks or certificate requirements for that vendor. This can be achieved by choosing 'No inspection' under inspection control.

Then the after GR of this product by this vendor, the stock will move to unrestricted use despite maintaining the required QM setup.

3 . Certificate confirmation: We can configure what certificate has to be attached by the vendor when the goods are supplied in the material master as shown below

While performing Goods Receipt (GR), the system will display a warning message if the certificate attachment has not been confirmed.

To confirm whether the certificate is attached, in the same transaction there is a field 'Cert. enclosed?' under 'Purchase Order Data' . When it is confirmed then the material document can be posted.

4. Invoice block : When the stock is received from the vendor, then the stock under goes quality inspection to check the quality of the goods supplied. If the quality is compromised then the system allows the business to block the payment to the vendor by blocking invoice. And the invoice can be blocked only after inspecting the goods

QM in Procurement - Part1

QM in Procurement can control activities such as:

1. Block the vendor and invoice if they do not provide the goods with good quality

2. If the vendor is required to provide certificate at GR and they cannot be accepted if they fail to do so

3. If the vendor has continuously delivered goods with good quality then the inspection of goods can be waived off.

4. QM in Procurement can control operations like vendor selection, processing requests for quotation, processing purchase order and GR for inspection.

To enable all these activities, the field QM in Procur Active has to be enabled in the QM view of the material master. Along with that we also need to update fields like QM Control key and Certificate Type

• If the Procurement data is inactive, then the system allows performing GR to the goods received by any vendor. If this is enabled then the system allows GR for only certain vendors maintained in the QM info record. This establishes a relationship between the material and the vendor who is providing this material. If QM info record is not maintained then the system will throw the error as shown below
  
  
  
• To create a QM info record go to tcode QI01 and maintain the necessary details. Material and vendor has one to one relationship. Only one info record can be created for this combination.

• Enter material, vendor and plant in the initial screen

  

  
  

Enter the Release Until date i.e. the date until which the material can be procured from this vendor. If it crosses the release until date then the system throws the error as shown below

Next enter Release quantity meaning the system allows procurement of only that amount of quantity from this vendor. If it exceeds more than that then the system will throw an error message. Make sure to activate 'Release quantity active'.

Since the release quantity is only 100 in the quality info record, if a purchase record is created for more than 100 quantity, then the system throws the error shown below

Block functions: We have plenty of options to block procurement of this material from the vendor and this can be achieved using QM info record. If the business wants to stop procuring the material from this vendor they have different options to block as shown in the screenshot below

Since I selected the option to block purchase order creation for this vendor and material, I am receiving the error displayed below.