Creating Internal and Recurring Inspections

You use internal inspections for products that need to be inspected periodically or ad hoc. Recurring inspections can specifically controlled for batch-managed products with a specific characteristic, but are possible for any product. For this, the inspection object type 5 — Q-Inspection Product/Batch Whse-Internal is used. When using a decentralized EWM system, this IOT can be used standalone in EWM (QIE), but also integrated with ERP QM.

It is possible to create the inspection documents manually from the Warehouse Management Monitor. The method is available in the nodes BBD/SLED Overview and Physical Stock.

The process can be automated and run in the background with the report /SCWM/R_STOCK_TYPE_CHANGE. This report can change the stock type of material, and can also create inspection documents and post the stock to QM stock. This is important for products with a Best-Before or Shelf-Life-Expiration date.

In the inspection rule for IOT 5 you can enter an Inspection Process, possible values are 0 - Stock Inspection (which would also be used if you leave the field empty), or 1 - Recurring Inspection. This is new since SAP S/4HANA 1809 FPS02. With this you can have different settings (like code groups, or ERP inspection types), depending on the type of internal inspection. When you trigger a recurring inspection through the report /SCWM/R_STOCK_TYPE_CHANGE and set the flag Consider Next InspDate (Batch), the system requires an inspection rule with the inspection process 1. In other cases the inspection process is 0.

The system can automatically calculate a date for a batch-managed product for the next inspection. For this, it is necessary to assign a valuation class containing the standard characteristic LOBM_QNDAT (next inspection date) to your batch.

When a new batch is created, the system assigns the next inspection date as a value to the characteristic LOBM_QNDAT. If a production date is provided, the new value is the production date plus the inspection interval. If not, the new value is the batch creation date plus the inspection interval. Up to SAP EWM 9.5, the inspection interval can be maintained in the warehouse product. It can also be transferred from the SAP ERP material master. In an EWM system, based on SAP S/4HANA, the interval is always maintained in the material master (similar to the goods receipt block indicator).

You can use the report Change Stock Attributes (previously Change Stock Type) (/SCWM/R_STOCK_TYPE_CHANGE) to retrieve stock with the next inspection date in the past and post the stock into quality inspection. You can run this report on a daily basis and as a background process. When the inspection document for this stock is accepted, the system recalculates the next inspection date for the batch as the decision date plus the inspection interval. If the inspection document is rejected, the system does not recalculate the next inspection date for the batch and instead executes the assigned logistical follow-up action.