Describing the Required Master Data

The master data record of a material in SAP S/4HANA is split up into different views. Some views, for example the Basic Data view, are valid for entities defined in the client. Other views, for example the Quality Management (QM) view, are plant-specific so that the user can maintain different QM-related settings for different plants.

The following image shows the settings the quality planner can make in the QM view of a material master:

The Quality Management view of the material master contains the control parameters you need to execute quality processes throughout the logistics supply chain. In the Procurement Data section, you can define purchasing-related settings for the material: If the indicator QM in Procurement is active, the standard procurement process for this material is altered such that QM-specific processes and settings are required in order to be able to purchase this material from a supplier.

In addition to procurement-related data, other inspection scenarios defined by the inspection type can be maintained in the QM view of a material master. The inspection type, which can be set up in Customizing, is always assigned to an inspection lot origin, which is predefined by SAP. It therefore determines whether and how the quality inspection is executed for the different logistical processes, for example, inbound quality inspection at goods receipt for purchased goods, inbound quality inspection at goods receipt from production, quality inspection for internal stock transfers, outbound quality inspections for deliveries, and so on.

To activate an inspection-lot related process, the respective inspection type must be assigned to the material in the QM view of the material master and also activated. Usually, there is one inspection type defined and assigned for each inspection lot origin that is relevant for the material. For example, you activate an inspection type of inspection origin 01 for raw materials for which you want to perform inbound quality inspections. For semi-finished materials for which you want to perform goods receipt inspections from production, you activate an inspection type of inspection origin 04, and so on.

For each inspection type, you can define a combination of parameters influencing the details of the quality inspection process, for example:

• Do you want goods receipt or stock transfers to be posted to quality inspection stock (if the inspection lot is stock-relevant)?
• Do you want to define the quality inspection in a material specification and/or an inspection plan?
• If the material specification and/or the inspection plan are used, should they be automatically assigned, and is it possible to capture actual inspection results or only defects?
• Should the system overrule the sample calculation procedure of each inspection characteristic and trigger a 100% inspection?
• Which procedure for calculating the quality score at usage decision do you want to use?
• Does the system create an inspection lot for each material document item, or is there any kind of process-specific lot summary, for example:
  • Does the system create an inspection lot for each goods receipt for the same (purchase, production, or process) order item or only for the first goods receipt of the respective (purchase, production, or process) order item?
  • For the goods receipt, if batch-managed materials: Does the system create only one lot per material/batch at goods receipt?
  • For the outbound delivery of batch-managed materials: Does the system create an inspection lot for a delivery item and partial lots for each batch split item, or does the system create one inspection lot for each batch split item?
  • For the goods receipt of production or process orders: Does the system create an early goods receipt inspection lot (inspection lot origin 04) at order release?

The following image illustrates the relationship between inspection lot origins and inspection types:

Inspection lot origins are defined by SAP. Inspection types are defined by the application consultant in Customizing. Although there is usually a 1:1 relationship between the inspection type and the inspection lot origin, it is also possible to add more than one inspection type for each inspection lot origin so that various sub-types of inspection processes can be defined. For example, it might be required to distinguish between a first-article inspection (inspection type 0101) and a regular procurement process (inspection type 01) for the same material: If a material is purchased from a certain vendor for the first time, the quality inspection process can take into account a bigger set of inspected parameters by using a more comprehensive inspection plan (→ Inspection Plan A), whereas during the regular procurement process, only the most important quality-relevant material parameters are inspected to save inspection time and costs (→ Inspection Plan B). In our example, no variants for goods receipt inspections from production and stock transfer are necessary, in which case the application consultant only defined one inspection type for each of the two inspection lot origins. However, the application consultant assigned different inspection plan usages (→ Inspection Plan C and D) to each inspection type to distinguish the inspection plans for each business scenario.

In the procurement example, the application consultant assigns the first-article inspection type (0101) and the inspection type for the regular procurement process (01) to the same inspection lot origin (01) in the QM customizing. Then, the quality planner assigns and activates both inspection types in the QM view of the material master. Finally, they define one inspection plan for each usage to describe the two different inspection scenarios.

If there is more than one inspection type of the same inspection lot origin assigned to the material in the QM view, you can mark one of the inspection types as preferred. If marked as preferred, the system creates the inspection lot with the preferred inspection type. If no inspection type is marked as the preferred inspection type in the QM view, the system creates the inspection lot with the inspection type which is defined as preferred in Customizing for each lot origin.

If this standard functionality is not sufficient, the selection of the inspection type can also be influenced using a customer-specific development (user exit QAAT0001) or when performing inbound goods receipt inspection for materials purchased from suppliers, using the status scheme in the quality info record (IMG: Quality Management → QM in Logistics → QM in Procurement → Define Status of Supply Relationships).

Depending on the underlying business process, some inspection types are stock relevant, but others are not.

If the system automatically creates an inspection lot for a process belonging to a stock-relevant inspection lot origin, the respective lot is also stock-relevant, and you can use quality inspection stock, if required by your process. Note that manually created inspection lots are by definition never stock-relevant.

If you use quality inspection stock and require the stock managed by the inspection lot before you can make the usage decision, you can perform a stock posting from quality inspection stock to unrestricted-use stock without making the usage decision. Technically, the quality engineer opens the inspection lot in the Manage Usage Decisions or Record Usage Decision app and performs a respective stock posting without entering a usage decision code. They can either transfer the entire lot quantity or a partial quantity.

The following image shows a scenario of a material with an assigned inspection plan or with an assigned material specification:

The quality planner can define the list of inspection characteristics either in an inspection plan or (with certain limitations) in a material specification. While the inspection plan is valid for one plant and for one lot size window, the material specification applies to the entire client, and therefore to the entire company. Because the material specification applies to the entire client, the quality planner needs to maintain less master data to define a quality inspection. However, using an inspection plan provides additional flexibility in the inspection definition.

Note that, due to the simplicity of the material specification, some scenarios are not possible: You cannot assign work centers in the material specification, use inspection methods for characteristics, or perform dynamic modification. Also, due to the fact that capturing QM-related costs requires the use of work centers, it is also not possible to record QM-related costs when executing the quality inspection only with a material specification. Furthermore, only the inspection plan provides the possibility to define different inspection plans for different lot sizes.

The master inspection characteristics used in the material specification must be completely maintained (reference characteristic or complete copy model) and can contain dependent inspection specifications for the material. On the contrary, the quality planner can also use plan-specific inspection characteristics and incomplete copy model characteristics in an inspection plan.

In general, the quality planner defines whether the material specification or the plan are used in the inspection type setup in the Quality Management view of the material master. Technically, they set the indicators Inspect with Material Specification or Inspect with Task List to define according to which criteria the inspection is performed.