Enhancing the Material Master

Play the video to meet Petra, Quality Planner, and Marco, SAP Application Consultant. Learn what they do in the SAP S/4HANA system to fulfill the quality management requirements of their company.

As the video outlined, the Quality Management view of the material master contains the control parameters you need to execute quality processes throughout the logistics supply chain, for example, goods receipt inspections for purchase orders, in-process quality inspections during manufacturing, goods receipt inspections from production, or stock-transfer inspections.

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 be activated. The following figure illustrates how this works.

The figure illustrates that QM-specific data on the Quality Management view of the material master is maintained at plant level:

1. The Application Consultant defines the various inspection types in Customizing of the SAP S/4HANA system.

2. The Quality Planner then assigns and activates an inspection type to the material master they want to inspect. Each inspection type stands for an inspection process, for example goods receipt inspections for purchased materials, in-process inspections for manufactured materials, or stock-transfer inspections for materials that are transferred from one warehouse to another.

   Each inspection type has specific detailed settings which we'll discuss in the next section.

3. If the inspection type is active, the system creates an inspection lot when the user triggers the process. For example, when posting a goods receipt for a purchased material with an active inspection type for this process, the SAP S/4HANA system creates a goods receipt inspection lot. For in-process inspection, the SAP S/4HANA system creates the lot when the Production Supervisor releases the inspection lot.

Each process has its own specific trigger. Potential triggers are, for example:

• Goods receipts can initiate inspections for goods received from suppliers, production, or other sources.
• Releasing a production order or process order can trigger in-process inspections.
• Moving goods from one storage location to another can trigger a stock transfer inspection.
• Releasing a maintenance order can initiate a calibration inspection.
• Creating a delivery can trigger an inspection for products sold to customers.
• Creating a sample can initiate an inspection in the lab.
• Running a job periodically, such as monthly, can trigger an inspection for batch managed materials nearing expiration.

The following image shows how the Application Consultant defines in customizing to which business process an inspection type belongs:

The Inspection Lot Origin is predefined by SAP and corresponds to a business process. The Inspection Type is defined by the Application Consultant. There exist predefined values, but the Consultant can define additional values, if required. When setting up new inspection types, the Consultant assigns the inspection type to an inspection lot origin.

The following Inspection Lot Origins exist in SAP S/4HANA:

Keep in mind: The actual inspection process and the detailed settings are defined using the inspection type. If required, the Application Consultant can create their own inspection types in Customizing. They can also link several inspection types to the same inspection lot origin to define variants of the same process. For example, inspection lot origin 01 (goods receipt for a purchase order item) can have the following inspection types assigned to it:

• 01 Inspection at goods receipt for purchase order
• 0101 Receiving inspection for model series
• 0102 Receiving inspection for preliminary series

For each inspection type, the Quality Planner can define a different inspection plan to define variants of the inspection process. When the Quality Planner defines the inspection plan, they specify the Task List Usage in the inspection plan header. To define which inspection plan is selected for which inspection type, the Application Consultant enters the Task List Usage in the inspection type customizing.

When there exist different inspection types for the same inspection lot origin, one inspection type must be marked as default inspection type. Technically, the Application consultant marks this inspection type as Variant 01 in customizing (Quality Management → Quality Inspection → Inspection Lot Creation → Maintain Inspection Lot Origins and Assign Inspection Types). The following screenshot shows an example:

In the example, the inspection lot origin 01 (Goods receipt inspection for a purchase order item) has three variants (regular goods receipt inspection [inspection type 01], model inspection at goods receipt [0101], receiving inspection from external processing [0130]). Since the inspection type regular goods receipt inspection [inspection type 01] is marked as variant 01 (→ column Var), this inspection type is the default one and it will be used unless specified otherwise.

The default value for the inspection type set in Customizing can be overridden, for example, in the Inspection Setup for the material. When you define a preferred inspection type in the material master, the system takes this inspection type when it creates the lot. Otherwise, the default value from Customizing is taken. In procurement, you can also define a material/supplier specific scenario in the Quality Info Record for Procurement in which you define the inspection type to be used via a status scheme. Alternatively, is also possible to influence the selection logic of the inspection type in a customer-specific development (→ user exit QAAT0001. See also SAP Notes 2493823 and 3421019).