Performing Result Recording

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to perform result recording

Inspection Results Recording: Process Flow and Characteristic Lifecycle

Process Flow

Recording inspection results is an important step in the life cycle of an inspection lot.

Play the video to recap the process flow.

In the video, Marco mentions the process steps required to enable inspection result recording. Usually, the SAP system performs these steps automatically .

However, the Quality Planner can disable the automatic assignment of inspection specifications (→ field Automatic Assignment) and/or the sample determination (→ field Manual Sample Calculation) by setting an indicator in the inspection settings in the material master.

Hint

From a business perspective, the Quality Planner disables the automatic assignment of inspection specifications if, for example, there exist multiple valid inspection plans and a user decision needs to be made on which plan to use.

In the context of Flexible Inspection Specifications, the automatic sample calculation can be disabled. This allows the Quality Technician or Engineer to manually select the characteristics that need to be inspected for each inspection lot. The Quality Planner defines an inspection plan with operations and characteristics, but not all characteristics are relevant for every inspection lot. When the user triggers the sample calculation, a pop-up appears, allowing them to choose which inspection characteristics should be transferred from the plan to the lot.

To record results, please ensure that the indicator Inspect Characteristics is active in the inspection type settings of the material master. If this indicator is disabled, the Quality Technician will not be able to record results, even if they exist in the inspection plan.

Caution

If the Planner forgets to set this indicator and the system creates an inspection lot, you cannot record results for this lot, even when canceling the sample calculation and re-assigning an inspection plan. If you encounter this situation, you must cancel the incorrect lot by canceling the goods receipt that created it, and then re-execute the business process by posting the goods receipt again.

The inspection lot status documents the current processing status of an inspection lot. For example, when a lot is ready for results recording, the system sets the status as Released (REL). If the assignment of the plan is missing, the status is set as Plan/specification required (PREQ). You can find a comprehensive list of status values in the Application Documentation.

Depending on the settings in the control indicator for the inspection characteristic, the Quality Technician must (field Required Characteristic) or can (field Optional Characteristic) record inspection results for the inspection characteristic.

The valuation for the inspection characteristic is automatically determined based on the valuation mode defined in the sampling procedure. This can include valuation by the number of nonconforming units or defects, valuation according to characteristic attribute, mean value within tolerance range, and more. Manual valuation is also possible.

To record inspection results, the SAP S/4HANA system provides multiple apps, which we will discuss in the next section. Depending on the app or transaction used for results recording, additional information such as sample number, inspection point, or partial lot may need to be entered.

Status of the Inspection Characteristic

While the inspection lot status documents the current processing status of the entire lot, the status of the inspection characteristic documents the current status of each inspection characteristic. The following table shows the most important processing status values:

The image shows a table of the most important processing statuses for inspection characteristics. For more details, refer to the following text.

The following status values are possible:

  • Status 0 (Can be processed): This is the initial status of an optional characteristic (→ control indicators).
  • Status 1 (Must be processed): This is the initial status of a mandatory characteristic (→ control indicators).
  • Status 2 (Processed): The system sets this status if the Quality Technician recorded a result value.
  • Status 3 (Valuated): The system sets this status if the characteristic was valuated.
  • Status 5 (Processing is completed): The system sets this status if the Quality Technician closed the characteristic.

Note

The Quality Technician typically does not need to manually initiate result valuation or complete the processing of a characteristic. In most cases, once all results have been recorded according to the sampling procedure, the system automatically evaluates and closes the characteristic.

However, there are special processes where the Quality Technician may need to manually trigger valuation and/or completion. For example, if the sampling procedure requires manual valuation. Also, if the number of samples is not predetermined (→ indicator Scope not fixed in the characteristic control indicators), the system may not know when all results have been recorded. In these cases, the Quality Technician must manually initiate the valuation process.

Manual completion may also be required in certain situations, such as when following a four eyes principle for result recording. In this scenario, while user A enters the results, user B validates that they have been accurately entered into the system. To enable this functionality, the BAdI BADI_QEEM_CLOSE_ECHARACTERISTIC can be implemented in a customer-specific development.

The following status values describe special situations:

  • Status 4 (Skip): When using dynamic modification of the inspection scope, the system sets this status for a characteristic in SKIP status. The Quality Technician can, but does not need to record results for this characteristic.
  • Status 6 (Transfer of characteristic to subsystem): You can use an external system to record inspection results using a standard interface (→ QM-IDI). After a characteristic has been received by the external system, the Quality Technician cannot record results any more in SAP S/4HANA which is documented by this status value. For more information, refer to the Application Documentation.
  • Status A (Required characteristic when controlling characteristic is accepted) and B (Required characteristic when controlling characteristic is rejected): These status values are relevant for Conditional Inspection Characteristics. The system makes the characteristic mandatory if the previous mandatory characteristic in the same operation has been accepted (status A) or rejected (status B).

The completion status of the inspection characteristics is crucial for both the inspection process and the usage decision. The system verifies that all characteristics have a status of either 0 (optional), 4 (skipped), or 5 (completed) before the Quality Engineer can make an appropriate usage decision. If there are still outstanding inspection characteristics, the Quality Engineer must manually force the completion of the inspection when making the usage decision. Forcing the usage decision can only be done with the appropriate authorization.

Once you have made the usage decision, you cannot modify the inspection characteristics, except for unprocessed long-term inspection characteristics. However, you can still record results for the latter ones after the usage decision has been made.

Variants for Inspection Results Recording

A Quality Technician must record inspection results for various use case scenarios. The SAP S/4HANA system provides different apps for different use cases accordingly. For example, if you need to record multiple results for one inspection lot with a comprehensive list of characteristics, there is an app designed specifically for that purpose. If you work at a specialized work center where you only measure and record one inspection characteristic across multiple lots, there is another app available for this use case.

In this chapter, we address the three most important apps:

  • Record Inspection Results
  • Hierarchical Results Recording Worklist
  • Record Inspection Results in Table Form

For a complete list of apps, review the Help Portal.

Record Inspection Results

The app Record Inspection Results allows the Quality Technician to record results for quantitative and qualitative characteristics of one or more inspection lots. Depending on your business requirement, the app offers the following modes:

  • Record results for one or more inspection lots: After selecting one or more inspection lots, the system displays the list of inspection characteristics and the Quality Technician records results. You typically use this mode if one person performs the entire inspection of all characteristics.
  • Record results for one or more operations: After selecting one or more inspection operations from one or more inspection lots, the system displays the list of inspection characteristics and the Quality Technician records results. You typically use this mode if one person only performs one specific inspection operation.
  • Record results for master inspection characteristics: After selecting one or more characteristics from one or more inspection lots, the system displays the list of inspection characteristics and the Quality Technician records results. You typically use this mode if one person works at a work center where they only measure one characteristic for many lots.

The image below shows an example of the entry screen for the app:

To record results for multiple inspection lots, the Quality Technician selects the scenario, then selects the lots from the list of results and chooses the button Record Multiple Results.

The Quality Technician enters search criteria, such as lot origin, material number (including placeholders), and so on. The system then displays a list of inspection lots that match the search parameters. Next, the Technician selects the recording scenario Record Results for Lots and chooses one or more lots. They then navigate to the next screen by selecting the button Record Multiple Results. On this screen, the system presents a list of characteristics, as shown in the following example:

The system displays a list of inspection characteristics and the Quality Technician maintains quantitative and qualitative results, the number of inspected and nonconforming units, inspection remarks, and so on.

In the example, the system displays a list of four inspection characteristics belonging to two different inspection lots. Each line corresponds to one characteristic and the content of each line is influenced by the characteristics control indicator. For example, the first characteristic (Packaging) requires summarizing the number of inspected and nonconforming units. The second and fourth characteristic (Weight) require single result recording. The third characteristic (Packaging) requires recording the result in coded form.

In general, using this app, the Quality Technician can record results for inspection characteristics with the following control indicators:

  • Lower specification limit, upper specification limit, and target value for quantitative characteristics

  • Characteristic attribute for qualitative characteristics

  • SPC characteristics (note that only recording and automatic valuation are possible, but no control chart graphic is shown)

  • Required and optional characteristics

  • Automatic defects recording

  • Long-term inspection

  • Record measured values

In the upper right section of the screen, the Quality Technician can manually create defects by selecting the Create Defect button. Additionally, if the Technician wants to record an additional inspection result that was not planned by the Quality Planner, they can add unplanned master inspection characteristics to the inspection lot by choosing the Add Characteristic button in the upper right section.

If the Quality Technician finds that result recording in tabular form on the main screen is not sufficient, they can click on a characteristic and open the characteristics detail screen:

It's possible to navigate to the characteristics detail screen where the Quality Technician can record results for the individual characteristic. For more details, refer to the following screen.

In the example, you see a detail screen for the quantitative inspection characteristic Weight. Since the Quality Planner defined in the control parameters that the Technician must record single results, the system offers a list with five lines (→ as determined by the sample size) where the Technician can record each measured value individually.

Generally speaking, on the characteristic result details screen, you can view and edit the detailed data of a characteristic. The fields are dynamically displayed depending on the method used to record results for the characteristic. For summarized recording, you record summarized values for the entire sample. For single value recording, you record the inspection result for each inspected single unit.

In addition to result recording, you can also:

  • Assign Result Attributes to the recorded results: You can flag a result as accepted or invalid. Invalid results included in statistics such as mean values or results history.

  • Attach documents and links: You can upload documents and add links to the inspection characteristic, for example measurement reports or images.

  • Force completion: You can force inspection completion for valuated inspection characteristics with summarized results on the results details page without results recording.

    When you choose Force Completion on the result details page of a summarized results inspection characteristic that is not valuated, a dialog to select valuation appears. When you select the valuation, the inspection characteristic is valuated and the status changes to Processing Is Completed.

Hierarchical Results Recording Worklist

With the Hierarchical Results Recording Worklist, the Quality Technician can record results for all inspection scenarios available in the SAP S/4HANA system. As in the previous case, the Technician first enters selection results and performs the search. Then, the system displays a list of inspection characteristics in a tree view to be processed by the Technician. The following screenshot shows an example:

To record results, first select the operation or characteristic in the hierarchical tree view. Then maintain the results in the detail section.

In the example, the Quality Technician selected all inspection lots for inspection lot origin 05 for the material T-BQ199. The system displays the list of lots in the left section of the screen in a tree view (1). Each node in the tree view corresponds to one element of the inspection lot: The top node (2a) corresponds to the lot. After expanding the lot, the system shows a list of operations (2b) which again can be expanded to the characteristic level (2c). When the Technician selects the operation, the system displays the list of characteristics contained in the operation in a table at the right and the Quality Technician starts recording results.

However, in the current example, the Technician decided that they want to record individual results for one characteristic (→ Power Input). Therefore, the detail section at the right represents one characteristic. Since this characteristic requires single result recording for five samples (→ as determined by the sampling procedure), the system shows a table with five lines (3) where the Quality Technician already maintained the inspection results (6.01, 5.98, 6.01, and so on). Since each characteristic is within the parameters (4), the system valuated each sample as accepted, as indicated by the green icon (3). Also here, you can assign attributes to characteristics to exclude them from the result history, for example, if they're flagged as invalid.

Configuring the Hierarchical Results Recording Worklist

To adapt the app to your preferences, you can make user-specific settings. Similarly, the Application Consultant can configure company-specific settings that apply when a user doesn't have their own settings. It's possible to configure:

  • Which information is shown and how it is formatted in each node hierarchical tree view. You can, for example, add/remove the inspection type to the inspection lot node, add the work center to the operation node, or add the inspection method to be used next to the inspection characteristic on the characteristic node, and so on.

    The available fields come from the following areas:

    • Inspection lot

    • Operation

    • Inspection Characteristic

    • Inspection point

    • Partial lot

    You can use the Business Add-In (BAdI) BADI_QE_TREE_QE51N to include additional fields via a customer-specific development.

  • The selection parameters (for example default plant, inspection lot origin, work center, material, and so on).

To define which information is shown in each node of the hierarchical tree view, adapt the tree view to your needs by adding and removing data fields, and then save the result as your own layout variant as shown in the following screenshot:

To influence the information that is displayed in the hierarchical tree view, you can define your own layout variant.

To use your layout variant, enter it on the selection criteria screen, as shown in the next screenshot.

To define your own selection parameters, open the app and save your selection criteria as a user-specific variant by choosing the button Save as shown in the following screenshot. You can also define additional variants that you can retrieve by choosing the button Get Variant.

To adapt the Hierarchical Results Recording Worklist, you can define a layout variant for the tree view and define user-specific selection parameters.

Hint

The Application Consultant can define company-specific selection variants, that apply if the user has no default settings. For more information, refer to the IMG Path Quality Management → Quality Inspection → List Definition → Define Variants (List View Function).

Pro-Tip: The app Hierarchical Results Recording Worklist can be further adapted to your needs to strongly decrease the manual steps that must be performed by the user: You can, for example, configure the system that, after entering the results and choosing Enter, the system automatically valuates and closes a characteristic. You can even configure that, when you've completed result recording for the last characteristic in an operation, the system automatically saves the data when choosing Enter. For more information, read the instructions in the following IMG Path: Quality Management → Quality Inspection → Results Recording → Define Recording Configuration.

Record Inspection Results in Table Form

The last app we want to discuss there is the app Record Inspection Results in Table Form. With this app, the Quality Technician can record the inspection results for several master inspection characteristics for different inspection lots in a table on a single screen:

To record inspection results for several master inspection characteristics across multiple inspection lots, you can use the Record Inspection Results in Table Form.

In the example, the system displays a result recording table for multiple inspection lots. For each master inspection characteristic, the system creates two columns. In the first column, the Quality Technician records the results. In the second column, the system displays the valuation. Therefore, the app is suitable if you use task lists that only contain master inspection characteristics and you want to quickly record results for many inspection lots, but a relatively small number of characteristics.

How to Perform Results Recording

In this demonstration, the Quality Technician uses two apps, Record Inspection Results and Record Inspection Results - Hierarchical Worklist, to record the results for inspection lots created in a previous demonstration.

In the Record Inspection Results app, the Quality Technician performs a search and marks the entire inspection lot. They then proceed to the results recording screen, where all characteristics to be inspected are displayed, regardless of the operation they're assigned to. Alternatively, the Quality Technician could have selected specific operations for which they want to record results. The Technician records the results as follows:

  • Packaging: This characteristic requires summarized result recording in coded form. According to the sampling plan, the Technician checks 13 PC and records that all items are wrapped in paper with the appropriate code from the selected set. Since the code is marked as accepted and the sampling procedure is configured to valuate the characteristic based on the code's valuation, the system valuates this characteristic as accepted.
  • Weight: This characteristic requires single result recording in numeric form. The Technician weights 5 PC (as determined by the sampling procedure) and enters the weight of each individual sample. The system automatically counts the number of items above/below the threshold of 1.00 kg ± 0.10 kg. In our example, all samples are within the specifications, so the characteristic is also valuated as accepted.
  • Power input: This characteristic behaves similarly to the weight. Again, all samples are within the tolerance and the system valuates the characteristic as accepted.
  • Visual inspection: This characteristic requires summarized recording and the system expects the user to enter the number of inspected units and the number of nonconforming units. The Technician enters that they checked 3 PC and found zero nonconforming units. The system valuates the characteristic as accepted.
  • Label ok: This characteristic behaves similarly to the visual inspection. Again, there are zero nonconforming units, and the system valuates the characteristic as accepted.

In the Record Inspection Results - Hierarchical Worklist app, the Quality Technician enters the selection criteria. The system then displays all relevant inspection lots in a tree view on the left side of the screen. On the right side of the screen, the system shows the list of characteristics for the first operation (Packaging and Weight). The Technician records the results as follows:

  • Packaging: This characteristic requires summarized result recording in coded form. The Quality Technician checked 13 samples, which they record in the Inspected field. They then open the value help of the Result field to record the packaging material in coded form. In contrast to the previous example, the LED lamps are now wrapped with various materials, and the Technician selects the code Miscellaneous. This code is marked as rejected in the selected set, indicated by the red checkmark. Furthermore, the Quality Planner configured the system to automatically record a defect when this characteristic is rejected. Therefore, the system shows a screen where the user can select the type of defect(s). In our example, the lamps are dirty, and the Technician selects the appropriate defect code. Note that one or more defects can be recorded, which are transferred into a quality notification with defect items corresponding to the selected defect codes.
  • Weight: This characteristic requires single result recording in numeric form. The Technician weights 5 PC (as determined by the sampling procedure) and enters the weight of each individual sample. Since all samples are within the allowed limits, the system valuates the characteristic as accepted.

After maintaining the results of the last characteristic in an operation, the system asks whether the user wants to save the results and proceeds to the next item from the inspection lot worklist shown on the right side of the screen.

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