Preventing defects is a crucial aspect of production processes. With quality notifications in SAP S/4HANA, you can effectively document and analyze defects related to production. This allows you to create tasks that aim to prevent future non-conformity. Play the video to get introduced to the process.
As Marco mentioned in the video, you have the option to manually create production-related quality notifications (order type Q3/F3) or generate them automatically when confirming a production or process order. This is summarized in the following graphic.
If any problems arise during the production process, you can manually create a quality notification to address them. The Notification Origin Q3, is used specifically for internal problem notifications.
As for customer complaints and supplier complaints, the SAP S/4HANA standard offers two notification types to document production-related problems:
Notification type Q3 (Internal Problem Notification): Use this notification type when you manually create a production-related defect or encounter one during order confirmation.
Notification type F3 (Material-Related Defect): This notification type is used when performing an in-process inspection or a goods receipt inspection during production. If a defect is identified during the inspection process, the notification is automatically created and includes a link to the inspection lot.
To simplify data recording, the Application Consultant configures the Q3 notification type to display one of the following initial screens when a Q3 notification is created:
You should use the first screen if you typically create Q3 notifications for defective materials and know the order number. The system will automatically transfer data from the reference document (such as material number, batch number, quantity, etc.) into the notification once you confirm it.
The second screen is used when creating a Q3 notification and you want to copy an existing notification. For example, you can define a copy model reference notification that includes the default process for issue analysis and resolution in the form of tasks and activities. When creating a new notification, the system will copy all tasks and activities from the copy model into the specific issue. Then, you can fill in the missing data such as the concrete quantity, defect items, processing dates, and so on. This allows for a more efficient and streamlined process in handling notifications.
If you want to create a quality notification for a (production or process) order, you can do this from the confirmation of the order SAP Fiori app or transaction:
When the Production Operator confirms an order with rework and/or scrap quantities, the system can automatically generate a quality notification with reference to the order. The administrative data of the confirmation shows the number of the quality notification that the system automatically created during the confirmation. You can double-click the number to display the quality notification.
To enable the system to automatically create a quality notification during the confirmation, the Application Consultant maintains the confirmation parameter for the order type and the settings for single screen entry in Customizing which are available in the following IMG paths:
Production Orders: Production → Shop Floor Control → Operations → Confirmation → Define Confirmation Parameters.
Production Orders: Production → Shop Floor Control → Operations → Confirmation → Single Screen Entry → Define Single-Screen Entry for Confirming Production Orders.
Process Orders: Production Planning for Process Industries → Process Order → Operations → Confirmation → Define Confirmation Parameters.
Process Orders: Production Planning for Process Industries → Process Order → Operations → Confirmation → Single Screen Entry → Define Single-Screen Entry for Confirming Process Orders.
For the confirmation parameter settings, you can define the quality notification type that the system should automatically create, depending on the plant and order type. Additionally, you can use the quantity layout to specify appropriate defect codes.
If you discover during quality notification processing that a defect can be traced back to the supplier, you can create a complaint against the supplier (Notification Origin Q2) using the action box in the internal problem notification (Notification Origin Q3):
When choosing this action, you can transfer data from the internal problem notification to the supplier complaint. After calling up the follow-up function in the action box, you can first determine the notification type for the quality notification that is to be created. Then you can specify the data for the notification header. The data for the existing notification is proposed.
In addition to the header data, you can select defect data records in the list of items for the current notification that should be transferred to the new notification. The new notification is created when the current notification is saved. The follow-up function is documented as a task in the current notification. Both notifications are also linked in the document flow.