If you want to save inspection costs, you can use dynamic modification of the inspection scope.
Play the video to learn from Petra how dynamic modification works.
The dynamic modification rule defines the inspection stages (for example skip, reduced, normal, tightened) and the conditions for an inspection stage change.
Explore the following two examples of dynamic modification rules the quality planner defined.
Example 1:
In the first example, the Quality Planner defined the following rules:
- The stage tightened is not used.
- After four consecutive accepted inspections, the system moves from inspection stage normal to reduced or from reduced to skip.
- After one rejected inspection, the system moves from inspection stage reduced to the normal inspection stage.
- In inspection stage skip, two consecutive inspections will be skipped.
Example 2:
In the second example, the Quality Planner defined the following rules:
- The stage skip is not used, meaning that there will be always an inspection.
- After four consecutive accepted inspections, the system moves from inspection stage normal to reduced.
- After one rejected inspection, the system moves from inspection stage reduced to the normal inspection stage or from normal to tightened.
- When in inspection stage tightened, there must be four consecutive inspections to move to the stage normal. Otherwise, the system will stay in the tightened inspection stage.
Note
The Application Consultant maintains all possible stages in the Customizing of the SAP S/4HANA system (IMG: Quality Management → Quality Planning → Basic Data → Sampling, SPC → Define Inspection Severities)
The following image shows the data the Quality Planner maintains when creating a dynamic modification rule in SAP S/4HANA.
As for the sampling procedure, the Quality Planner defines a technical key.
They use it later when assigning the modification rule to the inspection plan header or to the characteristic in the inspection plan. If they assign it to the inspection plan header, the entire lot will be subject to dynamic modification. If they assign it to the characteristic, only the characteristic will be subject to dynamic modification. In the latter case, the characteristics that don't have a modification rule assigned must always be inspected by the Quality Technician.
The Quality Planner defines whether the dynamic modification shall be performed at the usage decision or at lot creation.
When performed during usage decision, the system calculates the inspection stage of lot N+1 when you perform the usage decision of lot N. When performed during lot creation of lot N, the system assumes that the lot N will be accepted and, if the acceptance of lot N leads to a reduced inspection scope, the lot N+1 will be inspected accordingly. Using the first setting represents a conservative approach since the system only reduces the inspection scope if the results are known, while the second setting is an optimistic approach since we assume that the quality inspection is usually accepted. Depending on your business process, you can choose either the conservative or the optimistic approach.
The system uses the reset period to calculate the reset date in the quality level.
After the reset period has passed, the quality level returns to the initial inspection stage of the dynamic modification rule. Therefore, by specifying a reset period, you can automatically restart the dynamic modification and create a new inspection lot in the initial inspection stage.
If the dynamic modification rule is used in a task list, the system sets a respective indicator. The Quality Planner can also block the dynamic modification rule from being used by setting a respective indicator.
Finally, the Quality Planner maintains the inspection stages used in this modification rule (for example normal, reduced, and skipped).
Before maintaining the rules for stage change, it is necessary to enter all inspection stages. Additionally, for each state, it is important to determine when a state change should occur. For example, the number of accepted inspections can be used as a criterion for transitioning to a stage with less inspection severity or skipping the inspection altogether. Similarly, the number of rejected inspections can trigger a state change to a more severe inspection stage. In the case of a skip stage, it is crucial to specify the maximum duration in days for skipping. If no inspection lot is created within this timeframe, the system will automatically generate an inspection lot for the next non-skip inspection stage.
Note
If you do not use a sampling scheme in a sampling procedure, you cannot use an inspection severity in the dynamic modification rule. Instead, you only use the severity Normal and Skipped to either perform or skip a quality inspection.
To ensure master data consistency, the system asks you when creating the dynamic modification rule whether or not you want to add this rule to the allowed relationships (→ Add dynamic modification rule to the allowed relationships?). If your rule uses a severity, choose Yes. Otherwise, choose No. You will see this in the following demonstration.
For additional information about dynamically modifying the inspection scope, consult the SAP Help Portal.
Quality Level
So far, you've learned how to define dynamic modification rules and that they're used in an inspection plan or at characteristic level. However, in practice, you perform many inspections (goods receipt, in-process, goods issue, and so on) for many materials.
So, the following questions might come up:
- How does the system know how the next inspection of a certain material shall be performed?
- And if, for example, the same material is purchased from two different suppliers: Shall the system distinguish from which of the two suppliers a material is purchased and record the dynamic modification as a combination of material and supplier? Or is it sufficient to only record the dynamic modification for the material and ignore from which supplier it is bought?
In the latter case, a rejected inspection for a goods receipt inspection from supplier B could trigger an additional goods receipt inspection for a goods receipt of the same material from supplier A, although we might know that supplier A usually delivers materials in good quality and supplier B usually has quality issues.
To keep track of the inspection stage history, the SAP S/4HANA system uses the Quality Level. The information in the quality level determines which inspection stage will be used for the sample determination of the next inspection lot. For example, the quality level for a combination of material and supplier A states that the next quality inspection shall be skipped, whereas the quality level for the combination of material and supplier B states that the inspection stage of the next quality inspection is tightened.
In addition to material and supplier, there are different combinations of dynamic modification criteria available that are shown on the left side of the following figure:
The Quality Planner has the ability to define specific quality levels based on dynamic modification criteria. For example, if you purchase a material from a single supplier, you only need to track the inspection stage history at the material level. However, if you purchase the same material from multiple suppliers and want to track each supplier individually, you must trace the quality level for the combination of material and supplier. In this scenario, if supplier A consistently delivers better quality than supplier B, the goods receipt inspection for material from supplier A will reach the skip stage earlier than the goods receipt inspection for the same material from supplier B. Additionally, the manufacturer can also be taken into consideration.
The Quality Planner can define the recording of inspection stage history for the combination of material and customer for quality inspections of deliveries.
To visualize the time progression of a quality level, you use the Manage Quality Levels app.
Note
The Application Consultant sets the default dynamic modification criterion in Customizing for the inspection lot origin or the task list usage. When creating an inspection plan, the Quality Planner can override the default setting in the inspection plan header (if you use dynamical modification on header level) or on characteristic level (if you use dynamical modification on characteristic level).