into QM inspection lot
Materials are subject to a quality inspection upon receipt or during production. What and how is checked is defined in the respective inspection plan. In standard SAP, an inspection plan is created for each material, which requires a lot of maintenance. With the CONSILIO extension, similar materials can access the same inspection plan and be enriched with corresponding specific values. A small extension with a big impact.
What the standard offers
Specifications with test characteristics and the associated target values for various substances and materials are stored in SAP Environment, Health & Safety (EH&S). These specifications contain all inspection-relevant information such as limit values, measurement methods and units.
This data is transferred to QM inspection plans, which are used for the quality inspection in the incoming goods department or during production. The system determines the appropriate inspection plan as soon as an inspection lot has been created. The inspection characteristics and target values from the inspection plan are used for the inspection and serve as the basis for evaluating the quality of a material.
That is the problem:
A major problem with classic inspection planning in SAP QM is that separate inspection plans are required for materials with identical inspection characteristics but different specification values.
Example: Orange juice and apple juice
Both orange juice and apple juice are inspected in goods receipt using the same inspection characteristics:
- Refractive index (to determine the sugar content)
- Acidity
However, the specific target values differ:
- Orange juice: refractive index 11.2-12.0; acidity 0.8-1.5 g/100 ml
- Apple juice: refractive index 10.0-11.5; acidity 0.3-0.6 g/100 ml
As the inspection characteristics with fixed specification values are stored in the inspection plan in SAP QM, separate inspection plans would have to be created for both materials. With the large number of similar products - in this case juices - this leads to a high number of inspection plans and increased maintenance effort. Changes to inspection characteristics (e.g. new limit values or measurement methods) must also be updated manually in several inspection plans.
The solution: automated integration of EH&S specifications in QM inspection lot processing
CONSILIO offers an extension to the SAP standard with which EH&S specifications can be transferred directly to the inspection lots. This eliminates the redundant maintenance of inspection plans with different specification values.
Instead of manually storing the inspection characteristics with fixed target values in the inspection plan, the values from the EH&S are queried during inspection lot creation, namely from the substance database in EH&S. If fixed values for the required characteristics are maintained there, these are transferred to the inspection lot. This means that a single QM inspection plan is required for all juices, which is enriched with substance values from the EH&S substance database. This allows individual inspection values per material without having to maintain several inspection plans.
Advantages of EH&S integration in SAP QM
In addition to minimizing manual data maintenance, the CONSILIO extension offers further advantages:
Inspection specifications are maintained centrally in EH&S so that all changes are automatically transferred to the QM inspection lots.
Instead of maintaining separate inspection plans for each material, several materials can be covered by a single inspection plan.
Changes to specification values have a direct effect on the inspection lots without the need to update inspection plans manually.
Incorrect or outdated test specifications are avoided, as the currently valid values are automatically taken from the EH&S specification.
Requirements for the solution
The following requirements must be met for automatic integration to work:
- Use of the SAP EH&S and SAP QM modules
- Maintenance of substances, loads and specifications with their inspection-relevant characteristics
- Linking the specification with the material number in order to determine the correct values for the inspection lot
- Use of QM inspection plans with master inspection characteristics to enable generic inspection plans
Summary
By integrating EH&S specification management into SAP QM inspection lot processing, the effort and sources of error in inspection planning can be significantly reduced. Instead of creating redundant inspection plans, the specific values are transferred directly from the EH&S data. This enables a flexible, standardized and future-proof solution for companies that want to ensure efficient quality control.
The CONSILIO extension for SAP provides companies with a practical and sustainable solution that simplifies processes, reduces costs and improves data quality.
Fewer inspection plans, more efficiency: with EH&S integration in SAP QM, quality becomes standard.
