Question:
We have plants at different geographic locations.
Some times Plant A procures material for its use by PO.
The material needs to be inspected by inspector at Plant B.
Both plants have implemented SAP MM & QM and are
connected.
How to assign the inspection lot generated at Plant A
to inspector at Plant B so that he knows that the lot is
for him to inspect at Vendor's premises? (near Plant B)
Answer:
Ok, what you need here is to segregate inspection lots according to the
person responsible for its processing, right?!?
Why not defining under User Status the several Inspectors that will be
called to perform the source inspection? The User Status can then be used
in any worklist for selection purposes...
Hope it helps.
Regards,
daniel
Answer:
Hi,
the solution is quite simple.
Each operation in your inspection plan provides a field for the work center. Maintain the QM work center of plant B and make use of the inspection instruction printout (SAP standard) on the work center printer (check settings in CQ85, post again in case you are not familiar with the QM print control). So when the inspection lot is created, the inspection instruction can be printed in QA lab in plant B. Additionally you should make use of the settings in QE51N, i.e. make use of the selection via work centers. Define variants for the user.
We have similiar business processes where a centralized QA department processes inspections for multiple plants. Via the plant in the inspection lot they know the sending plant. Also this is quite common for some analysis with a hi-tec instrument available in just on site of a big company.
That will work!
Regards
QM-Dude
Answer:
Thanks a lot. Your solution is cool. We will try it out.
But in legacy process, we mention in the Purch document
which inspector is supposed to inspect the material at
source. Is there any way to place this info in P.O
and capture it in insp lots generated?
Answer:
Hi,
no, I think there is no way to transfer data regarding the inspector from purchase document to inspection lot. For QM the workcenter describes the inspector (regard the work center responsible behind the work center - check PP customizing (valid for QM as well) for this).
Regards
QM-Dude
Answer:
You don't even need to set up work centers. since you say that it's plant specific. you can create appropriate authorization profiles and assign it to the users. whenthey run the inspection work list for their plant in question. They can perfrom inspection activities for the plant alone.
hope this help
Answer:
I think I was not very clear with my reqmnts.
When a PO is placed by a plant A for source inspn,
it can be an inspector at Plant B or Plant C or so on,
depending on the geographical vicinity of the vendor.
So sitting in Plant B or C how does an inspector know what are
the jobs scheduled for him due to other plants' POs?
Answer:
No.. you can't do what you want! Not automatically anyway.
QAC2 can allow you to transfer a lot between plants/store locations. But to get it the way it sounds you want, you would probably have to turn off automatic assignment for 01 inspection types. Then have some one review the work list for these, (you'll need a special selection variant to find lots not released). From the worklist jump to the PO and see who the inspector would be. Then use QAC2 to transfer the lot to the correct plant. Then use QA02 to manually select the inspection plan that is for the partiuclar inspector.
Each plant would need a separate set of inspection plans. The plans would be identical except for the workcenter. The workcenter would correspond 1-to1 to each inspector in the plant. Each inspector would only be allowed to act on his/her workcenter, (Security).
An alternative to the workcenter approach is the user status approach as mentioned by an earlier poster. After the lot has been assigned to the correct plant, the proper user status is selected. There is a different user status for each inspector. Security can be used to allow only certain people with the the right security to change the user status to record results. You'd have to test this with the 01 inspection type settings as the status profile is assigned when the lot is created in the original plant. I don't think that using QAC2 will alter the original status from the original plant to the status profile of the new plant. Thus requiring a status in each plant wiith all possible inspectors, not just inspectors in the plant.
Once you figure out the above process, it might be possible to automate it with an ABAP. You'd have to figure out exactly where you would put the inspector's name in the PO and how to equate that to the right plans with the right work centers. Using multiple plans of course increases the day-to-day maintenance of changes to and creation of materials.
And now, after writing all this, Option 3... a real simple way. Have the inspector's name populated into the short text for the inspection lot. This can be used as a selection field in the worklists and shown on the display screen for most worklists. You could have the inspector's name copied in from the PO maybe via a user exit somewhere. This still doesn't help in the transfer of the lot but it makes it readily visbile to the person who has to run QAC2 and transfer the lot.
You could also probably create user selection variants for their work lists that would limit them to seeing only lots where their name is in the short text. While not preventing them from using other transactions to change lots, it would probably be a pretty good approach unles your in a Pharma application.
Hopefully this gives you some ideas to play with.
Craig
Answer:
Hi,
Going through, I am not positive whether they intend to "transfer" the lot to the inspecting plant. I guess it the location convenience only that plant B is inspecting the lot fo rthe PO of plant A. This would mean a security issue, as the inspector in plant B is going to record results for plant A lot. If this is acceptable then, the worklist option given by Craig is simple and clean and practical. (again depends on the volume and how long the lots are active etc..)
Good luck
Anand
**********
PS: Craig, I am not on vacation and available as helpdesk
We were to meet sametime last year, when I was in Malvern, PA for a week. Happy Holidays !
Answer:
Thanks a lot to Craig and Ask.
That's precisely the issue... option 3.
But is it technically feasible to populate the short text field of Inspn Lot
from some text entry in PO at the time of creating inspection lot
manually for source inspection?
Security is not a big concern in our case, we have to give all inspectors
in all plants permission to record results for all lots.
Answer:
Hi,
The only way is to look for an approrpiate use exit in lot creation process. I haven't looked in there for quite while, but there is an opportunity.
Good luck.
Anand