SAP QM Module

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 Introduction to SAP QM 3

 Master Data in SAP QM 5

 Raw Material Inspection 16

 In process Inspection 22

 Final Inspection CO01 & QA32 28

 Quality Notification 35
Introduction to SAP QM
SAP is an enterprise-wide Business Software Package designed to integrate each area of a business.

Through SAP, all business processes can be fully integrated with each other. This means that all the
businesses processes in the company are "inter-connected" in the SAP system, and changes in one
department or process would have an impact on other departments.

 SAP is as an on-line, Real Time system. Thus, information pertaining to the business is up-to-date
and available for others to use immediately and take action when required.
 SAP act as a single source and set of information.
 SAP is a leading enterprise package software in the market
 There are many modules in SAP like SAP SD, MM, PP, QM, FICO, PM, WM and HR, etc. which are
interconnected with each other.

What is SAP QM or Quality Management?

SAP QM is a key module of SAP ERP and can be used for following

Quality planning

 Basic master data for Quality Management

 Inspection planning using inspection plans of materials, which brings standardization of quality
planning.

Quality assurance

 SAP Quality inspection is performed through inspection lot processing. During this process
quality results are captured, and usage decision is taken to accept or reject the inspection lot.
 Quality certificates of analysis

Quality control

 In SAP QM Quality notifications the root cause analysis is done for the identified defect.
 SAP QM information system is where you can analyze various reports like vendor evaluation, a
list of quality notification, quality charts, etc.
SAP QM- Business Processes
1. Quality Management in Procurement

SAP Quality Management is fully integrated with the purchasing and Inventory Management process.

It consists of receiving inspection wherein material is received against the purchase order. Inspection lot
is triggered if the material is flagged for quality check.

Quality results are entered against master inspection characteristics. Whether the results are within/out
of tolerance limits, based on that usage decision (accept/reject inspection lot) is taken.

Stock posting from quality to other stock categories needs to be done subsequently in SAP system.

2. Quality Management in Production

SAP Quality Management is used to connect with the production and Inventory Management process.

It describes "In process inspections" where inspection lot is triggered on production order release.

In "inspection after production", inspection lot is triggered after goods receipt is posted from production
order.

"In process inspections" are not relevant to inventory whereas inspection after production involves
stock posting from quality to other stock categories.

This process describes inspection lot processing wherein quality results are entered against master
inspection characteristics. Usage decision ( accept/reject) is taken depending on the quality results.

3. Quality Notifications

In this process, you can see how defects found during a quality inspection are analysed and captured in
a SAP quality notification.

Here, we do record the root cause analysis of the problems found during inspection to avoid its re-
occurrence.

For SAP QM inprocess inspections also, we can raise internal quality notification and record our problem
analysis.

Benefits of SAP QM
SAP QM provides lot of benefits for any company at various levels, for example through:

 Quality integration with procurement and production and hence more control over the process.
 Planning support ( usage of inspection plans )
  Monitoring of vendor and customer complaints by implementing corrective tasks in SAP QM
quality notifications.
 Automation of quality certificates which are printed during sales delivery to customers.

Next, we will look into each phase of SAP QM and learn how to operate SAP QM module.

What is Master Data in SAP? QS21, QP01, QS31, QDV1, QI01

Within the SAP Quality Management module and for other SAP applications we need to maintain the
data pertaining to inspection planning and inspection lot processing.

Before you create an inspection lot and record inspection results, basic SAP master data for inspection
planning should be maintained.

Following SAP QM master data should be set up before inspection of any material.

Master Inspection Characteristics ( MIC )

Master Inspection characteristics are required to describe the inspection specifications for materials like
length, width, viscosity, etc.

We create master inspection characteristics at the plant level to simplify and standardize the inspection
planning activities.

It also helps to organize the master inspection characteristics in order to avoid duplicate creation of MIC.

These characteristics can be used in Routings, Master Recipe, Inspection Plan and maintenance task list.
We can also create the different versions for the single MIC.

Inspection method and catalog could be attached to inspection characteristics.

The below are the types of Master Inspection characteristics available in SAP.

a) Quantitative

Quantitative characteristics are used to record the results of the Quantitative inspection.

Values of inspection can be directly feed to these type of characteristics while performing results
recording. Characteristics specification limits like Upper Limit, Lower Limit, and central limits can be
defined for each inspection characteristics at master level or while creating an inspection plan.

Inspection Method can also be attached to inspection characteristics level.

b) Qualitative

Qualitative characteristics are used to record the results of Attribute inspection like "Ok" or "Not ok".
Code groups / Selected sets of Catalog type 1 can be used for recording result against Qualitative
inspection characteristics. Appropriate inspection method can be attached to inspection characteristics.

Inspection Methods
The inspection methods describe the procedures for carrying out inspections.

You can assign an "inspection method" to a master inspection characteristic or directly to an inspection
characteristic in an inspection plan.

Inspection method can also be created in one plant, and the same can be used in the inspection plan for
another plant by using the original plant of inspection method.

Sampling Procedure

The sampling procedure is the procedure by which the sample size for an inspection lot is determined. It
can be used in inspection plans.

The sampling procedure can be a fixed sample, percentage sample, 100% or using sampling scheme.
Sample scheme is the collection of sampling plans.

A sampling plan defines the sample size based on a specific inspection lot quantity and defines the
criteria for determining whether and how a sample is accepted or rejected.

Depending on the business requirement sampling size is determined. For example, if a batch of the drug
needs to be tested, depending on the quantity of the drug manufactured, the sampling for inspection is
planned.

Inspection Plan

Defining inspection plan is necessary if you want to capture quality result it is used,

 To define inspection methodology, for example,

o Materials to be inspected
o How the inspection of materials need to be taken place
o What characteristics to be inspected, work center and inspection specifications.

 Inspection plans define how a quality inspection of one or multiple materials will be taken place.
In the inspection plan, we define the
 sequence of inspection operations and the range of specifications available for inspecting
master inspection characteristics, sampling procedure to calculate the sample size for
inspection, Inspection method to inspect the MIC, etc.

 The "status" and "usage" can be maintained for the inspection plan to check whether the plan is
active or inactive. We can identify the inspection plan by using group number (client level) and
group counter (plant level) generated by the SAP system. Multiple materials can be attached to
one plan provided the parameters to be inspected are same.

Quality Info record

Quality Info record is maintained for a "material –vendor relationship." It is used to block the material
from procurement through a certain vendor when the quality of the product is compromised supplied
by the particular vendor.

In this SAP master, we will maintain the quality system for the combination of vendor and material.

This SAP master will become mandatory only if the QM Procurement key is active in the material
master.

When a quotation or purchase order is created, the SAP system checks whether a Q-info record is
required and available for the combination of material and vendor.

A check is made to determine whether the purchase order can be released based on the Q-info record.

Quality information record need to be maintained if we would like to use the source inspection
functionality which means, materials will undergo an inspection prior to the material reaches the plant
for Goods Receipt (GR).

This inspection will be purely based on the purchase order created in the SAP system against a material
– vendor – plant combination. There will not be any GR (Goods Receipt) inspection if the material is
already cleared through the source inspection.

Q info record is also useful in scenarios where inspection is restricted. Which means that the inspection
should be continued if it is procured from "xyz" vendor but not in the case when it is procured by some
"abc" vendor.
How to create Master Inspection characteristics
Step 1) From SAP Easy access menu, open Transaction code QS21

1. Enter Plant Code.

2. Enter master inspection characteristic code which needs to be created.

3. Enter the Key date (valid from date) which means that MIC would be valid from that date.

After filling in all the fields, click   or press Enter to go to the next screen.

Step 2) In this step, we will maintain Master inspection characteristic general data as given below.

1. Tick the checkbox for quantitative if we are creating quantitative characteristic which can be
measured.

2. Enter Status as "Released."

3. Enter "Complete copy model" as the MIC data needs to be maintained completely.

4. Enter the Short text of your choice.

 5. Press Control indicators button to maintain other important data like lower and upper limits i.e.
specification range in which material would be accepted.

Step 3) In this step, after pressing control indicator button, the small screen will pop up where we will
maintain the lower and upper limit data.

1. Flag the checkbox for Lower specification limit.

2. Flag the checkbox for upper specification limit.

3. Flag the checkbox for sampling procedure as we would use sampling procedure for this MIC.

Press enter to move to the next SAP screen.

Step 4) In this step, we will maintain absolute lower and upper limit data.

1. Input number of decimal places and measurement unit for MIC

 2. Input the lower spec limit as 4

3. Input the upper spec limit as 4.5.

Press enter to move to the initial SAP screen and save the data. You will see the message
as  .

How to create Inspection Methods

Step 1) From SAP Easy access menu, open Transaction code QS31

1. Enter Plant Code.

2. Enter inspection method code which needs to be created.

3. Enter the valid from the date which means that inspection method would be valid from that
date.

Press enter to move to the next SAP QM screen.

Step 2) In this SAP QM screen,

1. Enter status as "released".

 2. Enter the short text of the inspection method and search field for searching for inspection
methods.

Press save button to save the inspection method.

How to create Sampling procedure

Step 1) From SAP Easy access screen open Transaction QDV1

1. Input sampling procedure code which we need to create.