QM in Materials Management 

Purpose

This scenario describes the use and integration of the Quality Management (QM) component in the procurement processes of a company.

Quality management supports you in the management of materials (procurement):

Prerequisites

In the scenario QM in Materials Management, you use the integrated business functions of the following R/3 components:

Component

Functions

Quality Management (QM)

Performing quality inspections at goods receipt for a purchase order
Evaluating vendors
Processing complaints against vendors (quality notification)

Purchasing (MM-PUR)

Creating purchase orders
Creating, releasing, and shipping purchase orders, contract release orders or individual schedule lines

Inventory Management (MM-IM)

Controlling goods movements

Controlling

Recording and settling nonconformity costs

SAP Business Workflow

Controlling follow-up processes
Sending messages to the departments affected

SAP ArchiveLink

Storing customer-specific quality certificates in the optical archive
Assigning and managing incoming and outgoing documents related to a quality notification

Process Flow

Procurement and Purchasing

In the quality information record (Q-info record), you define specific information relating to the vendor and to the delivered material at plant level, such as references to quality assurance agreements, delivery status (model, production series), release periods, and quantities.

You use this to control the source inspection at the vendor’s premises and the criteria for an inspection skip.

You release vendors, if they are to deliver goods that are subject to quality control. You can limit the release of these supply relationships to a specific time frame and a maximum delivery quantity. If the vendor has serious quality problems, you can block requests for quotations, purchase orders, or goods receipts for specific materials supplied by this vendor.

For the evaluation of the vendor, the system summarizes quality scores from vendor audits, goods receipt inspections, and complaints against the vendor. Information about the vendor’s delivery reliability and price record is also provided from purchasing for evaluation purposes. The QM component provides information about the vendor’s QM system and the quality of the delivered goods.

When you receive requests for quotations and purchase orders for materials that are subject to quality control, your quality system must have released the vendor. If this is not the case, the purchasing agent is informed. When the purchase order is placed, the vendor automatically receives information about the technical delivery terms, the quality assurance agreement, and his or her obligation to include a quality certificate with the delivery.

Quality Inspection in MM

  1. At the time of goods receipt, the SAP System automatically creates an inspection lot and provides you with the shop papers required for the quality inspection.
  2. If you have scheduled a source inspection instead of a goods receipt inspection, the SAP System automatically creates an inspection lot for this.
  3. You record characteristic results.
  4. You can document any defects that are found using defect data. To manage a defect, together with its corrective action in the system, you activate and process a quality notification.
  5. The quality inspection ends with the inspection lot completion, which involves making a usage decision for the total goods receipt quantity. If certification is required, you have to confirm receipt of the relevant certificate at the time the usage decision is made (at the latest).

If you release the material...

If you reject the material...

The system posts the goods to unrestricted-use stock, thus allowing them to be subsequently placed into storage

The system can automatically create a complaint against the vendor. You can then return the material to the vendor

As long as you have not made the usage decision, the system blocks the automatic payment of an invoice.

You can use a QM order to enter and settle costs for inspection activities that were incurred when results were recorded or when the usage decision was made.

If the system releases the goods receipt quantity because no defects were found in the quality inspection, you can post the goods to unrestricted-use stock.

 

Quality Notifications for Complaint Against Vendor

You can use quality notifications to process and document complaints against vendors that have arisen as a result of poor quality products in procurement.

  1. The products are stored in the warehouse. You can either complain about the goods (without returning them) or return them. If you have already created a return for sales order processing, the system automatically creates an inspection lot for the inspection that subsequently takes place.

Alternatively, the customer sends a collective shipment, together with the corresponding inspection reports.
  1. You then create a quality notification in which you can enter the object concerned, the details of the problem, the departments responsible for the notification in your company, as well as the corrective tasks and activities to be performed.
    If the substandard product in the problem is a material or product handled in batches, you can call up a batch where-used list to identify, for example, the batches of raw material or semi-finished products that make up the affected batch, or the batches of semi-finished or finished products that contain the affected batch.
  1. Once you have performed and confirmed all the required tasks, you complete the quality notification.

Often, you only ascertain whether a task was successful after the quality notification has been completed. In such cases, you can document the success of a task retrospectively in the quality notification.

It is advisable to use quality notifications for complaints against a vendor if:

Result

The data collected and documented in the quality notification is available for more detailed analysis in the QM Information System. In this way, you build a knowledge base that helps you to improve the quality of your products and processes on an ongoing basis.