You can choose one or more quality levels in QM and increase the inspection severity for these levels. The selected quality levels may relate to the following criteria:

• Material
• Material / vendor
• Material / customer
• Material / manufacturer
• Material / vendor / customer / manufacturer
• Material / inspection type

You can only increase the inspection severity for a quality level by a single stage (even if you select the same quality level more than once).

You can choose one or more quality levels in QM and reset the inspection severity to the initial inspection stages.

You can use this function to read and format selected data in a notification, which the system can then print, fax, or send as an e-mail to an internal or external (Internet) address.

The standard system supports the following types of notices:

• Confirmation of receipt
• Interim report
• Final report

When you execute this function, the system retrieves and displays a standard text that is stored as a long text under the corresponding catalog task code. You can edit this text as necessary without changing the original long text. If several partners exist for the notification, you can select a partner before you process the text.

You can use this function to create a new notification while you are processing an existing notification. When you create a new notification, you can copy the:

• Header data from the existing notification into the new notification and edit the data as necessary.

• Defect data from the existing notification into the new notification. This defect data does not include the cause, task, activity, classification, and long text data.

An 8D report is a standard form that is used in the automobile industry to document the correction of defects. For example, as an automobile manufacturer, you can use this follow-up function to request an 8D report from a vendor to receive a statement about the confirmed defects and how the vendor intends to correct the defects.

If a customer submits a complaint about a product you delivered as vendor, the customer may ask you to submit an 8D report. In this case, you create a quality notification for a customer complaint to describe the defects and possible causes, and to define appropriate tasks.

You can also create an 8D report for each defect item. The system inserts the tasks in the various sections of the 8D report, based on the task sort number.

For example, if a task has the sort number "4," the system inserts the task in the fourth section of the 8D report. The system prints all tasks with the corresponding sort numbers in appropriate sections of the 8D report.

The system selects the persons responsible as follows: for tasks, it specifies the person responsible for the task; for causes, the person responsible for the notification.

The system determines dates for the tasks as follows:

• If the task has already been completed, it specifies the completion date and includes the text "completed."

• If the task has not been completed yet, but an end date has been planned, it specifies the planned end date and includes the text "planned."
• If no date has been specified for a task, it record the text "outstanding."

Using this follow-up function, you can contact a notification partner to obtain permission to a deviate from a specification. For example, if parts delivered by a vendor are found to be out of tolerance, you can document this as a defect in a quality notification. When you process the notification, you can execute this function to obtain permission from an internal or external notification partner, for example, to allow you to use the out-of-tolerance parts in production.

This function starts the following workflow:

• It sends an e-mail to the partner that contains a description of the problem and an address (URL).

• Using the URL, the partner can access his or her workflow inbox (provided he or she has an Internet user) where the work item can be processed.
• Once the partner has processed the work item by entering a response and a decision, this information is documented as a long text in the original quality notification.
• Both the processor (partner) and the person who initiated the workflow receive a confirmation mail.