Certain materials that are maintained in batches and stored in warehouses must be inspected on a regular basis to ensure that quality requirements are maintained. The Quality Management (QM) application component provides a means of monitoring these materials automatically on the basis of the:

• Inspection interval
• Batch expiration dates (maximum shelf-life)
• Dates of recurring inspections
• Next inspection date

By monitoring these dates, the system can automatically identify all batches that are defined for inspection lot creation, a status change, or a transfer posting.

The system can only monitor the dates if you have done the following in the Quality management view of the material master record for the batch:

• Defined an inspection interval
• Activated inspection type 09 (recurring inspection) in the inspection setup

If the expiration date of a batch is exceeded, the system automatically makes a transfer posting. This will occur if:

• The batch expiration date has been exceeded within the opening period. This means that the current date plus the lead time is after the batch expiration date.
• You have set the control indicator for blocking the batch on the selection screen for recurring inspections.

If these conditions have been met, the system will make the following transfer postings:

• The batch status is changed to "not released," if the batch status management function is active in the batch plant.
• The batch stock is posted to blocked stock, if the batch status management function is not active in the batch plant.

If the indicator for blocking the batch is not set, the system generates a list of all batches for which the expiration date has been reached or exceeded.

The system can trigger a recurring inspection automatically, if the date of the next inspection is in the opening period. This means that the current date plus the lead time is after the next inspection date. In this case, the system creates an inspection lot for each storage location.

This will occur if you have defined the intervals at which the dates are to be monitored in the material master record (at plant level).

In addition to creating an inspection lot, the system can also block the batch or post the batch stock to inspection stock. In this case, blocking a batch means:

• The batch status is changed to "not released," if the batch status management function is active in the batch plant.
• The batch stock is posted to blocked stock, if the batch status management function is not active in the batch plant.

These stock changes can be made:

• Immediately after lot creation
• If the batch expiration date is reached or exceeded

In both these cases, the system makes a delayed transfer posting that allows the batch stock to remain in unrestricted-use stock as long as possible. You can still carry out inspections during this time. If the system makes delayed transfer postings, a job should be scheduled every day, to ensure that the stock is blocked properly.

You can use the job planning and execution functions to make the system trigger recurring inspections automatically at predefined intervals.