Quality Certificates (QM-CA) (SAP Library

Quality Certificates (QM-CA)

Purpose

A quality certificate certifies the quality of goods. The chemical or physical properties of goods can be recorded as:

Inspection results
Characteristics for the batch

A customer may have specific demands for quality, which may take the form of customer-specific specifications (specification limits), or lead to additional quality inspections.

In addition to customer-specific certificates in which the contents and layout is tailored to the customer requirements, there are also general certificates that are suitable for use by a greater number of customers.

Generally, a quality certificate is created automatically or semi-automatically for a delivery item. In certain cases, a certificate may be requested ad hoc from a location for which no customer/vendor relationship exists. You can create a certificate directly for an inspection lot or a batch, when a delivery does not exist.

Integration

You can set up the system, so that certificates are automatically stored using the SAP ArchiveLink after printing. For more information, see:

Retrieving Archived Certificates Using ArchiveLink

Storage of Outgoing Certificates (QM-CA-CG)

Features

Using the Quality Certificates component you can:

Automatically create certificates when materials are shipped

Distribute certificates to a predefined list of recipients

Print certificates, or send them by fax or EDI (For more information about sending certificates with EDI, see the CA documentation EDI Transmission of a Quality Certificate (QM-CA).)

Create certificates in the language of each recipient

Simulate certificates on the screen and create sample print outs

Store certificates using SAP ArchiveLink

Define the format, layout and contents of certificates to meet internal or customer specifications

The layout, format and contents of certificates are defined through the interaction of certificate profiles and SAPscript forms.

The certificate profile	Controls the selection of inspection lots, partial lots and characteristics
The form	Controls the page layout and format of the data on the certificate. A generally defined form can be linked to several certificate profiles.

Within the certificate profile, you determine the selection and sequence of the characteristics whose results are to be documented on the certificate. You can vary the origin and representation of the data for each characteristic. You can also withhold certain information from the certificate, if, for example, you do not want to reveal a certain measured value.

At the header level of the certificate profile, you can define restrictions for selecting inspection lots and partial lots. For example, you may want to specify that only lots with a quality score of at least 80 are considered. At certificate creation, the system selects all inspection lots and partial lots for the material (and batch, if necessary) that meet the selection criteria and have a usage decision. The characteristics are then retrieved from the most recent inspection lot or partial lot in this list. (The lot creation date is the determining factor.)

You assign objects, such as material, material group, or material/customer combinations to the certificate profiles. By doing so, you can plan certificates individually for specific customers. At the same time, you can define general certificate profiles that you can use, if you have not defined a special certificate profile for the customer.

The assignment of a profile to an object has a validity period. However, the profile itself does not have a validity period. The system can find the correct certificate profile using the assignment. The assignment and determination of a certificate profile is processed using the condition technique.