Warehouse Recurring Inspection (IOT5) in Decentralized-EWM QIE

In this blog, I would like to explain and share my experience of setting up the warehouse recurring inspection process in the Decentralized-EWM on S/4 HANA 1909, the decentralized EWM leverages upon QIE (Quality Inspection Engine) to map the inspection processes with ERP-QM component.

What is the recurring inspection process in warehouse?

In certain industries like chemicals, pharmaceuticals etc. the batch managed product must undergo inspection at regular intervals in the warehouse. Recurring inspection is one of the type of warehouse-internal inspections which is neither related to an inbound nor to an outbound process, it falls into warehouse internal process.

Following are the key prerequisites & system set-ups, that must be ensured first for the process to be set-up successfully for recurring inspection in Decentral-EWM.

1. I have first made sure that the Exception code for the inspection document creation exist in EWM customizing path of Cross Process Settings- Exception Handling- Define Exception Codes.

2. I have then activated the Inspection object type (IOT) for the Q-Inspection Product/Batch Whse-Internal (IOT 5)

This is executed by generating a version for the Inspection Object Type 5 (IOT5) in EWM customizing path of Cross-Process Settings- Quality Management – Basics-  Generate Inspection Object Types Version.

3. Then for the activated IOT5, I have checked if the properties and the sorting level exist as per standard SAP provided set-up; using the EWM customizing path of Cross-Process Settings-  Quality Management-  Basics-  Maintain Inspection Object Types Version

4. As Inspection document need to be generated for carrying out the recurring inspection process that leverages upon IOT5, I have also made sure that the document number range is created for inspection doc. generation in the EWM customizing path of Cross-Process Settings- Quality Management- Quality Management for Decentralized EWM- Inspection Planning- Define Number Ranges for Inspection Documents

5. I have then activated the IOT5 for a warehouse number under consideration in the EWM customizing path of Cross-Process Settings – Quality Management- Basics and Integration- Define and Activate Warehouse-Dependent IOTs.

6. I have also made sure that the decision codes and follow-up actions are set-up for the IOT5 in the EWM customizing path of Cross Process Settings-  Quality Management- Quality Management for Decentralized EWM- Inspection Results- Define Decision Codes and Maintain Follow-Up Actions.

7. In order to make sure that searching of inspection documents would work optimally in the system, have defined the indexes in the EWM customizing path of Cross Process Settings- Quality Management- Quality Management for Decentralized EWM- Basics and Integration- Define Indexes for QIE Objects.

8. Most important batch characteristic which is linked to the concept of “periodic inspection” is the next inspection date i.e. the date on which the next recurring inspection should be carried out.

In standard SAP, a characteristic LOBM_QNDAT exist for the same. I have made sure that this standard characteristic is assigned to the batch class with the help of transaction CL02.

9. To control the periodic generation of inspection document i.e. so called recurring inspection, I have further defined the “Inspection Interval” l in the product master, this would basically drive the time interval for generation of the inspection documents in EWM, for a specific product.

10. Inspection type which is assigned to product in QM view of product master has to consistent in both ERP and in Decentral-EWM.

Basically, I had copied standard 1709 to create Z1709 inspection type for recurring inspection type. For Z1709, to enable the Inspection Rule maintenance of IOT5, configuration settings were made under the EWM Customizing path of Cross-Process Settings – Quality Management – Quality Management for Decentralized EWM – Basics and Integration – Communication with External QM system – Define Inspection Rule Settings for Warehouse Internal Inspection (IOT5)

11. Now, the inspection rule had been set-up which will be called by the system when the report is executed in order to run the recurring inspection process for the generation of inspection document for IOT5.

For this, I have made sure that product specific inspection rule is maintained with the transaction /SCWM/QRSETUP as shown in the below screenshot.

Note: This blog assumes that the pre-requisite system integration between ERP QM-EWM is already up and running for the QM master data and transaction data. Also the Inspection type customizing of recurring batch inspection and other dependent customizing tables are available and in-sync between ERP and Decentral-EWM. Hence other dependent configuration and the ERP-QM and EWM system Integration set-up is not covered in this blog.

System Scenario

Product is Test 1 and its batch E2E190814 is initially in “F2” (unrestricted use-warehouse) stock type in the warehouse storage bins; business user wants to carry out the warehouse inspection of the batches starting with E2E*, for which the next inspection due date is falling within next 30 days starting from today.

Expected outcome: System should generate the inspection document in EWM and change the stock type to “Q4” (stock in quality inspection-warehouse) for the selected batch. Inspection document will be generated and after the corresponding inspection lot is processed in ERP, the usage decision related follow-up action is communicated to EWM and the recurring batch inspection would be over.

As you can see below the selected batch E2E* has already contained the “Next inspection date for Batch” as mandatory characteristic, which is basically inherited from batch class.

Step 1: Run the program /SCWM/R_STOCK_TYPE_CHANGE using Mode “2” and without “Simulate” flag.

Step 2: After the execution of report, it will show the batch with stock type “F2” is successfully changed to stock type “Q4” and hence the inspection document and Warehouse Task is created successfully.

Note: If we click on the change log button, it will further show the Inspection Document and Warehouse Task (WT) number generated by the report upon successful run.

Step 3: Now we can check the warehouse monitor and verify if stock type is changed & inspection document is generated, as shown in below screenshot

Step 4: Check in ERP whether the posting change material document has been generated (for unrestricted to quality inspection stock) and if the inspection lot is generated based on EWM inspection document or not.

ERP report MB51 shows that the material document is automatically generated for the transfer posting from unrestricted use to quality inspection stock for the batch under consideration.

In QA33, I can see now the inspection lot is also generated successfully in ERP.

Step 5: Process the Inspection Lot in ERP using QM steps i.e. updating inspection plan and results, taking usage decision. In this example, the batch was accepted with usage decision code ZA1 i.e. Accepted-Unrestricted Stock.

Step 6: Check in the EWM warehouse monitor if the ERP triggered usage decision has completed the follow-up action in EWM by changing the stock type back to unrestricted stock type “F2” based on the acceptance usage decision taken in ERP, from previous step.

Step 7: System also updated the next inspection due date in the batch master automatically based on Inspection Interval defined in the product master (in this scenario, interval was maintained as 1 day & hence it has automatically updated the next day as the “Next Inspection Date”)

Conclusion

The recurring inspection process (IOT5) in the warehouse is successfully set-up in Decentralized-EWM and integrated with ERP, for periodic inspection of product and its batches.

Thanks to author Prakash Pol